Mail

Looking Good, Idaho

I live near the old Buck Knives facility in San Diego County ["The Buck Stopped Here," May]. It was always a matter of pride to many San Diegans to have this wonderful company in their community.

It hurt that pride when the company left. After reading about CJ Buck's circumstances, the decision to move the company to Post Falls, Idaho, seemed like a no-brainer.

Maybe one day the politicians in California will wake up and do something about the business climate for companies here. I think they believe that the weather will keep us here, but Idaho is looking pretty good to me now. If only it had surf...

Rodger B. Price
president
Primal Marketing
La Mesa, California

Safety in Numbers

That Elcometer's servers got fried by lightning three times indeed shows the fragility of in-house IT infrastructure and the suitability of Web-based services as a replacement ["Service, Not Servers," May]. The story ended with Joe Walker admitting that he is still "nervous about keeping his data on the Web."

He needn't be. Most small and medium-size businesses can't afford an advanced level of security infrastructure for their in-house data. When the data is on the Web, the service provider can spread those costs over many customers and offer a highly sophisticated security approach.

Michael Sampson
Global vice president
Foldera
Huntington Beach, California

Cheering On the Underdog

I agree with ARTS PDF's decision to go head on against its partner, Adobe [Case Study, May]. The company should be in business to grow, not simply to wait on a drop or two from Adobe's bucket. If that means becoming a direct competitor to Adobe, so be it. ARTS PDF just might show Adobe up. We have all seen large companies struggle and lose market share against the smaller, nimble companies.

Chris Harper
Manager
Lunchbox Inc.
Knoxville, Tennessee

I had been struggling with downloading Adobe PDF conversion for four days without any resolution to my problem. Many conversations with Adobe customer support got me nowhere. Then I received my issue of Inc. with the article about Sam Chandler and Karl De Abrew of ARTS PDF.

My PDF file conversion problem is solved. I will happily pay the $99 for its Nitro PDF program. ARTS PDF gives customers a free 30-day introduction to its software, which I tested and love. The customer support was helpful and prompt. This company will go far.

Laverna Marshall
Beckwourth, California

The Two Sides of Chargebacks

Vendors have known for ages how chargebacks can benefit them ["The Case for Paying Chargebacks," May]. In fact, some speculate that the practice of paying chargebacks was actually started by vendors as a way of guaranteeing sales and eliminating the risks associated with buyers increasing orders each season or trying new items. The practice turned into a hairy monster when some retail buyers began demanding money from vendors in order to offset overall margin shortfalls, even when the particular vendor's products sold relatively well.

I'll add that this is yet another area in which Wal-Mart is not given enough credit. It has somehow managed to gain a reputation for beating up its vendors by frankly stating front-end pricing requirements without back-end repercussions. Department stores, on the other hand, have put countless vendors out of business over the years with punitive and unpredictable back-end profit killers, chargebacks chief among them.

Carol Spieckerman
President Newmarketbuilders
Bentonville, Arkansas

Stand by Your Plan

Norm Brodsky's column about looking for your real goal and taking it one step at a time reaffirmed that I am on the right track ["What Are You Trying to Do?" May]. When I come across something like that, I get excited and want to get started in the office again, right in the middle of what I'm reading.

With my ice cream company, I have started small and slowly. I've been gaining a foothold in independent grocers, buying equipment as I need it, and outsourcing what I can. My initial goal was to not get bogged down in unnecessary debt while I grew my company. Brodsky's column confirmed for me that it is a long process, but it's a lot steadier in the long run.

Jeff Stewart
Director
Mountain Jim's Ice Creams
Nashville

From Inmate to Inspiration

Thank you for telling us about Vickie Stringer's journey from doing time for dealing drugs to owning a successful publishing company [How I Did It, May]. I have gone through trials and tribulations myself. I also went to jail for selling drugs and struggled to obtain employment as a convicted felon. I finally realized that the only thing stopping me was me. Vickie is a ray of hope for women like me who have thought about just giving up and settling for what someone else says is all I can accomplish or become.

I know from the turnaround in my own life that big goals are attainable. I recently graduated from college with a degree in business, and I am attending cosmetology school with aspirations of owning my own salon. I placed the article about Vickie on my board at work to keep me focused. God is the ultimate reason I can achieve anything, but Vickie will be my inspiration to keep striving.

K. Williams
Tampa

Putting Out Other Fires

The May issue of Inc. was one of the best I've read. The stories of CJ Buck, Vickie Stringer, and winemaker Fred Franzia and his war with the Napa vintners ["The Scourge of Napa Valley," May] were about real people with real problems.

I'm probably not the typical Inc. subscriber. But I've tried to bring an entrepreneurial philosophy to my job as a battalion chief with a federal fire department. I challenge myself and my fellow firefighters to find new solutions to the problems we face in finance, management, and leadership and to look for innovative firefighting tactics. Inc. has become as important to me as my Firehouse and Fire Engineering subscriptions.

Patrick Amott
Battalion chief Naval Base Ventura County Fire Department
Ventura, California

Technically Speaking

I disagree with one of the answers for David Freedman's technology quiz ["What's Your IT IQ?" April]. The question about what type of content is usually found in an MPEG file offered four possible answers: audio, video, photo, and mumblety-pegs. Video was listed as the correct answer.

Since the quiz was about technical knowledge, I've got to be "technical" on this one. While it's true that MPEG does stand for Moving Picture Experts Group, the compression supports both audio and video for movies. And possibly the best-known use of MPEG is MPEG audio layer 3, or as it's more commonly known, MP3. So, I think audio and video are both correct answers. I hope that will be worth at least one bonus point.

Charley Birkner
Technology support
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

David Freedman responds: I will award a point for being technically right, another point for spotting an ambiguity in the quiz, and yet another point for taking the trouble to share it with us.

Triangulation Trouble

Arlen is trapped by triangulation--what used to be known as being interrupted ["The Three-Corner Office," April]. Heaven help him! Spineless imbecile that he is, Arlen failed to utter the words, "Excuse me, please, I'm running late."

How far should we go to avoid this dilemma? What if you need an update on a material detail of an upcoming SEC filing? Should you just walk on by your general attorney's office because she's having a nice chat with the new intern and, by gosh, you wouldn't want to triangulate him? Perhaps we should avoid all face-to-face conversations.

Bill Snyder
CEO
FMV Dynamics
Jefferson, New Jersey

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