poacher handing out biz cards in front of our shop

[binki]

We are in an old downtown area and every Thur. night we have a farmers market. It is common for someone who does the same things we do to come in and say high and leave a biz card in case we need to outsource some work.

So this happens last night with a screen print shop. He says he has 4 auto presses and doesn't do any small jobs. From talking with him for a few minutes it looks like he only does several hundred piece orders and up. He says he would refer small orders to us and we took his card in case we need large order or even large format printing which he does.

So my father in law comes in and says some guy is handing out biz cards looking for orders for his biz. Guess who? The guy that was just in comparing his biz to ours!

Never mind that the event has vendors that paid to be here and that the downtown merchants pay an extra biz license to have a storefront here. Never mind that this guy didn't pay to be there and is soliciting work right in front of our place.

I would have gone out and confronted him but the joke really is on him. Most people down there are coming down to get a hawiian sandwich and kettle corn. While we do get business from this even we have never had anyone come in and want more than 100 shirts at any one time.


But it does add one more item to the agenda of our next board meeting.

 

[royster13]

Is this business licensed in your jurisdiction? Is there some law he is breaking?.....

 

[d fleming]

The law of good taste and business ethics. Unleash the hounds.

 

[binki]

Is this business licensed in your jurisdiction? Is there some law he is breaking?.....

No, he does not have a license in our city.

The farmers market has vendors who paid to be there.
We pay an extra fee to be there.

We essentially rent the city street to have the event and I will be bringing this subject up to the board to see if we can eject folks that solicit at the event.

The city does have an ordinance about hand bills but I don't think that is the right way to address this. The right way is this is a pay-to-play event and we should ask someone who does this to stop and if they don't then we should eject them.

 

[d fleming]

Security! Eject this schmuck!:Big Laugh

 

[Gino]

​

 

[James Burke]

If he's not set up at the market and is only walking around handing out business cards, I don't think there's a lot you or the city can do. That's just old fashioned face to face networking and I don't think there's a law against that.

If he's good at what he does, be careful because he could spell trouble for your business. If my suspicions are correct, he's out looking for connections to organizations such as schools, service groups, businesses and the like. Skip the nonsense about only looking for "big" jobs. We all know that small jobs lead to big jobs. And to be honest, he's gunning for your bread and butter.

Use the street market to your advantage. Give the attendees a reason to stop by your shop by offering specials on that day, drawings for merchandise, etc., or some other way in which you can connect with future customers and solidify your presence in town.

I leave you with two final parting words: Competetive Analysis

Do one immediately or suffer the consequenses. Everytime I hear of a new game in town (be it near or far), I always do my homework on them and add them to my file: their name, address, what they do, product offerings and their entire web site in .pdf format. Knowing your competetion is one of the first rules of business.

Jim

 

[Gino]

I think James is correct as far as not being able to do anything to him, but then again.... does anyone have non-soliciting signs hanging around to prevent this sort of thing ??

Now, where can we find someone to make some signs....... ?? ​

 

[binki]

If he's not set up at the market and is only walking around handing out business cards, I don't think there's a lot you or the city can do. That's just old fashioned face to face networking and I don't think there's a law against that.

As I pointed out, this is a pay-to-play event. The city is not involved other than granting a permit, that would be an abridgement of free speach but that does not apply to private organizations. But, he doesn't have a license in the city so they could eject him on that aspect.

As far as solicitation laws, the city is pretty good about chasing away transients and day labor but I wouldn't think they could do anything to this guy unless the farmers market management (the downtown merchants assocation of which we are a paid member) asked him to stop or pay for a booth. That is the question I will bring to the board meeting.

Of course I could do it the old fashioned way and just stand in front of his place and solicit his customers.

 

[James Burke]

But, he doesn't have a license in the city so they could eject him on that aspect

You're missing the point. He could be just an average Joe with a pocket full of business cards. Are you going to frisk everybody for this type of "contraband"? He's absolutely legit. You have the right to hand out business cards anywhere you want. If he's on the move, and not set up in one particular spot, he's just the average passerby amidst a crowd of hundreds who are also doing the same thing.

Of course I could do it the old fashioned way and just stand in front of his place and solicit his customers.

There's not enough time in the day. Focus on YOUR business. That's the only way you can beat this guy. Your job is to make your OWN customers.

If you're doing your job well, you can eventually make HIS customers yours. 'Nuff said.

Jim

 

[TheSnowman]

Man, our downtown sucks. All we have are bars, bars, and more bars...and idiots that don't care about anything and just trash everything around them.

 

[d fleming]

Maybe give the bozo a little martial art training a-lah Ed Gruberman?
http://beagleweb.com/personal/Frantics-Tae-Kwon-Leep-64k.mp3
:ROFLMAO:

 

[binki]

.

You're missing the point. He could be just an average Joe with a pocket full of business cards. Are you going to frisk everybody for this type of "contraband"? He's absolutely legit.




There's not enough time in the day. Focus on YOUR business. That's the only you can beat this guy. Your job is to make your OWN customers.

If you're doing your job well, you can eventually make HIS customers yours. 'Nuff said.

Jim

where is the fun in that?

 

[James Burke]

Are you looking for help, or just wasting our time?

Jim

 

[royster13]

So the next time a rep from one of your suppliers drops by will you chase him/her away?....I can only assume they are not licensed in your city either....

 

[mark galoob]

i would not tolerate this at all...tell him to move on down the street or you will call the police.

mark galoob

ps the cops prob will not do anything but it will cause trouble for that guy and he will prob move away.

i also would not do any business with him...i feel it is very crass that he is handing out business cards in front of your business especially after he came in and spoke with you regarding a cooperation.

 

[andy]

My website is my intellectual property and I don't grant anyone permission to store, redistribute, recreate, in full or part any of my Copyrighted property.

If you did rip my entire site and store it as a PDF then you've breached my Copyright and I would have the right to sue you for illegal copying and storage of my intellectual property.

Seeing as Copyright is a big issue for all sign companies I am not impressed that some people obviously don't bother reading the Copyright information on a website before tucking in to the content which doesn't belong to them and over which they have no rights to do anything.... other than READ the wording and LOOK at the pictures.

 

[binki]

I suspect he is hurting. With 4 autos he has to have a lot of sqft and rent and to be down at a little event like ours is pretty much a waste of his time.

As for whether or not anyone can hand out fliers or cards at this event I am checking with our association to see what we can do.

Are you looking for help, or just wasting our time?

Lighten up, I listened to you. I am not going to go to his place and hand out cards, I was just having a bit of sport.

You have the right to hand out business cards anywhere you want

No, that is not true. This is a paid event and the city has very strict guidelines that we need to follow on who can be at the market selling and what they can sell. They have already made moves to pull our permit after the circus it turned into last year. We are working to correct those issues.

So the next time a rep from one of your suppliers drops by will you chase him/her away?....I can only assume they are not licensed in your city either....

Not the same thing. This guy at a paid event skirting the payment of a space. If our vendors came down and did the same thing then yes, they should be chased off.

ps the cops prob will not do anything but it will cause trouble for that guy and he will prob move away.

I have been working on getting private security down here for the events rather than the city police and having them eject him would be easier to do.

As far as the police go, code enforcement in the city is pretty good and the downtown area is something the city keeps a close eye on so as long as we bring this issue to the city (they are on our board) we may be able to get code enforcement to help out. I would be happy if they just wrote a ticket for a few hundred bucks to people who did this and that would solve the problem.

 

[James Burke]

If you did rip my entire site and store it as a PDF then you've breached my Copyright and I would have the right to sue you for illegal copying and storage of my intellectual property.

Very good point to consider, but this is a two-edged sword. With the electronic age,we are on a slippery slope as to how copyrights are handled.

How does that compare to people printing it and keeping it in their desk drawer? How does that compare to people receiving your printed literature (which could be an exact duplicate of your web page) in the mail and keeping it on file for future reference? While the formats might be different, the information still remains your intellectual property (in their possession) regardless of how it is presented.

Your average customer is doing this very same thing to your benefit (saving / printing web pages). And believe me, so is your competetion, to your hurt. That's just a hard fact of business.

How about television and radio advertising? If we see or hear an advertisement, and remember the facts and details of our competetors information, are we in breach of storing the information in our brains (the original storage and retrieval device)? If I cut out your advertisement from the local paper, am I still in trouble? If it's anything more than a phone number and address, it's intellectual property. I think you can see where I'm coming from.

Many of us subscribe to SignCraft and other great resources for inspiration. And many, if not all of us, use those ideas for our own work. Guess what? It is / was the intellectual property of someone. How is this any different? I didn't have to sign a waiver when I subscribed.

And, once the sign is placed, it is out there for everybody to draw inspriation. I've never seen a "do not copy my idea" note on any sign. I'm only talking about signs in general. Trademarked logos and brand identities, are quite obviously another story.

If the the information is used for nothing more than reference, there is no difference. Just curious...not trying to be a jerk.

I've have seen cases where competetors will rip off photos and content to use on their own web pages. Obviously that breaches copyrights.


Jim

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

Next time he's around, call america's most wanted tip line on him.