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An open letter to businesses everywhere.

I apologize. I am sorry for wasting your resources and time with my own selfish ambition. I don’t apologize for making my voice heard when mistreated by employees or when products don’t work as advertised, those are pretty realistic responses. What I do apologize for is taking advantage of “free” or “complimentary” items.

This apology covers my former practice of taking too many napkins, straws, free refills, ketchup packets and food I wasn’t really hungry for at the buffet. Though I paid for my meal and possibly some of the costs of more than the average human needs of “complimentary” items, the sunken costs are still yours to bear. I also apologize for herding my travel weary family through your bathrooms even though we didn’t make any purchases in your stores, gas stations or restaurants. I’ve wrongly considered these items and services to be entitlements.

I am now in your shoes, running a grass roots company with very few resources and employees. As the a sole provider of small niche industry books, training and other items in a family style industry, I know what it means to see money walk out the door. Red Bike Publishing is business to business and business to customer focused and provides the right products at the right time. When products work correctly, I get feedback. When the customer is not satisfied, I give refunds. Refunds are lost revenue and good reviews generate more revenue. It’s all part of doing good business.

What I struggle with is similar to your challenges, to comply with government regulations for the “privilege” of doing business. Some of these requirements are simple to understand.  There are also other implied tasks that take me outside of my business purpose and into the stay out of jail functions. As a sole employee company, I see how this takes time and that time is a huge expense. Like you, I try to protect my time by studying these expectations and overcoming the learning curve of what I might be missing. To the oversight organizations, this time is their entitlements and my expenses are sunken costs. So, I now have the clear understanding of what you go through with customer who have an entitlement mentality.

As I cope with such demands, I think of you struggling to meet similar and even more daunting requirements. You hire staffs who don’t add to the bottom line, but perform the increasingly important stay out of jail functions; ethics training, security training, employee relations training, licensing, taxes, and on and on. And on top of that, you have folks like me taking advantage of the honor system. I understand now that you are paying more than your share to meet expectations.

I resolve no longer to take advantage of your generosity. I’ll only take what I need based on the service I pay for. No longer will I grab handfuls of straws when I only need one, gobs of ketchup will now be reduced to the serving necessary for taste and I’ll at least buy some coffee during our travel convenience breaks.


Thanks for what you do to keep our economy going. I’ll continue to do my part to keep down your overhead.

Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM
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