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Bruce A. Berman's Book and cd's: Review and Conclusions
How Good IS the Bruce Berman "I got here, you can, too" book?
Continued from "Returning the Audio CD's"
Or click here to start at the beginning
Is it worth it?
You asked for the free Bruce A. Berman book and one audio cd and ended up buying another 8 audio cd set. In addition to the $3.95 shipping charge, you paid either $99.90, $74.90 or $24.90 for the audio cd collection.
The free book, "I Got Here. You Can Too!"
In his written materials, Berman is fairly upfront about his background. He describes himself as graduating high school by a loophole, and even then in the bottom 1/3 of the class, never getting a college degree, and having declared bankruptcy twice.
Berman does provide general overviews of the basics of entrepreneurship; however specific details and needed resources are missing. For example, the TV and radio commercials make a point that start businesses will need a documented business plan; but we couldn't even find a mention of it in the book, let alone a sample or example business plan.
The book makes an interesting read and has plenty of high level advice, but detailed, organized information is lacking. It is missing detailed guidance about where to go for examples, samples, forms, documents, resources, plans, and other services you will need.
Much of the book is Berman telling you how he got out of various situations, such as bankruptcy. He comes off sounding a lot like a used car salesman.
The free Audio CD
The audio cd is similarly high level, but at least Berman has a pleasant, easy-to-listen to, but not monotonous voice.
The Bruce Berman Aggressive Wealth Audio Collection
Since you paid between $25 and $100 for these cd's, you want to know if they
are worth it! There are 8 audio CDs, each of duration between 40 and 60
minutes. The titles are:
- Being the Boss
- Winning the Financial Lottery
- Instant Real Estate Income - volume 1
- Instant Real Estate Income - volume 2
- Taking Stock in Your Financial Future
- Massive Internet Income - volume 1
- Massive Internet Income - volume 2
- One Line Negotiating
In each topic, Berman provides a verbal overview of all of the components needed, but few details. For example, in the "Massive Internet Income" cd, he talks you through what makes a web-based business successful (in his opinion); but few details about where or how to achieve it. He throws out loads of terms "hypertext markup language; html" he somberly intones. "Active Server Pages: ASP" he carries on. And then moves on with out telling the listener what they are, how they are used, where you obtain the tools to use them, how much they cost or even how useful they are. If you are new to the internet, and want to build a web-based business you will need to know how to build websites, get links to your website, get listed in search engines, sell or resell advertising, products or services. While Berman describes the general concepts, he rarely provides the details you will need to make those concepts a reality.
Overall Conclusion
If you are looking for a high level overview of various types of entrepreneurial businesses, with very general guidance and tips, to use as an introduction, it could be worth the $29 price (or $9.90) (that you get if you call to return the cd's and persist until the end of the call). He does provide plenty of interesting and useful recommendations of style, design, organization, etc.
But, if you are looking for detailed plans, guides and resources to enable you to get your business moving, then you won't find it here. He mostly poses questions and advises you to do research to answer them before you start your business. The questions are often good ones, but if you can't think of them yourself, or find them by researching your potential business using Google, then you are probably not astute enough to starting a business, unless you can afford to lose the money.
Berman seems like a sharp, pleasant self-educated entrepreneur. Unfortunately, he employs a used-car salesman approach in selling his knowledge by misleading people using a "free book" lure, promises of detailed knowledge that aren't delivered and bait and switch tactics. And oddly, he doesn't even provide a resource list to help you get the detailed information and guidance you will need. Instead, he often repeats "you need to research..."
Is it a scam?
Yes, in our opinion, absolutely, it is a scam. This is a very high level introduction a number of different business models, and is good at that, but is not the detailed resource that the commercials make it out to be. What really makes it a scam is not the content, or gaps in the content, but the grossly misleading advertising:
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The free book and cd are emphasized; no mention is made in the radio/TV commercials that we saw that you will be receiving a cd collection for which you must pay $99, unless you follow strict rules in returning them.
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In the commercials, Berman claims that he will show you how to make a lot of money. He refers to it as a "kit". Several times statements are made that directly or indirectly imply that you will be given detailed information to execute. This is not true. The information is interesting and useful, but is nowhere near complete enough to make anyone wealthy.
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The price markdown. Why did the price fall twice in less than 10 minutes from $99 to $25?
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The return rules. We didn't return the materials, but the representative made it very clear, almost TOO clear that the materials had better arrive at their warehouse in pristine condition, and that we ought to insure them and get return receipt. In fact, according to the Better Business Bureau, "According to the company, (the) additional CD's shipped must be returned unopened to assure refund eligibility." In other words, although you may be under the impression that you have 30 days to evaluate them, once you open them, you have agreed to purchase them.
The Better Business Bureau gave Bruce a grade of F, failing, with 246 complaints on record as of March 2008, compared with 159 complaints on record as of February 2007. See this page for the BBB website's review. and this BBB review.
To File a Complaint:
If you feel you have been scammed by Bruce A. Berman - be sure to file a complaint online with the Better Business Bureau - just click this link: www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportPage_Expository.aspx?CompanyID=13209187 and look for "File a Complaint" near the bottom right corner of the page
Recommendation
We DO think the book and cd's are generally entertaining for someone considering an entrepreneurial route, or simply looking for entertainment, and for that they may be worth $9.90. People routinely pay $29 for the latest Grisham novel, and we found Berman to be entertaining, if not informative!
On the other hand, if you are looking for detailed resources, a Google search