Sarah wants CPA's to take Quickbooks "class"!

[Mango]

I think this is one of the big failures of their business model. 15 years ago, you COULD make a living teaching small/medium sized business owners who had NOT gone through high school and college with computers being ubiquitous how to use basic end-user software. But now those folks are pushing retirement, and the younger people who have grown up with computers don't need basic instruction on how to be an end user unless they're REALLY unsavvy- and those people are likely to not care about, need, or be able to afford $600 for a class, or to have the internet access to take one in that format!

[artdecades]

Why even pay for this stuff at all? Gale Education offers free accounting and quickbooks classes online, and many public libraries provide subscriptions. There are other services too, which are often taught by trained professionals.

Is having prayer time included in your training that important that you would pay a ton of money for someone without training to teach you?

[nausicaa]

Could they run a repair business for only Christians? I think for them the appeal of offering their own courses is that they only have to teach like-minded Christians. If they ran a repair business they might have to work for a woman or a LGBT person, and I can't imagine Steve doing that.

I'm surprised at the move to computer services as well. Home repair seems to suit them much better. They don't have to worry about keeping up with constant innovations or marketing themselves so much. And I will give the Maxwells this, they are thorough and do a good job. And with all of the shady contractors out there, the Maxwells would probably be quite popular and get a lot of good word of mouth recommendations.

I know Steve and Terri are getting older, but they have three hearty and hale sons at home. They live in a small town in Kansas so most of their clients would likely be fairly conservative and Christian-positive. Also, if they Christian up their website then most people who are LGBT or strongly non-religious would get the message and avoid using them. I wonder if the chance of working for a woman is that strong of a turn off, or if Steve and the sons really hate manual labor? Or maybe the sons are beginning to think it's beneath them?

[CrazyCatLady]

maybe they are only willing to work on houses that were bought in cash. :cracking-up:

[16strong]

maybe they are only willing to work on houses that were bought in cash. :cracking-up:

That's a very good thought. I also think they don't want to have to sell the houses to non-fundies, which the majority of Americans are not, though they may be conservative.

However, simply conservative is not enough for Maxwell & Co. They want blood tests from the wives of buyers to confirm they are not on birth control and Wal-Mart receipts to verify they haven't bought any condoms or heathenous reading materials.

[Lillybee]

You know, if they promised not to preach too much, I would consider hiring them as handymen. I have had a hard time finding decent help in my area.

[DGayle]

this course is $400 or $600, what kind of fundie can afford that?

and i wonder who that family is, are they a stock photo?

A lot of community colleges have online classes that teach this stuff for so much less. And there are websites that do it for free!

[Jana814]

this course is $400 or $600, what kind of fundie can afford that?

and i wonder who that family is, are they a stock photo?

Haha about the photo!!

[nausicaa]

You know, if they promised not to preach too much, I would consider hiring them as handymen. I have had a hard time finding decent help in my area.

Me too! They seem to do good work.

And let's get real, I would be all over hiring them even if they did preach so I could get some dirt and report back to the hive.

ETA: And now I'm a serial courter!

[chaotic life]

My grandmother did not go to college, which is why she was so determined that her children would. She was a self-taught accountant and worked as an accountant for over 40 years before her death. We often encouraged her to go become a CPA but she said there was no point because she was old and could do her job without the degree. When she died a decade ago, she was well versed in computer accounting software. She sought out self guided and tech support from the software companies. In fact, she was the one who pushed the company she worked for to computerize.

She would have been horrified at the idea of someone at even her level being conned into paying for something like this class. She would have pointed out that if you truly need to learn it and truly cannot find free resources, then look for classes at your local community college that offers adult education classes. That should run you far less than $300 for the same training by someone who actually knows what the heck they are doing with the software!

[FloraKitty35]

Sarah is telling the truth . There was at least one CPA in the class; and by CPA, she means "Controlling Patriarchal Asshole". :D

[SPHASH]

Sarah is telling the truth . There was at least one CPA in the class; and by CPA, she means "Controlling Patriarchal Asshole". :D

:D x 10!

[anjulibai]

I think they mentioned they stopped doing the construction stuff because the guys didn't want to work outside.

Personally, I think they just weren't getting a lot of calls. Despite the fact that they do good jobs with what they do, they weren't really advertising themselves. Their website was badly written and it was way to Jesusy.

[YPestis]

I think the Maxwells are just extremely out of the loop in regards to the the computing field. I'm sure the sons all keep updated on their technical skills, but they don't just deal with computers, they deal with clients. And that's the flaw in their business model. You can't keep up with people's wants if you don't keep up with the world they live in. The family isolates themselves from pop culture, history, current events, and anything that doesn't touch upon their brand of conservative Christianity. It was fine when part of their income came from their "ministry", as they are dealing with like-minded people. But now, they are once again dependent on their consulting business and that requires them to deal with a wider variety of clients.

However, the Maxwells also choose to avoid dealing with people. It's probably why they avoid doing repair work and such. It would require the men to deal with women, gays, heathens etc., but not in the preaching down to them sort of way. They would actually have to treat "undesirable" clients with deference, which may irk Steve.

Perhaps that's the other issue here. Steve has gotten into his head that he, and his sons, are meant to lead and preach, rather than defer and serve. It explains why they have focused on businesses where they either work in isolation or where they are in a position of power (i.e ITonRamp). Doing electronic repairs and flipping houses require them to interact with possible "undesirables" and puts them in a subservient position.

The family could enter the secondary market in smartphone and tablet repairs but they may not have known of it's existence until well after larger, more established companies enter the market. How could they? Every time the family close themselves off to something "secular", they also close themselves off to their clients. Business needs are not learned from a book, it's learned from knowing about how the world works. It's why the Maxwells are never going to go beyond their "consulting" business. They lack the world perspective to expand outward.

There are still plenty of opportunities available to the Maxwell kids, despite their restrictions, but they are also limited by their general knowledge of the world. As others noted, the classes offered in ITonRamp are overpriced. But how would the Maxwells know this? They don't do college, they avoid public libraries and bookstores. They haven't owned a TV since the 80's, nor read a news article since then. They probably don't realize that some colleges are even offering their classes online (for free). Given their outdated information on people's lives, it means their offerings are now always going to be inaccurate or outdated. It's just one more handicap brought on by their crazy lifestyle. Thanks a lot, Steve.

[Minijumb]

They charge WHAT?? for Quickbooks courses :lol:

3-4 day statistics courses (AMOS/ M PLUS- statistical modelling) at a reasonably advanced level are taught at my university for $400- $600 by highly trained, professional statisticians/ statistics educators (they get away with charging so much because we are a research uni and courses are a tax write off for staff, and can be covered for students as part of PhD training budgets).

I keep getting emails about courses for Comprehensive Meta Analysis courses since I downloaded the trial software. They want $900 (I think) for a 2 day course. Yeah, whatever. I taught myself using the guide, and emailing a fellow student if I got really stuck (once or twice), it's not the most intuitive programme on earth and I am practically a Luddite.

The Maxwells really need to get with the times. I can't see anyone paying that much for a course when you can figure out basic software like that from the instructions/ online support sites and forums.

I think the age of Steve the entrepreneur is coming to an end :violin:

[Coconut Flan]

I think the age of Steve the entrepreneur is coming to an end

It's terrible of me, but I smile every time it comes up that the Maxwells may have to all get real jobs sooner rather than later. It gives me hope that after Steve gets a bit older, they can break out.

[Mela99]

This is crap. I can't imagine any CPA now needed to take a class in it..

I say this with some confidence because my former long term BF graduated with degrees in accounting and finance... and has worked for Vanguard for 6 years so..

I call bullshit.

[SamuraiKatz]

My community has an adult ed program. Courses like this are running $60 -$100 for a class that meets once a week for eight weeks. Its high time the Maxwell clan obtained some GEDs and technical school or community college to get some real- life skills.

[twin2]

My community has an adult ed program. Courses like this are running $60 -$100 for a class that meets once a week for eight weeks. Its high time the Maxwell clan obtained some GEDs and technical school or community college to get some real- life skills.

But, but, but, those courses are contaminated by secular, evolutionary, feministic, humanistic, socialist propaganda, and devoid of Christ!!! :penguin-no: :penguin-no: :penguin-no:

[Jana814]

It's terrible of me, but I smile every time it comes up that the Maxwells may have to all get real jobs sooner rather than later. It gives me hope that after Steve gets a bit older, they can break out.

I'm waiting for that time also!!

[Curious]

I have taken many classes online. I like to keep busy, of course, now I have other things that keep me busy :whistle:

For the paltry sum of $25 or so, I have taken a large number of classes in a wide range of topics. One of them got me a webmaster job that paid an actual salary. It's ridiculously easy to learn stuff on the internet from professionals for little to no money.

My favorite site right now is lynda.com. For $25 a month you have access to hundreds of topics. I am learning illustrator right now via lynda courses and it's everything I would learn in a "real" class and in some cases more. I've known how to do stuff that people that took classes in college didn't.

For the same $600 the Maxwell's are charging, you could learn any number of programs/topics depending on how much time you had to spend on the courses at lynda.

[lawlifelgbt]

And there's always MOOCs on almost any subject. Those are free. How is there even a market for the Maxwell's type of classes?

[Fun-Dee]

The Maxwells count on their clients not knowing that they can get the same courses online or at a community college for a fraction of the cost. Considering how isolated they are, maybe the Maxwells themselves don't know that.

[nausicaa]

The Maxwells count on their clients not knowing that they can get the same courses online or at a community college for a fraction of the cost. Considering how isolated they are, maybe the Maxwells themselves don't know that.

Steve and Teri might have an idea, but I guarantee the Maxwell children have no idea how much those classes cost elsewhere, or even how community colleges work.

[twin2]

And there's always MOOCs on almost any subject. Those are free. How is there even a market for the Maxwell's type of classes?

Because, the Maxwell course is the only one devoid of secular, evolutionary, humanistic, feministic propoganda and is Christ-centric.