A major consumer issue today in Southeast Texas revolves around home contractor scams. Almost everyone in this reading area knows of someone that has been scammed by a contractor. Could be a neighbor, a relative, or even themselves.

Contractors have walked away from jobs without finishing them, have walked away without any work at all after receiving a large deposit from the homeowner, and have performed shoddy work and refuse to fix it. The list goes on and on.

Contractor scams cost the homeowner money because of damage caused to the home, because they can lead to more work to repair bad work, and just as important for those of us flooded by Hurricane Harvey – because it keeps you out of your home longer.

If you have a project that needs doing, first, you have to find a contractor to do your work. How do you do that? Friends and family head the list of sources. The next source would be local advertisements, such as in the Orange Leader, or even road signs.

Don’t just find one contractor; I am not alone in stressing that you should get quotes from at least three different contractors.

Once you have selected at least three contractors, how can you be assured that they are reputable and produce quality work? If you don’t personally know the contractor and are familiar with his work, how can you gain a higher level of trust to make a judgement?

My recommendation is to rely on a third party, a third party that you trust, preferably a local third party that you trust.

The best references come from people you know that have used the contractor. Another, but less trustworthy, are references the contractor gives you from his customers that you don’t know.

The amount of trust that you need to have in order to select a contractor relates directly to risk, dollar risk. The risk to you on a $25,000 job is a lot more than it would be for a $250 job.

In today’s world, we look to the internet to find reviews. According to a “2017 Local Consumer Review Survey”, the Better Business Bureau sits right behind Google in the top 4 review sites for local searches online (15% for BBB, 16% for Google).[i]

Unlike Google, the BBB has a local presence here in SETX, with an office in downtown Beaumont covering the Golden Triangle.

The BBB encourages businesses, both large and small, to support 8 basic “Standards of Trust”: (1) build trust (2) advertise honestly, (3) tell the truth, (4) be transparent, (5) honor promises, (6) be responsive, and (7) safeguard privacy, and (8) embody integrity.

In addition to online consumer reviews, the BBB encourages the public to file consumer complaints with them about businesses and they will act as an ombudsman to try and resolve the problem. Whatever the outcome, the complaint and the response from the business are recorded for the public in their online database.

Local businesses that subscribe to the 8 basic Standards of Trust and support the efforts of the BBB are referred to as “accredited businesses” and are allowed to use the BBB logo to signify this higher level of trust.

If I were looking for a contractor and had to choose from several unknowns, I would look to local advertisements to get a list. Then I would go to the BBB website for a review; I might go to Google or Facebook too. That could cut the possibles down to a short list. If any contractors on the short list were “accredited businesses” they would get extra points in my book.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to guarantee that your choice is the best one. You can only cut down on the risk by doing some homework.  When the job is done – whether it’s fantastically good work or otherwise, please go back to the BBB website (and whatever others you used) and provide a review so that others who come after you can benefit from your efforts.

Good luck.

And, for the contractors, go make sure the BBB has you listed and get some reviews on BBB.org, Google, Facebook, and Yelp.

[i] BrightLocal.com is a Search Marketing firm that helps local businesses grow their online presence. With a staff of about 85 people, they are headquartered in the UK, with branch offices in Ukraine and the Philippines. They have published a “Local Consumer Review Survey” every year since 2010. (https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-consumer-review-survey-2016/)

David Derosier consults with small business on planning and marketing issues, and provides web design and hosting services through OhainWEB.com, an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau that is rated A+ by BBB. He can be reached at JDAVID@Strategy-Planning.info.

Published August 1st 2018 in the Orange Leader

It’s A Matter of Trust

One of the most important characteristics for all our personal and business interactions is TRUST.

As individuals we interact with other individuals on a daily basis. Likewise, we interact with organizations – businesses, church, governmental bodies, schools, police, and other public officials. Today we also do a lot of interaction over the Internet.

In its most simple form, people and organizations inspire trust when (1) they make choices based on justifiable standards, (2) they take others into account in their decisions, and (3) they do what they say they will do.

Trust starts with ourselves. How do we stack up against these three simple criteria? Then we look at others, and judge them in relation to our own trustworthiness.

Experience, over time, teaches us confidence in whom and what we know, allowing us to comfortably deal with our interactions. This confidence from experience is called trust. However, more and more we are interacting with the whom-and-what that we don’t know. Establishing trust gives us the confidence to deal with the new as we gain more experience and knowledge.

Sometimes trust is inherited. If you meet the son of your most trusted childhood friend, you are inclined to trust him, too. When you meet a church pastor or the Superintendent of Schools for the first time, you may be inclined to trust him or her because of their office. Experience teaches us whether our initial sense is justified and experience will sometimes change that sense of trust over time.

Trust is one element of what is called Ethics, a set of moral principles that guide the way an individual or an organization behaves. Acting in an ethical way involves distinguishing between “right” and “wrong” and then making the “right” choice

Are there other kinds of trust? Absolutely. In finance and estate planning, a trust is a fiduciary arrangement that allows a third party, or trustee, to hold assets on behalf of a beneficiary or beneficiaries.

I spent decades in the business of international information security (Information and Communications Technology – ICT). Trust in that world is similar to what we will deal with except that it is in relation to National Security and absolute conformance with standards.

So why am I spending so much time talking about trust? I’m setting the foundation upon which my upcoming columns will be based. In the past I have written about the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Praising people and organizations that have selflessly served others, some that have made mistakes in my eyes, and a few that were just plain ugly in their dealings. This will continue with articles that discuss various aspects of our community with a slant towards trust.

We will be addressing trust in the business world and elsewhere in the community, especially when it goes wrong – like contractor scams that have happened to flood victims. Things to do when trust goes bad; how to address organizational failures when you have depended on them, ways to increase trust; and who’s out there that helps to build trust?

I will also look to you, the reader, for assistance. I will be asking you to email me with trust issues you have encountered that relate to my articles. Perhaps we can shed some light on them, or even resolve the issues.

J David Derosier consults with small business on planning and marketing issues, and provides web design and hosting services through www.OhainWEB.com He can be reached at JDAVID@Strategy-Planning.info.

Published July 18th 2018 in the Orange Leader

According to a recent survey, a majority of Americans agree that the values of Islam are at odds with American values and way of life, while roughly four in ten disagree. (56 vs. 41 percent, American Values Survey released in November 2015.)

I took courses on statistics and surveys back in my college days and have used surveys occasionally for business purposes. I understand that the way in which a question is asked can automatically skew the survey results towards the desired goals. Hence, the saying that figures do not lie but liars do figure.

Ask me if the religion of Islam is at odds with American values and I would answer, “Not much different than a lot of religions considered to be mainstream in the United States”. However, ask me if Political Islam is at odds with American values and I would answer with a resounding, “Absolutely YES”.

So what’s the difference?

Let me make an analogy. I remember when Catholics were forbidden to eat meat on Fridays in Lent. The church set that rule for its members, which is OK. However if it was the government who decided that no one in the country was allowed to eat meat on Fridays in Lent because the Pope said so, that’s not OK. In the first case the religion decides for its members, in the second case it’s the state that decides for its citizens because of what a church says.

Let’s start with this distinction: ISLAM is a religion; people who follow the religion of Islam are called Muslims and must follow Islamic law. POLITICAL ISLAM is a type of government primarily based upon the enforcement of Islamic Law for all people regardless of their religion. Political Islam uses Muslim doctrines, beliefs, and values as the foundation of an Islamic State. People who believe in Political Islam are called ISLAMISTS.

It is extremely important to clearly distinguish between Islam as a religion and Political Islam (as a government). Unfortunately, these basic distinctions seem to have become blurred by the media as well as by numerous politicians running for public office.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic State with a legal system based on Sharia Law. Turkey is a secular country where Sharia Law is not a part of the country’s legal system, and yet most of the population is Muslim.

When I was in Riyadh, the top floor of the mall was reserved for women, but women were not allowed to shop in the main area of the mall unless accompanied by an adult male; at night and on weekends single men were not allowed in the mall. In Istanbul, women can shop wherever they want.

In Riyadh a woman must cover herself in public, it’s the public law; in Istanbul some women cover themselves because of their religious beliefs, and some choose not to.

Please keep in mind that this church/state situation is not limited to Islam. The Republic of Ireland is a Catholic country with Catholic laws. When I lived in Europe, not only was abortion illegal there, it was illegal for a citizen of Ireland to leave the country to have an abortion somewhere else – regardless of their religious beliefs. Only recently has this been changed in Ireland.

In the United States we have enshrined a wall between church and state in our constitution. The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to our Constitution, which went into effect more than two centuries ago. The separation of church and state was so important it was in the first of these ten amendments.

Not only do we have a legal system that includes emphasis on protecting the rights of citizens to practice the religion of their choice, our legal system also prohibits subversive activity intended to overthrow our way of life as set out in the Bill of Rights.

So, should we be suspicious of immigrants because of their religion?

We have no more reason to fear Muslims than we do to fear any other immigrant group accepted into our country legally. If they have more kids than the traditional American family of European heritage, so be it; in time they may become a majority…and change the laws.

On the other hand, we do have reason to fear Islamists – those who want Political Islam. These people are our enemies and have sworn to overthrow secular governments and create an Islamic State – anywhere and everywhere.

I have traveled and done business across the Middle East, including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

In the UAE my company was a key featured element at an annual consumer computer and electronics trade show, exhibition, and conference with average attendance of 150,000 from throughout the Arab World.

My family were invited guests at a wedding in Istanbul. We had introduced the bride and groom to each other who were like family to us. The Turkish relatives treated us like we were family as well, each time we visited the country.

I have had a little bit of exposure to the Islamic world, personal exposure, not just from watching the news.

We need to be vigilant against our enemies. Our government has done a lot to prevent terrorists and terrorist attacks here in the homeland. Our government has also made an awful lot of mistakes in screening for security threats. Most of these mistakes were made when the appropriate information was available, just overlooked.

With the Muslim immigrants proposed to be brought to the United States, including here in Texas, there apparently is no such appropriate information to be used for screening. How is the government going to distinguish between Muslims who believe in Islam and Islamists who believe in Political Islam? And to do that with 10,000 individuals? I don’t believe that our government is capable of doing that, especially as demonstrated by the present administration.

According to CBS News, Tashfen Malik passed a Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism screening as part of her vetting to obtain a visa – just last year )2014). The Los Angeles Times reported that she was given a conditional green card, and the FBI also conducted a background check. Malik and her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook apparently carried out the Wednesday attack that killed 14 people and injured 21 more at a holiday party in San Bernardino County California.

It is not the religion that is scary; it is the Islamists who believe that subversive activity (aka terrorism) is a necessary tool to achieve a global Islamic State.

Because we cannot truly be assured that we are not allowing more terrorists into our country, we should be looking to provide help and assistance to refugees from the Middle East in the areas of their own homeland and not in Texas or elsewhere in the United States.

Today the media talks about “Muslim Majority nations” rather than “Islamic States”. this is an injustice to the American people. There is a great difference in the governments of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as opposed to Turkey or other secular states with a Muslim majority. Don’t let the media change the facts.

Those of you that agree with me, please tell your representatives in Washington how you feel. Before it’s too late.

J. David Derosier consults with small business on planning and marketing issues, and provides web design and hosting services through OhainWEB.com, an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau that is rated A+ by BBB. He can be reached at JDAVID@Strategy-Planning.info

This article was first published in The Orange Leader in November 2015.

Did that headline get your attention? In practice, most of the time, if not all of the time, politicians don’t actually lie; although often they just don’t answer the question or give you the whole truth. Is that lying? Probably is.

Recently, according to MSNBC, in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” the retiring Speaker of the House, Congressman Boehner said that political groups and lawmakers have purposely misled voters, charging that they’ve “whipped people into a frenzy believing they can accomplish things that they know — they know — are never going to happen.” (Sunday 9-27-15). If they do that, it’s lying!

Also on that Sunday, I watched an interview of one of the presidential candidates. He never answered a single question directly and, in truth, seldom gave an answer at all. He consistently turned the question around to meet his own agenda and that’s what he talked about. This is someone who wants to be President of the United States!! In my view, it’s just like lying. Not getting my vote.

Looking back, in a 2003 documentary, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was quoted as saying, “Never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you.” So all of this is not new, it’s been going on for decades, centuries, or longer. And what’s worse is that they acknowledge what they’re doing.

To me, the answer to the headline is that politicians lie when they are only interested in their own agenda and not much else. Their agenda is not necessarily bad. It could be that they believe that they have the best answer to a public problem; just don’t expect them to share too much or to be flexible if the public really wants something different.

Why bring this up now? Because it’s the season for the news media to be reporting on candidates for election (or re-election) to office. Because anyone who watches TV or logs on to social media gets bombarded with it. Even those (like you) who still read print newspapers get more than their fill.
This is when the real news people show their interviewing skills…or lack of. Watch the candidates in a debate or in an interview. Do they really answer the questions? Seldom…and when they do it’s usually incomplete.

So it’s the agenda that drives the issues. And to achieve their agenda, many will deceive you in one way or another. Politicians have even written laws to make it easier for them to do that.

Take, for example, a “rider” attached to a bill in the legislature (state or federal). According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, in legislative procedure, a rider is an additional provision added to a bill or other measure under consideration by a legislature, having little connection with the subject matter of the bill.

Wikipedia tells us that riders are usually created as a tactic to pass a controversial provision that would not pass as its own bill. Sometimes, a controversial provision is attached to a bill not to be passed itself, but to prevent the original bill from being passed (in which case it is called a wrecking amendment or poison pill).So when candidate “A” accuses candidate “B” of being against women’s rights because of a vote on a specific bill, it could be that the no-vote was because of a rider attached for something entirely different. In other words, candidate “B” would normally vote for women’s rights, but could not vote for the rider, therefore he had to oppose the whole bill.

But what can we do?

First, especially during this time with so many candidates to choose from, try to find a candidate you can trust. I think this is best done when they are asked questions by a third party…and the questions are actually answered to your satisfaction.

Next, pay enough attention to the candidate that you can figure out his/her agenda. If you agree with the agenda, go with the candidate.

The bigger problem is when the agenda is hidden. I’ll talk about hidden agendas, perhaps even here in Southeast Texas, in another column.

In the meantime, DO find a candidate to trust and DO vote in the elections. This country needs more people to pay attention and use their vote.

J. David Derosier consults with small business on planning and marketing issues, and provides web design and hosting services through OhainWEB.com, an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau that is rated A+ by BBB. He can be reached at JDAVID@Strategy-Planning.info

This article was first published in The Orange Leader in October 2015.

There’s something about the heat we’ve been experiencing that seems to affect everything, even the gas gauge in a car. Recently I was on my way to a meeting in downtown Orange late in the afternoon and ran out of gas as I crossed 16th street. I was able to glide (too nice a word, considering no power steering or brakes) into a parking area.

I walked over to the gas station and asked if they had any kind of a container I could put gas into to bring to my vehicle to get it running again. Both the operator and his wife went scrounging around the store and found a container. Then I needed something to hold the safety valve open in the filler. They looked some more and came up with a solution. I filled the container and then brought it back.

These people were so nice and generously went out of their way to help a complete stranger. We talked a little about Orange, how long they’d been here, family. We are strangers no more.

After Hurricane Rita came through town I remember lots of damaged homes; one of them belonged to a very close elderly relative.

By passing the word around through a lot of grapevines someone pointed me towards a family living in a small house that needed a larger one but didn’t have lots of money. Had a good job, but not a lot of money on hand.

We worked out the price and there was almost an even swap – the money he got for his good, but small, house for the bigger but damaged one. There were back taxes to be paid on the new house but they could be paid in installments and that was figured into the budget. As it turned out there were some hidden issues and the county needed twice as much in payments. Too much. I found a private investor to loan him the money and the deal went through.

Ten years later and the family is still there. The house looks better than it had in years. The owner has become my friend; he moved his way up at work and now supervises a large number of his fellow workers. After hurricane Ike, he came over and helped me clean up my property and fixed a downed fence. I was invited to celebrate his daughter’s quinceañera. For me that was a great honor to join his family like that. This man is humble, but to me he is the epitome of honesty, integrity, and goodness. We need more people like him, people that cast a big shadow.

At Art-in-the-Park this year I met a man who had a booth trying to raise interest, and perhaps some money, to start a new museum of local culture and history in Orange. He’s been working on it for a couple of years and it’s taken up a lot of his time. He’s a military veteran and in his late seventies. We talked for a while there and have met several times since at different venues. He strikes me as a genuine good guy. Humble about what he does and who he is, he gives of himself for others, asking little for himself.

A few months ago I went to buy a case of beer on 16th Street. The case price was marked on the rack (a good price BTW) but they had no cases, just ½ cases which were more expensive. When I went to check out, the cashier wasn’t sure she could sell me two halves for the price of a whole case and called for the manager. I guess it was busy because the manager didn’t show up. Rather than keep me waiting, this woman made an executive decision and just charged me the case price…without getting approval. That’s the kind of employee every business should have, one that takes initiative and uses common sense.

What do these people have in common? In a single word, ethics. They have a good sense of right and wrong…and constantly strive to do what’s right, adhering to basic and fundamental principles of decent human conduct. They represent what I believe we do not have enough of – selfless interest in the wellbeing of others and our community.

I not only respect Henry, Nicky, Hector, and the anonymous cashier, I look up to them as models…just everyday folks, except that they are also GOOD everyday folks. They work hard, care for their families and their community. None of them are rich – far from it. Two of them are immigrants, one from South Asia and one from Mexico; one of them is African American.

These are the great people that make Orange a great place to live.

Maybe the people who don’t like it here need to meet more great people like these folks, my heroes.

J. David Derosier consults with small business on planning and marketing issues, and provides web design and hosting services through OhainWEB.com, an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau that is rated A+ by BBB. He can be reached at JDAVID@Strategy-Planning.info

This article was first published in The Orange Leader in October 2015.

Published in October 2015 in the Orange Leader