Katana Marketing Solutions, Inc.

I worked for Katana for a period of 5 months. Everything that this guy has said is TRUE. I was making next to nothing working there (about $120 a week, yes I'm serious) all the while, I was being fed these lies about how much money there was to be made. My life literally crumbled around me because of this company. And yes, I understand that people are responsible for their own actions, but I was only 18 at the time, and impressionable, and the promises of money from someone I respected (Doug Hogg) was enough to keep me there. You are forced to work 6 days a week, literally nearly 12 hour days just to scrape by, and even that won't be enough for you to pay bills/rent/etc.. And even after working SO hard you make NOTHING. What happened to me is once I started working there, I didn't have time to look for another job. I got so in the hole in terms of finances that I wasn't even able to take the time to find a new job because, if getting that new job took even 2 weeks, I wouldn't be able to continue even living. My girlfriend of 5 years left me because I was spending so much time at this company, and now I don't blame her, why would she want to date someone that was gone 14 hrs a day, and then when I was home, I had to immediately go to bed, because I had to go to work the next day! On top of this, I was evicted from my apartment and had to borrow money from friends and family because I was making NONE at Katana. It probably works out to about $1.66/hr and yes I'm serious. It was the most horrible time of my life, and to this day I am still jaded by that point in my life. I lost everything that mattered to me, my relationships, my home, my dignity. I had to move back to my parent's home, a 20 hour drive away from Ottawa, and leave all my friends behind, and didn't even have the chance to attempt to get back with my girlfiend. It was terrible and I don't wish it upon my worst enemy. And I haven't even talked about how horrendous the actual job is! Here's a day in the life of Katana. 1. Show up at the office. 2. Do 'Roleplaying' (practicing what you'll say to people on THEIR doorsteps. 3. print a map of the city. 4. Take public transit to a part of the city and knock on people's doors ALL F*CKING DAY trying desperately to get them to agree to your deals. All the time you are berated and looked down upon, it's terrible. When someone does agree to your deal you have to ask to use THEIR phone to call it in, and if you're lucky enough to have the deal go through, and that person not cancel, you make maybe $12. It's SICK. 5. Go back to the office, and sit there, incurring some more brainwashing. 6. Take public transit home, and go straight to bed, as you have to wake up and do it all again the next day. And my final point, know this, Doug Hogg (the owner) still lives with his parents and takes public transit to work. Ask yourself if that's the signs of a successful person.

Doug, this is NOT a personal attack towards you. In fact as a person, you are a great guy. My personal opinion to you is to find a new business or job while you are still relatively young, surely your sales experience could land you a job at many places. My only motive here is ensure people hear the real information because my life was literally ruined for a long time, and only now am I recovering from the turmoil.. good luck

B.L.A.C is the latest incarnation of a company formerly known as Katana Marketing Solutions, or KMS. They change their name in an effort to run away from their reputation, and also so they can continue to prey on unsuspecting job seekers. They have also operated under the names Still Marketing and TPSN. The one constant about this company is that they are a franchise of one of the biggest scammers out there: CYDCOR. Look it up on the net and you will find out for yourself what a horrible organization this actually is.

The information being outlined here is 100% truthful and accurate. I know because I worked there, and wasted almost two years of my life. My reason for posting is simply to inform and hopefully save somebody else the hardships and anguish I endured. So here are the facts:

*****As far as what the job is:

I was told that I could earn up to $1000/week if I just learned their "system" of sales techniques. Well let me tell you, anyone who has used the 3, 5, and 8 steps (this is what it's called) knows that this has very little effect in getting a customer to sign up with you. It all revolves around your personality, whether the customer actually needs the service, and luck. That's it, that's all. If you're good you may luck out and write one or two deals a day. That's if you're good.

That translates into anywhere from $20 to $60 a day. If you're not good you have to rely upon a "law of average" that states that if you knock upon enough doors you will find sales. While this is true, the reality is that you have to knock on at least 200-250 houses every day, and hope to speak to at least 60-70 to make that $60. All the while people are yelling at you, or bitching about their bills, or complaining about their services, and there's absolutely nothing you can do but take it.

I was good at my job and was usually on the "high rollers" list, and I was only making about $400 a week, sometimes more but usually less. Most people in the office make somewhere around $200 to $400. It depends on the area you are working. If it's a really rich area with big houses you make nothing because these people don't care if they can save $4.00 a month, and they are usually the ones who are offended that you're at their door and will yell at you for bothering them. If you are in a poor area of the city you also make very little because these people have already been hit on so many times and have already taken all the services already to save money, or they fail the credit check.

What you need to know is that CYDCOR (the parent company) has been knocking on doors in Ottawa for about 7 years. That means that you are not the first person to go by and try to talk to these people about switching their services. They usually get bothered 2 or 3 times a year, at least. They are not happy to see you and have heard your line of B.S before. This makes it extremely difficult to make money.

When I went to the owner asking for help to make more money, he just told me I needed to work on the 3, 5, and 8's if I wanted to get better and then pawned me off on somebody else in the office. I was very disappointed because I was told it was possible to make $1000/ week. When I talked to the secretary/administrator she just laughed and confided that nobody makes that much money, and that I was actually doing really well.

*****As far as your time commitment goes:

If you are entry level you start at 11:30AM, but if you are a leader you start at 11:00, and if you are a team leader or higher you start at 10:30.

In this job you stop knocking on doors at 9:00PM. then you have to take the bus all the way back to the office, regardless of where you are.

You are to be back at the office at around 9:45 where you have to fill out your paperwork for the day( usually takes about 10-15 minutes ).

You have to wait until the owner is finished doing his interviews with job applicants (can be anywhere from 20 mins to over an hour depending on how many interviews there are and how much the owner wants to yak)

You have to spend time work-shopping with your leader to make sure you are buying into the brainwashing (about 10 mins or so)

You then have to do a "bell ceremony" where there is chanting and clapping and other foolishness (another 5 to 10 mins)

So you are lucky if you get out of the office by 10:30 or 11:00. And then you still have to get home!

That's close to a 12 hour day, 6 days a week. Saturdays are not mandatory but they are not really optional either, they are heavily "encouraged" meaning you have to unless you have a really good excuse.

*****As far as what the job security is:

Even though you are supposedly working for Rogers, selling their products (telecommunications), you are not employed by them and as such you are not protected by them either.

In fact this is the connection: Rogers has a third party contract with Cydcor(another marketing company) to do door to door sales. Cydcor has an agreement to promote services through Katana Marketing, a private company. Katana Marketing has an independent contractor arrangement with it's employees to work for them. You go out and sell to customers.

So what this means is that you work strictly on commission with no benefits, no sick leave, no maternity leave, no employment insurance, no nothing.

If you have a hard time making money: too bad. if you twist your ankle and can't walk: too bad. if you catch a cold and need some time to recover: too bad. if you get put in an area that's already been worked to death: too bad. If there is a discrepancy between you and the customer, guess what: too bad.

If there is a dispute over what you think you are supposed to be making and what you see on your paycheck, Katana blames Cydcor and they say they'll look into it with Rogers. B.S. Guess what? Rogers doesn't care about you, or your problems. Cydcor and Katana just point the finger at someone else, meanwhile you are left to twist in the wind, until you quit.

*****As far as the "opportunity" goes:

To begin, everything that you are told, starting on day one, is NOT completely honest or truthful and you only start to see the light of day after you have been with this company for several months and get to see for yourself how the LIES are perpetuated.

What I am referring to specifically is the "opportunity" that is presented to each and every individual when they start at this business. That opportunity is described as the chance to learn sales and management techniques while working towards running your own company. THIS IS GARBAGE!!! Without getting into the laughable farce that is the sales training and management grooming portion, I will explain why the business model, as it's presented, DOES NOT or WILL NOT work.

Currently there are 12-15 Cydcor offices running across Canada. They are either promoting telecommunications(Rogers), or energy(Direct energy). Typically these offices are located in major centers or cities. The reason for this is that Cydcor needs to contact as many potential customers as possible and can only do so in densely populated areas. Also, the companies they work for(Rogers and Direct energy) are not available in many parts of the country, nor in some areas of the provinces they do exist in.

Now, each of these Cydcor offices is attempting to add anywhere from 2 to 10 new employees each week, depending on the size of the office. Everyone that starts at Katana Marketing is told that IF they apply themselves they can rise to "leader" status in just 2 weeks, and then start building a team. Once you have built a team of 5 "leaders" you are an "assistant manager" who will begin to bank money and be taught how to run your own business. You are told that this can realistically be done in 6 to 8 months. That's right, owning your own business with no skills, education, or experience and working with billion dollar clients in less than one year!

Before I go any further just do some quick math for yourselves; If Cydcor has been around for at least 10 years(as they claim), with the type of expansion that they suggest, how is it that there are ONLY 15 offices in Canada? If the training methods are so developed, and the management skills are so dependable, and the level of support is so great, then why are there so few offices? Or why do so many offices fail?

If you go to the katanamarketing.com web site today you will see that Cydcor has given them the "go-ahead" to open 15 new offices across the country. In two and a half years this company has opened exactly ZERO new offices. How can this be? Is their training program to blame? Are their employees just not that smart? The answer is that you are NOT supposed to succeed.

Think about it. If just 10 Cydcor offices hired ONLY 2 new people this week, that would mean that in 6 months they could potentially have 20 new owners. And the week after that they would have potentially ANOTHER 20 new owners. Where would these all new owners go? There aren't that many viable options available in Canada.

Nor do they have enough clients. What if Rogers doesn't renew? What if Direct energy pulls the plug? What then?

Did I mention that IF you do get a new office, that you have to pick up and move? Maybe half way across the country? Did Katana tell you when they were talking about how great the opportunity is that you would have to LEAVE your friends and family? NO, they didn't.

So EVIL is this company that time after time when someone gets close to being promoted to ownership, they are constructively undermined so that they will either fail or leave. I've SEEN it happen.

If you've been at this company for a while you will either have gone to or heard about the "leaders conferences". There are usually 200 to 300 people there who unfortunately believe that they will be running a Cydcor office within a year. Granted, not every one that walks through the door has the passion or personality for ownership. But again it's a numbers game; if there are 3 of these types of conferences held across the country twice a year that means (250 people x 3 conferences x twice a year =) 1500 potential new owners. If just 1% succeed that's 15 new owners every year. Does Cydcor expand by 15 offices every year in Canada? Well, if there are only 15 offices after more than 10 years in business right now, what do you think?

If Cydcor is such a great business opportunity why do so many owners up and quit once they attain that status? Did you know that 8, that's EIGHT, owners have left since 2006 in Ottawa alone? Why? Ask your manager. Look up the names of the companies in the 'Leader Magazine' recently then ask to see older copies. You will find that there are about only 7 owners that are here today that were there 4-5 years ago. What that tells you is that in that time Cydcor has really only expanded by about 8 offices. Over 10 years they have developed LESS than 10 new owners. Some business model.

But that's not Cydcor's fault right? It must be their darn inferior employees. That means YOU! It's their training. It's their system. They ask you to follow blindly, but there is no recipe for success, NOR is there supposed to be. It's all an illusion.

And that's the big SCAM. You are not meant to succeed, you are not really being groomed for management. Your current owner wil make money off you for as long as you can bare it and then you'll be gone, replaced by another patsy who will believe in the system until it's too late.

Look up Katana Marketing Solutions as well as KMS Inc right here on "ratemyemployer.ca" to read more reviews by former employees!

Search the internet for "CYDCOR" to learn more about how this company treats it's workers!

Go to "fraudwatchers.org" to see more about what is being said about B.L.A.C!

Check out "http://wolfram.org/scam/cydcor.html" to get informed!

Google "Katana Marketing scam" to find out more!

Find out what "pissedconsumer.com" thinks about this company!

Read what "scambuster.blogspot.com/.../avoid-katana-marketing-in-ottawa.html" has to say!

As President of Katana Marketing Solutions, Inc. I take these reports extremely serious and have taken the time to thoroughly research the posted accusations. I am posting with my name and phone number attached - NOT ANONYMOUSLY.

These comments have damaged my company's reputation.

I encourage anyone considering working with or doing business with our company to meet us in person and make decisions about us for yourself. Each person's experience is their own and for everyone one person who had a negative experience with any company, there are many whose positive experiences will never be heard. Please see the information below in regards to “stay away” postings about our company.

Facts:

1. In regards to our interviewing process, we receive several hundred resumes per week. As with any position, many people who apply tend to embellish on their resumes. We conduct short introductory interviews with a high number of people to validate the information that applicants provide on their resumes. Additionally, as a company that specializes in face to face customer interaction, it is critical that we meet each potential candidate face to face to determine their fitness for the position. If we invite any of these candidates back for a second interview, we invite them to spend a full work day with us to experience a "day in the life" of one of our team members. This gives the candidate an opportunity to see with their own eyes how our sales and everyday business is conducted and make their own judgement call on whether they are confident and comfortable learning what we do. So for someone who worked with us to say they were deceived is completely false, because they knew (and agreed to) our style of face to face sales before we ever added them to our team.

2. At no point do we tell any of our applicants or representatives that a high level of income is guaranteed. We provide our people with the opportunity to earn and advance based on personal performance and merit. At no point in time will we ever try to force someone to stay with our company. Not everyone picks up on the sales side of our business immediately, and if, after receiving extra training someone is unable to meet their personal financial goals, we encourage them to move on to another position with our full support and high level of recommendation.

3. We do provide people with the opportunity to advance from an entry-level position into a position of management and full partnership. That being said, we never promise everyone who works with us that they will definitely become a manager or partner. As with any company, not everyone who works with us will become C.E.O. of the company. We stress to all our employees that our business requires a tremendous amount of hard work, a high level of confidence, and a degree of emotional and mental toughness that many people do not possess. While it is true that not every person who joins our company chooses to complete the Management Training Program, the experience they gain while working with us is invaluable to their long term success and career advancement. We have many people who currently work with (and have worked with) our company who have the work ethic and tenacity to be very successful in life. Whether they choose that success to be with our company or not, we encourage and support them either way.

Thank your for taking the time to read this, and please feel free to contact me directly with any further questions about any information you may find online about our company. Some of the information may be true, but as you know, the internet is an open forum, and you cannot believe everything you read online.

Repectfully,

Douglas Hogg, President, Katana Marketing Solutions, Inc. 613-422-6804

I have been working here for about 8 months now and I don't know about everyone else but I really like it here. It seems like everyone is really dedicated to your success and will do everything they can to help. I make more than enough money a week AND I am going to be promoted into a managment role soon. It's not for everyone though, you definetly need to work hard.

This place is a waste of your time and money you work all day long from 11 to 9 everyday except sunday and the most u make in a week is 200 $ the only reason i stayed long enough is because they used to try to brainwash me in this so called "oppertunity" that really does not exist all the major office citys are taking soo reallly its just a big pyramid scheme

Katana is not for the faint of heart. If you're looking for a job, this is not for you. However, if you want to BECOME a successful business owner, they have a wonderful trainig program. All you have to do is apply yourself 110%.

Katana Marketing is a division of a larger door to door sales driven company named Cydcor. The opportunites that are promised and promoted are never delivered upon. The true nature of the company is only revealed after enormous time and energy has been expended and the employee buys into the brainwashing of the company mantra. The ability to make an adequate income is grossly exagerated at the expense of your time with family and friends. Overall the experience at Katana is very disappointing and not recommended.