President's Comment
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...
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
Comments
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