Competing with and differentiating against the Cowboys

Here in the UK the term Cowboy is used for someone who does a bad job or isn’t a professional who takes the money and rides off into the sunset never to be seen again.  The trouble with all industries, especially those who aren’t particularly well regulated is that anyone can set themselves up as a professional and how do you tell and how do you distinguish between them?  Some people of course will always fall for the cheap Rolex or the Cheapest option and then find that they have bought a pup.  the trouble is that the Genealogy industry actually does have a professional institute that should cover all of this AGRA – I doubt though that many people have heard of it or know what it does.

If you are starting up, you have to wait a year before you can tell anyone that you have signed up to AGRA’s code of conduct – surely a mistake as after a year if you are trading well enough why bother and as no one else advertises the AGRA sign why should you bother.  Many of the institutes and researchers I talk to aren’t particularly bothered either.  Perhaps the only people who are concerned is the IHGS and again they promote professionalism in the industry but you need to be in the industry to know who they are.  Ask “Jo Public” and they may well tell you that the Institute they think regulates Genealogists is the Society of Genealogists (SOG).  I don’t think they actually do that from what I know of them.

Somewhere I need to promote that the work will be to a standard and undertaken in a professional manner.  I need to differentiate my services from those of the eBay and cheap as chips look up businesses who, cannot be properly set up in business (they cannot make enough to cover the professional subscriptions and costs to trade).  Most probably use personal subscriptions to their data and are not allowed to re-sell that or to use it for profit and reward, I doubt any will have professional liability or indemnity insurance or that they are complying with all Statutory and Legal requirements.  Many are probably not keeping proper records, are not registered to hold your data and many probably aren’t set up to be paying their tax and National Insurance, VAT, Corporation Tax or business rates.  Sure they are cheap but are they accurate, are they working within the law and are you protected?  It is like buying fake goods, do you have any statutory rights or did you give them away the moment you bought something “off the back of a lorry”?

As a final side swipe at the hobbyist and those who aren’t really in business, one has to wonder that if they haven’t researched how to run their business properly, can they really be trusted to undertake research into family histories with accuracy or indeed to any level of quality?  I tend to think that these people (some well intentioned) really need to examine what they are doing in business and whether they comply with the Law.  I was very surprised to see one such on-line competitor state that they would not correspond through their home/office address or on the phone only by e-mail.  You cannot do this.  All businesses and web sites in the UK must display an office or registered office address. 

Anyway – a bit of a rant but buyers need to be aware that when they buy cheap they may not have any rights and the terms and conditions will be scant if any available at all.  I intend to have a policy, terms and conditions and to conduct business in a professional manner and to AGRA code of conduct (even if I can’t tell you that I am going to be an affiliate member – really AGRA wake up!!!)