Should I sitll offer my JW clients a 50% discount

by jwfacts 29 Replies latest jw experiences

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  jwfacts

  As a part time job on the side I have been doing income tax for many years. I have around 100 clients and 50 of them are JWs. Now that I am d/f I am not sure how many of the JWs will continue to use my services. Surprisingly one of my JW clients just came to my house to have his tax done for last year, a few months late, so maybe some will stick with me.

  What I am wondering is if I should still offer them the JW discount. For JWs I do the tax return for about half the normal rate. Since this is the reason many come to me I am thinking I should still give them the discount. That way they will get to see me and some may notice that I have not grown horns and a forked tongue, and actually look happier than I did for a long time.

  The other good thing about encouraging JWs to still come is that it is the ideal excuse for any that are wanting to ask me doctrinal questions to visit me. I may be able to slip in the odd thought provoking question.

  Do they deserve to save 50% on my tax services?
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  Dr Jekyll

  25% discount, you don't owe them anything anymore and the 25% would still be an incentive for them to pop in so you can apostatize them
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  barry

  Make a purely economic decision on this one mate.
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  Clam

  Blimey JWFacts - Tax and Apostacy - what a combination.

  I don't think you should offer a discount to anyone. Your JW client who has separated business from personal matters has got the right idea.
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  MidwichCuckoo

  They are hypocrites for coming to you (under THEIR rules) as you are disfellowshipped. I imagine that they can turn a blind eye to this if it's to their financial benefit. Stop their discount and watch them grow a (pretend) conscience.
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  Stephanus

  Does doing so "help" them, or does it simply "enable" them?
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  free2beme

  When I was a Witness, I worked at a formal wear store owned by Witnesses. It was a big company with several locations across four states, so I did not actually have the Witness owners in the back room. When I left the religion, they did not care, they liked the money I made them, as my store was the top one in the chain. The local Witnesses though, used to come to my store for their tuxedos, as I would give a Witness discount. It was expected, and if it was not given, they would take extremes to complain. Well after leaving, I still gave it to a couple of people who were cool with my exit and still friends. That happened within the first year or so, but since I walked away and did not get disfellowshipped, it took awhile for the Witnesses to stop going to my store. I heard through the grapevine, that a couple called the Witness owners and complained that they would keep a non Witness on staff and not fire me and get someone more spiritual? Like you can discriminate on religion in the work place, in this modern world. Anyway, my store stayed at number one, long after my exist, six years to be exact. When I left three years ago, I heard that the Witnesses started coming back to the store with the next batch of people running it. By this time, the store was no longer owned by Witnesses, and sold to a corporation. My store must have done amazing numbers with all those Witnesses coming again, right? Well, there closing that store at the end of this years wedding season. Apparently, after my exit, another Witness was hired that ran it into the ground and it is barely making enough to pay the bills. So why bring this up, because it shows how little of importance your income relies on Witnesses. Witnesses are a small minority in any community, and discounts mean less profit. So work for full rate and make money, and ignore Witnesses who complain about not getting the Witness discount, it wont affect anything in the end.
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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  15%

  More then that is for people you are friends or family with. People who would not give you the time of day? 15% only for being return customers.

  Just my 2%.

  meagan
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  M.J.

  I guess it depends on your real objective. Economically speaking, no discount, of course. But if you truly want to maintain this pipeline to certain JWs and money is a secondary issue, then I would say, "why not?" Of course you may want to assess what you truly will accomplish by maintaining this contact too.
• 

  willyloman

  jwfacts: regardless of what you decide, I want to congratulate you for having the guts to walk away from this steaming pile of horse pucky even though half your business customers are dubs. That can't have been easy.

  My own exit has helped me realize there are dubs in the KH who feel the same way we do about the WTS and its hypocrisy and duplicity but are in no position to go anywhere because they are thoroughly entangled, not just with family but with business contacts.

  I know an elder in a situation like yours; way more than half his lucrative income comes from dub clients he's built up over a couple of decades. He'd sacrifice a lot financially if he expressed his true feelings. Instead, he goes through the theocratic motions at the KH but retreats behind walls of a gated community where he lives in a mulit-million house, which only a small, carefully selected group of dubs have ever seen. He leads an active social life with his wealthy neighbors, but never talks about it with his dub associates. I often wonder if he plans to retire someday and just disappear off the radar, which he could easily afford to do.