Orion Simerl
School for the Advancement of Liberty and Truth
720-448-2846
SALT Promissory Note Issuance
Introduction
I am offering 100, $10,000 promissory notes that will pay $20,000 within 2 to 5 years. The money is needed to fund the School for the Advancement of Liberty and Truth and is secured by a whistleblower claim estimated to be worth between 11 and 22 million dollars. The estimated value of the whistleblower claim is based on the variable amount of 15 to 30% of the total to be collected by the IRS, and the anticipated total is based on unpaid payroll tax from employees misclassified as independent contractors, absent any additional monies owed to the IRS in penalties and interest.
The claim is against Veryable Inc., an app that provides labor services and receives 35% of the wages paid to its service providers. Revenue for the company in 2023 was 96 million dollars. The company was established in 2016 and began operating in 2017. A conservative estimate of average annual revenue being in the neighborhood of half of 2023 puts lifetime revenue at about 315 million dollars. Since Veryable revenue is generated from the work performed by its service providers, who according to Real v. Driscoll qualify as employees, the total wages paid over this period are in excess of a billion dollars. Conservative because 2024 revenue will likely eclipse 2023. Payroll tax is 7.65% on at least a billion dollars of wages which is 76.5 million dollars. As the whistle blower who provided the information serving as the basis for the owed taxes I’m entitled to 15% to 30% of what is conservatively 76.5 million dollars, or 11.5 to 23 million dollars.
The following is the whistleblower claim submitted with the IRS 211 form, and a brief outline of the School for the Advancement of Liberty and Truth. The risk of the investment is determined by the confidence in the whistleblower claim or the success of SALT. I don’t know that the significance of SALT can be understood through summary, but the success of SALT isn’t of any real consequence if there is confidence in the whistleblower claim. SALT is included to express the possibility that the notes may be paid back prior to the whistleblower claim being paid.
Whistleblower Claim
IRS FORM 211, Section 11 and 12. VERYABLE INC. Orion Simerl.
Summary
I’ve worked through an app called Veryable that has been my primary source of income for about the last 4 months. Veryable markets itself as a marketplace connecting companies in warehousing and logistics with independent contractor labor. I discovered it functions as a provider of labor services that has automated all the features of typical labor service providers, and used that automation in an effort to circumvent accurately classifying their employees. My decision to prepare this report and come forward was spurred by the company treating me like an employee and not an independent contractor.
As I understood the agreements, a job I worked for a company called Hub Group paid $170 and I was guaranteeing 10 hours of availability to complete the job. Another Veryable worker and myself completed the job in about 8.5 hours. The following day the payment was processed through the Veryable app and I was only paid for the hours I was clocked in on the app, and not the full amount for completing the job. The client was able to correct this through the app by posting a fake job for the difference.
The day the discrepancy was discovered, I was exchanging emails with Veryable while I was clocked in. The work after the first two hours is intermittent, which provided me time to email about the discrepancy in pay. At some point I must have clocked out of the app. This led to another exchange with Veryable because I was only paid for about an hour when I was there the whole day. The client knew I was there all day, but Veryable ultimately did not, meaning Veryable determined the amount of the payment. In this instance the person from the company who processed the Veryable payment was away so he didn’t know personally if I had been there. This detail is really of no consequence to my argument, but it’s included to explain how I discovered what I discovered. However, for whatever contribution this detail may be, a week prior when clocking in began, I was there the whole day, the person who does the Veryable payments from the company knew I was there the whole day, and the following morning I received a notification that I didn’t show up and would not be paid. I contacted Veryable support, who contacted the company, and a few hours later I received my money. I knew I was there, the company knew I was there, but Veryable didn’t and consequently I wasn’t paid.
I say it’s inconsequential but this could be damning on its own because it shows that Veryable is determining the amount to be paid in what should be an agreement between the contractor and the company. If Veryable is a marketplace or a broker, Veryable should have nothing to do with the process after facilitating the agreement. This is inconsequential to the main arguments as to why those who perform services for Veryable clients are misclassified as independent contractors, because the app initiates payment, calculates payroll, serves all the functions served by labor service providers, and under the economic realities criteria established in Real v. Driscoll, those who provide services for Veryable clients are employees.
For a long time I’ve noticed the parallels between working through Veryable and working through labor services providers, but I didn’t give them much thought until it felt too much like I was being treated like an employee of Veryable and not an independent contractor providing services to companies. My arguments being ignored or not comprehended with Veryable support ultimately led to me thinking about these parallels and discovering why what Veryable is doing is using automation to circumvent counting their employees as employees.
Veryable App is Automation of the Operations of a Traditional Labor Services Provider
The only difference between Veryable and Labor Ready or traditional labor service providers is Veryable has automated the processes through the app. In the following I’m using the abbreviation TLSP to represent traditional labor services providers.
TLSP receives requests for labor from its clients. Laborers on location are either assigned to clients, requested by clients, or are given the option of which clients they want to work for depending on familiarity. The laborers complete the assignments. The client reports the hours worked by the laborer to the TLSP. The TLSP collects the workers wages plus their fee for providing the labor.
Veryable does the exact same thing but has automated the process to create the illusion of being a marketplace or a broker of labor services to avoid having to pay taxes on its employees and provide benefits. Veryable clients post their requests for labor on the Veryable app. This is automating the process of sending an email, or calling the office to make a request for labor.
Veryable workers can submit a bid on the job (not an actual bid) and the clients will select as many workers as they need. This automates the process of employees going to the office to learn what jobs are available.
Hours are recorded either through GPS positioning through the app, workers clocking in and out through the app, or the business manually inputting the hours into the Veryable app. This automates the process of the client having to record and send the hours to the office.
Veryable has a third party bank that the worker sets up an account with, and that the client sets up an account with, that is integrated into the app. After the hours are inputted by the business through the app the funds are transferred through the app integrated bank, and Veryable receives a fee per assignment completed by the workers.
Instead of Veryable collecting the wages and the fee from the client and then paying the worker, Veryable routes the pay to the worker through the app and collects its fee from the client. This automates the process of collecting payment from the client, paying the workers, and keeping your fee.
The purpose of this comparison, in addition to identifying that Veryable is a labor services provider, is to show that Veryable is not a marketplace or a broker, because Veryable is involved throughout the entire process. The app isn’t a tool, the app is automation of functions that are otherwise carried out by employees.
I mentioned that the bid process isn’t actually a bid. In a bidding process a customer describes an amount of work that needs to be completed and a contractor estimates the cost and a worthwhile amount of profit to do the job. On Veryable their clients post a description of the work and what they’re willing to pay, and the Veryable worker enters that amount as their bid. The worker isn’t going to enter less because the company is willing to pay the stated amount and the worker isn’t going to enter more because their bid won’t be selected. Functionally, the wage the client agrees to pay is the wage that the worker bids. An audit of the amount of bids made by workers and the amount of accepted bids will reveal this mechanism. Furthermore, the bidding process is automation of a person showing up at the labor services provider, and the office telling them what jobs are available and what they pay.
The assignment process between a TLSP and Veryable is essentially the same. In a TLSP people working in the office receive feedback from clients and workers, and clients will request certain workers and workers will choose certain clients. Conversely, clients at TLSPs will tell the office if they don’t want people back, and workers will tell the office if they don’t want to work for certain clients. Veryable has automated this process through the app maintaining worker profiles with feedback from the companies they’ve worked for.
App Considered an Employee in Function
Whether or not it is relevant or becomes relevant I thought I’d mention that the app should be viewed as being an asset to the company that acts in the capacity of an employee. Everything the app does is a function that digitalizes or automates tasks that would otherwise be performed by employees. Any relationship of function that occurs through the app should be considered a relationship between that party (worker or client) and an employee of Veryable. If Veryable is recording hours worked this is automation of payroll, and when the client sees it, it is the same as if a person called him or messaged him and said I have the following hours for the following employees. I don’t think this interpretation of the app is necessary, since it is apparent that Veryable is a labor services provider who uses the app to automate the functions of labor services providers. The interpretation is supplementary if not completely unnecessary.
Veryable is Not a Broker or a Marketplace
I understand a broker as an entity that establishes a contract with a client, and then forwards that contract to another party to fulfill the terms of service. For example, in interstate moving a broker estimates the amount of space or weight required to move a customer’s items and provides them a rate and estimate based on weight or volume. The broker lists these contracts typically on electronic bulletin boards that are accessible by moving companies. Companies contact the broker and the broker releases the contract to the moving company. The broker keeps the deposit and now liability, responsibility for service, and invoicing and payment is exclusively between the customer and the moving company.
Veryable cannot be a broker, because Veryable never discharges the agreement. Veryable manages the fulfillment of the agreement throughout the process. It calculates hours worked, creates the invoice, facilitates the transfer of funds, records the feedback, and settles disputes. Veryable never discharges the contract to create an exclusive relationship between the parties.
Veryable is also not a marketplace. In a physical area where Veryable is a marketplace, Veryable wants to be seen as an area where companies are advertising a need for services and contractors enter that area and bid on the advertised services requested. In that scenario the contractor and the company agree to terms and the agreement is exclusively between the contractor and the company, with the company paying Veryable based on the number of contractors that they found. Instead what’s taking place is the contractor and company agree to terms in rate of pay and Veryable manages every other aspect of that relationship: hours worked, money owed, invoicing, payment, disputes, reputation, and discipline of the workers.
As discipline is concerned, a TLSP if a client reports behavior that is below the company’s standards the TLSP will suspend the worker or fire the worker. Veryable has posted on its website that a bad attitude on a job may result in the suspension of the workers Veryable account and can result in permanent suspension. Other suspendable violations is agreeing to work and not showing up. In both situations TLSPs and Veryable manage the behavior of their workers by requiring that the workers subordinate themselves to supervisors including subjective decorum or the worker may be suspended or fired. There’s no difference between suspension of an account on the app that provides the worker work, and a suspension or firing from a TLSP.
Economic Realities Test to Determine Worker Dependence
(Real v. Driscoll Strawberry Assocs., Inc.,
603 F.2d 748, 754 (9th Cir. 1979))
The following is the criteria established in the above cited case law to determine if a service provider is an independent contractor or employee. Obtained from https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/07/2020-29274/independent-contractor-status-under-the-fair-labor-standards-act,
1. The degree of the alleged employer’s right to control the manner in which the work is to be performed;
Veryable reserves the right to suspend the account of a worker for any duration and some suspendable conduct is listed while others are not, but nearly all of it is based on the opinion of the client. The manner in which work is performed is controlled by the client often tacitly and sometimes overtly, and is enforced through the consequences imposed by Veryable.
2. the alleged employee’s opportunity for profit or loss depending on his managerial skill;
Veryable workers have no opportunity for profit or loss based on managerial skill. There are no managerial skills being utilized. Show up, perform the work required, and receive hourly pay.
3. the alleged employee’s investment in equipment or materials required for his task, or his employment of helpers;
Veryable workers do not provide their own equipment with the exception of appropriate clothing where jobs may specify long pants or closed toed shoes. Some jobs request steel toed shoes, but typically equipment required to complete the job like safety glasses, ear plugs, gloves, tools, materials, or other equipment is provided by Veryable clients.
4. whether the service rendered requires a special skill;
A vast majority of the jobs are unskilled labor, simple repetitive movements that require no prior training or experience. The exception is forklift certifications that represent a very small percentage of the job opportunities through Veryable. I worked for a company Gilster Mary Lee as a fork lift operator and was trained in about a minute, practiced for two hours and then worked as a forklift operator. Otherwise no special skills are required. There was a welder position from Challenge Manufacturing that went unfulfilled for a long period of time. Challenge Manufacturing began to send invitations to people who hadn’t listed welding experience as a skill. I discovered this by mentioning to other Veryable workers I was working with that Challenge Manufacturing invited me but I don’t have any experience welding, and they mentioned they also had no welding experience and received invitations. I’ve completed 84 jobs through Veryable, and outside of a handful of forklift operators, all the work is unskilled.
5. the degree of permanency of the working relationship;
I’ve worked through Veryable for about 4 months consistently. I’ve spoken with other Veryable workers over this span who have worked for Veryable for months and some I believe remember saying more than a year.
6. whether the service rendered is an integral part of the alleged employer’s business.
Veryable supplies labor to companies and profits through the services performed. The product is temp labor, and without that labor Veryable does not exist. No matter what the app does, if the workers do not work they do not get paid. Veryable collects a fee based on workers completing jobs.
The economic reality is that those who perform services for businesses through Veryable are employees of Veryable according to the criteria established in Real v. Driscoll. Veryable is a company with an annual revenue of nearly 100 million dollars per year and has miscategorized these employees since 2017 to present, and should owe money to the IRS based on this misclassification of employees, and perhaps misclassification of their business.
Experience Working Veryable Jobs
I currently have 4.8 out of a 5 rating on 84 jobs completed and a 100 percent reliability rating through Veryable. The following are descriptions of the work I’ve performed for the Veryable clients I’ve worked for.
Tire Hub
I worked 36x at Tire Hub which consisted of unloading semi trailers full of different sized tires and sorting the tires according to size onto pallets and stacking the tires roughly 6 feet high.
Boone Center Inc
The first job I worked in Missouri was for Boone Center INC and consisted of various assembly lines that packaged consumer goods. I worked there 19x over what I remember to be about a 6 week period.
The supervisor assigned Veryable workers to different duties across the assembly line, and Veryable workers worked side by side with BCI employees, and I believe a majority of the workers on the line during the days I worked were Veryable workers. Workers were periodically moved from stations by the supervisor. The tasks are all unskilled requiring no prior training to perform.
Lysol spray bottles were taken out of boxes and loaded onto a conveyor by one or two workers. Another worker disposed of the boxes. The next section featured two workers who applied a piece of plastic to two bottles that fastened the bottles together and designated the product as a twin pack. The items traveled through a low temperature oven to shrink the plastic label. Another worker performed quality control(typically BCI employees), then there was a person who placed flat boxes into a machine that folded the boxes. Two people placed 2 twin packs in each box. The box went through an automated taper, and finally it was stacked on pallets by two other workers. None of the work required any training or skills.
Many of the Veryable workers I talked with worked for Veryable long term (months) working 40 hours per week or more. In positions where safety glasses were recommended or required they were provided by the company We were referred to collectively as Veryable workers, “Veryable workers check in with Tiffany”, “Veryable can go home”.
Notable aspects of control within this setting. Headphones were permitted. One Veryable worker was talking on her phone through the headphones which for some reason was not permitted. The wearing of headphones to listen or even the woman who was talking on her phone did not impact production. Production is static in the sense that the line operates at a set pace so if the line doesn’t stop nothing anyone is doing is slowing down production because they cannot do more than is available to them through the line. The following day we were informed as a group that no one was allowed to wear headphones or have their phones on the floor as a result of the woman who was talking on the phone. This does not describe the relationship between an independent contractor and a company, it represents a relationship between temp workers and a company, where control is maintained through Veryable in worker ratings and suspension and delegated to their clients.
On another occasion a Veryable worker was told they couldn’t sit down while they were on the line. In both of these situations it was supervisor discretion where these incidents were directives given by the first shift supervisor and the second shift supervisor didn’t have a problem with people being seated, wearing headphones, or whatever it was that people did so long as it didn’t stop the line and interfere with production or compromise safety.
No difference in the relationship with businesses and temp workers and the relationship with businesses and Veryable workers.
PLZ
PLZ was almost identical to BCI, only different products, pressurized cans that were filled in house and then sent down assembly lines. Multiple assembly lines with different products that would eventually be labeled, boxed, and stacked on pallets. Veryable workers were given positions to stack boxes on pallets, clean, and fill boxes with products in some situations.
Walker Products INC
Walker Products Inc used Veryable workers to select, wrap, and weigh boxes using a digital scale, apply labels, and counting the boxes to ensure orders had the correct number of items. There was also a period where we made cartons for products. All of which required no special skills, and the carton making was impromptu, where we finished the work they wanted us to perform per the agreement so they found something else they could have us do. Same as temp labor.
Gilster Mary Lee
Gilster Mary Lee was a forklift operator position. There was an electronic system that provided the orders assigned to different docks for that day. An operator would be assigned a dock and would find the products, ensuring the correct quantity was brought to the dock to fulfill the shipping order. I had no experience. I was trained in about a minute, practiced for about 2 hours, and then was performing picking duties using their electronic organizing system and the forklift. Even in what may be considered a semi-skilled position, I didn’t have to possess the skill to do the job prior to the agreement to do the job.
Children’s Factory
Children’s Factory was a job for unloading a trailer of boxes. After completing the unload we were assigned to stuffing activity mats with foam. After lunch one worker was sent to another location to load trucks. The second time I worked there after lunch I was sent to the other location to load trucks. Something I mention since to me it further undermines the idea that I’m an independent contractor being paid to perform a specific job at a specific location as opposed to being temporary labor provided by Veryable to their clients to perform general unskilled labor. A detail that isn’t relied upon in my central arguments but may be supplementary.
Challenge Manufacturing
Challenge Manufacturing had various stations for automotive frame assembly. Unskilled work loading pieces onto a machine that took the pieces and assembled them.
Meramac Inc
Meramac Inc produces foam mats. My job consisted of aligning a foam mat with lines on a table. Pressing F1 followed by F2 on a keyboard and then a green button. The machine cut the foam pad and I removed the pad and repeated the process. Other jobs I observed were loading mats onto a conveyor where they were painted, replacing paint on the machine, and offloading painted mats. All jobs that require no special skills or prior training.
I only worked one day for Meramac Inc although I accepted a 3 day assignment. The machine took about 2 minutes to complete its function. During that time I was seated with nothing else to do. I was told by the supervisor I shouldn’t sit down so much. When I asked why, he said it looked bad. I explained that I was at the machine immediately after the cut was completed and the act of me sitting didn’t interfere with production. He agreed that I was doing fine running the machine but commented that other positions required people to stand. I asked how me standing would benefit them? He didn’t say anything else and walked away.
As an independent contractor the company is retaining me to produce a result. That result is operation of the machine to produce foam mats of the shape that the machine cuts. Telling me I shouldn’t be seated is an effort to control how the job is being done. This is enforced through Veryable. I was given a 2 rating from Meramac Inc, despite running the machine with maximum efficiency and having no issues with anyone outside of this incident. I contacted Veryable that night and explained the incident and told them I wouldn’t be attending the following days. Veryable dissolved the agreement and I was released from the commitment for the following two days.
Hub Group
Hub Group is a last mile logistics company, receiving, storing, and delivering appliances to customers. Veryable workers off load appliances from semi trailers, stage appliances for routes, move appliances brought back by drivers for redelivery or being returned, and dispose of trash. No skills are required to perform the work.
BMF Metal Fabrication
BMF performs a wide range of part creation and assembly. While I was there I operated a sander to smooth out scratches or other issues on metal to prepare the part for paint, operated an automated machine that cut parts out of sheet metal, operated a brake press to bend metal, and broke parts out of sheets of metal. BMF supplied all the tools I used, and the only skill that was required was the ability to use a grinder and a sander.
ITF Group
ITF work consisted of unloading a trailer full of boxes and stacking the boxes on pallets according to the number on the boxes.
Conclusion
I believe that Veryable has misclassified its business, misclassified employees as independent contractors, and must make corrections and pay arrears in taxes and fines for that misclassification. It is evident that Veryable is a labor services provider who has automated the functions to create the appearance of a broker or a marketplace, and those who perform labor services for Veryable clients are employees according to the economic realities criteria established in Real v. Driscoll.
SALT Summary
The School for the Advancement of Liberty and Truth consists of a curriculum built on objective morality and observation. The mission is to impart the tools to restore objectivity to remove impediments to intelligence and barriers to communication. The implications are increases in human intelligence and the advancement of human interests in the address of the underlying causes of human problems: self deception, and inadequate opportunities for people to have time and money.
Morality describes ideas pertaining to right and wrong action. Morality functions through self perception where perceiving oneself as committing an act believed to be wrong reduces self worth and produces negative feelings, and these negative feelings are subconsciously avoided. Conversely, consistency with morality maintains or increases self worth which produces positive feelings. Morality is a determinant of conscious motion.
Moral duality is understood through the universal human constant which is desire. At all times, in all settings, all people want to do what they want to do. So long as the actions of one do not interfere with the others, those actions are right. The basis for objective morality is whether or not an act imposes.
While the basis is very simple, application consists of recognizing where imposition can take place through several categories of imposition. Physical imposition in physical harm or spatial restrictions, imposition on property representing an individual’s means to do, deception, threats, time, and circumstances. Within these categories all possible action or inaction can be judged to be morally right or wrong, with the justification for imposition being the prevention or neutralization of imposition, or in justice, in restoration of a party who has been imposed on by another party. Each of these categories has explanations that create consistency, applicability, and correctness in the maintenance of individual liberty.
Liberty based morality is objective because it simultaneously promotes all individual interests while not imposing any subjective value onto others. The moral duality is created through that distinction. Any act claimed to be wrong that does not impose is the imposition of a subjective preference, and any act that imposes claimed to be morally right is imposition. There is objective morality promoting universal interest in the fulfillment of desire, and there is subjective morality that seeks control of others.
Reality consists of objects in motion within space and time and the feelings that objects and motion produce within conscious beings. Objects are defined through our senses and through other objects, and all motion is a product of cause and effect sequencing. All complexity reduces to the defining of objects and organizing objects according to cause and effect sequencing. All human beings are capable of defining objects and sequencing. Therefore all human beings not compromised by physiological defects are capable of understanding all things.
Differences in intelligence are a product of values. Intelligence develops as a product of interest or in as much as it is required to produce positive feelings which is the underlying motivator of all human action. The greatest general impediment of intelligence is self deception. False beliefs serve as the basis for many values which cause people to avoid, ignore, and reject information that challenges beliefs to maintain their value structure. In other words, what people like is largely based on what they believe, so they protect their beliefs to protect what they like. This is a major impediment to intelligence because it prevents people from learning things that challenge their beliefs. This mechanism of human behavior also causes people to relinquish their free will, since they do what they wouldn’t do based on commitment to false beliefs. The third consequence of self deception is moral, in that communication is obstructed through the inability of people committed to false beliefs to establish fact, and this inability to communicate along with the prevalence of false perceptions contributes to the production of undesirable circumstances.
The aforementioned represents foundational concepts that lead into the coverage of a wide array of subjects. The intent is to supply the tools that will allow people to understand reality, themselves, and others through motion, maximizing their potential for intelligence according to their values, and through the proliferation of these concepts to improve the quality of human life. SALT fosters an interactive learning environment where in addition to equipping participants to build functional understanding, participants are encouraged to contribute topics they are interested in and to dispute content. Subjects covered include but are not limited to morality, theory of the mind, political function, law, economics, social issues, current events, theory of existence, identification of human problems, solutions, and strategy in the address of human problems. The curriculum draws from Liberty: The Definitive Moral Truth, Assignment, Sequencing, and Comparison: The Organization of Objects and Prioritization of Objectives by the Subconscious Mind, Understanding Political Function through Recent Political History, The Supremacy of Bias, The American Prosperity Proposals, and Racial Perceptions Addressing Popular Misconceptions that Contribute to Racial Divide, among other material.
Vision
SALT begins with hiring 5 students who will become staff members if they can adequately learn the material. Evaluation will be ongoing, and students will be disqualified from participation if they fail to progress. Any student who is disqualified within the first 2 weeks will be replaced, and the replacement student caught up on an alternate schedule. At the conclusion of what is initially planned to be a 6 week to 8 week program those who have an adequate understanding of the material will be hired as staff members.
Staff members will be responsible for marketing, teaching, researching, and assisting in the expansion and refinement of the curriculum. Some members may take up roles in the political wing of SALT The Organization for Popular Legislation. OPL is intent on creating voter blocks in contested districts and gaining the support of one party or another to pass legislation that serves popular interests. The Organization intends to gain enough support in enough contested districts to decide which party will control the house. In doing so, one party or the other will pass a piece of OPL legislation each election cycle to maintain or gain control of the house, or more likely both parties will support OPL legislation to neutralize the influence of the organization.
The 2nd class will consist of 10 paid students, and exceptional performers may be hired as staff at the conclusion of the program. Prior to beginning the classes the participants will take IQ tests. At the conclusion of the program the participants will take IQ tests, or sometime shortly after the conclusion of the program. The reason it may make sense to measure IQ maybe 3 months after the conclusion of the program is because the curriculum provides the tools for a person to better and more easily understand the world around them, and the application of this understanding will produce higher IQ. When we reach that point we will probably test before, immediately after, and then 90 days or 180 days later.
After multiple classes people of similar age, educational level and socioeconomic status who did not attend SALT can be tested at the same intervals and compared to those who have completed the SALT program. To control for any IQ increases that may occur over that span by age, or any difference in difficulty between the specific IQ tests.
SALT will need to begin generating revenue before it will have enough data to confirm whether or not the program can raise IQ. If SALT can raise IQ it will be the only program in the world capable of doing that. The demand will be overwhelming. Initially I intend to pay participants to refine the curriculum and hone teaching processes as well as believe it is required to gain the level of attention required to learn the material.
Sometime within the first 6 months the goal is for effective marketing to allow us to charge for classes. However, the goal is also to be able to serve people of all income levels. A non-profit may be formed that will fundraise to pay for the program for people who cannot afford it. This may take place prior to the first paid classes. Where the non-profit is established after the first or second class, and fund raising will begin through the non-profit to pay for succeeding classes.
As demand is created and competent staff well versed in the material come into being new locations will be established across the country. If the program proves to increase IQ there will likely be more demand than there is qualifying staff to provide the service.
Cost
The first group consisting of 5 people will begin at $20 per hour with opportunities for increases in pay up to $25 per hour by the conclusion of the course and if hired on. We presume on an average weekly cost $23 per hour for 8 weeks. $115, for 6 hours per day, 5 days per week, for 8 weeks is $34,500. They will be paid as independent contractors since they are not actually working for SALT as much as they are being paid to participate.
There’s no guarantee that all of the initial 5 will be retained. I’ll presume on 3 which will cost $22,770 and 7.5 percent on payroll tax brings the total cost to about $24,500 to the cost of the second 8 weeks.
The second class of 10 will be paid $15 to $20 per hour over the course. An average of $17.50, $175 per hour, 30 hours per week, is a cost of $42,000.
The third class will consist of 20 people paid at the same rate. The third class will cost $84,000. The third 8 week class will include a cost of 5 staff members being paid $32,250 including payroll.
Total labor costs for the first 6 months of operation are $217,250. People with exceptional performance may require pay increases, and additional hours may be worked by staff during this period, so the labor budget will be $250,000 for the first 6 months.
SALT will require about 1000sf of space to operate. Location has not been determined but the national average cost of commercial space is $23 per square foot per year. Including utilities, internet, website, maintenance, $30,000 per year will be required for the space. A permanent space may not be required for the first two classes, since the first class will only consist of 6 people, and the second somewhere in the neighborhood of 15. In the beginning the costs for space, 4 to 5 months, will be significantly lower in either renting a smaller space short term, or through creative accommodation procurement.
Furniture, fixtures, and equipment can be procured for about $25,000. Chairs and tables to accommodate at least 20 people, desk, desktop, 3 65 inch interactive white boards, ceiling mounted projector, retractable projector screen, and TV.
SALT will solicit IQ researchers to administer IQ tests.
During the first six months, in addition to fine tuning the product, marketing and or fundraising efforts will be underway. There are two ways this can proceed and perhaps a combination of the two. Either as an arm of SALT, or through the establishment of a nonprofit, SALT can begin to fundraise to pay course costs for people who cannot afford to pay for it. More likely the establishment of a non-profit that would use the funds raised to pay for indigent participants to attend so the donations are tax deductible. SALT will charge $10,000 per person for the 8 week course, with 25 people per class, which would create annual revenue of $1,500,000. As funds become available or as demand increases 2 groups can attend simultaneously, 6.5hours per group (half hour unpaid break). An optimally running location can expect annual revenue of $3,000,000.
Costs may vary by location. Some locations may be exclusively for those who pay out of pocket. These locations will have much higher profits than the fundraised locations, because I still intend to pay the participants whose cost was fundraised. A fundraised location per class would be financed to the tune of $250,000, but would still have the $63,000 paid to participants.
If SALT is shown to raise IQ, the cost can be subsidized by government on the basis that those who cannot afford to go to SALT are intellectually disadvantaged through their lack of resources. Some states, cities, and possibly the federal government may provide funds to disadvantaged people to attend SALT.
Generating revenue probably will not begin until about the 5th class but efforts will be underway within the first 90 days. Each 20 person class costs $116,000 in labor to participants and staff. 4th and 5th classes will cost $232,000.
The first year total costs are
First six months of labor $250,000.
Space $30,000
FF&E $25,000
4th and 5th classes $232,000
Proprietors Salary $200,000.
Total $737,000
First year core costs are $737,000. I don’t want to speculate as to marketing costs but SALT will have $263,000 for marketing and contingency. The goal is for the 6th class to be a paid class. Once SALT is generating a profit, holders of promissory notes will begin to be repaid in the order that they were purchased.