Importing flooring

In other cases you would be right, but not in this one.
We are not ridiculing, most of us here are warning him. Reading trade magazines tells you a lot about what is going on in the real world, what is being dumped on the market at what prices. Not a week passes when we ourselves don't receive an offer like that from unknown sources, unknown companies, unknown origins. And we pass on it.

I do hope he does not burn his fingers, but you cannot compare this with an innovative idea: oh everyone is reforesting, lets make more money with deforesting. Everyone is making sure they produce and sell high quality, lets just produce rubbish to enter the market and sell it to 'have a go too' traders or individuals.

And feel free to call us principled or even naive to think this will one day stop happening. But if we and other don't call out and try to stop these mostly from deforestation sourced products and badly made, who will?

I think in this case you have very good points and when presented with facts only a fool would discount them.

I was trying to make a more general point that people should not generally be discouraged because others pooh-pooh an idea. Some of the most successful things I've ever done have gone against conventional wisdom or accepted practise (my field is real time software systems).

But the clever person will listen to other people’s opinions the filter the 'wheat from the chaff'.

BTW Just to hijack this thread, did you see my other post on Liquid battens?

I agree with your sentiment - I've been 'ridiculed' often enough for crazy ideas, like giving free advice to DIY-ers

Yes, did read your liquid battens entry, clever in a way but do not agree with the image one of the links showed on how to apply those battens. Normally you create a s-shape with it so the adhesive bonds with a larger area of the wood and stays flexible, more flexible than applied in a straight line.
But if it works for your situation, it works for you and I think it might solve his bitumen problem.

While we are - I think we still are? - on the subject of price, value for money, profit and market share, I just read this article "4 Key Pricing Strategies" (blog is by Jonathan Jay). Quite interesting and I agree with his conclusion:

"However you price your product or service, take time to measure the impact it will have on consumer perception and demand and of course, on your company’s long-term profits."

(Perhaps not truly a DIY subject, but did not want to turn it into a new topic under trade talk)

That's not correct. We said: there are very good Chinese products available for a tat less then produced here. We said the cheap offers from China 9 times out of 10 are not of good quality.

If you produce excellent quality products then that's absolutely fine, but do read our comments properly.

WoodYouLike said:

While we are - I think we still are? - on the subject of price, value for money, profit and market share, I just read this article "4 Key Pricing Strategies" (blog is by Jonathan Jay). Quite interesting and I agree with his conclusion:

"However you price your product or service, take time to measure the impact it will have on consumer perception and demand and of course, on your company’s long-term profits."

(Perhaps not truly a DIY subject, but did not want to turn it into a new topic under trade talk)

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Reminds me of a story I heard of a company that made pickled gherkins. Wal-Mart approached them and insisted they produce a massive Jar for something like 99cents. Of course they made no profit but at the end of the promotion their customers refused to go back to paying double the price for half the amount - it killed their business overnight as customer perception of the value of their product changed.
Being able to buy ‘Solid Oak’ for £20 per meter I guess has a knock on effect on your business too?

tobybuk said:

Being able to buy ‘Solid Oak’ for £20 per meter I guess has a knock on effect on your business too?

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Not really to be honest. All to do with positioning yourself in the market, giving proper information and advice, being plain honest and making sure the products (and services) you sell are of high quality and will give good value for money.

Perception - now that's a true word and principle. And as business you can do a lot to improve that (or devalue it of course as you example shows)