Keeping a team in order can be difficult…. I like to compare different life events that I have to business practices… I’m actually writing this now while Eric is driving me to my hotel… we just crossed the Williamsburg Bridge and now we’re aimed at the Long Island Expressway….

 
Here’s the correlation that just popped in my head….. We were driving in Manhattan (What a Great City)… The food, the culture.. The history….. bla bla bla

 
So, we were driving in Manhattan… many people will tell you that it’s difficult to drive in the city….. I learned to drive in the city when I was young- I lived in Manhattan for a bit, and lived in Brooklyn for most of my youth….

 
Driving in Manhattan is not like the movies show it… The movies portray it as a “battle”, people yelling and screaming and in general complete CHAOS…. That is NOT the case… It is actually ORGANIZED CHAOS…. The only people that get yelled at or the horn honked at is the ones that can’t keep up!!!

 
The cabbies (Yellow Cab Drivers) are all in sync, like some extraterrestrial spirit… It’s amazing that so many identical cars with identical goals/missions could operate in the same place EVERY DAY with little to no confrontation… The cabbie that gets cut off by another cabbie, simply shakes it off and moves on… There is no grudge – there is no harsh attitude beyond the couple of second increment that it took to keep control…

 
All of these vehicles are traveling quickly to their destinations then immediately starting on the next destination with no break…. They drop a person off- then another one gets in before the door has a chance to shut… almost perfect harmony… Orchestrated in a synchronized fashion similar to a well practiced symphony…

 
Now I know it’s tough to believe that NYC is easy to drive in but it is… You just have to know how to…. More importantly (I’m finally getting to my point)… You have to understand what everyone else is doing… and what their roles are….. YOU have to be able to anticipate their moves….

 
I live in Florida… I have to take a side note for a minute to tell you a quick description of what it is like to drive in Fl… Completely disorganized, chaotic and EXTREMELY dangerous….

 
I wish I had my camera handy to take a picture of what just got out of the drivers seat of a new Lincoln Town Car-

The fraile elderly man, must be nearing 100 years old… and can barely walk with a walker…

I feel horrible for this guy… he obviously has no family to take him anywhere – but I wouldn’t want him on the road AND HE IS…. I don’t have a camera near by or I would take a shot… but you can imagine what I’m talking about… … To say that he is moving slow with his walker is an understatement…. A friend who was with me in my office when I just noticed this guy was as stunned as I am…

 Well my friend said- (and he’s probably right)… His reflexes after 10 shots of Yagermeister are probably better than this guys…

The fact of him being right with his reflex statement brings up a good point…
Does it mean that it’s ok for my friend to be plastered driving because he’d be better than this guy? Or does it mean that this guy shouldn’t be driving….

No I’m not 10 shots deep now… I’m finally getting to my point…

 
A company must run like a choreographed performance….
Similarly to the cabbies… co-workers must be able to predict each others moves, and react accordingly…

Everyone must know their destination (work) and be able to quickly complete their task on schedule and move on to the next task without losing time in transition… Just like the cabbie does,…… as he drops one passenger and picks up another without closing the door….

 
Just like I mentioned- the only ones that get honked at or yelled at are the ones that aren’t in sync… A team must be able to quickly realize their weak link and put it back in place OR CUT IT OUT!!!

 
The old man in the picture has significance too….

 
Just because my friend feels that he’d have a faster reaction time than this guy if he was drunk…

 
That correlates too… Just because someone else is inefficient doesn’t mean that you can lower yourself to a level just above inefficiency and it would be ok because you’re beating the weakest link…

 
The weakest link might not be obvious…. But once it’s found it must be dealt with fast before the entire team suffers….
I bet you didn’t think I could make that make sense…. I hope it did… but remember I’m typing this while being driven in what most people call chaos…

 
Your friend in the credit biz,
Mike Citron

There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs.

He was hard of hearing so he had no radio

He had trouble with his eyes, so he read no newspapers.

BUT he sold good hot dogs!

He put up signs on the highway- telling people how good they were!

He stood on the side of the road and cried: “Buy a hot dog mister”!

And People Bought!!

He increased his meat and bun orders and bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade-

He finally got his son home from college to help him out

But then something happened.

His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio?

Haven’t you been reading the newspapers?

There’s a big depression!

The European situation is terrible.

The domestic situation is worse!

Whereupon the father thought, “Well, my son’s been to college, he reads the papers and he listens to the radio, and he ought to know”

So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders- took down his advertising signs and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell his hotdogs.

And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight!

“You’re right, son” the father said to the boy,

“We certainly are in the middle of a great Depression” !!!

WOW! … was that something!! The bottom line is- Ignore what everyone else says… You can profit greatly during tough economic times…

Remember Warren Buffet says: “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful” Basically “Don’t follow the herd… LEAD the herd”

We are living in historical times; it’s time for you to make history. The credit repair businesses is one of those few businesses that allows you unlimited profit, prosperity, and growth in even the toughest economies..

If you want to be a part of history, being at the The Credit BootCamp will certainly be one of the ways the event allows you to network with the brightest minds in the credit industry!  www.CreditBootCamp.com

This industry has never gathered in an environment like this- Now is the time to make history…

We have an awesome line-up of industry experts, that range from credit law to Harvard marketing experts… This is going to be incredible…

Check out the details here www.CreditBootCamp.com

And shoot me an e-mail with your thoughts on “the man who sold hotdogs”
Your friend in the credit biz,
Mike Citron

Make your clients and referral partners feel special! If they feel like the same commoditized “unit” at your service as they would at the next, then there’s no reason to come to you…

Think of different ways (not expensive ways) to make your client realize that you are thinking of them…

For example… I always tell my consulting clients to send New Years cards instead of Christmas Cards… and it’s not because I’m politically correct… I said Christmas… because for the past 50+++ years everyone called the “Holiday season” the “Christmas Season”, regardless of what holiday you celebrate… and that’s ok…. I’ve spoken to hundreds, if not thousands of people who celebrate alternate holidays- I celebrate many holidays!!!… and still call it the “Christmas Season”… Ok… Enough of my P.C. rant… The bottom line is- I don’t say send new years cards for the wrong reasons..

The reason that I suggest New Years Cards is because of competition… There’s less competition on New Years… No one else is sending cards (Or at least not too many…)
If less people are sending New Years cards, then your news years cards WILL STAND OUT!!!!!…

A Legendary Marketer once said… Send a Thanksgiving Card… No one else will… So for the next several years I sent, Birthday, ½ Birthday, Anniversary, New Years, Valentines, and whatever cards I could find… I still send out about 4 – 500 cards a month, depending on the month…

Handwritten thank you notes… In a previous message I discussed the importance of delegating … These are tasks to delegate and automate… I certainly don’t lick or handwrite the envelopes….. I found an automated system to do it for me… My automated system actually seems as if I personally wrote it…You can easily use an automated system to do it… I just suggest that GET IT DONE… BUT YOU DON’T DO IT!!!

After you meet with a  new referral partner, send them a handwritten thank you card… Ask yourself how many other companies that provide the service that you do, approach that referral partner on a daily or weekly basis? Then ask yourself how many of them send a handwritten thank you note after a call or a visit? I think you know where I’m going with this…

Client retention and referrals should start at the initial call… When my focus was on training loan officers I always gave the example of me, when I was a loan officer (Many Moons ago) I would ask for a referral at the time of application…. Yeah – before I even qualified that person for a loan…
It was always easy for me… I would simply explain that my business was based on referrals and ask who do they know that could benefit from the valuable advice that I gave?

I always said “Valuable Advice” because I wanted to be an advisor, not a broker or salesman… People trust advisors and distrust salesman…

Put yourself in that “Advisory” role when talking to your clients or potential clients… It is usually a good idea to start a conversation with probing questions… don’t go straight for the sale…. Make sure your clients know that you are interested in hearing them … so LET THEM TALK… When they TALK you should LISTEN!!! They will tell you a lot more than you’ll ever need to know but… let them go… A good salesman knows he has 2 ears and 1 mouth… which means he should be using his ears twice as much!!

When you’re an advisor, you truly understand the situation, and the client must be confident that you will advise regardless of financial gain for yourself… THAT is NOT A PITCH!!! You must truly believe that … Don’t take every client unless you can help them! This business has enough unscrupulous individuals doing that… There is a lot more money to be made by providing a great service at a reasonable rate…

There are alternative ways to make money from clients that you can’t help…. If you know them, great, make the best of them… If you don’t, let me know and I’d be happy to make some suggestions…..

I went off track a bit…… I was up to the part about asking for referrals day one…
Don’t just stop there… KeeEEEEp asking for them, every conversation… EVERYONE knows someone with BAD CREDIT!!! Offer valuable informative info, white papers, free reports, articles for local newspapers etc…

Those items will assist in long term relationship building…

Create good looking Gift Certificates (Ones that look valuable, not the nonsense that you’d print on your regular penny copy paper)…. Make the gift certificates look valuable then give them to potential referral partners… Give away a $50 cert for a “Credit Analysis” or “Credit Exam”…. Rather than a FREE Consultation that has no value, (because it’s free)…. Make the certificate look valuable and it will be perceived as valuable… Then your referral partner will see additional value in you and your services….

If you only remember one thing from this e-mail… Here’s what it should be:

PERCEPTION IS REALITY!!!!

Your friend in the credit biz

SOOOOO what that means is … even if you are the best at what you do- and consumers are happy and you think everything is going well… in an instant the rug could be pulled out from under you by the regulators!

The Credit Repair Organizations Act commonly known as CROA is Federal legislation that governs ALL credit repair organizations. NO ONE is EXEMPT from the act…. INCLUDING ATTORNEY’S !!!!

The Act has many consumer protections contained therein… as well as provisions that could inhibit certain businesses… The act was born out of necessity – due to the overwhelming amount of complaints from consumers being defrauded by credit repair companies….

My TRUE belief is that people don’t get into the credit repair business with the intentions of defrauding consumers… Maybe I have visions of grandeur and I am living in a fantasy world… BUT I truly believe that the “Bad Guys” in the credit repair industry are born out of ill execution, not ill intention…

As you will learn soon, there are an abundance of credit repair business laws. But the credit repair business laws are not always commonly known! The business has virtually no self regulation, and until recently has not organized itself at all… now with the emergence of CreditBootCamp information about the industry is being circulated much more!

Soooo the problem starts with accessibility of information and people willing to help and share… Until the credit boot camp, there was no “non self-serving” education available for those who operate a credit repair business. Credit repair training still is not a widely known or accepted function in the industry. Most industries have formal methods to train and educate about the business…

BUT this business has not… That is one of the reasons for my blog… I want this industry to rid itself of the stigma’s and become a respectable industry to be a part of… I know- if you are reading this article this far… You do TO!!! So…. Read on and help to make the industry better… share information that can help consumers… and be a part of something that you can be proud to be a part of…

This starts with making sure that you are compliant with all state and federal statutes and understanding how to maintain compliance… Compliance doesn’t start and end with the law… You should always have higher standards for your company… I analogize it with the building industry… In the building industry- if a contractor were to state “I build everything exactly to County and State construction CODE” ….. ultimately what he is saying is he builds it to the minimum standard allowed by law to be built… and he is doing the minimum to get by….

I always believe in standing out from the norm… There are many ways that you can in this biz… first is to understand what the “Minimum” standard requirements are… Then… find ways to ensure that perception is correct… because even if you are doing things perfectly legitimately, if it is perceived or could be perceived that you aren’t… you might as well be guilty… because PERCEPTION IS REALITY!!!

So be sure to do a “Perception Test” of all your materials … this test should have higher standards than a simple compliance test…

So… here’s some of the details of the law:

#1 – Don’t make deceptive claims
Do not make false representations or guarantees. It is important to understand there are no guarantees involved with Credit Repair. Just like in a court of law, an attorney could never guarantee a client that the judge or jury would find in their favor. It is also important that you do not lie or misrepresent your credit repair services. Honesty is the best approach. If you want to make claims about how successful your services are, give actual statistics and examples of what your other clients have experienced. “Our average clients see 4 – 10 items removed in 90 days” is a great way to pitch your service. Remember, you don’t have to lie or deceive to sell your service. The largest credit repair organizations out there are still in business because they are truthful.

#2 – Ask you clients which items to dispute
The second biggest violation credit repair companies make is disputing items that are known to be accurate. Although it is a rare thing to find credit reports “completely accurate” across all three credit bureaus, if the client indicates that “yeah, that is right” then you better leave that item alone. As Brad Elbein, Director of the FTC’s Southwest Regional Office says “no credit repair company has the right to remove accurate, current information from a credit report.” Stick with disputing items the client instructs you to. This is as simple as taking 10 minutes to run over the credit report with your client. Using DisputeSuite.com, you can input customer instructions, such as “My payment was never late”, into the software for each item.

#3 – Provide consumers with their rights
As a credit repair organization, you must provide a copy of the “Consumer Credit File Rights Under State and Federal Law” before you have your client sign a contract. You must also inform your client that they have a right to cancel your contract. Visit http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/croa/croa.shtm to get a copy.

#4 – Make sure you have a contract in place
If you don’t already have one in place, you must get a contract in place immediately. Make sure your contract hits these talking points:

• The payment terms for services, including their total cost
• A detailed description of the services to be performed
• Any guarantees or refund policies (if offered)
• Power of attorney
• The expected time it will take to achieve results (use estimates)
• A copy of the FTC’s “Consumer Credit File Rights”
• A cancellation notice (in bold font). Clients have 3 business days afterwards to legally cancel.
• Your company’s name and business address

You can find tons of sample credit repair agreements on the internet by Google’ing “credit repair agreement”. However, I recommend you have a lawyer look over the contract to ensure its legality. Make sure you have the client sign and date it (in ink). Make 2 copies of the agreement, one for the client’s records and one for yours. It is a MUST to keep copies of your clients’ contracts for a minimum of 2 years.

#5 – First perform then collect payment
That’s right, perform credit repair services then collect money. Seems like a backwards way of billing but the CROA states a credit repair organization is not allowed to collect payment for any services that have not been performed. The organization can only collect payment after they have performed their end of the deal. This is why I recommend monthly billing. (See my article on fixed vs. monthly billing.) With monthly billing, you are billing for work previously performed.

Now… that may seem like a bit harsh to some of you…. But the reality is – you can’t change it…. And you can still make a fortune staying within the boundaries of it..

Ok… as I mentioned – you don’t want to be like the contractor who does the minimum standard… you want everything to be above and beyond the requirements of the law…

So…. Here are some tips for your credit repair business:

Prepare yourself for an audit or investigation… The fact is this…. If you run a business that is successful, at some point you will have a complaint with a regulator… I know what you’re thinking… “If you do the right thing- no one will complain”…

BUT this blog is about reality not FICTION…

Reality is- there are unreasonable people and stupid employees out there…. Along with BAD DAYS… Everyone has a bad day… Sooo… if you do enough business you will run into a problem with a bad employee doing the wrong thing, a customer who is wrongfully dissatisfied, or you simply messing up… It will happen… BUT- you must be able to prove that this complaint was an isolated incident….

If you don’t prepare for this complaint and remain proactive- then you will not have the ammunition needed to win the audit and stay in business…. In the eyes of the auditor/regulator you are guilty until proven innocent and this “first” complaint is just the first time you were caught… most likely they will think that you fracture the law repeatedly, lie, cheat, and steal like many of the people that they investigate…

WOW… you have a lot to overcome… and many people will have to adjust their business and that’s ok… Many people have asked me, what to do to convince the regulators that you are one of the good guys…

The only thing that can do that is PROOF…. You must be able to provide proof of your intent to do the right thing… now proof of your intent to do right, does not necessarily excuse you of doing wrong in the credit repair business, but it will help!

Now, how do you prove it….
One of the problems of the credit repair business is accepting clients into a credit repair program that cannot benefit from the program. Some consumers are better served with debt settlement as alternatives to credit repair. Many successful credit repair companies forge relationships with bankruptcy attorneys and debt settlement companies so they have a means to refer clients who are better served with those resources… But… you must have the proof…. What I suggest is keeping a companywide log of the clients that you do not accept into the program….. Mark the reason for not accepting the client, along with the clients name and contact information.

Advanced credit repair software, or credit repair management software is not needed for this- a simple spreadsheet will do the trick for most credit repair companies. NOW… once you have this company wide list- you can easily show PROOF to a regulator that you do what you say…

Saying that you don’t approve just anyone for your program means nothing…. BUT showing proof of all of the people that you have denied access to your program will mean a lot!

Keep an eye out for upcoming posts on successful habits of legal, moral and ethical credit repair companies.
I hope this article helps shed some light on credit repair business laws. Be sure to stay in compliance for business longevity. Also, you can check out an almost 2 hour webinar that I did with an industry compliance expert here:

AWESOME WEBINAR CLICK HERE

Please comment on your thoughts of the article and share this with others in the industry

Your friend in the credit biz,
Mike Citron

Small claims courts proceedings can be very effective. The concepts many companies have conjured is that the data furnisher will probably not show up in court…

I agree this is a great possibility BUT- you must be prepared for the worst… Many will use this theory without preparation and proper knowledge, this would be like “taking  a knife to a gun fight”… you’d know a bit and have a chance of slipping through and winning but your opponent has an EXTREME advantage.

When preparing for a small claims strategy it is imperative to understand the details and concepts of the various laws and acts. Some of the obvious laws and acts to understand are the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act), FACTA (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act)— some of the not so obvious but very useful are the FCBA (Fair Credit Billing Act), HIPPA (Health Information Patient Privacy Act), SSRA (Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act), TILA (Truth In Lending Act) and general legal procedures…

One of the key elements that I elaborate in “Credit Biz in a Box” is the way to turn your small claims necessity into a profit center and a marketing center…

Knowing all of the details of the laws and learning how to set traps for the data furnishers is important BUT understanding that there is a FINE line between friendly advice and legal advice is CRUCIAL…. Unlicensed practice of Law is a serious offense that is typically enforced by the Bar Association in the state of your practice.

In many cases the relationship that you have with a client when you are in the Credit Repair business can easily be perceived as “Unlicensed Practice of Law”—

Although perception is not always true- I always teach that “PERCEPTION IS REALITY”//// you can however use this to your advantage….

Learn the laws in and out, study them, understand the concepts and ways to set booby traps for creditors, collection agencies, credit card companies, banks and credit reporting agencies….

Once you understand them fully- find a local attorney or 2 (I prefer 5-6 but…)… Once you find a local attorney that is looking to expand his practice, get a consultation. During your consultation explain your dilemma… Explain that you are an expert in FCRA, FDCPA, FACTA, FCBA, TILA violations… .Explain that- although you understand the complexities and intricacies of the procedure in court you have a greater understanding that Unlicensed Practice of Law is a serious offense… Explain that you want to help consumers and your clients, let the attorney know about the free education that you offer to various groups (I’ll talk about that in another message)….

Then ask the attorney if he is willing to become a strategic partner with you— A proposal could be structured in many ways but I suggest the following… Do all of the research, compile all of the traps, put together a detailed summary of the violations then present a complete package for the attorney to file a small claims case….

Most attorneys do not specialize in these laws and many don’t care to know anything about them… If you make the attorney’s job easy- he will likely be willing to take these additional cases.. the monetary settlements on theses cases is usually small BUT… if the attorney has little work to do on them and they are looking to expand their practice, then this is a win- win for everyone…

Having an attorney do the small claims will help in 2 ways- 1) It will keep you out of hot water with regulators/violations and Most importantly 2) Will allow you to partner up with a professional that is likely to give you more referrals that you will give him…. You will quickly become the “credit expert” in their eyes which will go ALONG WAY!!!!

Side-Note… Make sure you know your STUFF before attempting to form a relationship… it’s not easy to “Fake it til you make it” with attorney’s… they’ll see right through it…

The client may have to come up with a small retainer but- it is much better than them trying to do it themselves. Most attorneys will work without a retainer for clients in need when they know there will be a monetary award- the typical award is $1000 + so the attorney’s money is usually secure…

Detailed info on how to set the “Mouse Traps” and what the most common violations to look out for are a part of “Credit Biz in a Box”…. If you are interested in finding out more about that take a peek here CLICK HERE TO SEE “CREDIT BIZ IN A BOX”

A quick explanation of it is- The complete resource for starting running andn managing a credit repair business… How to guides for all situations along with employee training manuals and marketing materials… There are several books, audio CDs, DVD Presentations etc… Enough stuff to fill up a box…  A bunch of marketing material too….

Your friend in the credit biz,

Mike Citron

P.S. These are REAL TIME Real world tactics…. This idea is not theory it is fact… When I was still actively practicing credit repair, at any given time I could get 30+ attorneys on the phone within minutes… (Because I had their Cell #’s) and they would ALWAYS ANSWER the PHONE!!! I still provide continuing education for the Florida Bar- Several of the courses that I created have been presented to groups of all sizes… I’m not telling you this to brag.. I’m sharing my experience so you can benefit from it… If I did it- so can you!!!

P.P.S. I still want you to check out the latest updates to our website www.DisputeSuite.com

P.P.P.S. I’m starting a small campaign… it’s called THREE AND ITS FREE-Three and it’s free is this… If you know 3 people in the credit repair business that can benefit from our software- send them our way… When three people sign-up, I will give you a month for free… Your THREE friends will get their first month free as well…. This is Hard to keep track of so— I’m not publicizing this on our site- just e-mail me the 3 names of your friends once you know that they signed up!!

P.P.P.P.S. If you can think of other unique promos like THREE AND ITS FREE- and you’d like me to think about implementing.. I’d be happy to listen!

But most of us forget to focus on the most important part of our business… marketing and client retention…

In a couple of days I will share some marketing tips that came to me on a recent trip to L.A.

For today, I’d like to talk about creation of systems and delegating activities to increase your income.

First, I need you to stretch and take a deep breath, because what I’m about to say is going to be tough for many to grasp and agree with… It took me a lot to realize that some of the thoughts and statements of the Guru’s is right… no matter how much I wanted to fight that my way was right….. I continued to learn that it wasn’t—

First, take accountability! Make a “short” list of the things that you do best… Then make the LONG list of things that would be better for other people to do….. Then categorize the items based on the dollar per hour that you would have to pay someone to do that task. Whether it be mowing the lawn, dropping the deposit at the bank or getting a cup of coffee at Starbucks… calculate how much you would like to make per hour, then realize how much it would cost you to do a certain task if you were making that much…

The example that I heard several years ago is what opened my eyes… An attorney was talking to one of his friends and was instilling this same advice- The attorney explained to his friend that he had to have a talk with his assistant… His talk had to explain the importance of her new duties.. her new duties included:

Getting coffee at Starbucks every morning
Taking his car to the car wash
Picking up his dry cleaning
Etc…..

He had to explain to his assistant the value of time, and that it was better for him to give her a raise and a car allowance than it would be for him to spend the time doing it….
In his example he said, a cup of coffee cost him about $229… Wow… How could it cost that… the answer is simple- his billable hourly rate it $450 (+ $4 for the coffee) and he would have to spend about a ½ hour to park his car, get out, and wait in line for his coffee….

WOW!!! What an eye opener!!!

Now most of us, don’t expect our hourly wage to be $450 BUT— if you want to make $100k per year – that coffee will cost you $29 for your ½ hour….

The real problem lies in a recent study of executives… The study found that a high percentage of executives “Actual Work time” is less than 1 hour per day…

So if you’re actual work time is < 1 hour … then how much is that coffee really costing you?

Find a team and work it!!!

Find the strengths of the players and work their strengths, don’t try to make yours or your team member’s strengths into what you want them to be. Focus on the important aspects; trust, commitment and loyalty… The other skills are useless if you can’t count on them….

With these statements in mind, mold your day around your strengths. Mold your day around the activities that are income producing activities. Don’t try to find busy work, revert to your list of strengths and delegate the list of weak points….

Marketing and client retention should be at the top of the list, because without that you won’t have much else to worry about… now don’t say that you don’t need marketing because your business is based on referrals…

A business that is based on referrals is probably the most intensive marketing task… you must continue to WOW your referral partners and continue to provide excellent service to keep that flow of referrals coming….

Provide your clients with options that keep their best interest at heart… Find complimentary revenue generating opportunities… After all most of us didn’t tell our mom’s and dad’s “I want to own a credit repair restoration company when I grow up”
Many of us are transplanted from another business that has changed, and to many Credit is a tool for other sales…

It has been proven that it is far more cost effective to retain a client than it is to procure a client….. so, focus on ways to provide a valuable service to all of prospects that you come in contact with…. I certainly don’t want to stray you away from credit repair!!!!
I suggest having the answers to your client’s financial needs… that may be as simple as writing an article- or making a referral for another service….

The bottom line is- structure your time to focus on the tasks that create income for you. Delegate the tasks that cost less to complete than the hourly wage that you choose to earn…

Calculate your desired hourly earnings by taking the annual salary divided by 2080
Ex. $100,000 / 2080 = $48.08

Your friend in the credit biz,

Mike Citron

Credit reporting agencies, historically referred to as credit bureaus, were first established by local retail stores and personal finance companies to share information on their customers. In 1906, the bureaus established a trade association called the Associated Credit Bureaus (ACB), to help facilitate the sharing of credit related information across the country. Apparently credit reporting was a hit because the membership of the ACB grew substantially, as did the number of people covered.  However, as late as the 1960s, technological limitations restricted the coverage of even the largest credit bureaus to only a few cities.

Back then, credit bureaus would collect every bit of information they could about a person, including employment history, marital status, age, race, religion, testimonials, and any other information they could get their hands on. With all that information at their fingertips, discrimination was not uncommon.

The true reason for the old time ‘Welcome Wagon”…..

If you’re old not old enough to know what the welcome wagon was- the welcome wagon was typically 2-3 women that would welcome someone to a new neighborhood when they moved in. The 2-3 women would knock on the door soon after you moved in and would bring a cake and some cookies… They would also look around the house, looking at furniture, decorations, children, and everything else you could imagine…. The welcome wagon would then go back to their true job- which was reporting the information that they discovered from their cake deliveries… They would report everything that they saw to the local credit bureaus, that is how they originally gathered information…..

A whole lot has changed since then. For one, laws prevent credit bureaus from discriminating or storing whatever they want. Second, the corporate titans have bought up all the local credit bureaus monopolized the business. Another change is the use of computers. Storing all those files in file folders in the back office and having a human review each file to make a lending decision became downright unmanageable. The advent of computers has allowed credit bureaus to maintain files on millions of people. Now, instead of having a person review each file, the computer uses a mathematical model and instantaneously spits out a number known as a credit score. The entire credit reporting system is now automated and lenders make credit decisions in minutes compared to what formerly took days or weeks.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was passed to add accountability to the credit reporting process. Unfortunately, the FCRA did not fix credit reporting system’s problems.

The Acronym OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition…. That’s a fancy name for a computer that can read…

An OCR device can “take a picture” of a letter (like a scanner) then read the picture and understand the picture is actually a letter….

WOW…

Computers can do a lot….. But now, the Credit Reporting Agencies are using these super computers to speed up the dispute process… The OCR devices will read each dispute letter and respond according to a pre-determined set of circumstances…

I know what you’re thinking… how can a computer do that? How can a company trust that? What if it can’t read my letter? How many mistakes does it make?

That’s what I was thinking when I first learned of this fact years ago. But I thought more of “How can this benefit the Credit Repair Business”?

Well… first I’ll answer the questions… A computer can definitely do a lot of the work but, most circumstances can not be answered properly with a “canned” response BUT… it’s the law of averages… most people will give up after their first try, so if the credit reporting agencies can use the computer to weed out the non-relentless people, then the computer is a success for the Credit Reporting Agencies…

Trust is a personal opinion BUT, I as a business owner could never trust a computer to make decisions that could drastically affect an individual’s life… The Credit Reporting Agencies apparently are not as concerned…

Mistakes definitely happen- how many? We’ll never know BUT, as you probably know- a recent study reported that approx 79% of personal credit reports in the USA contain errors so, it should be no surprise that these computers will have errors as well…

The IMPORTANT Question is: HOW CAN CREDIT REPAIR COMPANIES BENEFIT FROM THIS???

Well… If you understand how the system works, you will understand how to make it work for you and your clients. When the system cannot read a letter, the letter must be “hand reviewed”- if it is “Hand Reviewed” will you have a better chance of success?

My experience and opinion on why this is the case is simple… the “hand reviewers” like all Credit Reporting Agency employees are tracked and rated based on their version of “efficiency”…

Their version of efficiency is understood to be quantity NOT accuracy… so if more humans are touching the letters and the humans get paid based on how quickly they “touch” them, then I imagine that is why my experience has seen the greater success when the letters are hand reviewed… (Keep in mind “Touchs” means viewing on a monitor- not physically touching”

Now the question arises: “How do we get them hand reviewed”

The secret answer is not “mirrors” but it is a well guarded industry secret…

Again, no one tactic can be the panacea but- a combination of proven tactics along with persistency will prove to be the best!! In order for the letter to be hand reviewed the letter must not be readable by the OCR- To make your letter unreadable or difficult for the ocr to read you can simply….

Well if you want the answer, you can

1. Listent to one of my webinar’s : http://disputesuite.com/demo.html OR
   
2. Take a peek at my website and let me know what you think of it… SIMPLY go to my Credit Repair Software website look over the site then shoot me a quick e-mail with your opinion of it… E-mail Mike @ DisputeSuite.com and put in the subject line ” I want the OCR Secrets”….

And I will send you the info on what had worked for me in the past… I will give you 2 CRITICAL tips that will make your letter almost impossible for the OCR to read it…

By the way… it’s not invisible ink, AND it DOES NOT need to be handwritten…

You can keep guessing or just try one of the above options…

Caution!

Once you try our software you will become a believer!

You WILL get excited by it!

You will make more money in your business!

Your business will be more efficient!!

You will send me a thank you card (Stuffed with my favorite?)

you will want to drink the punch (LOL)

Marketing must constantly change. I was recently reminded of this on a business trip to San Diego. I had a great time, I was able to spend several days with some of the nations top marketing and sales minds… We had several closed door no invitation, no nonsense- just work – mastermind sessions…. It was very useful and the relationships made during those days will last a long time!

There was great information shared amongst these top minds but…. The lesson at hand was not learned in any of those sessions… As a matter of fact it was quite odd when I realized it…

I usually don’t get to enjoy these business trips- being away from my wife and son, makes it tough but- this time I decided to ask them if they wanted a quick weekend in California… The answer was obviously yes…. and they understood that, they would be on their own most of the time… however during some of the time that we did get to spend together- Is when this great realization of marketing came about…

We took a visit to the San Diego Zoo… One of the most extraordinary attractions in the country…  But enough about that-

The bottom line is – you have to adapt to your client base and your prospecting base… The same ad’s and types of ads that you did last year, or even last month might not be effective today…

Your message might be the same but the media might have to change… In the credit repair business you have to be especially concerned about your advertising dollars…. Keeping a budget and remaining in the budget are crucial to success… I always suggest highly targeted marketing rather than exposure marketing. I like to refer to it as “sniper” marketing instead of “shotgun”… In the Credit Repair Business a good example of sniper markeing is targeting individuals who have recently been denied credit for an auto loan, home, loan or credit card- whereas an example of shotgun would be to target all people in a certain neighborhood.

The neighborhood approach might be good if you’re a Pizza delivery or a lawn service but- if you’re a specialized business you need to have a targeted sniper approach… With the sniper you attack less people but you can spend more $ per person because you know that they need your service…. It is better to send 10 marketing pieces to the same client that you know needs your service than it would be to send 20 random pieces….

So, I’m sure your wondering what made me think of this at the San Diego Zoo????

What do you think of this use of advertising dollars???

WOW!!!  That could be your ad dollars being destroyed… I guess they figured since they don’t use it- find a use for it-Many people will have the same response… That’s right… A “Perfectly Good” advertising medium – (The yellow pages) is being used for filler in a cage!

Yellow pages used to be the premier advertising solution….. Think for a second- when was the last time you opened one? Does your target market open the yellow pages? Do they shop on the internet? Do they rent? How old are they?

Regardless of ad type- and I don’t mean to pick on the yellow pages, (they’ve made me a lot of money over the years).. My message is – Know your clients and constantly adapt your marketing around them… There is NO “One size fits all” and certainly no “Set it and forget it)…..

If you target via the internet, understand there is a whole world beyond pay per click… If you do direct mail, there are ways to get double digit response rates…

Study your market!

Good Luck,

Your friend in the credit business