IvyTek Blog

What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?  According to Wikipedia, it’s a progression of disaster recovery aimed at allowing an organization to continue functioning during and after a disaster, rather than simply being able to recover after disaster strikes. 

In other words, how will you restore operations critical to the resumption of your business?  How will you access your data (records, hardware and software), handle communications (ingoing, outgoing, toll-free, fax etc.), find a workspace and organize other business processes such as collections after a natural or human induced disaster? 

For example, after Katrina we found that e-mail was the best way to communicate with our customer base.  Those customers who evacuated with their laptops were able to get online and re-establish contact first.  Phone, cell phone, pager and mail service was spotty at best for several months following the disaster.  

Is your business continuity and disaster recovery plan up to date?  Have you formally reviewed it lately? Don’t forget to include any new banking, insurance or other key information critical to maintaining your operations. 

Do your key personnel know what to do?  Do they have access to the plan outside the office? When was your last test?  Have you reviewed the plan with your new employees? 

Having a workable plan and immediate access to your data could save your company.  Share your thoughts and disaster experiences with other lenders by adding your comments below.

Do you think your problem is unique to your business? Chances are you are not the first one to face that particular problem. Knowing how others solved the problem may help you achieve the right outcome for your business. Trade association seminars and conventions offer face to face opportunities to ask those difficult questions and get answers from others in similar situations.  

The main purpose of any association is to disseminate information to its members and protect their interests on the state or national level. The ability of the association to perform these functions depends entirely on the efforts of its members and makes all the difference between a strong and a weak organization.  

Reap the benefits of your next trade association event. Event attendees have opportunities to educate themselves about new laws that may effect the way they do business and to voice their concerns to important lawmakers and officials. Learn about new techniques for making your business grow and prosper, view new products and explore services offered by vendors. Enjoy the many attractions offered at each exciting venue while making new friends and developing a strong business network.  

Every association needs leaders, workers and supporters. Where do you fit in?

Have you completed your spring cleaning?  

“The most common usage of spring cleaning refers to the yearly act of cleaning a house from top to bottom which would take place in the first warm days of the year typically in spring, hence the name. However it has also come to be synonymous with any kind of heavy duty cleaning or organizing enterprise. A person who gets their affairs in order before an audit or inspection could be said to be doing some spring cleaning“.  Wikipedia, Spring Cleaning

So, once you’ve painted the office walls, scrubbed the floors, polished the windows, shredded those old papers, stored the manila folders, filed your taxes and cleared your desk of the clutter what’s next on your spring cleaning list?   

How about your computer system? Do you have files and folders that could be better organized? Could your old files be archived or deleted? Can your photos or music be transferred to another type of storage media?  OK, now that all the clutter is gone and your files are organized, it’s time to clean up your disk space.  Empty the recycle bin, run the disk cleanup tool and defrag your hard drive.  What?  

First empty your recycle bin if you have not already done this.  Deleted files remain in the bin until the user either selects “Empty the Recycle Bin” or “Shred Contents of Recycle Bin (wash with bleach)” from the recycle bin task list or place the cursor on the Recycle Bin icon, right click, then select an option from the menu displayed.  

Now, depending on your menu settings, go to Control Panel, Performance & Maintenance and select “free up space on your hard drive” to reclaim hard disk space used by temporary files and unnecessary program files. Or to open Disk Cleanup, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.   Disk Cleanup searches your drive, and then shows you temporary files, Internet cache files (cookies), and unnecessary program files that you can safely delete. You can direct Disk Cleanup to delete some or all of those files.  

Then run the Disk Defragmenter tool to rearrange files, programs and unused hard disk space so programs run faster and files open more quickly. From Control Panel, Performance & Maintenance, select “rearrange files on your hard disk to make programs run faster” or click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter to optimize your hard drive.   

Now, with your office spotless, inviting and efficient from your spring cleaning efforts, your computer optimized to run smoothly and your staff refreshed after spring break all you need to do is attract customers.

Is your payday loan business facing an uncertain future?

Payday lenders are feeling the pressure from all sides with saturated markets, unfavorable legislation and negative publicity generated by consumer groups. Many federal legislators are in favor of eliminating or highly regulating the industry. Some want to expand the 36% cap on military members to all payday loan consumers.

Many Louisiana payday business owners are looking for opportunities to diversify. One idea is to offer consumer installment loans. Many lenders have already availed themselves of this opportunity and provide both payday and installment loan products to their customers. The idea warrants a second look.

In Louisiana, while an installment loan is generally made for a longer term than a payday loan, an installment loan lender can charge a $50 origination fee and a $20 documentation fee on each loan.  As an added service to your customers, a consumer lender can also report payment history to the Credit Bureaus which provides valuable data to help increase their credit scores.

In addition, you can offer insurances like credit life, accident and health, accidental death and dismemberment as well as other services like car clubs. All of which you can earn significant commissions on. Do these options appeal to you?

If you are considering the benefits of becoming an installment loan lender consider this: You already have the customer base, the office space, equipment, personnel and in many cases the license you need to get started.  All you need is software, forms and a little additional training to get you up and running in no time. 

What are your thoughts on the future of payday lending?  What advice would you give someone who was new to the installment loan business?

Getting our customers to accept change is often an emotional experience.  (Please don’t do this to your computer!) We know that there are lots of technological choices out there, and that change is difficult.  We strive to assist in that endeavor by caring about what people feel and understanding that it is not easy.  I have always focused on how to control situations by informing our customers or prospects of implementation schedules or asking opinions about a particular technology.

Yesterday, after installing our small loan software package in Thibodaux I visited some of our other customers in the area.  One of our long time customers was commenting about how technology is changing so quickly, and how some people are not good with change.  She reminisced about how Mr. Fred came into her office, almost 12 years ago, when they were doing everything by hand and stated that using the financial software was so easy they would wonder how they ever did anything by hand.  She was terrified of the computer, yet Mr. Fred stated that if this old man can do it, so can you!  Mr. Fred must have been in his early 70’s at that time!

She requested a custom program that only cuts checks and tracks the balance with a report.  She did not want all the bells and whistles that Quicken or QuickBooks had, because it was confusing to her and she did not have the drive or the need to learn it all.  She was so familiar with our checkbook system inside the finance and payday loan software packages that she simply wanted it.  I stripped out all the features associated with the finance and check advance software and created a stand-alone checkbook software system…  She was extremely happy.

Michael Griggs announced the new IvyTek Backup Service to attendees of the Lafayette Economic Development Authority (LEDA) Networking Luncheon held at the Lafayette Petroleum Club on March 5th, 2008.

Each month several guest speakers from local businesses get an opportunity to give a three-minute presentation to promote their products or services. Then a “roaming mic,” is passed around and everyone in the audience has the opportunity to stand up and introduce themselves and their business.

What community organizations do you belong to for the purpose of promoting your business?

IvyTek personnel encountered software users having these common problems during manual backup procedures:

• Failure to select the “Burn these file’s to Disk” option, when using Window’s built in CD-burning software.
• Failure to verify data files are actually on the media even though the software indicated the files had been successfully copied to the media.
• Failure to notice a “drive not found” error message, when inserting a new USB Flash Drive.  Some USB Flash drives have embedded U3 software that automatically assigns the next drive designation.  If you have an automatic backup routine the drive designation will need to be upgraded to match the assigned drive.
• The file “disappears” when being transferred.  The user may have selected the “cut” instead of “copy” option or mistakenly “dropped” the file before reaching the intended destination. Check in the recycle bin for “cut” files.  Run the search option to locate lost files.
• Failure to replace backup media on a timely basis. Like a record, your media can become scratched or worn as it is constantly being rewritten and become unusable.  Some experts  recommend replacing backup media at least once a month.

Have you experienced any of these problems? Can you think of other problems you have encountered when manually backing up your files?