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Welcome to the My Own Business, Inc. (MOBI) newsletter! My Own Business, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization providing free educational coursework on our website www.myownbusiness.org to foster successful entrepreneurs.
Each issue will give you information and ideas to help achieve your entrepreneurial goals. Highlights of this issue include:
- Feature Article "FICO: A Four-Letter Word That Everyone Should Know!" by Rod Banks, Executive Vice President, Small Business Market, Bank of America.
- Avery Dennison Corporation makes a generous contribution to MOBI.
- My Own Business Forums reach 1,200 visits a day!
- Top Ten Do's and Don'ts added to every session.
- MOBI expands it's staff.
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FICO
A Four-Letter Word That Everyone Should Know!
By Rod Banks
Executive Vice President
Small Business Market
Bank of America
Only a few years ago, few people had heard the term FICO. Today, this term is well known to just about everyone who is in the position of granting credit. This means most bankers, credit card companies, mortgage lenders, and even car dealerships have come to rely on this four-letter word. And if your FICO is good, it could potentially save you thousands of dollars the next time you need credit.
So, what is this FICO thing? Simply put, it's a numeric method of scoring your credit worthiness. Using just three digits, it predicts the likelihood of you paying your credit as agreed. As for the name, Fair Isaac Corporation created the FICO method... thus the FICO name.
Here's how the system works. FICO scores generally range from a low (not good) of 365 to a high (great) of 850. The score takes into consideration such things as your credit payment history, number of open accounts, overall credit balances, public records such as judgments and liens, and other things like too few or too many open credit accounts.
While there are many things that go into determining the FICO score, its use by a creditor is relatively simple. Generally, the lender orders a report and uses the score as a tool to judge your credit. Generally, a FICO score above 680 will generate a positive response while a score below this will generally cause the lender to take a more cautious approach. Again, each institution may set different guidelines.
Having a great FICO score has its privileges. For example, most car dealerships today provide better rates and terms to those individuals who have a higher score. Preferred terms on a mortgage or commercial credit often are reserved for those with a stellar score. In other words, if you want to save time in the credit process, walk into the negotiations with a high FICO score and you can expect the whole process to run more smoothly. And while this process may sound somewhat impersonal, it has proven to be an efficient and accurate method to judge one's credit worthiness.
So I bet now you'd like to know what your FICO score is... but you may not know where you can find it. There are many options for obtaining your score, and the best way to gain an overview is to type "FICO" into an Internet search engine. The results of this search will reveal several sources that will charge a modest fee for calculating your FICO score. Services like www.myfico.com will provide several report formats and even provide services that will notify you of potential credit inquiries that could affect your score. This Website, by the way, is a great resource to keep track of your personal credit. Being advised of credit changes can potentially help you avoid identity theft, should someone be using your credit without permission.
Without a doubt, before you go out and take on any new credit, it's a good idea to know where your FICO score stands. Protecting your credit and developing a higher score will pay dividends down the road. It just may be that FICO is the only four-letter word you'll want your kids to learn!
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Avery Dennison Corporation's
Generous Contribution
Avery Dennison has contributed to the MOBI mission of fostering successful entrepreneurs by donating 3,000 Translucent Report Covers (value of $8,490). These attractive Report Covers will be used for our certificate course Start-Up Kits. We are very grateful to have received such a wonderful gift and our sincere thanks goes out to Avery Dennison. Please visit the Avery Dennison website at www.avery.com.
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Free Forums Taking on a Life of Their Own
In July of 2003 MOBI created an online gathering place for people with similar interests (e.g., professional, social or demographic) to share ideas, knowledge, information and opinions.
Since that time the discussion forums have grown tremendously with over 2,800 postings and over 1,200 visitors a day. Topics range from "Mobile Food Concession Business" to "Starting a Second Business". Anyone interested can take part in the lively discussion. An added benefit to the forums is their ability to be indexed by popular search engines such as Google. Type "Mobile Food Concession Business" into the Google search engines and see what comes up! We encourage you to participate in the lively discussions on our forums at www.myownbusiness.org.
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 Top Ten Do's and Don'ts Expanded
Our Top Ten lists are a great way to encapsulate and reinforce important elements of our course sessions. After the success of our first Top Ten Do's and Don'ts list, (click here to view), we decided to take it a step further. We created Top Ten lists for all twelve of our course sessions. These lists will help you maintain focus on the important Do's and Don'ts for each business topic.
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Share Your Success Story
Sharing your Success Story in the FYI Newsletter offers a double benefit: You can gain widespread recognition by promoting your business to the more than 140,000 visitors who view the My Own Business site over 500,000 times each month. Also, your success story will provide lessons and inspiration to the many others who are striving to achieve success. We really want to hear from you.
Visit our Success Stories page and share your good news at myownbusiness.org/success.html.
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New Updates to My Own Business
We have been hard at work and are proud to introduce the following course enhancements:
- Session 9, E-Commerce has been fully updated and revised. The session now includes new information on eBay!
- We have added points to ponder for all of the sound byte transcriptions. The points to ponder encapsulate the important information contained in each sound byte.
- Enhancements are continually being made to all 12 sessions to keep each session up-to-date and full of valuable information.
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Dear MOBI Column
We welcome your questions to be answered in this Newsletter feature! Here is our Q and A for this edition:
Question:
Hello, my name is Bethany. I ordered this course (Certificate Course) and then proceeded to look through the course schedule and wondered if it is right for me. I am a Legal Nurse Consultant and work out of my home. I do have a partner, but it seems as though this course might be for people who plan on leasing an office and getting employees. My business will not require that. But I don't know the first thing about running a business and that is why I thought it would be a good idea for me to take this course. What do you think?
Answer:
I've been running my own business for the past 30 years. I am considering starting another, different business. I have no business or accounting background, other than the "School of Hard Knocks." I just finished this course and I feel the information will be invaluable in my being successful in my next venture. I think it will be of value to anyone.
- Keith Woodward, President, Eye Care Services, Inc., Toledo, Ohio
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Tell a Friend:
Give the gift of knowledge! Please let your friends know about our newsletter by referring them to:
www.myownbusiness.org
My Own Business, Inc. welcomes your comments and questions. Please send to FYI Newsletter, My Own Business, Inc., 13181 Crossroads Parkway North, Suite 190, City of Industry, Ca 91746, phone 1-562-463-1800, or e-mail us at info@myownbusiness.org.
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