Utah Business Blog

By Randy Chipman, ModifyUtah Vice President of Finance

We live in an era where not all businesses are legitimate. In fact, throughout history there have been people trying to make a quick buck without offering anything of value. A few bad seeds can taint any industry.

The real estate market of late has earned a bad name for faulty loans, inflated prices, and more. As an executive at a relatively young company in the real estate industry, I have learned a few things about getting the bad taste out of people’s mouth.

ModifyUtah specializes in loan modification. We are registered with the Utah Department of Real Estate, don’t take any money from potential clients until we show them their projected savings, and offer a money-back guarantee. However, there are plenty of folks out there who claim to do loan modification, only to take homeowner’s hard-earned money and never even try to achieve the modification.

In order to do business, we have to do more than find individuals who need a loan modification. We have to find potential clients and then help them overcome their fear of “being taken” for thousands of dollars with no result.

So, if you are a young business, or even an established one, how can you counter negative publicity in your industry? Here are some tips:

1. Get registered, certified, or legitimized. If there is a governing organization over your industry, join it. If there is a way to get audited or certified, do it!

1. Feature client testimonials and references. Happy clients and good references willing to talk will put potential clients at ease.

1. Offer a guarantee. When potential clients know they can get their money back in the event you do not deliver, they will be infinitely more likely to move forward.

1. Join the Better Business Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce, Corporate Alliance, or other local business organizations. Illegitimate businesses do not take the time to join these organizations – it will set you apart as a serious player.

Have you ever felt scammed by a business? Take our poll.

Randy Chipman is the Vice President of Finance for ModifyUtah and has previously held management positions with companies such as JPMorgan Chase and Xango. To learn more about ModifyUtah visit www.ModifyUtah.org or contact Randy at rchipman@modifyutah.org.

The views presented in this blog are solely those of the blog post author and not necessarily those of Utah Business.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 7:30 am and is filed under Business News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.