Home Business entrepreneur Jack Alter had a vision of helping people. The year was 1951. Armed with $30 seed money he founded the Teachers Service Organization in his spare bedroom.
His goal was to provide loans to teachers at a time when teachers generally were not approved for loans by the banking industry. Of course, teachers had another problem: they were at school during banking hours.
Two decades before direct marketing became widely practiced, the Teachers Service Organization contacted teachers by direct mail and telephone to offer a service.
Jack then developed a magazine for teachers that included many helpful articles about their profession. He developed payment holidays during the summer months when teacher's had no income. TSO provided "strike" loans for teachers who were out of work because of contract negotiations.
By 1960 TSO had investment certificates of about $5 million. Word spread about this small business that went out of its way to help teachers and, by 1967, the investment certificates had soared to $20 million.
During the 70's nurses and court reporters were added to the program. Life insurance for teachers was made available, and the company continued to grow. In 1988, the TSO name was changed to Advanta.
The last week of February 2007 I had lunch with two of Advanta's marketing representatives and learned even more about this amazing home business success story.
Advanta, as you might expect, no longer operates out of a spare bedroom. Financial World ranked the company number 13 of America's Best 100 Growth Companies, and Fortune Magazine named Advanta as one of the Most Admired Companies in America.
Advanta and Small Business Owners
Advanta has once again defined a segment of America in need of help: small business owners. Small business owners today are the teachers of 1951 when it comes to getting and building a credit history.
Today, 99% of Advanta's business is small business credit cards. Small business credit cards are issued to entrepreneurs like you and me based upon our personal credit history.
Your payment history is reported under your business name to both Dun & Bradstreet and the Small Business Financial Exchange, the two sources for establishing and building your business credit history.
Your Business (Credit) Card
You can design your own business credit card using your logo. During a hectic Christmas shopping trip to the mall in 2006, I accidentally pulled my business credit card from my wallet and handed it to the clerk.
She looked up and said, "Arkansas Web Designs, I've heard of you." Need I say more?
To learn more about Advanta's four credit cards for small business owners as well as many more business credit cards, please visit Credit Card Ratings - Small Business Credit Cards. (Note: this is a tracking link to record the number of clicks seeking more information. It let's us know if we're writing the kind of articles that interest you. The cut-and-paste link is:
http://www.onlinelittlerock.com/cgi-bin/littlerock/pl.cgi?businesscredit