Let’s discuss the annual payday loan and check cashing convention at the Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas, organized by FISCA, the Financial Service Centers of America. This was certainly one of the most positive, uplifting FISCA Conventions I’ve attended in many years! For the most part, the “doom and gloom” of past FISCA Conventions simply was not present; really, really nice!
annual payday loan FISCA Convention
The dominant tone throughout the Payday Loan Convention was one of optimism; that we will survive and prosper. Sure… our products and services must evolve, but regulators and others who think they know what’s best for our customers cannot regulate into oblivion consumer demand for our products! Our customers desire and NEED US!!
Attendance was good. There were many, many exhibitors. The workshops were improved and audience participation was much better than at previous conventions.
Regarding the workshops, we were pleasantly surprised that Internet topics were included. FISCA has come a LONG WAY since the early 2000’s when I was told by a FISCA Board member I was an “Internet bandit and could look forward to a prison sentence.” (Seriously folks! Even though we were using the “payday loan state licensing model” at the time!!)
Anyway…on to the Financial Service Centers of America Convention.
General Sessions:
Bob Wolfberg, President of PLS Financial Services, gave a really exceptional presentation; extremely upbeat and positive! He received a thundering round of applause and deservedly so. Inspirational!! The future is ours! Our Industry will not only survive but PROSPER MIGHTILY!! We’ll attempt to get a copy of his presentation for your review in the future!!
Our friend, Hillary Miller, also participated in the FISCA General Sessions! You may recall the wonderfully positive piece he wrote for the Financial Services Industry that appeared on our Payday Loan Industry Bog here: “Impact of Title X, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.”
Additionally, other speakers participating in the General Sessions, discussed industry lobbying efforts, compliance issues, our customer demographics, check discontinuance, marketing research, FinCEN, money transfer, risk management, Internet and mobile payments and much, much more! (We’ll get into details over the coming weeks.)
Workshops:
FISCA Workshops are typically moderated by people “with an axe to grind” because they generally have a product or service to sell. So, we were delighted to note that many moderators and presenters appeared to be present simply to provide their experiences, knowledge, and thoughts on our industry. Some really good questions and comments from the audience added to the presentations.
FISCA workshops covered the gamut from collections, marketing, Internet strategies, revenue builders, industry best practices, compliance, bank relationships, new products and services implementation, harnessing in-store and mobile marketing, employer-employee relationships, store operations and a lot more!
Again, we’ll discuss the specifics of several of the Workshops in future Newsletters. (NOTE: new strategies, tactics and services introduced at the FISCA Convention are already included in our latest version of our Payday Loan Startup & Training Manual and in our “Payday Loan Internet Report“)
Exhibit Hall:
Of course, there was the “usual cast of characters”… software providers, lead generators, insurance, bill pay, stored value, prepaid and debit card providers, employee verification, check cashing solutions, store layout, signage, safes, etc. You don’t want to overlook these companies simply because they’ve been around a while. They are constantly tweaking and improving their products and services. And… you can learn from them! Talk… ask… discuss… comment… learn… you may very well prosper as a result.
Interestingly, not only are there NEW payday loan, car title loan and check cashing software provider offerings BUT the existing software providers have improved their offerings. This is a big deal! These huge investments of time and money in, not only improving existing products and services for our industry, but the addition of new players is a major bet on our future by some very sophisticated investors and entrepreneurs! This bodes well for the future of ALL of us!
Finally, we can’t fail to mention a few new, or vastly improved, products and services for the financial services industry having exhibit booths in the FISCA Exhibit Hall. Scrap gold buying and car title loan services are just two of many we’ll discuss in future Newsletters to enable you to not only survive but profit substantially in micro-lending.
So, for specifics… look for our future Newsletters in the form of emails or check our Blog regularly at http://www.PaydayLoanIndustryBlog.com to gain access to new and exciting products, services, tactics and strategies for serving your customers and profiting in payday loans, car title loans, check cashing and scrap gold buying.
