PeopleFirst Expands
Loan Program Through
MyBankUSA Web Site
The country’s largest small-business group commended the California state Senate for saving the state’s small businesses from some “poisonous” legislation.
Earlier this month, the Senate’s Committee on Industrial Relations rejected SB-1567, the Sick Leave Mandate.
“This was a poisonous pill with a sugar-coated title,” said Shirley Knight, assistant state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. “It would have been of no benefit to either employee or employer.”
Authored by Sen. Tom Hayden, SB-1567 was supposedly aimed at expanding sick-leave benefits for full-time, part-time and low-wage workers. But Knight said the bill would instead have hurt all three.
“Full-time workers could have seen a reduction in their current medical benefits after businesses adjusted for the cost of complying with SB-1567, and many part-time and low-wage positions would have been eliminated,” she said.
Making things more difficult is the fact that smaller businesses typically pay 50 percent more in compliance costs than larger ones, Knight said.
The measure was especially unfair to people working a second job. Typically, they’re looking for money, not additional job benefits, she said.
Knight noted the great majority of California businesses have fewer than 10 employees, and it’s these businesses that have generated the state’s estimated $13 billion revenue surplus. To pass an “onerous” measure as SB-1567 would be “like pouring sand into the gas tank of the California economy,” she said.
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Online Lenders Team Up: A San Diego-based online lender has entered into a strategic partnership with an Arlington, Texas, Internet bank that will greatly enhance its access to customers seeking automobile and motorcycle loans online.
PeopleFirst.com, a leading online vehicle lender, will now be available to the customers of MyBankUSA.com. MyBankUSA.com is the online division of First Savings Bank of Arlington.
Both parties benefit, said Liz Deakin, spokeswoman for PeopleFirst.com. MyBankUSA.com is able to provide an additional service to its customers, while PeopleFirst.com gets additional exposure. Anyone who clicks onto MyBankUSA.com is directed straight to them, she said.
Prospective car shoppers at MyBankUSA.com auto-loan link are directed to PeopleFirst.com and go through its online application process.
During business hours, the applicant is notified of the lending decision within 15 minutes of submitting the online application.
If approved, the customer receives PeopleFirst.com’s trademarked “Blank Check,” a no-obligation check that can be used for the purchase of a new or used vehicle at most dealerships in the country, as well as lease buyouts and refinancing existing loans.
“We believe this is the way most consumers will prefer to finance their vehicles in the future. PeopleFirst.com’s process offers customers maximum flexibility and the leverage of already having their financing in hand when they begin to shop for a vehicle,” said Terry Bryson, president of MyBankUSA.com.
Bryson was glad to have PeopleFirst. com on board.
“We are enthusiastic about our strategic partnership with PeopleFirst.com. Their strong commitment to customer service matches our own,” he said.
Local Business Leader Honored: Mel Katz, co-owner and executive officer of Manpower Temporary Services of San Diego, has been selected to receive the 2000 Sam Walton Business Leader Award, sponsored by the Wal-Mart Foundation and Wal-Mart of San Diego.
The Sam Walton Business Leader Award was established in 1995 to recognize outstanding local business people. Katz was one of 1,600 people throughout the country to be nominated.
Katz was nominated by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, which received a $500 grant in the honoree’s name.
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A reminder: National Small Business Week is May 21-27.
Send small business and retail news to Lee Zion at lzion@sdbj.com.
