The Money-Minder
Pioneer Press
January 10, 1999
By George Beran

When Tiffany Worley bought his son Jonathan a book on juggling for Christmas in 1991, the gift gave them a common hobby.

Today, "Tiff" Worley doesn't put on professional juggling the way Jonathan, 14, does. But Worley between his amateur juggling and running Metropolitan Financial Management, a nonprofit consumer credit counseling company. Both endeavors require concentration and the ability to do a lot of different things.

"It's important to keep your eye on the main objective," says Worley, who founded Roseville-based Metropolitan Financial Management in 1989.

For the 52-year-old Worley, his key objective has been to build a business that is more customer-friendly to people who need credit counseling services. And he appears to be succeeding.

Worley's company is now one of Minnesota's largest providers of consumer credit counseling, managing more than $25 million in funds for about 10,000 clients. MFM, which has branch offices in seven other states, expected to end 1998 with revenue of about $4 million, including about $3 million from credit card companies and other creditors.

Worley says successful entrepreneurship hinges on finding and filling a market nee, sticking to your principles when you are successful, and committing your time to an endeavor you really enjoy.

Worley was an executive in the medical products industry during most of the 1980s. His resume includes posts as marketing manager for 3M Co. and as president of Bioplasty and Felas Lasers.

Worley began thinking about forming a credit counseling agency in 1986, after a friend at Felas Lasers told him about an unpleasant experience with credit counseling.

Worley visited two credit counseling services to see what it would be like to be a prospective client. He left both agencies feeling insulted.

"I felt as though I were applying for food stamps," he says. "The financial advice I received was what you would teach elementary students."

Even though he knew very little about the credit counseling industry, Worley thought there had to be a better way of doing business. He opened his one-man shop in 1989, operating out of a windowless office in the Empire Building Center in downtown St. Paul.

Worley says Minnesota state law makes it more conducive to set up credit counseling services as nonprofits, and it is an industry norm to do so. His start-up costs for Metropolitan Financial were less than $10,000, but he did not draw a salary in the early days.

It took Worley three years before he garnered enough business to support moving into a larger office in the same building. (Today, the company has 11 offices in seven states.) Since founding Metropolitan Financial Management, Worley has had the company apply what he considers "common sense" business basics: treating clients with respect, tailoring credit payment programs to their personal needs, and giving them incentives to stick with repayment plans that will get them out of debt. Worley contends one important factor in his company's success has been its flexibility in working with clients. One of Metropolitan Financial's first innovations was charging clients a small initiation fee ($25) rather than following the industry practice of charging hundreds of dollars upfront, Worley notes.

After the initial fee, MFM charges its consumer clients only a small monthly processing fee - comparable to what they would spend on postage and handling had they continued paying bills directly to their creditors, Worley says. For a consumer who takes 27 months to pay off their debts, MFM's client fees average about $200, he notes.

"It doesn't make any sense if you are trying to help people get out of debt that you become an impediment to them getting out of debt," Worley says in explaining the company's philosophy about maintaining low client fees.

The company will also make appointments with new clients on the same day they call for help, another factor that has distinguished it from the competition, Worley says.

This approach has been successful, with more than 60 percent of MFM's clients able to get out of debt, Worley notes.

Under a typical debt repayment program, clients make one monthly payment to MFM, which in turn disburses payments to the clients' various creditors. MFM in return, receives a fee for its services from the creditors.

Worley's company also has initiated business practices that better serve the creditors of MFM clients, including sending them weekly electronic payments, he says.