The news out of the nation’s banking and financial sectors has been pretty grim. But if you run a credit union, some of that bad news might be good news for you.
“Really, it’s an opportunity,” says Todd Zirkle, the vice president of business services for Campus Federal Credit Union.
“The credit union industry is by and large much more financially sound and insulated. We are a rock in uncertain times. People can rely on the services we provide and know that they’re not at risk, know that their account is not going to be sold to Bank XYZ, know that they’re not going to be parceled off as a number.”
Campus Federal offers services, including disaster loans and a financial literacy program, suited for tight economic times. As a not-for-profit cooperative, a credit union’s ultimate goal is to return the money back to its members.
“So if you’re a member, it’s not that we’re paying shareholders. In effect, you are the shareholder,” he says. “And I think the touch and feel is a little more local and a little more homespun.”
Zirkle also is an entrepreneur who has started four businesses, two on his own and two with a brother. Starting a business is fun, but it’s also a learning process, he says.
“You come out of school and you go to work for a company, and there’s a lot of things you take for granted,” he says. “It’s really hard to appreciate how consuming it is, and how much of a challenge it is to get a business off the ground, to make it viable and profitable and to keep it going.”
And even during uncertain economic times, he says opportunities are everywhere if you look hard enough.
“It’s keeping your eyes wide open. There’s opportunities all day, every day,” Zirkle says. “There is a way to do something better. To be faster, to be cheaper, to provide a higher level of quality, there’s all of these ways to improve the delivery and ultimately the value people receive from the goods or the services that they’re purchasing.”
Age: 37
How do you make yourself heard in the discussion on how to move Baton Rouge forward?
“I think it’s about saying and doing the right thing. When people see you generating success and being effective, then that lends credence to what it is you’re saying. I think that you start with the group of people that you can influence, and you do the right thing, and hopefully that spreads.”
Click here for the complete list of 2008's Forty Under 40 winners.
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