Charles "Chuck" Brennan - Dollar Loan Center, CEO

I have been a serial entrepreneur for as long as I can remember, starting businesses in Jr. High School and always trying to put a certain "Hugeness" into all of my projects. As a backup, I jumped headfirst into Corporate America while still in high school and mastered the art of the collection business via Citibank.

While at Citibank I always had a side business or two that were running. I made one of my biggest moves in early 1990 as I founded, opened, and ran one of the largest Rock & Roll bars in the Midwest. We had national level rock bands such as Joan Jett, Quiet Riot, Steppenwolf, Black Sabbath, Eddie Money; hell I even booked Nirvana to play at The Blitz before they hit mega-stardom. The rock club progressed into years of concert promotion all over the Midwest, ending in 1995 when I figured out how to make a small fortune in the music business. Start with a large one! So I went full circle from being the youngest person in Minnesota to have a liquor license and bar to ditching my 28 years in Sioux Falls to head to Vegas to get into the Collection and Finance Business. This, my friends, was a great move.

Along the way I hooked up with my now business partner and best friend a guy could have, Keith Bergh. Keith has had faith in many of my projects in the past and as skeptical as he was for this venture, he was on board from the beginning and helped fund the startup that I had created in Dollar Loan Center.

When I founded Dollar Loan Center in 1998, I saw a need on a nationwide scale in the sub-prime lending market. The most difficult challenge of starting a new business is creating market demand for your product; with Dollar Loan Center, I knew the demand was already present and I understood the steps to take to make Dollar Loan Center a success. As a natural-born promoter, I threw myself into making Dollar Loan Center the biggest and the best. I threw out the industry norm and promoted Dollar Loan Center as if it were a rock concert. Radio, television, print, billboards, phone books, you name it, we were there and we were in your face with our message and branding.

In less than two years Dollar Loan Center was profitable. I started with one employee in a 400 square foot office on East Sahara (the hood) in Las Vegas. In just eight years we shot from one employee to over 200 and from 1 to 49 locations in three different states.

When I founded the business, I was optimistic about the quality of our product in comparison to the rest of the industry, but as a serial entrepreneur, I was also realistic about the possible longevity of the business. So, in all honesty, to grow from one location to 48 locations in only a decade is humbling, but it took one hell of a team of people (which I assembled of course). Dollar Loan Center and dontbebroke.com is here to stay. We have a management team and infrastructure ready to take the industry by storm, again!

Without a doubt, I can say that our product is advantageous for the customer. We operate under a different philosophy than the other payday loan companies. In short, we empower the customer to decide the amount of interest they pay on their loan. It's a customer-driven business. We do not require collateral, this is a signature loan. Nor do we nickel and dime the customer with application and processing fees; we treat the customer with respect, the same as you would expect from any upscale financial institution.

We are able to process our loans in person at any of our nearly 50 locations or we can process the customers transaction on-line and have the ability to wire or ACH the funds directly into their checking accounts without them leaving the comfort of their home or office.

I pride myself on our positive advertising and insist that our team focuses on being an upstanding member of every community we are in. Take 60 seconds to see our latest television commercial as it really describes Dollar Loan Center and our team well. Click here to watch it on YouTube.

 

Clark County Collection Service

In 2001, Mary and Chuck founded Clark County Collection Service, LLC with a vision and determination to combine honesty, integrity and compassion with outstanding collection results. Over the years we have proven our commitment to our employees, our clients and the community we serve. We have been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of America's top 500 fastest growing companies. We are licensed in twelve states, including Arizona, California, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Virginia with offices in Las Vegas, NV and Sioux Falls, SD.

Our company endeavors to bring professional debt collection services to the marketplace, working to resolve issues with integrity, honesty and compassion. Our vision is to create partnerships with our clients built on mutual trust, focusing on solutions and results. Our goal is to operate in a moral and profitable manner where clients and employees dictate company policy.