MARYSVILLE — David Chin has had decades of experience in delivering great customer service. And, he knows the needs of small-business owners.
It’s a skill set that makes his own business successful, providing helpful advice to small-business owners along with legal and identity t
heft protection.
Besides a tour in the Navy — Whidbey Island Naval Air Station gave him a taste of the Northwest — he spent 35 years with United Airlines, then worked at Bank of America in Everett as a teller for five years.
As a Snohomish County-based representative for G
oSmallBiz and LegalShield, he’s using his customer-service skills to help small-business owners succeed and provide protection for their businesses and families.
“When I talk to small businesses, I listen to their needs, offer suggestions and let them know I’m there to help them when they become part of the program. Helping them means enabling them to see the program’s value by getting them started and then coaching them,” said Chin. He also volunteers at the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce.
GoSmallBiz was created by longtime Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton, who started 20 businesses after leaving the NFL. After selling his international software company in 1994, he founded Tarkenton Small Business NETwork to help entrepreneurs access tools and information to improve their businesses.
When Tarkenton began using the Internet as his prime channel for delivering that information, he changed the name to GoSmallBiz.com, a service that supports more than 50,000 active members across North America, offering a resource library and a variety of small business services.
Many of the services are free; others are reserved for members in the Tools & Resources section. Among other services, GoSmallBiz.com’s online consultants respond to members’ specific questions about business building and marketing. Members also have access to a free website builder, online bookkeeping tools, the GoSmallBiz e-newsletter, an audio library, books, cassettes and other free and discounted resources.
“When questions about marketing, budgeting, licenses, human resources, financial management and other things arise, small-business owners can contact professional business consultants who will respond with answers or advice within two business days, at no additional cost,” Chin said.
Rex Bartlet, owner of Rex’s Rentals in Arlington, said Chin has “helped us a lot. … We were handwriting letters for debt collections and he showed us how to make them look professional with our printer. … Also, we’ve used LegalShield for contracts and legal wording.”
Bartlet said being a “hands-on business owner doesn’t leave much time for computer work so David helps us a lot.”
At Arlington-based Gussie & Gertie’s Costume Rentals, owner Becky Walsh said, “We had a problem with people not returning costumes but David Chin helped us prepare a document to send out that has really helped us in recovering costumes.”
Also, she said that a check with LegalShield attorneys revealed the business doesn’t have to use credit cards to take costume rental deposits, they only need the card number.
“Now we don’t have to pay credit-card fees when we take a deposit and again when a customer pays for the whole rental when they bring it back,” Walsh said. “People are more apt to return costumes if they know we have their card number but we only have to pay a fee when they make their final payment. That’s saved us a lot of money and stress.”
She said she’s also looking forward to learning more from Chin about the business forms and other services at GoSmallBiz.com.
Signing up for GoSmallBiz and LegalShield “has been worth our money for sure,” she said.
Enrollment in GoSmallBiz is $69 a month for a business with one to 50 employees. LegalShield is a $17-a-month program that provides low-cost legal services. Identity theft protection costs an additional $12.95 monthly, Chin said.
The monthly cost of LegalShield, the successor to PrePaid Legal, is essentially a retainer fee for a state-based law firm that provides discounted legal services as needed. Services range from creating wills and writing health-care directives to reviewing legal documents or assisting businesses in notifying delinquent debtors to pay up.
Families can sign up for LegalShield separately from business membership in GoSmallBiz or in conjunction with it.
Part of the LegalShield program, used by more than 1.4 million clients in the United States, is Identity Theft Shield, which monitors clients’ names in the three national credit scoring agencies. Identity Theft Shield is not available for the business itself. Protected individuals are contacted if suspicious activity is seen in their credit accounts or related to their Social Security number.
“It’s like health insurance,” Chin said. “It’s there if and when you need it at a monthly cost that small businesses can afford. If identify theft activity is discovered, LegalShield uses a third-party resource — Kroll, a New York City-based international company — to restore credit or ID information to its prior level before it was stolen. That restoration service makes our service unique and saves our clients a lot of time and anxiety.”
For more information, go to www.dhchin.com, www.dhchin.biz or call 877-298-0955 or 425-346-9670.
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