The year Princess Diana and Charles married, and NASA launched its first space shuttle mission, and Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Conner to the Supreme Court, a 25-year-old skinny nerd named Bill with a pocket full of dreams opened a shaved ice stand in Venice, California.
But this shaved ice business wasn’t just on Venice Beach. This tiny stand stood wedged between a pizza place and a sunglass vendor directly across from Muscle Beach, where the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities became frequent customers.
As the shaved ice stand boomed, the young entrepreneur’s savings grew, enabling him to open two more stands in the vicinity.
It didn’t take long for the wearer of the ‘messy apron of many colors’ pull a second dream from his pocket—the quintessential American dream of owning his own home.
Finding his first home was exciting for Bill. He was proud to call it the worse house on the best block. He had the down payment; he had the income, and he had the mortgage loan officer. Everything was in order.
Until it wasn’t.
“Bill, you got a problem on your credit report,” the loan officer informed him one hot summer day.
Bill added another color to his white apron as he wiped his hands.
“What?”
“There are some issues in your report that need fixing.”
Bill didn’t understand what she was talking about until he looked into the problem. Yep, there were some credit cards he had since he was eighteen-years-old that needed addressing.
So the wearer of the ‘messy apron of many colors’ got to work and repaired the issues.
Within sixty days, he was approved!
The loan officer was astonished. “Bill, I think you must be in the credit repair business. I can’t believe you got the negative items off your report so quickly. We’re ready to go!”
But soon there was another problem. Escrow. The title company needed an additional thirty dollars and thirty-four cents to close. And they needed it now.
Bill raced to the mortgage office from the shaved ice stand. He stood at the officer’s desk as he retrieved dollar bills and quarters from his pockets.
The officer grinned as she watched the bills and coinage hit her desk. “Wow, look at you.”
“I have it right here,” Bill said, fishing deep inside his pockets where his dreams resided. “There! Thirty dollars and thirty-four cents.”
“No, I’m talking about your apron. Look at all those colors: purple, red, orange, green, pink. So beautiful.”
Bill grinned, looking down at his apron. “Oh yeah. I call it my ‘messy apron of many colors.'”
“Well, you and your ‘messy apron of many colors’ are now homeowners!”
After buying two more homes in the area, Bill sold his shaved ice businesses and said goodbye to Muscle Beach. He was older now and wanted to work in the corporate world.
It wasn’t long before an equipment leasing company hired him as an account analyst, where he learned to prepare loan packages for business equipment funding and leases.
His job was to review files with the goal of getting them funded. But many of the files had credit problems. Bill recognized the same credit report challenges he had previously experienced.
And just like him, many of the equipment lessees weren’t even aware of their reports’ negative items. So he helped the applicants by doing what he did for himself back at the shaved ice stand.
Bill had a knack for credit restoration and quickly learned the credit reporting industry’s tricks and maneuvers. He got good at helping people with their credit—really good, and people began to notice.
“Hey, I heard what you did for Charlie. Can you help me too?”
“I want to marry this man, but I think he has bad credit.”
“My brother just lost his business and not able to pay his credit cards. Can you help him before it’s too late?”
Just like a California wildfire, the news spread that he was ‘the go-to man’ for credit repair. And that was okay with him. He liked the feeling it gave him when he unlocked the barriers that forced people to accept substandard interest rates and lower loan amounts.
It was time for Bill to pull another dream from his pocket—the opening of his own credit restoration business. With his own business, he could do what we loved to do—helping people on a full-time basis.
That was over twenty years ago, and he never looked back.
Bill may no longer wear the ‘messy apron of many colors,’ but his credit repair business is full of colors reminding him of the purple, red, orange, green, and pink ice-colored cones.
Purple represents the passion he has for his clients. He says what he does for their credit reports is more than improving files; it’s about improving lives, creating opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t be there.
One day a referral called with worries about his restaurant business. He wanted to open a fourth restaurant, but the bank rejected him for refinancing. The restaurateur had made the common mistake of overextending his finances and had no place to turn.
Bill and his team went to work on the negative report, restoring it in time for him to purchase the restaurant. The client expressed his deep gratitude and said the entire process humbled him.
One day Bill received a call from the restaurant owner’s twenty-five-year-old son. “Oh no,” Bill thought, “the son was in trouble too?”
The son asked Bill if he would review his credit report and let him know what he could do to improve it. Bill agreed, afraid of what he might find. And sure enough, the son’s credit report shocked him!
The son’s credit report was perfect.
100% perfect.
“How can this be?” Bill asked the restaurant owner’s son. “You’re so young to have such an impressive file.”
“Oh, my dad told me what you taught him about how to create good credit, so I followed his instructions. My file is good because of you!”
Purple passion. That’s what fuels Bill, especially when he hears how his credit restoration efforts create a positive intergenerational impact. Knowing that this young man faces the world with an excellent credit report, his opportunities endless because of what his dad learned during his credit repair process means everything to Bill.
Bill sees the color red from the massive number of inconsistencies and unfair business practices rampant in the credit bureau reporting and banking system. It angers him that money is often the number one motivator, not people, and how no one seems to care when someone is blacklisted for no fault of their own.
He remembers a client who became very ill and was hospitalized for several months. A financial mess devastated her when she returned home from the hospital. Everywhere she turned to fix the problem, doors slammed in her face.
Because her checking account was left unattended during her hospitalization, the bank slapped her with numerous insufficient fund transactions, along with the fees associated with each transaction. Fees piled on top of more fees, catching her in an endless loop.
When she tried to start fresh by opening a new checking account with a different bank, the new bank rejected her.
“But it’s just a checking account,” she explained. “I have funds to open it with.”
But no one cared. No one tried to help her expect Bill.
“You’re blacklisted in the ChexSystems,” Bill explained. “You can’t open a new checking account with other banks because they see what happened with this one and for this reason, they won’t allow you to open your account.”
As the woman cried, Bill soothed her with instructions on how to order her ChexSystems credit report so they could start on her file.
“We’ll get this fixed, I promise,” he assured her.
And so he did. Before long, she could open a new checking account and get her life back in order again.
The orange color of credit takes us to Florida, where a man considered himself a failure. He had terrible credit from a slowdown in his business. When the bank rejected his mortgage application, the bad news severely damaged his family’s relationships adding to the man’s misery.
“I’m supposed to take care of my family,” the man lamented to Bill. “I have a duty to protect them.”
He explained how difficult it was to face his family, how he had let them down. Dark thoughts swirled through his head. “I’m such a failure.”
This file’s urgency became clear as Bill and his team worked to repair the family man’s credit. Before long, the mortgage application was accepted, and the family moved into their home.
When Bill empowers people, it reminds him of the color orange. When his clients’ confidence and enthusiasm grow, he experiences their happiness as they face the world with their credit restored. A new day dawned.
“I’m a different man,” the client confessed when he called Bill to thank him. “I feel like I can do anything now.”
“That’s because you can. Credit is an asset. Good credit is more valuable than a home, money in the bank, precious jewels. Good credit provides opportunities for anything. The world is literally your oyster.”
And that’s when the redeemed man started to cry.
“It’s too early for crying,” Bill laughed between his own tears. And then they both laughed.
The color green represents the wealth Bill creates for his clients, providing them opportunities to capitalize on their existing business to build more.
He loves recognizing the domino effect as his clients build more, creating more jobs, making a difference in their employees’ lives.
He remembers a married couple whose credit got shot after they placed everything they owned into their business. Bill and his team repaired their file, and they went on their way.
One day the couple invited Bill to visit their office. But this was no ordinary office. This office was a huge five-acre industrial complex!
The accountant slapped Bill’s shoulder as they walked through the massive buildings. “Because of you, Bill, we have all this,” he said, gesturing his arm in a full circle. “Getting us back on track with our credit report became the foundation and springboard we needed so we could access more credit to expand and employ more people.”
Bill beamed like a proud father as his heart opened. He could see how restoring a credit report is not just about the people he helps. Restoring a credit report that enables people to expand their business, extends out into the world improving who knows how many lives.
The color pink reminds Bill of the women he helps who are often left with bad credit after a divorce. He knows how they rarely bounce back as quickly and are left many times having to take care of the children alone, along with most of the household debt.
Unfortunately, Bill sees this type of situation more times than he would like.
“It happens repeatedly. My heart goes out to these women, and men too,” Bill says. “The good news is that we teach these women how to avoid such devastation after we restore their credit, especially if they get married again.”
The skinny nerd wearing the ‘messy apron of many colors’ back in 1981 with a pocketful of dreams is who you want to contact for your credit repair needs.
His name is Bill Ipsan, his company, Ipsan West Credit Consultants, and he wants to help you too.
When you speak with Bill, you will understand how you, too, can rise above the faceless credit reporting industry’s indifference. Just like Bill and his ‘messy apron of many colors’ did when he refused to allow a negative credit report to hold him down from owning his first home.
Bill extends that same power to you. Just take his hand, and he will lead you out of the misery and cruelty that a low credit score provides creating devastating consequences.
Bill encourages you to live your life to the fullest despite the hopeless dead-end feelings you may have like our family man friend in Florida. He has seen it all and has a deep conviction that there are no broken people—only a broken system.
Bill knows that you too CAN rise above your circumstances, as thousands of client reviews proclaim. Bill knows how to repair your pocket holes so you can get your dreams back where they belong—with you. He wants you to dream more and worry less.
And who knows, after working with Bill, you might find yourself with a little more color in your life too.
Is your credit limiting your business growth?
Can’t get a mortgage or refinance approval?
Bad credit standing in your way and holding you down?
Clients’ bad credit preventing closings and transactions?