How Cash Doctors started

Quite often people ask me 'How did you get the idea for Cash Doctors?"

As is so often the case, necessity is the mother of invention.

When I was in my early 20's I was living in Brisbane and sharing a house with a few mates. At that stage, all we really cared about was having fun. Money and settling down weren't high priorities for us. We worked full time but didn't really care about our jobs. I worked for an insurance broker and my mate worked for a bank.

Most of the time we were trying to think up new excuses for sickies so we could play golf, hang out at the pool, ride our bikes, surf or drink and have BBQ's and annoy our neighbours. They were classic hot Aussie days and nights sitting around with beers with a few mates having a laugh with crickets chirping in the background. It was great fun and we didn't have to worry much.

The only problem that arose from time to time was running out of cash. Our jobs were nothing special, so there wasn't heaps of cash rolling in each payday. Besides we didn't really deserve it because we didn't work overly hard. We didn't really live the high life either....no high maintenance expensive cars or girls. Nonetheless, we'd still run aground every now and then.

For that couple of years, one of my mates and I were very lucky. We were both paid fortnightly....but on opposing fortnights. So somehow, if one of us was struggling a little before payday, the other bloke would have just been paid and he'd easily have $100 to help his mate out. Then it would get repaid and maybe you'd be right for a few weeks, then it'd happen all over again. It worked out great, just to have that bit of a fall back if you needed it. It's not like we were in major debt or anything. It was just a mild overshooting or maybe something would come up, like fixing our car or a wedding or taking a special someone out for dinner.

At the time, I didn't realize how lucky I was. Neither of us would really have wanted to ask our folks for cash. But at the same time we didn't really want to commit to a personal loan with a bank. I considered a credit card, but I imagined myself not paying it back and hanging around for ages. I think my mate had some credit rating issues related to parking tickets, so credit cards were a no go for him.

A few years later a few of us were sitting around reminiscing about that time in Brisbane in our early 20's. Now in our late 20's, we'd been overseas a few years and we were living in Brisbane again.....full circle. A couple of us had started an internet recruiting business previously, so we were pretty well versed on the internet and what could be done. We got to talking about how life is pretty busy these days and there's no time to get out and stand in queues and fill out forms....in fact we hate spending time on those 'grown up' activities with a passion.

The conversation went towards what we would have done if we hadn't been paid on opposing fortnights. In short, we would have been in trouble. There was nothing.

We didn't really have anything to sell. The idea of getting a loan from a dodgy pawnbroker was not something we wanted to pursue. More recently there's the odd payday lending shop around, but they seem pretty shady and seedy and you feel like you don't know what you're in for. Besides, who has the time to race around finding documents and driving around in your lunch hour trying to find some little payday lending shop?

And there it was....bingo. The idea for an online payday lending business was born. Within a week the founders were researching and trying to figure out the best way to do it. Since then, we've been working extremely hard to create a system and platform that is clear and transparent and convenient....just like we would have liked it ourselves.

It's all done from a PC. No forms. No getting in your car. Just a few minutes and you get your money on the same day....not the next day. We still have a bit of work to get it absolutely perfect, but it's nearly there. To be honest, we're pretty proud of what we've done and people really seem to like it. The next step for us to pay people within 5-10 minutes.... not 30 minutes, not an hour. Afterall, this is what we would have wanted for ourselves back in the day.

Cash Doctors Articles