You can’t buy good word of mouth publicity.

This weekend’s Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend magazine tells the story of Matthew Reilly‘s first book (which he self-published): “The quote for printing 1000 paperbacks was $8000 and Reilly had only $500. Undeterred, he borrowed $5000 from a credit union and $2500 from a friend’s father”. A great story!

It reminds me of meeting someone a few years ago who told me the story of how he was made redundant but had the idea for research which would have important public benefit and commercial value. His then bank refused him a loan. But his credit union agreed. And he went on to found a successful publicly listed company based on his research.

Judging by the recent Choice story on the high customer satisfaction ratings of credit unions there are lots of stories like these which show the credit union difference.