Virgin Money Social Loans and Private Lending

Virgin Money is the brainchild of Sir Richard Branson. This unique lending program offers social loans which allow family, friends, and private funding sources to fund personal loans. Borrowers have access to online tools including promissory notes, loan contracts, and payment tracking software.

Virgin Money is not a bank, but plans are in the works for this to occur. In January, 2010 Branson acquired Church House Trust, a private retail banking business. Once the acquisition is complete, Virgin Money will offer additional financial products including checking and savings accounts and mortgage loans.

Currently, members can apply for three types of loans including personal, business, and mortgages. Family and friends are often hesitant to participate in private loans for large purchases such as real estate as it is not uncommon for relatives to default on personal family loans. Establishing a private lending account can minimize risks as contracts are legally-binding. Members purchase loan packages to have access to necessary forms, documents, and software. Prices range from $99 to over $500.

When members require financing to purchase real estate or to start or expand a business, they can apply for peer-to-peer loans. Private funding sources offer financing and payment schedules are established using legally-binding contracts.

Funding sources establish the interest rate assessed, but must comply with state usury laws. It is against the law for private funding sources to charge higher rates of interest than banks. Applying for social loans through Virgin Money often results in reduced interest rates. This in turn, provides borrowers with reduced monthly installments and enables them to repay borrowed funds more quickly.

Social loans can be obtained for most anything requiring financing. Members have used Virgin Money loans to pay for their college education, buy a car, purchase real estate, pay off credit cards, and start or expand a business.

Individuals in need of home mortgage loans may want to consider using Virgin Money Family Mortgage. Loan packages include the ability to create loan proposals to attract lenders, personal financial coaching, lien management, and a payment processor account.

Virgin Money offers the option to have real estate proposals submitted to private money lenders. When financing is obtained, Virgin Money records property transfers and mortgage contracts through appropriate agencies. Record of payments are provided to PRBC, a credit reporting agency used to monitor credit when financing is obtained through non-traditional lenders.

Real estate investors who engage in owner will carry financing such as lease purchase option agreements or seller carry back trust deeds may find Virgin Money a good option for recording payments.

Buyers engaged in creative financing loans are required to obtain bank financing once their real estate contracts expire. Payment tracking software provides buyers with required information to prove they have made seller-financed payments on time and in full.

Social Awareness and Leadership

What makes people want to follow a leader? What makes them - in the most extreme cases - willing to lay down their lives for that person?

At their best, leaders are 'living symbols' of a particular set of values that the followers subscribe to, enabling an almost spiritual feeling of being part of something greater than oneself. Think of what Churchill was to the British in the Second World War, what Gandhi was to the non-violence movement, or, to take some business examples, what Richard Branson is to Virgin staff or Steve Jobs to Apple devotees.

Four hundred years ago, being burned at the stake was the official punishment for the crime of heresy in England. It was less than two hundred years ago that slavery was abolished in the British Empire. Over time, our values system has evolved to the point where we no longer find these practices acceptable. Culture and values systems develop over time. The best leaders assist in the evolution of an organization's values system or culture by calling to and encouraging the elements that are ready to make the leap to the next level. Leaders are also to an extent a blank canvas onto which their followers project elements of their own values systems. Which values are appealed to and projected - the best or the worst - will depend on what the leader says and does.

As part of this projection process, followers make sense of a leader's words and actions by making up a 'story' about them. In the follower's mind, the leader becomes the hero of a narrative constructed partly from pre-existing archetypes (the king, the wise woman, the father, the magician) which are common to society as a whole, and partly from the traditions and culture of that particular organization.

The meaning of what we say, or what we do, depends on its context. Delivering a hilariously accurate character assessment to a close colleague will mean one thing over a few friendly pints, but quite another in the middle of a board meeting. So the words, actions and qualities of a leader are assessed in the context of the culture in which they are operating. Depending on the context against which they are played out, the same actions could be viewed as:

Decisive - or ruthless

Supportive - or mollycoddling

Taking an interest - or overcontrolling

Visionary - or out of touch with reality

(thanks to Peter Freeth of ciauk.com for this insight)

One of the great leadership skills is the ability to 'read' the culture and emotional climate of the organization successfully and to communicate and act in ways that are appropriate to that context. Successful leaders act in ways that are consistent with the 'narrative' that their followers have constructed (if this is a positive view) or that change the terms of the narrative (if it needs to be changed). This consistency does not mean that the leader's actions have to be predictable - the best leaders can surprise their people from time to time, but the surprises will be positive ones - just that the followers can make sense of them in terms of the organization's 'story'.

Without this empathy for organizational culture and the feelings of the people who are part of it, anything that the leader does is liable to backfire and be misinterpreted.

The practical implication of this is that the better you understand the culture of the organization you work in and the feelings of the people you lead, the more effective you will be as a leader.