A-T-LEADING BY EXAMPLE

As the old catchphrase goes, “Experience is the best teacher.”

No one, it seems, can attest to this thought-provoking, life-enhancing notion more than accomplished businesswoman Latasha Kirby.

A native of Memphis who is an Atlanta-area entrepreneur, Kirby, during an interview this week with Making Headline News, recalled like yesterday how the restaurant she once owned in the Bluff City was unceremoniously shut down because of its continuous poor revenue.

Kirby, being as transparent and forthright as only she could, admittedly was faced with one disheartening option.

Surely, it wasn’t the one about which she anticipated.

“After opening my first restaurant in the city of Memphis and failing, (shortly) thereafter I filed (Chapter 13) bankruptcy,” Kirby recalled.

Fortunately for Kirby, there ultimately had emerged a silver-lining to an entrepreneurship dream that had suddenly turned into a devastating nightmare.

Months removed from having witnessed that sudden, yet untimely closing of her restaurant, Kirby was eventually left to assess the overall landscape of her young life, particularly from a financial standpoint.

As she tells it, in order for her to greatly savor the finer things in life, it was absolutely imperative that in the aftermath of that dreaded bankruptcy filing, she devise a plan to repair her credit.

All things considered, this progressive, assertive businesswoman wasted little time atoning for what had initially become a downtrodden occurrence in her life.

“I took it upon myself to repair my own credit,” Kirby said. “I gathered information from real estate agents, credit repair agencies and Google for help.”

As it turned out, one favorable thing eventually led to another.

It wasn’t long after Kirby had witnessed the shutdown of her business that she had ultimately became empowered to erase the memory of her unsatisfactory financial history.

Currently a resident of Roswell, Georgia Kirby has reemerged as a credit repair specialist who has become passionate about helping others rid themselves of their checkered credit past.

“I was so excited, so I started repairing credit for others and adding tradelines to their credit worth,” Kirby explained while displaying her signature smile in the process. “In some cases, their credit scores increased by up to 80 points in 30 days.”

Long before her business-oriented breakthrough came full circle, Kirby, once again, had to clear an assortment of hurdles which, realistically, made going after that which she desired well worth it.

“Honestly, throughout the journey, there were a few bumps in the road, but I was so anxious to be solid credit wise,” Kirby said. “Even though the bankruptcy cleared a lot of my debt, I was happy to send my discharge papers to all 3 bureaus,” Kirby said. “I began rebuilding my credit from there.”

It wasn’t long thereafter that Kirby, a University of Memphis graduate, began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

For starters, she possessed three unsecured credit cards totaling in excess of $10,000 and paid them off within a span of 12 months.

“This helped (my credit) tremendously,” Kirby recalled.

As if that wasn’t enough to erase the memory of the restaurant shutdown, Kirby managed to purchase a brand new vehicle months later with what she described as an “amazing interest rate.”

Talk about a dramatic, epic financial comeback for the ages.

“I paid the same truck off within a year and my (credit) score just rose higher,” Kirby explained in telling a story that just keeps getting better.

Oh…she’d be remiss if she didn’t share this part of her tear-jerking testimony.

“By the end of the year, I had 8 credit cards totally a credit line of $30,000.”

Yep, as the old catchphrase goes, “Experience is the best teacher.”

No one, it seems, can attest to this thought-provoking, life-enhancing notion more than Kirby.

For more information about Atlanta-based businesswoman Latasha Kirby, call 404-981-4342, text Tasha to 766-26 or you send email to: [email protected].

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EDITOR’S NOTE: If you are an entrepreneur, business owner, producer, author, athlete, musician, barber, life coach, motivational speaker, cosmetologist, tax preparer, model, or pastor/minister who is seeking exposure and would like to share your story with an in-depth news feature, call Reporter Andre Johnson at 901-690-6587 or Facebook message him under “Andre T. Johnson” for details.

Andre Johnson is the Founder and Publisher of Making Headline News. A 2000 graduate of the University of Memphis School of Journalism and a former reporter of sports for the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper, Johnson covers the NBA Southwest Division from Dallas, Texas. To reach Johnson, call him at 901-690-6587 or send email to [email protected] or [email protected]. Also, follow him on Twitter @AJ_Journalist.