movieking

Entrepreneur's Journal: Strategies for establishing business credit

Posted Oct 5th 2008 6:30PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Staples Inc (SPLS), United Parcel'B' (UPS), Small business
While the credit crunch is making it difficult for businesses to get credit, there may be other reasons you've had trouble getting the line of credit you need. For one thing, you may not be taking steps to build a credit history for your business.
By establishing business credit, you may be able to get larger loan amounts and better rates. What's more, it could be easier to find good suppliers and vendors – as well as to snag customers.
So how do you establish business credit:? Well, here are some steps:
Create a credit profile: Perhaps the top credit agency for small businesses is Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE: DNB). Basically, you complete a credit profile with them through service called the CreditBuilder; you then get a DUNS number, which is what third-parties will request when they do a credit check. All in all, the process is pretty easy.
Keep in mind that it's important to periodically update the file. An incomplete file is often a red flag.
Be diligent: In tough times, it is tempting to delay payments. However, if you do, you may damage your credit history.
Keep in mind that D&B has a so-called PAYDEX score, which is an indication of how timely you are with payments. This ranges from 1 to 100, and a PAYDEX score above 70 is considered strong. Interestingly enough, a way to improve your score is to pay bills before they are due.

Setup Business Accounts: Chances are you will need to use services like UPS (NYSE: UPS), Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS) and so on. The good news is that you can set up business accounts with them, which will help build your business credit history. You can also do the same with your land line and cell phone service.
Personal Credit: According to Michelle Dunn, the author of the Ultimate Credit and Collections Handbook, "Most Entrepreneurs or new small business owners don't realize that their personal credit is crucial to their ability to successfully run a business. When you first start a business your personal credit is what is used to determine the types of credit or if any credit will be extended to you or your business."
As you start to build your business credit, your personal side will phase out. So it is important to start the process sooner than later.

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engfant

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movieking

You just couldn't wait to find a thraed to put that picture could you...lol

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caribbean tan man

D&B employees scam you! they will try to get you to pay for a free duns number, and hound you to purchase their credit watching, monitoring, building programs. they dont mention the credibuilder price which i beleive is like $375 or higher

here are some old post from me about biz credit
http://tantalk.com/open-forum/2370334-biz-credit-stuff.html

http://tantalk.com/industry-professionals/2358408-business-credit-how.html

all you need is a Duns number. problem is the Duns number is hard to obtain if you dont purchase something from D&B

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someone PM me when a good tanning topic is posted. :lol:

engfant

I have 5 forums up (not all tanning) and I just wait all day to post this pic...well that and the Bird Is the Word Family Guy fun.

Why aren't they helping the small businesses again?

__________________
"And shut your mouth pussycat e fammi un macchiato, pronto!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhHhXukovMU

OSUCampusTan

If you are looking for business credit, it's alot more complicated than just DnB. Here are some resources:

Credit Boards (beginners)
http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showforum=27

MSBC, Inc (advanced)
www.msbchq.com

Business Credit Blog (Some good info here too)
www.mybusinesscreditblog.com

Business credit is a must-have for me in any of my companies, I was actually suprised to see posts here about it though.