Seven Steps to Build Business Credit

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How do you build your business credit?

Here’s what Wells Fargo Bank has said regarding Separating Personal and Business Finances...

"The longer you delay establishing business credit, the longer you delay taking advantage of business loans."

By strengthening your business credit, you will not have to use the owner or shareholder(s)’ guarantee(s) for loans, leases, credit cards and other sources of debt financing. If your company has a strong operating history and financials to support this, you can easily build your business’ credit. If you have not already done so, do the following as soon as possible to build your small business credit:

1. Make sure you are registered with Dun and Bradstreet and have a D&B number. Then sign up for the free self-monitoring system.

1. Obtain credit cards from Staples, Office Depot or other office product provider up to the amount allowed with no guarantee. Use these cards to purchase your office supplies. Obtain credit cards from Home Depot, Lowe’s, or other office improvement entity. Use these to purchase any repair or cleaning items for the office.

1. If your business has lines of credit with any of your vendors or suppliers, ask that they report this information – and the performance - to D&B. If you do not have any lines of credit, ask for them.

o Each year, see if you can increase the size of the credit line. Make sure you use it as appropriate to keep the credit line there. Example: If you have a $50,000 credit line but always pay within 10 days by check, your credit line will disappear. You should place your orders using the credit line, then pay off the credit line every 30 – 60 days.

1. If you have a business loan from a bank or other financial institution, even if it is guaranteed by you as the owner or by another individual (i.e., investor), make sure that the loan is under the COMPANY’S tax id and is reported on the COMPANY’S credit report. All banks report to D&B regularly. Therefore, making consistent, on-time payments on your company’s bank loan can very positively impact the business credit.

1. Check your D&B report quarterly, but no less than annually. Make sure that any loans, leases, or other debts showing are correct. Many times entities report when they file a UCC (Uniform ) but do not report when the loan is paid off.  Hence paid off/retired loans and leases may still be showing on the company’s credit, which makes it seem like the business has a much higher debt ratio than it actually does.

1. Pay your suppliers within their specified terms. Make sure that you are working with at least two suppliers who report to D&B and/or Experian. Otherwise, your great payment record will be completely unknown. If the supplier does not report to Dun and Bradstreet, request a Letter of Payment History from the supplier and submit it to D&B to add to your business’ credit file. 

1. Provide reviewed or audited financial statements to D&B. You may not want to provide these because your company is private but be aware, that lending entities often provide abbreviated information to D&B for the purpose of reporting. You want D&B to have accurate information. If you still are leery about releasing your company’s full financial statements, consider providing just the annual revenues and the balance sheet (or a snapshot of it) via a statement from your CPA.

Finally, you should have a business plan. Banks and other lending institutions will look at the company’s credit profile, its financial history, financial projections, and the business plan in making its decision. If you do not have a business, it obviously cannot factor into the decision-making.

Author Bio:

Tiffany C. Wright is an author, business advisor, and interim CFO and CEO who has helped numerous small businesses obtain over $31 million in financing. To learn more about how you can build your company’s business credit and remove personal guarantees and other hits to your personal credit, view this course.  If you would like to contact Ms. Wright directly, you can email her at twright@tocafamilyservices.com.