I’m sure we can agree that for far too long business owners have relied on the strength of their personal credit to dictate their ability to obtain funding for their businesses.

Unfortunately this dependence can be easily avoided if more business owners knew about the advantages that business credit provides.

To provide some insight I have assembled some of the key advantages of business credit compared to personal credit that I know will get your attention:

Social Security vs. Federal Tax ID

Your social security number (SSN) is your personal unique nine-digit number issued to you so you can pay taxes and pay into the social security system. It’s also used by the credit reporting agencies in the creation of your personal credit files.

A Federal Tax ID Number (EIN) is the corporate equivalent to a social security number. It’s a nine-digit number assigned by the IRS to business entities operating in the U.S. in order to identify each company.

The major difference here is even though you are issued only one social security number as an individual as a business owner you can obtain multiple Federal Tax ID numbers if you own multiple companies.

Single Personal Credit File vs. Unlimited Company Files

Now this is the part where it gets really exciting because while you have only one consumer credit file linked to your SSN you have the ability to create and establish multiple business credit files with the business credit bureaus.

You can accomplish this because each company you incorporate has its own individual identity separate from that of its owners. Each business can obtain its own unique Federal Tax ID number allowing it to build its own unique credit file as well!

Limited Credit Capacity vs. Unlimited Credit Capacity

 If you’re like most business owners who rely on their personal credit for business you’ll really get a kick out of this one.

Did you know that business credit has 10 to 100 time’s greater credit capacity then personal credit?

When you use personal credit to apply for business financing your mortgage, auto loan, credit cards and even student loans are affecting your ability to qualify.

But when you take advantage of business credit reports you truly get to leverage the power of your business. Your files include your company’s payment history and may include revenues, assets and company financials depending on how much information you furnish to the business credit bureaus. In addition your files will not show your personal debts or personal financial obligations.

What’s even more exciting is if you own several companies each of the businesses will have its own credit capacity giving you unlimited financing potential.

 FICO® Credit Score vs. Paydex

Now I know there are many different scoring models out there but the most widely used on the consumer side is FICO® so for simplicity let’s cover that one.

The FICO® scoring system has eighty-eight negative rating factors that can hurt your personal credit score and only six positive ones. What’s even worse is you only have control over five of them so needless to say you’re fighting an uphill battle on the consumer side.

However, one of the main business credit bureaus known as Dun and Bradstreet issues its own business credit score known as paydex. This score is primarily based on how your business pays its bills and it’s much easier to understand and maintain compared to FICO®.

As you can see business credit will always trump personal credit and if you are just starting to launch a business or run an existing one now is the time to utilize one of the best kept secrets in the business world.

Ready to start building business credit? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system. A system that provides you access to premium vendors, business credit cards, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar titled ‘Eights Steps to Ultimate Business Credit’ ($597 value) => 

About the author

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. A business credit building program for small business owners. He is a weekly columnist for Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Solutions, a business credit blogger for All Business & American Express Small Business and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain. 

Watch my short video recording with AllBusiness covering the following question:

What are the advantages of business credit compared to personal credit?

• Social Security vs Federal Tax ID
• Single Personal Credit File vs Unlimited Company Files
• Limited Credit Capacity vs Unlimited Credit Capacity
• FICO® Credit Score Algorithm vs Paydex

What are the some of the ways that business credit has helped your business?

Ready to start building corporate credit? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system. A system that provides you access to premium vendors, business credit cards, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) =>

About the author

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. A business credit building program helping business owners establish business credit. He is a weekly columnist for Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Solutions, a business credit blogger for All Business & American Express Small Business and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain.

Business Credit is borrowed money that your company can use to purchase products or services it needs and repay the funds at an agreed upon date or time frame.  It can also refer to the amount of capital your business can secure without the use of personal assets.

The good news for you is that businesses of all sizes and entity types have the ability to create its own corporate credit identity completely separate from that of its owners.

Unfortunately most entrepreneurs are not aware of this and operate as a sole proprietorship which is a form of business structure in which the individual takes on all aspects of funding, starting and operating the business.

As a sole proprietor you keep all the net profits but you’re also taxed on them too. This is why entrepreneurs often rely on the strength of their personal credit reports to determine the amount of financing they are able to obtain for their business.

Unless you incorporate the IRS will automatically default your business as a sole proprietorship leaving you personally liable for all debts and actions made by the company.

By incorporating your business it now gets to be treated as a separate legal entity like a human being created through a legal process.

Similar to a social security number which is tied to your consumer credit files your business can obtain a Federal Tax Identification Number and establish its own business credit report.

Once you begin building business credit you can obtain everything from equipment, office furniture, supplies, and inventory or even lease automobiles through corporate fleet programs.

You should limit the use of your personal credit or guarantee by applying for vendor credit and if you apply for other sources of financing like a business line of credit then you will also need to maintain a solid bank rating too.

Business credit cards are another source of credit that your company can obtain with each card containing its own approval criteria and terms and conditions. Some cards may not be a good fit especially the ones who base its approval and payment reporting on the owner’s personal credit and not the business.

Your company can also apply for business loans which are either secured or unsecured and are traditionally funded by banks.

Each of these sources of business credit can provide the short or long term capital your business needs while protecting your personal credit and personal liability.

While it does take time to build a creditworthy company you can expect to save more money and obtain much greater financing than you would ever personally.

Are you ready to start building business credit for your company? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system? A system that provides you access to premium vendors, business credit cards, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) =>

About the Author

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. A business credit building system for small business owners. He is a weekly columnist for Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Solutions, a business credit blogger for All Business & American Express Small Business and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain. 

On the previous post I covered the first four myths on building business credit. I encourage you to bookmark these posts so you can revisit them at any time.

Here are the remaining myths of the top 10 surrounding the corporate credit industry:

6: All vendors, suppliers and lenders report to the business credit bureaus

Not true! There are over a half a million vendors and suppliers that are willing to extend vendor lines of credit to your business but less than six thousand of these companies report to the business credit bureaus. What’s even more alarming is not all of these companies report on a monthly basis either. Some only report to the business credit bureaus once every six months!

5: All business credit cards report to the business credit bureaus

Currently there are over five hundred business credit cards in the marketplace but less than forty will issue a card without requiring a personal credit check or personal guarantee. These select cards report solely to the business credit bureaus and not your personal credit reports. However, there are also a few business credit cards that require a personal guarantee but only report to the business credit bureaus.

4: Every business has a business credit profile with the business credit bureaus

A Dun & Bradstreet profile requires that a business owner first apply for a DUNs number and submit their business information. Corporate Experian and Small Business Equifax create a business profile report for your company once a lender or supplier that you have payment experience with submits a data record. There are many other business credit bureaus that require business owners to complete a registration process prior to creating a profile.

3: Buy a shelf corporation and get all the business credit you’ll ever need

Shelf corporations provide certain advantages when it comes to obtaining credit simply from the fact that a business that is five years old has a much greater influence to a lender than a business that’s been in business for a few months.

With that said a shelf corporation alone will not enable you to obtain all the credit you need because there are many other factors that are taken into consideration. For example, if you have a ten year old shelf corporation that needs a $100k business line of credit a bank will need to view your company’s bank rating, balance history, financials, tax returns, profit & loss statements and so on.

2: All you need is a strong paydex score to qualify for a business line of credit

While a strong business credit file does play a part in qualifying banks look at many other factors. This includes your bank rating, balance rating, NSF track record and personal credit scores.

1: All you need is an 80 paydex score to get unlimited business financing

This by far is one of the biggest myths in business credit because an 80 paydex score with Dun & Bradstreet is said to be like having a 720 personal credit score. While that may be true to some degree there are some important details that many fail to mention. For example, you can have four positive trade references reporting with $200 being the highest credit limit on all four accounts and still score an 80 paydex.

This is because DNB’s rating system requires a minimum of four positive trade references but if the four you have are small limits then this hardly qualifies your business to get approved for thousands of dollars of cash credit, lease credit, business loans and business lines of credit.

In addition, having only a DNB file is like having only one personal credit file with the credit reporting agencies. Let’s say all you have is a personal credit file with Equifax but have no file with Transunion or Experian. You would never be able to get approved for a mortgage because you don’t have a completed financial picture for lenders to review your creditworthiness.

This holds true for your business as well. In order to show a complete business credit report for your company then you will need to have a profile with the three main business credit bureaus.

Now that you know the myths surrounding the industry I encourage you to share this information with other small business owners and put your company on the path to corporate credit success!

Business Credit Resources

» Start Business Credit

» Business Credit Insiders Circle

» Business Credit Blog

To access business credit insider secrets, premium vendors, leasing companies, business credit cards, and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) =>

Marco Carbajo is a business credit specialist, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. He is a weekly columnist for Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Solutions, a business credit blogger for All Business & American Express Small Business and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain.  

Building Business Credit

While obtaining business credit cards, small business loans and a business line of credit is the common objective for many small business owners there is a growing demand for learning how to qualify without having to use personal credit or a personal guarantee.

I’m happy to see that more and more business owners are embracing the idea of completely separating your personal credit from business credit. Many of our new members were never aware of the danger that co mingling the use of credit profiles for personal and business can jeopardize the protection of the corporate veil plus limit the amount of funding their business can obtain.

 Here are twenty steps to building corporate credit without using a personal guarantee. Please note that I’ve used examples from my own business credit practice.

1. Incorporate your business and obtain a Federal Tax ID#- your Tax ID number will be the number that identifies your business and information. It’s just like how your social security number will identify who you are for personal credit.
2. Complete corporate conformity (411 listing, verifications, business license, etc.) –vendors, lenders and banks will do their due diligence prior to extending credit to your company. Don’t expect to receive credit by skipping these key fundamental steps.
3. Select the right business classification codes – avoid selecting codes that will trigger a red flag with the business credit bureaus and lenders. This can stop your business credit building efforts dead in its tracks.
4. Set up a complete profile with Dun & Bradstreet – Simply obtaining a DUNs number doesn’t cut it you will need to furnish additional information on your profile to give creditors a complete picture of your business. Remember there are companies like First Equity that offer no personal guarantee business credit cards but by invitation only. They purchase targeted lists from the business credit bureaus which you want your company to be on.
5. Add existing positive trade references – use business credit builder programs which can help you build business credit fast so if you have the references take advantage of it.
6. Apply for vendor lines of credit – getting business credit can be simple with companies that specialize in startup companies or businesses with no credit.
7. Pay invoices ahead of the due date – you can increase your paydex score to 90 or higher by simply paying your invoices 10-20 days ahead of the due date. A big plus on your files!
8. Build solid payment history – while account types and trade lines are a factor keep in mind that a payment track record is the final ingredient. Don’t think that one paid invoice will make your business capable of acquiring no personal guarantee credit lines or credit cards.
9. Monitor your business credit file – a no brainer and a good habit to adopt for your personal files as well.
10. Get listed with multiple business credit bureaus –target specific business credit bureaus that cater to your industry on top of the big three.
11. Set up a small business bank account –before selecting a financial institution for your banking make a list of the financial products you may need. Consider a credit union or community bank because they are much more flexible in today’s economic environment.   
12. Establish a minimum ‘low 5’ bank rating – know what your banks are looking for in business credit lines.
13. Obtain secured business credit cards
14. Open a small business credit line
15. Establish a diversity of credit – build a strong business credit profile by obtaining different account types. This includes trade credit, revolving credit, loans and leases.
16. Keep proper financials
17. Establish a well written business plan – A business plan is your blueprint that outlines every necessary component for the success of your business. Enough said!
18. Maintain personal credit scores at 680+ – when applying for no personal guarantee credit a lender or creditor may still require a personal credit check.
19. Build large trade lines with multiple tiers of credit –you can request for a credit limit increase usually after six months of good payment history. Before applying for larger tiers of credit be sure to know what the requirements for approval are.

20.  Stay informed! – join forums, social networks, read articles, subscribe to blogs and consider joining memberships like the business credit insiders circle.

Following these steps will provide your business opportunities to establish business credit in the name of your business while protecting your personal credit and personal liability.

To access business credit insider secrets, premium vendors, leasing companies, business credit cards, and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus become a member of my Business Credit Insider’s Circle. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) =>

Marco Carbajo is a business credit specialist, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insider’s Circle. He is a weekly columnist for Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Solutions, a business credit blogger for All Business & American Express Small Business and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain.  

This can seem like a tough task because you have to make sure that the suppliers, vendors, and lenders you have an already existing payment experience with will now start reporting to your newly established business credit files.

In addition, there is no way for you to confirm which company is reporting to your file because the business credit bureaus do not disclose what business is supplying the payment data.

Plus, you have to worry about new vendors and suppliers reporting as well.  One of the biggest mistakes made by small business owners is assuming that every vendor reports their payment history to their corporate credit file.

Last but not least what if the specific vendor or supplier your business has a good history of payment experience with is not set up to supply payment data to the business credit bureaus? One of my new clients who had been in business for over 15 years recently got listed with Dun & Bradstreet and contacted one of his suppliers to let them know of his new DUNS number. He was excited because he had a 10 year solid track record of payment experience with them and knew that this could benefit his newly established corporate credit file. Unfortunately this supplier was not a trade reporter with D&B so needless to say he was not happy.

Fortunately for you and my client there is a way to solve all these challenges and build company credit in record time!

One of the largest credit builder companies, Dun & Bradstreet offers a unique program ideal for new businesses that need to quickly build business credit history. With this program you have the ability to submit your company’s trade references that D&B will contact to collect payment experiences and report them to your file.

This allows you the opportunity to add your company’s good trade references to your business credit file with D&B and it doesn’t even require them to be a trade reporter with D&B. Best of all you can establish a Paydex score in a matter of weeks depending on how many references you supply to D&B to contact.

One very important thing to keep in mind is you cannot submit credit cards, gas or utilities as trade references to D&B.

The two business credit builder services I’m referring to are CreditBuilder Plus™ and CreditBuilder Premium™.

This is how you can build a business credit file in record time and benefit from doing what you’ve always done as a business owner. The only difference is now you have a business credit report that shows how responsible your business is in handling its financial responsibilities.  This can make the process of obtaining credit and business financing for your company much easier.

*You can add trade experiences using D&B’s program but be prepared to pay a substantial fee. This is an option but keep in mind there are other business credit bureaus you will also need to establish a file with such as Corporate Experian and Small Business Equifax. To access premium vendors, leasing companies, business credit cards, and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus become a member of my Business Credit Insider’s Circle. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) =>

 

To Your Success!

Marco Carbajo

About the Author

Marco Carbajo is a business credit specialist, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insider’s Circle. He is a weekly columnist for Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Solutions, a business credit blogger for All Business & American Express Small Business and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in The Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain.  

Business Charge Card

Even though business credit cards allow you to make purchases and carry a balance from one billing cycle to the next the disadvantage of having to pay interest on that balance can become pretty costly.

 Another kind of credit card for your business that may be a better alternative is the business charge card.

 A business charge card is a specific kind of credit card that has all the convenience of a credit card without the costly interest. The balance on a charge card account must be paid in full when the statement is received and cannot be rolled over from one billing cycle to the next like a credit card. Because you can’t carry a balance, a charge card doesn’t have a periodic or annual percentage rate, so there is no rate for a charge card issuer to disclose.

 The specific impact to your business credit bureau is significant because charge cards will not allow you to incur a revolving debt like a credit card will. The larger the balances you carry on your business credit cards the more harm it can cause in your overall debt to credit utilization.

 Here is a list of several business charge cards available in the marketplace:

• OPEN from American Express offers business card members the OPEN Savings program designed for companies with 100 or fewer employees. Some perks include 5 percent to 20 percent discounts on shipping, travel and business services.
• Diners Club International has been a leading charge card for business travelers since the 1950s. Features include club rewards, cash access, airport lounge program, a 24-hour emergency travel hotline and a rental-car insurance program.
• Universal Air Travel Plan is accepted by over 250 airlines and thousands of travel agencies for air travel, service fees and management fees. It’s best for companies that want to restrict charging to airline-related expenses.
• The American Express Corporate Meeting Card allows all event-related expenses to be charged centrally, so hotel rooms, meals, transportation, and so on, all go on a single bill.

 While using a business charge card makes much more sense than a business credit card there several other important things to consider.

First, a business charge card should only report your payment experience to the business credit bureaus and not your personal credit files. This prevents you from putting your personal credit scores at risk every time your company makes a purchase using your company charge card.

Secondly, some charge cards like Diners Club International will self contain your payment experience and will only report to the business credit bureaus if your account becomes delinquent. While this is good for protecting your personal credit scores it does not help your business credit file because they do not report your positive payment history.

Keep this in mind if you decide to start shopping around for a new business charge card that does not impact your personal credit. Pay special attention to the fine print and don’t hesitate to call and ask questions pertaining to how your payment experience is reported.

One of my favorite types of charge cards is ones that base their approval solely on your business’s credit worthiness. This type of card is the best of both worlds! Once approved your payment history reports solely on your business credit and there is no personal guarantee keeping the liability strictly tied to your business.

I encourage you to be as proactive as possible by selecting business charge cards that report to the business credit bureaus. Don’t hesitate to inquire with vendors, suppliers, and leasing companies how they report your payment experience with them as well. Bottom line it’s smart business to use business charge cards in order to save thousands of dollars in interest and build business credit history.

To Your Success!

Marco Carbajo

About the Author

Marco Carbajo is a business credit specialist, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. Want to learn more about how you can start business credit? Become a member and gain access to Marco’s business credit secrets, sources, and information on how to obtain unlimited financing for your business without a personal guarantee? Claim his FREE ‘Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit without a Personal Guarantee’ audio seminar ($597 Value), for a limited time by submitting your name and email below =>

However, one of the biggest mistakes made by small business owners during this stage is applying for the wrong vendor accounts that grant instant business credit.

While some may have a tendency to believe that the more the merrier is a sound strategy I tend to totally disagree. The reason is simply getting approved for vendor credit is one thing but what really matters is three critical factors that seem to never get mentioned which are:

Reporting

Frequency

High Credit

Reporting

There are over 500,000 vendors extending credit to businesses, but less than 6,000 of them report to the business credit bureaus! So part of any sound business credit building strategy should include careful selection of vendors that report to the business credit bureaus. It’s also important to note which business credit bureau they report to.

Frequency

In addition you will need to select vendors that not only report to the business credit bureaus but also report on a monthly basis.
Why is reporting on a monthly basis so important?

The reason is there are vendors who do report your payment history but only on a quarterly or even yearly basis. Time is of the essence so if your payment experience is not reporting until months later this can drastically impact the speed in which you plan to build a strong business credit file.

An example of an instant business credit vendor that reports on a monthly basis is a company like Quill.

Quill sells office supplies, cleaning supplies, packing and shipping supplies, school supplies, printing supplies, and more. From filing and storage to hand held computers, Quill has a wide range of discounted top name brand products.

Quill offers a net 30 account and reports to Dun and Bradstreet. Best of all they report your payment history every 30 days. For small orders you can get approved with a listing on the 411 directories and have a working website. New businesses can start out with smaller limits that will increase when you pay on time every month.

High Credit

Unfortunately there are vendors who report the balance owing as your high credit limit on your business credit file and not the true credit limit your business has been approved for.

For example, let’s say you’re approved for a $2,000 credit line with a vendor and you purchase an order of $50.

The incorrect reporting by this vendor shows:

High Credit ($) 50

Now Owes ($) 50

The correct reporting by the vendor should reflect:

High Credit ($) 2,000

Now Owes ($) 50

It’s always best to select vendors that report the true high credit limit that your business has been approved for and not just the balance owing.

This factor alone can impact the credit limit recommendation suggested for your business which is provided by the business credit bureaus in your profile report.

While you can obtain instant business credit for your business the process of building a strong business credit profile and score does take careful planning and a sound strategy. By revealing these three critical factors I hope to make the process easier and more effective for you.

As long as you select vendors that report, select vendors that report timely and select vendors that report true high credit limits than you are well on your way to business credit success!

To Your Success!

Marco Carbajo

About the Author

Marco Carbajo is a business credit specialist, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insider’s Circle. Want to learn more about how to build business credit and obtain unlimited financing for your business? Claim Marco’s popular FREE  “Eight Steps To Ultimate Business Credit Without A Personal Guarantee Audio Seminar“($597 Value), available by simply submitting your email below=>

Business Credit Ratings

There’s been quite a stir on the integration of FICO® 08 which is the credit scoring system used by the majority of lenders to determine a consumer’s credit worthiness. Similar to your personal credit ratings, businesses and corporations also have business credit ratings that potential lenders use to determine its credit worthiness.

Unlike a personal credit rating, there is no designated standard for determining the credit worthiness of businesses. However, the main tool used to determine and establish company credit ratings is D&B’s PAYDEX system.

Where a personal FICO® score is based only on credit history that includes information on how much a person borrows and how well they repay loans, a credit rating for a business takes into consideration company size as determined by assets and number of employees.

Where personal credit ratings are based on financial information provided by credit card companies, retail establishments, and financial institutions, a business credit report and rating is determined by information supplied by the business owner and gathered from vendors, suppliers, and other trade accounts.

For this reason, potential lenders may be different from one another in their evaluation of a business’ credit history by emphasizing certain qualifications more than others.

Like most industries, there is a specialized language involved with business credit reports and ratings.

The following is a list of some of the most common concepts and terms as well as their definitions:

Average High Credit / Highest Credit

In order to put a business’s credit in perspective, these are based on the total amount of credit owed as compared to the industry as a whole.

Business in Good Standing

Includes any problems with the business overall.

Commercial Credit Score

A D&B prediction regarding the chances of an account becoming severely delinquent within one year.

Comprehensive Report

This is a combination of several D&B business credit reports that paints a more complete picture of the company’s credit history. It includes the results of the PAYDEX analysis, a company’s credit score and Financial Stress class, as well as any public filings or liens, the business’s history and operations (including when it filed for incorporation, annual financial statements, facilities, affiliations, and number of employees).

Credit Score Class

This is part of the D&B assessment that gauges payment habits to determine how likely it is that a potential account will be delinquent in the next 12 months. The scoring can range from 1 to 5 with 1 being the score assigned for the lowest risk and 5 for the highest.

Financial Stress Score

This is part of the D&B assessment that analyzes the Financial Stress that a business is experiencing in order to predict how likely it is that a business will fail in the next 12 months.

PAYDEX

This is D&B’s primary assessment that analyzes how likely it is that a company will make its future payments on time.  An 80 paydex score for a business can be compared to having a 720 personal credit score.

Sample business credit reports:

Dun & Bradstreet business information report sample

Dun & Bradstreet enhanced comprehensive report sample

Dun & Bradstreet Credit eValuator Plus Report sample

Corporate Experian Business Credit Score Report sample

Small Business Equifax Commercial Credit Report sample

To order business credit reports:

Dun & Bradstreet (D&B)

Equifax Small Business Enterprise

Experian SmartBusinessReports^TM

Every business will at one point require an influx of cash in order to cover operating expenses, expansion costs, legal fees, inventory or a range of other items the business may require in order to operate. The worst mistake you can make is seeking funding when your business needs it most. Lenders extend cash credit lines to businesses that don’t need the capital and have strong business credit ratings. Start digging your well before your business gets thirsty!

Are you ready to start building your business ratings? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step by step business credit building system. A system that provides you access to premium vendors, business credit cards, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) => 

About the Author

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. A business credit solutions membership helping business owners build small business credit. He is a weekly columnist for Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Solutions, a business credit blogger for All Business & American Express Small Business and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain. 

A business Federal Tax ID number (also called an EIN number) is mandatory, because without one, your corporation will be useless. Your Tax ID number will be the number that identifies your business and information. It’s just like how your Social Security number will identify who you are for your personal credit.

Once you have incorporated your business now you’re ready to apply for an EIN. If you chose to use my personal entity specialist then this would all be taken care of for you.

If you already have a corporation or LLC but do not have a Federal Tax ID number than you will need to apply for one.

For more information be sure to check out the FAQ section on Employer ID Numbers.

If you have had a corporation for some time but never have obtained a tax ID number don’t worry. Tax ID numbers are not generated in a numerical fashion and there is no way for a lender to determine when your tax ID was obtained and compare it to the start of your business.

This is also important to know for shelf corporations if you are planning on using one. After you have obtained your tax ID number for business you’ll also be ready to open a small business bank account.

If you’re serious about building business credit without a personal guarantee then you will have to complete these two steps before you can move forward:

1. Incorporate your business
2. Obtain a Federal Tax ID#

What type of business structure do you have?

Ready to start building business credit for your corporation? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system? A system that provides you access to premium vendors, business credit cards, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) => 

About the Author

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. A business credit builder system providing business credit information for business owners. He is a weekly columnist for Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Solutions, a business credit blogger for All Business & American Express Small Business and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain.