Here’s five quick tips to help you establish your business credit in the quickest fashion
1. Ensure everything in your business is set up admin
. You must be in a position to receive credit in the first place before you apply. This includes a 20 point checklist a few of them are: ensure you have an EIN number, ensure you an incorporated, ensure you have an 800 number and ensure you are listed in the 411 directory.
Part of the reason lending institutions require such information is due to the fact that so many people apply for business financing and small business loans who, quite frankly, have no business applying. This helps weed out many business owners who simply will never receive financing for their small business.
2. Start with vendor accounts. Vendor accounts, unlike revolving accounts, are typically set up with net 30 terms. This requires the business owners to pay, in full, the balance at the end of each month on the amount allotted by the vendor. Many vendors including staples, home depot, radio shack, Uline shipping etc, all have vendor accounts that can be set up for any type of business owner. We have the exact underwriting guidelines for these plus 300 other vendors in our business credit program. Therefore the business owner will always be approved for the vendor account before they even apply.
3. Access your Duns Account and Duns number to ensure your vendor tradelines are reporting. Unless you know how to set this up, Dun and Bradstreet can charge anywhere from $700- $1500 to get a business owner set up. They like to couple products and programs in an effort to squeeze the business owner’s cash. The truth is, through our business finance suite business owners can be set up with a Duns account for free. This virtually covers the cost of the system.
Knowing what trade lines are popping on your business credit profile is crucial to the success of a business owner. Reason being, many revolving lines of credit rely on the fact of starter vendors as trade references before extension of corporate credit will be granted. Knowing what is on your business credit report can be the difference between success and failure in establishing business credit quickly.
Based on the premise that small- and medium-sized businesses oftentimes lack specific criteria to go by when seeking to hire an IT services provider for their everyday Information Technology needs, the following list is a handy “cheat sheet” that addresses 10 main questions businesses should ask a potential IT service providers when seeking and comparing IT services:
For example, if you’re a small business, certain phone systems will work better, and are licensed to work better for, small businesses of approximately 100 employees or less. Some even have constraints down to 50 employees or less or have constraints about how many locations they can service at once. Once the potential IT service provider tells you of the specific products they resell or offer, do your own online research and find out what the world wide web has to say about the differences between major communications companies and the appropriateness of their products for certain business sizes. Some communications product providers have initially aimed their products towards large-scale businesses and may only now be breaking into the realm of providing products that meet the needs of small and medium business. Each product, whether it’s a VoIP phone system or data backup hardware, has clearly stated constraints for number of users and business size before more upgrades or additional licensing are required. You’ll be in the know ahead of time, before hiring an IT service provider, if you “do your homework” on the products they intend to resell to you.