How to Quickly Increase Your Company's Reputation and Cashflow

Everyone wants to do business with someone who is trustworthy, has experience and is easily accessible. In order to determine whether they should engage with another organization or not, more and more companies these days pull business credit reports from credit reporting agencies like Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax Commercial and Experian Business Credit.

Suppliers pull business credit on manufacturers to check if they tend to pay their bills on time. Manufacturers pull business credit on suppliers to determine if they are dependable. Retailers and distributors may choose to view your company's business credit report in order to decide whether they should extend trade credit to you or not. Lenders, on the other hand, may use it to figure out if they should approve the loan for which your company has applied.

In today's day and age, no organization can afford to not maintain good business credit. Here are a few additional reasons as to why it is important for you to have a great business credit profile

Build a Credit Identity for Your Business: By building a credit identity with major credit reporting agencies, a business can create its own credit history, ratings and scores – this will give the organization better access to funds and greater preference among lenders.

Protect Your Personal Credit Report and Score: With business credit, the organization's business debts and responsibilities appear only on its business credit report, and not on the entrepreneur's personal credit report.

Personal and Business Separation: Establishing business credit does away with the risk of co-mingling funds, including co-mingling of credit, credit profiles, credit cards etc.

Limit Personal Liability: Business credit allows a company to acquire products or services on credit without putting the business owner's personal assets at risk.

Maintain Cash Levels: Business credit makes it easy for an organization to acquire credit from suppliers, companies and merchants with net 30 to 90 day terms. Thus the company can have more cash on hand in order to operate or expand.

Increase Funding Opportunities: By consistently meeting lender compliance guidelines during the initial phase of the business credit building process, an organization can build a solid credit history that will subsequently allow it to qualify for additional types of financing.

Build a Business Asset: Favorable business credit is a desirable business asset – it not only improves the company's ability to obtain financing, but also its marketability should the owner choose to sell it.

Secure Higher Credit Limits: An organization with good business credit can get 10 to 100 times more credit compared to what an individual can obtain using personal credit.

Supplier Contracts & Business Partners: As an organization, it is almost impossible to do business with other established companies or government agencies without having them check your business credit report. Similarly, prospective business partners may wish to review your organization's credit history and financial dealings in order to decide whether or not they should enter into a partnership.

Where to Start?

There are a number of things small businesses can do on their own. These include acquiring a seasoned LLC if you don't already have one, registering with Dun & Bradstreet, and opening various vendor accounts that proactively report to Dun & Bradstreet. At Fund&Grow, we have a program designed to help companies with every step of the process of growing corporate credit. We constantly research which vendors report to Dun & Bradstreet and the other business credit bureaus, so that your transactions with them, handled properly, will help you grow your credit profile over time. For more information, contact us by email or at (800) 996-0270.