SBA and Dun and Bradstreet: A Great Team
Anyone that owns a small business knows how hard it is to try to establish credit as a new small business. While it’s possible to do so without using your personal credit it’s very difficult. Recently the Small Business Administration (SBA) has teamed up with Dun and Bradstreet to help small business owners manage their business credit better. The goal of the partnership is to help provide business owners with the proper methods, resources, and steps to build business credit in a positive manner.
One small system that the Small Business Administration and Dun and Bradstreet had come up with was a short 5 step system to help small business owners get started to build business credit.
As a small business you’ll want to create a credit file. To help small businesses get small business credit they have set up business identification number called a D-U-N-S Number. This number will allow a small business to start their business credit file.
After a business has established a file it will need to start to establish the actual credit history. Many business owners will use their personal funds to pay for their business’ expenses. This is a bad practice for two main reasons. One you’re putting your personal assets at risk and two it’s not helping you build your credit history for your business. What you should do is set up a business bank account that you pay bills out of. This will allow your business to have a payment history that will help start their credit history.
The third step is to actually build credit history by paying your bills on time. There are many small factors that can affect the credit history of your business. However the most important one is paying your bills on time.
Next business owners will have to monitor the credit history of the business so that it can grow. This will also allow the business owner to notice small changes that may affect their relationships with their clients
Finally you can improve your business’ credit by knowing what your customers and suppliers credit histories are like. This will allow you to improve the cash flow of your business.
There are many other techniques that the SBA and Dun and Bradstreet have developed to help small businesses establish small business credit. They have made other training resources readily available. They want businesses to use the resources to establish a business credit line. There are many advantages to having a business credit line such as having a safety net if you have a slow month of business. However, as a small business owner you will have to know how to properly manage your corporate credit so that your business doesn’t end up further in debt. On top of helping small businesses get credit, Dun and Bradstreet and the SBA have also put into place programs that will allow small businesses to better manage their corporate credit. The two companies have created a strong and beneficial partnership for all small businesses.
Tags: small business credit | small business credit | build business credit | build business credit | business credit line | business credit line | corporate credit | corporate credit | business credit