Building Business Credit for Small Business
Have you wondered why a business files a DBA?
Do you know if your business needs to file one? 
In this post I’ll be breaking down the DBA also known as the Fictitious Business Name or Assumed Business Name to see if your business actually needs one.
First things first, let’s cover what a DBA is and what it’s not. A DBA is an abbreviation for “doing business as.” Filing for a DBA is necessary if your business operates under a name other than its legal name.
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A trade reference is the payment experience information that a supplier has on its customer. For Dun & Bradstreet there are seven factors that represent the creditworthiness of a suppliers’ customer. These factors are: reporting date, payment history, highest amount of credit used, amount owing, total past due, terms, and date of last sale. 
For quite some time you’ve heard me talk about how Dun & Bradstreet is the only business credit reporting agency that allows you to add trade references to your business credit file.
While there are over 500,000 suppliers here in the U.S. that extends credit to businesses like yours less than 6,000 actually share their payment data with a business credit reporting agency.
Unfortunately, for many business owners they find out the hard way that just having accounts established in the company’s name doesn’t mean the company’s building a credit file. If you find that your existing supplier based relationships are not reporting why not add those trade references so they do?
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Banks, lenders, credit card issuers, auto lenders, etc. use credit scores to decide what interest rate, loan, rebates & credit card terms to offer you if any. Your score is vital to you because it determines how much money you can borrow, how much interest you’ll pay, and what payment terms you’ll receive. 
For business owners it’s just as important. Although it’s crucial to establish the creditworthiness of your business; having strong personal and business credit scores opens you up to much more funding opportunities. For example, to acquire unsecured lines of business credit that only report to your company’s business credit reports requires that the business owner or credit partner have a strong FICO® Score.
It’s like your credit grade point average (GPA). It indicates the measure of your credit achievements so lenders can quickly assess your current credit health. A strong score can save you thousands of dollars by enabling you to gain access to the best rates, loans, rebates, and premium credit cards.
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In a recent article I wrote for Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp, I covered how to choose a business name that’s effective and legal. Did you know that a poorly chosen company name can end up costing you clients, cash and credibility? 
Hard to imagine that just by selecting the wrong business name can potentially wind you up in court or cause you problems obtaining credit and/or customers.
Now if you’re thinking what’s in a name anyway, I’m sure after reading this post you’ll get the big picture and take some cautionary steps in order to protect yourself.
First things first, from a business credit building perspective it’s important to pick a name that does not automatically trigger a red flag with certain creditors and lenders. Avoid a company name associated with a high risk industry such as real estate.
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One of the most common questions I have been getting lately is “How can I get the cash I need to fund my real estate deals?”
This post is for those of you looking for a fast and effective way to get the cash you need to execute your deals. Now I know there’s quite a bit of information you can find on the internet covering all the different ways you can get funding for real estate investing such as private lenders, hard money lenders, etc. 
But with private money and hard money lending there can be collateral you need to put up and they want a large percentage of your profits. Other ways include getting a traditional line of credit from your bank or credit union but that comes with its own challenges as well.
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