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Building Business Credit for Small Business

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Start Business Credit : Top 10 Reasons Why

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Corporation picEntrepreneurs and small business owners who have a separate legal entity for their business have a unique opportunity that no other individual or sole proprietor has.

 

It’s the opportunity to start business credit by establishing a business credit profile that is completely separate from a personal credit profile. 

 

The main problem still facing today’s small business owner is fewer than 10 percent know about or truly understand how business credit is established and tracked-and how it affects their lives and businesses.

 

Statistics even show that over 65% off all small businesses use credit cards on a regular basis; but the problem is less than half of those credit cards are actually in the business name. The others continue to use the owner’s personal credit cards for business transactions.

 

Here’s what others are saying about the importance of starting business credit:

 

“The longer you delay establishing business credit,
the longer you delay taking advantage of business loans.”

~ Wells Fargo Bank

 

“You should differentiate your personal credit from your business credit.”

~ Entrepreneur Magazine

 

“Before you apply, you should examine your business credit reports.”

~ Inc Magazine

 

 

One of the key advantages of having business credit is instead of putting your personal credit and assets at risk every time your company requires financing you would now be in a position to secure the financing you need with your businesses’ credit.

 

Here is the ‘Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Start Business Credit Now.’

 

  1. Any debt you accumulate for the business would only report to your business credit file not your personal credit file.
  2. Eliminate the co-mingling of funds–and this includes the “co-mingling” of credit profiles so you won’t jeopardize the protection of the corporate veil.
  3. Protect you and your family from personal liability when you get approved solely on your businesses’ credit file.
  4. Improve your personal debt to credit limit ratios by transferring the balances of business debt used with your personal credit to your business credit.
  5. Eliminate personal liability you have on your existing business debt by balance transfer from personal credit to your business credit.
  6. Increase your personal credit limit availability for you and your family.
  7. Improve the appearance of your businesses’ funding capacity and stability.
  8. Eliminate inquiries on personal credit when applying for business financing.
  9. Increase your businesses’ ability to obtain cash credit 10 to 100 times greater then you can obtain personally.
  10. Last but not least you SAVE MONEY! For example, an individual might pay up to 13% interest on a $100,000 line of credit whereas a business could qualify for an interest rate of 7%. That would save you almost $40,000 in interest alone.

 

Some other benefits include:

 

  • Business credit cards have much higher limits than personal credit cards.
  • Having the larger cash lines available for unforeseen expenses like expansion, equipment, operations or fulfillment
  • Prevent the risk of damaging your personal credit
  • You can build business credit even if you have bad personal credit
  • Prevent the limits that lenders will impose on you for personal credit for you and your family’s needs
  • Reduce your tax burden and improve accounting

 

Still not convinced you need to start business credit?

 

CLICK HERE to listen to a free Business Credit Seminar ($597 Value)

 

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. Start digging your well before your business gets thirsty!

 

If you ask any business owner how they financed their business start up the answers usually are:

  • Personal credit cards
  • Tapped into home equity line
  • Personal loan from the bank
  • Personal loan from family & friends
  • Private investors

One of the many risks that business owners face is using their personal assets as collateral or guarantee for business loans and financing. If the business owner defaults on a loan then, valuable items like a car, house, or bank account can be vulnerable to creditors’ claims.

 

Instead of jeopardizing your personal credit and assets every time your company requires financing, you can use the business’ credit rating to secure the financing you need with even more favorable terms and lower interest rates.

 

Start your business credit today!

 

To Your Success!

Marco Carbajo

About the Author

sp_image-435950341-1242740704.pjpegMarco Carbajo is a business credit specialist, author, speaker, and founder of the National Entrepreneur Club.  Click here to visit his blog and signup free to get strategies, resources, and credit building tips with blog updates, news, and more! To start building business credit join his business credit community today and Click Here.

 

 

 

  

Business Loan Finance: How to Get Approved

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Business CreditLending institutions want to lend money because it’s the way they make money. However, they only want to lend money to a borrower who is able to repay the loan on time and in full.

When lending small amounts of money under $50,000 typically the qualification depends solely on personal and business credit scores. Depending on the personal and business credit scores, they either will or will not approve the loan.

When deciding to extend credit to a business lenders use the ‘Four Factors for Lending Approval’:

Capacity

Collateral

Conditions

Character

Each of these areas helps the lender to determine the overall risk of the loan. While each of the C’s is reviewed, none of them on their own will prevent or guarantee access to financing. There are really no automatic formulas or guaranteed percentages that are used with the Five C’s. They are only a variety of factors lenders use to evaluate and decide how much of a risk the potential borrower is.

Let’s cover these 4 Factors in greater detail.

Capacity

This is an evaluation of your ability to repay the loan. Capacity is evaluated by several components including cash flow, payment history, and additional cash sources. The best way to show your capacity is with a strong business credit profile, a strong bank rating (typically a low 5), a well designed business plan and/or prior year(s) financials that show you can produce enough cash to repay the loan.

If your loan is under $50k most banks will grant an approval if you have a strong business credit rating, a favorable personal credit score, and a low 5 bank rating.

CLICK HERE for a free business plan course

Collateral

Heavy machinery, inventory, equipment, stocks and bonds, and other expensive business assets that can be sold if a borrower fails to repay the loan are considered collateral. One of the easiest ways to obtain a business loan for building business credit and bank credit is using the CD-Secured loan strategy.

*There are specific banks that do these types of loans that can allow you to grow your access to capital at a much faster rate.

Conditions

Be prepared to prove that the conditions are right for your business. Make sure there’s a market, an industry, positioning, competitiveness, and experience to back up your plan.

Character

Lenders have to believe that a business owner is a reliable individual who can be depended on to repay the loan. Some areas they look into include personal credit history, education, and work experience.

When applying for a small business loan, don’t forget the importance of personal relationships. Apply for a loan at a bank where you already have a positive business relationship. Also, make an attempt to meet with the person who will be evaluating your application, such as a bank’s lending officer, rather than the teller who handles your day-to-day banking transactions.

If you want to succeed in getting a loan, be sure to also check out Elements of a Successful Small Business Loan Application.

*Gain access to my private list of banks that do CD-Secured loans when you join our business credit building system.

Remember – To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business. ~ J. Paul Getty

Looking to rebuild your 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 vendor lines of credit, fleet cards, business credit cards with and without a PG, 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 business credit building audio seminar ($497 value) =>

To Your Success in Business and in Life!

Did This Blog Help You? If so, I would greatly appreciate if you like and shared this on Facebook and Twitter.

About the Author

 Marco Carbajo                                                                                                

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. He is a business credit blogger for Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp, the SBA.gov Community, Business.com, About.com and All Business.com. His articles and blog; Business Credit Blogger.com, have been featured in ‘Fox Small Business’,’American Express Small Business’, ‘Business Week’, ‘The Washington Post’, ‘The New York Times’, ‘The San Francisco Tribune’,‘Alltop’, and ‘Entrepreneur Connect’.

Credit Cards for Business

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small-business-credit-cardWhile small business credit card usage is on the rise according to the 2009 Small Business Credit Card Survey the majority of all small business owners fail to understand the importance of what’s in the fine print.

 

Statistics even show that over 65% off all small businesses use credit cards on a regular basis; but the problem is less than half of those credit cards are actually in the business name.

 

I hope to provide you with some insight into business credit cards and what you should pay close attention to when applying.

 

First, you should be aware that there are over 500 business credit cards available in the marketplace but less than 70 report your payment history to the business credit bureaus.

 

In addition, there are less than 40 business credit cards that will extend cash credit cards to your business without a personal guarantee.

 

Here are my ‘Top 4 Types of Business Credit Card Applications’ you should know about

 

The Business Credit Card Wannabe

 

This business credit card is by far the worst and in my opinion very misleading. It doesn’t matter how much fluff or creative sales copy is used by these particular companies what matters is what’ in the fine print! In a nutshell this business credit card application is nothing more than a glorified personal credit card.

 

How to identify?

 

The application requires your personal information, social security number, and business name only.  No Tax ID# or Duns# is required.

 

Disadvantages

 

Personally liable for all debt

All charges and debts are reported on personal credit files

Impacts personal debt to credit limit ratios

 

The Business Credit Card Poser

 

This business credit card is doing its best to be a true business credit card but it doesn’t quite make the grade. In a nutshell this card still requires a personal guarantee but what makes it appealing is the payment history and credit card balance are solely reported to the businesses credit reports not personal.

 

How to identify?

 

The application requires your business information, Fed Tax ID#, Duns#, personal information and social security number.

 

Disadvantages

 

Personally liable for all debt if the business defaults

 

The True Business Credit Card

 

This is the real deal business credit card and what truly represents what every business owner should have. A card that is tied to the business and completely separate from personal credit. This card is the best of both worlds! The payment history and balances report solely on the business credit reports and there is no personal guarantee keeping the liability strictly tied to the business.

 

How to identify?

 

The application requires your business information, Fed Tax ID#, Duns#, personal information but no personal social security number. (No personal guarantee)

 

Disadvantages

 

NONE

 

*Keep in mind there are also business credit cards that allow you to apply with business information only and no personal credit check. However, if you’re business credit scores and files are not strong enough they may require a personal guarantee for approval. I call this the ‘Two Faced Business Credit Card’.

Looking to rebuild your 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 vendor lines of credit, fleet cards, business credit cards with and without a PG, 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 business credit building audio seminar ($497 value) =>


To Your Success in Business and in Life!

Did This Blog Help You? If so, I would greatly appreciate if you like and shared this on Facebook and Twitter.

About the Author

Marco Carbajo

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. He is a business credit blogger for Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp, the SBA.gov Community, Business.com, About.com and All Business.com. His articles and blog; Business Credit Blogger.com, have been featured in ‘Fox Small Business’,’American Express Small Business’, ‘Business Week’, ‘The Washington Post’, ‘The New York Times’, ‘The San Francisco Tribune’,‘Alltop’, and ‘Entrepreneur Connect’.

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