Tag: Business

Minority Startup Business Loans: What You May Not Know

There seems to be a lot of confusion out there related to minority startup business loans.  The fact is, there are not a lot of loans specific to minorities. This is true whether your business is still in the startup phase or an already established business. 

Minority Startup Business Loans May Not Be What You Think

While specific minority startup business loans don’t really exist, there are some loans that work better for minority startups than others.  In addition, there are a ton of other resources available. Some of these are minority specific, and some not. 

Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans. 

Minority Startup Business Loans: Start With the Small business Administration

When you talk about business loans of any kind, you have to talk about the SBA.  While they do not lend funds themselves, they do handle the administration of many loan programs that help small businesses get the funds they need through partner lenders.   

Minority Startup Business Loans: 7(a) Loans 

This is the Small Business Administration’s main program.  It provides federally funded term loans up to $5 million. The funds can be used for a number of purposes.  For example, expansion, purchasing equipment, and working capital can all be funded with 7(a) loans. Banks, credit unions, and other specialized institutions in partnership with the SBA process these loans and disburse the funds. 

Minority Startup Business Loans: 504 Loans 

504 loans are also available up to $5 million and can buy machinery, facilities, or land. Typically, they are used for expansion.  In fact, these work especially well for commercial real estate purchases. 

Minority Startup Business Loans: Microloans 

These are $50,000 or less. Furthermore, they work well for a number of things.  Business, purchasing equipment, buying inventory, or general working capital are all options for using these funds.  

Minority Startup Business Loans: SBA Express Loans 

These are fast turnaround loans.  The SBA takes 36 hours or less to give a decision. There is less paper work as well.  As a result, express loans are a great option, if you qualify. 

Minority Startup Business Loans: SBA Community Advantage Loans 

This one is a pilot program.  It will either expire, or the SBA will extend it in 2020. Its purpose is to promote economic growth in underserved areas and markets. Decision makers look past such things as poor credit or low revenue if the business has the potential to create jobs or promote economic growth in underserved areas. 

These are some of their most popular programs. However, the Small Business Administration does so much more for small businesses in addition to these.  Get more details on the SBA, these loan programs, and additional resources offered by the Small Business Administration here.    

Minority Startup Business Loans: Private Lenders

In addition to SBA loans, there are several private lenders that offer products that work really well for minority business owners.  Below are just a few. 

OnDeck

OnDeck offers lines of credit and term loans with fixed interest rates.  You can get up to $500,000 with a term loan. Also, they have an A rating with the Better Business Bureau.  Even better, the minimum FICO they require is 600. However, you must have $100,000 minimum annual revenue and be in business for at least one year.  Find out more about OnDeck in our review. 

BlueVine

BlueVine offers a number of financing options.  For instance, term loans, invoice financing, equipment financing, lines of credit, and merchant cash advances are all offered by BlueVine.  As a requirement, you have to be in business for at least 6 months. A minimum revenue of $100,000 and a minimum credit score of 600 is required if you want a term loan or line of credit.  However, for invoice factoring, the minimum credit score is just 530! Furthermore, they have an A+ rating with the BBB. Find out more about BlueVine in this review. 

Funding Circle

If you’re looking for a low APR, then Funding Circle is your place.  They have fixed rate term loans that require a credit score at least 620.  Unlike BlueVine, there is no minimum revenue requirement. However, they do require you to be in business for at least 2 years.  They have an A+ BBB rating also. Find out more in our Funding Circle review. 

StreetShares

Of course, this company also offers invoice financing, term loans, and lines of credit.  Similar to others, there is a number of years in business requirement. However, they require less minimum annual revenue than the others at only $25,000.  The minimum credit score is 600. Like some of the other, they have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau as well. Find out more about StreetShares in our review, here. 

SmartBiz

SBA loans typically take a lot of time and paperwork. Still, SmartBiz found a way to speed things up.  They make it easier than ever. Unfortunately, they do have stricter requirements. Your credit score has to be 650.  Like others, they also require you to be in business for 2 years or more. In addition, annual revenue has to be $50,000 at least.  There can be no outstanding liens, bankruptcies, or foreclosures in the past 3 years. 

You Can Supplement Minority Startup Business Loans with Grants

If you qualify, there are many grant options available. While they usually are not enough to fully fund a business, they can be great for supplementing loan funds.  There are not many specifically for minorities, but there are some. Here is just a sample of what is out there. 

Grants Exclusive to Minorities

First Nations Development Institute Grants

The mission of this group is to offer grants that help Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Americans.  As a bonus, they offer assistance in the application process in addition to funds.

Not only that, but there are a wide range of opportunities from the First Nations Development Institute.  New ones initiate as old ones retire. There is a mailing list you can join to receive information about new opportunities as they become available.

Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans. 

National Black MBA Association Scale-Up Pitch Challenge

Also known as NBMBAA, the Scale-Up Pitch Challenge has cash prizes ranging from $1,000 to $50,000.  The association states its purpose is to help newer businesses that have an African founder that maintains equal ownership.  

Be aware, a business must be a member of the NBMBAA to compete.  To do this, there is a $10 monthly membership fee. After that, there is an online application.   If chosen, you must submit a three-minute pitch. Then, finalists go on to compete at the NBMBAA annual conference.

Non-Minority Specific Options

There are grants options that can work well even though they are not exclusively for minorities. Some examples include the following.

FedEx Small Business Grant

This grant is the company’s way of working to strengthen small business innovation.  There are 10 grants the company awards each year. They range from $15,000 to $50,000, and if you’re a minority owned business with a cutting-edge product, this could be the grant for you.

A business must use the FedEx website to submit entries. There are a few questions to answer about your business.  In addition, there is a requirement for an elevator pitch about what makes your business special.  Also, you have to explain how you would use the grant funds. A 90 second video submission is optional.

NASE Growth Grants

The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) has small business Growth Grants of up to $4,000. In reality, these are for micro-businesses.  The proceeds can be used for a number of things. For example, they can be utilized for marketing, advertising, expansion, and even to hire employees. These grants are open to everyone.  However, you do have to be a NASE member to apply. Membership fees vary based on the membership level chosen. 

USDA Value Added Producer Grant

The USDA’s Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program offers grants for small businesses.  It includes minority owned business, and grants range up to $250,000. At their core, these grants are designed to help agricultural producers with activities that add value to their products. As a result, grants are open to those in rural areas.  They must be operating as one of the following: 

  • Cooperative
  • Farmer
  • Rancher
  • an independent agricultural producer
  • or an agricultural producer group 

Tips for Landing Any Business Loan

Here are a few tips to help you land any loan, specific to minorities or not. 

Work to Increase Fundability

Simply put, fundability is the ability of your business to get funded.  That simplicity leaves a lot out however. How do you get to be fundable?  What determines fundability? How do you increase fundability? 

A potential creditor needs to see that your business is legitimate and profitable.  A lot of loan applications are denied approval due to concerns about fraud. Others are not approved because something didn’t look right and threw up a red flag.  If you understand what fundability is and how to get it, you can stop any such red flags before they cause you problems. 

So what makes a business fundable? Here is a streamlined list.  

Find out why so many companies use our proven methods to get business loans. 

The Elements of Fundability

  • A Fundable Foundation
    • Separate contact information
    • EIN
    • Business Bank Account
    • Proper Licensing
    • Professional Website
  • Business Credit Reports
    • Other Business Information Agencies
    • Identification Numbers
    • Business Credit History
    • Business Information
  • Financial Statements
    • Business Financials
    • Personal Financials
    • Bureaus
  • Personal Credit History
  • Application Process

Go here to get more detail on each of these and how they affect the fundability of your business. 

Put Together an Amazing Business Plan

 In addition to working on the fundability of your business, you need to have a great business plan to get a lender to pay attention.  This is more than just a piece of paper telling a lender about your business. It should include research, projections, and more. A well-put together, complete business plan includes the following. 

Opening

An Executive Summary

Simply put, this is a complete summary of the business idea. 

Description

The description goes into more detail than the summary when describing the business. For example, what type of business is it? What will it offer? This is where you get others excited about what you are doing. 

Strategies

For this piece, layout your plan for getting things up and running. Like, do you have a marketing plan?  Is there a location you have in mind? How many employees you will start with? What is your ramp up plan?

Research 

Surprising to some, writing a complete business plan requires a ton of research.  Not only must you do market research to ensure your product is needed and wanted, but also to see that  your location and market coincide. In addition, you need to know that the market can support your business. 

It is also necessary to research any existing competitors. 

Market Analysis

This actually includes two parts, the analysis of audience and the competitive analysis.   

Analysis of Audiencestartup biz loans for minority entrepreneurs Credit Suite2

First, what need will your business fill, and for who? For example, will your business fulfill a childcare need for working parents? Next, how will your business fill those needs? Include all of this in the analysis of audience section.

Competitive Analysis

Is there a business currently working to fill this need? Can the market hold more options? Given that information, how do you plan to be the best? 

Strategy

This is the way you plan to run your business moving forward. Put another way, it is how you plan to put into action what you learned in the research phase. 

Plan for Design and Development

How is all of this going to play out? From start to finish, what steps are you going to take? This section includes more detail than the strategies section.

Plan for Operation and Management

How will ownership be structured, and who will handle the day to day running of the business? It could be as simple as saying you are the sole owner and operator.  In contrast, it could mean laying out a complete board of directors format. It just depends on how you plan for your business to work.

Financials

While all parts of the business plan are important, this is where lenders really sit up and pay attention.  Even if the whole rest of the plan is fabulous, it will not matter if the financial section isn’t in order. 

Financial Information

This section includes current financials, projections, and a plan for the loan funds you are asking for.  Lenders need to see that you know how to handle the funds you get, and that you have a plan for paying them back.

If at all possible, you need to hire help with this.  A professional writer, accountants, and research consultants can help you make your business plan the best it can be.  If you absolutely cannot hire help, there are some great business plan templates out there.  

Minority Startup Business Loans: Now You Know

Business loans are a great way to fund a startup, whether you are a minority or not.  As a minority business owner, it is important to know what resources are available to you.  Equally as important, is that you do not pigeon hole yourself to just minority resources. You need to know, out of the resources that are available to everyone, which ones will work best for minorities.  This list should give you a great starting point, but be sure to do your own research as well. 

The post Minority Startup Business Loans: What You May Not Know appeared first on Credit Suite.

Eliminate Business Failure and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

Do you want to eliminate business failure? Of course, you do! Don’t we all?

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Eliminate Business Failure and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! It’s the Holy Grail to eliminate business failure.

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business starts to fulfill its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So, settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Yes, We Really Want You to Get Paid

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about invoicing best practices. Kabbage says creating invoices means you need to be consistent and organized. This means itemizing and it means basics like dates and numbers and project names.

And don’t send an invoice late! You are only harming your own cash flow when you do so. Our favorite tip concerned following up.

There’s a reason why companies send friendly payment reminders just before a bill is due. They want to be at the top of your mind. And, of course, they want to be paid. You should do the same. After all, you want the same thing.

Following up also allows you to have a touch point to the customer. Maybe they need more time to pay. Or maybe they’re ready for an upsell. Don’t just sit in the dark, hoping they’ll pay you eventually.

And, you can always try accounts receivable financing if you need it.

#9. Put it on Video

The next awesome tip is about creating a video sales letter. Foundr notes you can’t just brain dump the first 30 seconds of whatever you think of. Rather, you need to be intentional when it comes to a video sales letter. Because a bad video or script is a lot harder for prospects to forget.

We highly recommend reading the entire article. So, we’ll just concentrate on one tip here.

It’s All in the Script

You are not writing Shakespeare here. It’s not meant to be dramatic. Rather, your script exists so you don’t forget any detail. And it also exists so you can have a good, well-crafted call to action in your video. The article recommends cribbing from sales copy, and we agree!

After all, your sales copy was written by your marketing people. And it must be working – so repeat the process. It’s a lot better than reinventing the wheel.

Eliminate Business Failure Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Eliminate business failure – and more!

#8. Grow, Little Business, Grow!

Our following life-changing tip concerns measuring and achieving business growth. Fundera lays it all out for us. There are a half a dozen growth strategies you can try. And it doesn’t matter what kind of a business you’re in.

The strategies are:

  1. Increase demand through strategic partnerships.
  2. Improve your profit by removing unprofitable products and services.
  3. Boost revenue by improving your conversion rate.
  4. Increase sales by creating a sales funnel.
  5. Fortify your workforce with new recruiting tactics.
  6. Shore up market share with a customer relationship management system.

Consider each of these in turn. They are all ways to get more cash or lose less money. It makes sense to look at them all systematically. We recommend you check out the article in its entirety. So, we’ll showcase one of these strategies.

Remove Unprofitable Products and Services

It can sometimes feel a bit counterintuitive, eh? But recognize that you may be unnecessarily attached to, say, the first type of widget you ever sold. 

With your sales figures in hand, take a good, long look at your underperforming products and services. But also consider the costs of creating them. If you make $5 from a $1,000 product, but it takes you only a minute to get that product out on the shelf, then it costs $300 to make that product every hour. If you only make two of these products per quarter, and they both sell, they might be worth it. But also consider the costs of shelf space. Plus, there can be a cost of ‘shelf space’ even if your business is solely online. Maintaining one more selling or landing page isn’t free. 

The corollary is also true. If your $1,000 product costs $900 to make, and you make $950 on the product, then it might also be a candidate for weeding.

They’re products or services, not a marriage. You can change them up if they stop working out for you.

#7. Crush It on Instagram

For our next sensational tip, we looked at Instagram marketing (very, very hot these days). Business Knowhow says that Instagram has over a billion active users each month. Yes, that’s billion, with a ‘B’. 

Over a third of all US adults use it. So, shouldn’t your business be there, if it isn’t already?

Now, the tips are mainly the kinds which we see for social media of any flavor. That is, be sure to have a business profile, engage with your readers, and track the right metrics. So, we’d like to zero in on the one tip which is more specifically Instagram-centric.

Tell Me an Instagram Story

Stories are a kind of fast-moving, almost disposable content. They don’t last for very long. Still, they get decent engagement – a good 20% get a direct response from users.

The best tip we can tell you is not just to use Instagram stories. It’s also to not take your business quite so seriously when you’re creating them. Hence while, yes, you want them to be brand-correct and accurate, maybe take the sales talk down a notch. How?

Let’s say you’ve got a long-haul trucking company. Your story might be about your favorite stop in Texas. “Hey, Instagram, I’m in San Antonio! Love this town – be sure to check out the Alamo. And if you need anything delivered here, I’m your guy.”

And then, whoosh, it’s gone.

Short, sweet, and to the point.

#6. Sales + Marketing = Best Practices

This tip is so cool, and it works! Heinz Marketing tells us all about the handshake between marketing and sales. Their article outlines seven best practices. We’ll home in on just one of those here. 

Practice Empathy and Assume the Best of Intentions

Have you ever worked at a company where there was perhaps a little too much competition between departments? At times, these departments can even turn hostile toward each other. After all, even unintentionally, there’s competition for resources.

Still, you’re all supposed to be on the same page.

When the sales department assumes marketing is hiding all the good prospects, there’s a problem. And when marketing assumes sales isn’t following their directions deliberately, then there’s also a problem.

What to do?

Assume the best of intentions. The first time, every time. This can also get you to contact the other department if everything isn’t running smoothly. Maybe there was a breakdown in communications? These things happen.

Get the problem fixed before it gets bigger. And the start is to assume good intentions and work from there.

#5. Everyone Wants to Eliminate Business Failure

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

Look at a new way to eliminate business failure right here.

Success Harbor says business failures tend to come down to five issues:

  1. Misguided intentions
  2. Poor management
  3. Lack of funds
  4. Poor location (obviously, if your business is purely online, this is less of an issue. But you still need to have your goods available in places like Amazon or eBay, and you need to be positioned well on Google)
  5. Unclear plans

Today, we’ll focus on all of these, but from my own perspective. See, I’m a writer. Have I mentioned that before? Well, I am. Published and everything.

A True Story

I hang around with other independent writers all the time. I see people who want to get rich, or who think this will be the perfect job due to their anxiety. Or they feel they will become famous. Or they will be treated well by reviewers and commenters. 

Folks overspend and underdeliver. Or they have little to nothing to put into their projects, and it shows. Another issue is when they do very little marketing, or don’t do it well. Or they’re just plain vague about not only what their work is about, but how they’re planning on taking it to the next level.

They also have no idea that they’re not just writing. They’re also starting a small business, like it or not.

In short, they suffer from every single issue in the article. 

Sometimes, dear readers, there just plain aren’t enough facepalms.

Let’s Turn Things Around

Eliminate Business Failure Credit SuiteMaybe we can’t completely eliminate business failure for these folks. But we can make them a lot more likely to succeed, in some capacity.

How?

Manage your expectations. Even overnight successes had to start somewhere. And they’re often nowhere near as overnight as you might have been led to believe. 

Also, as they say, don’t quit your day job. A surprisingly small number of books have to be sold for you to have a New York Times bestselling novel. No, seriously. So, that means, while being a bestseller isn’t stratospheric, it also doesn’t make the writer a mint.

And, treat a business like, well, a business. This means budgets and planning. And if you’re up for neither, then you hire someone who is.

Oh, and speaking of locations…

#4. Be a Motivator, Even When Things are Tough

Check out this spectacular tip, all about motivating employees during stressful times. Talk about eliminating business failure right there! Entrepreneur notes that it’s impossible to get rid of all stress. Much the same as it’s impossible to truly eliminate business failure, of course. The basic idea is to lower both, yes?

Beyond being an empathetic manager and encouraging clear communication, we wanted to highlight one rather specific tip.

Encourage Vacations

Does that feel counterintuitive? 

It shouldn’t.

Do you remember when you were a worker bee? You probably wanted your vacation time to come sooner. And you probably hoped it was longer than it truly was. Furthermore, you likely dreaded coming back to backlog.

Your employees have those exact same feelings and desires.

If you can’t afford to offer more than 2 weeks of vacation per year, then so be it. You can still make that a better time for your employees. You can be cheerful and encouraging when they want to take time off. And you can assign someone to help alleviate the backlog so they don’t come back to a huge tsunami of work and get stressed out all over again.

Besides, cross training is good for teams!

#3. Put Together Your Business’s Own Personal Think Tank

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you build a high performance team. Logic 2020 tells us this isn’t exactly the same as the people you hire for a work group. A work group solves basic, quantifiable problems. Such as, you need to expand into New Mexico. Or maybe you need to raise production by 20% this year.

A high performance team, on the other hand, is for abstract, creative problems. They might still be tackling a problem like raising production. But instead, they would be approaching it from an angle like adding AI or buying new software. In contrast, the work group would be looking at hiring more workers or coaxing faster delivery times from suppliers.

Here’s our fave tip of the bunch.

Pay Attention to Recruitment and Hire Specialists, Not Generalists

This is a favorite tip because it has a personal angle to your intrepid blog writer.

Because I have been hired to work on problems which were existing for the first time. Case in point: one job was to create a legal vocabulary for a voice recognition product. The team already had medical vocabularies. But they had no idea how to start with legal.

Rather than being good at voice recognition, the truth is, I had never worked on it before. But I knew legal and I knew (still do!) writing. This meant thinking about use cases which I had personally experienced. Those included dictation with spelling and creating legal citations. A lawyer or police officer would have to add new names and street names just about every single day. Contrast this with a doctor who could add the names of diseases and treatments maybe once and then be done.

It’s this kind of lateral, off the wall thinking that you want in your high performance team. It’s one way to eliminate business failure.

Eliminate Business Failure Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Eliminate business failure – and more!

#2. Come on Board, New Employees!

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on your onboarding process. Manta reveals all about what to do with that awesome, high performance team once you’ve hired them. 

One way to help eliminate business failure is to treat your employees right. And you need to do so from the very start. This goes beyond education and training and providing regular feedback. Although we’re not knocking those.

Being in a remote work location, we wanted to focus on one aspect of the article.

Employee Social Connections

When I’m in Boston, you’re in Boise, and our coworker is in Biloxi, we aren’t going to go out for drinks after work. Maybe ever.

So, what can we do? 

Work toward connections. Part of this is programmatic. That is, you spend time on virtual meetings, and maybe more of those than you would have if you were in the same office. Make it a regular habit to check in and check in regularly.

Another thing you can do is to keep teams from being isolated from each other. We at Credit Suite do this via collaboration using a tool called Slack. You may find other ways to do so.

And here’s a tip, straight from me to you: organize some sort of an employee gathering, once a year. You probably can’t invite everyone, but at least get the team leaders in. Give them the opportunity to get in some face time. Add in some teamwork – and that can be bowling or a trivia competition or whatever. It doesn’t all have to be about work, 24/7.

Your employees don’t have to be close pals and love each other. But they should be at least collegial to each other.

#1. Save Your Startup $

We saved the best for last. One way to eliminate business failure is, of course, to save money. Here’s how.

For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on trimming startup operating expenses. Young Upstarts says there are a few areas where you can cut expenses which you may not have thought of.

One is to negotiate with your suppliers. We agree with this and also see it as a prelude to getting vendor credit with them. Perhaps you could get a trade reference if your supplier likes your business that much (and you have a good payment record with them). 

Another option is outsourcing. Could you work with freelancers, or even people overseas? The beauty of this approach is, you can try people out with less risk than a full-blown hiring process. Like them? Then hire them full-time when you can. Don’t like them? Then cut your ties.

So, which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

Eliminate Business Failure Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Eliminate business failure – and more!

The post Eliminate Business Failure and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.

What is Business Credit and How Does it Affect Fundability?

There is a lot of talk out there about what is business credit.  That’s an important question, but it cannot be answered without another question coming up.  That is, how does it affect fundability? Then of course, the question can be asked, what exactly is fundability? All of these questions build on each other.

What is Business Credit?  It’s the Cornerstone of Fundability

The truth is, business credit is a huge piece of overall fundability.  It isn’t everything, but I’d venture to say if how you set up your business is the foundation of fundability, business credit is the cornerstone.  Consider how a building is made of thousands of stones, but one crack in the foundation or chink in the cornerstone can bring it all crashing down.  The same is true of business credit. You can lose a stone here or there and, while it will definitely cause trouble, as long as the foundation and cornerstone are solid you have something to work with. 

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. 

First, what is Fundability? 

Before I can answer what biz credit is, I need to address fundability.  In short, fundability is how a lender views a borrower in terms of credit risk.  Most borrowers believe this has mainly to do with credit history. In part, this is true.  It does have a lot to do with credit history. However, there is way more to it than that. 

Pieces of the Fundability Puzzlewhat is business credit Credit Suite

There are many things that affect fundability.  Since it all connects to form a bigger picture, I like to think of it as a puzzle.  The pieces of the puzzle can be named however, and it is easier to put them together if you work on them in order.  If you work in order, the other pieces will usually fall into place pretty easily. You can still complete the puzzle if you work it differently, but it will be harder and take longer. 

In the case of fundability, you should start with the foundation.  Think of this as the corners and the edges of the puzzle. Everyone knows the puzzle goes faster if you start with those pieces, right? 

Foundation of Fundability

There are many pieces that help a business form a fundable foundation.  They are related to how your business is set up. It includes, among other things, being certain you incorporate your business.  This is vital. Find out more about how to build a foundation of fundability, as well more about fundability in general, go here. 

Next Comes Business Credit

After the foundation, business credit is one of the largest pieces of the puzzle.  If you can get it into place, you will be able to start to see the bigger picture. It can take a while to build this piece however.  It’s almost a smaller puzzle all on its own. More on business credit and how to build it later. For now, here are a few things that can affect your business credit that you might not realize.

Other Business Data Agencies 

In addition to the business CRAs that directly calculate and issue your credit reports, there are other business data agencies that affect those reports indirectly.  Two examples of this are LexisNexus and The Small Business Finance Exchange. These two agencies gather data from a variety of sources, including public records.  This means they could have access to information relating to automobile accidents and liens. While you may not be able to access or change the data the agencies have on your business, you can ensure that any new information they receive is positive.  Enough positive information can help counteract any negative information from the past. 

Identification Numbers 

In addition to the EIN, which is part of a fundable foundation, there are identifying numbers that go along with your business credit reports.  You need to be aware that these numbers exists. Some of them are assigned by the agency. However, one of them you have to apply to get. It is important that you do this. 

Dun & Bradstreet is the largest and most commonly used business credit reporting agency.  Every credit file in their database has a D-U-N-S number. You have to apply for it. You can do so on the D&B website. 

Business Credit History

Your credit history has to do with everything related to your credit score, which is a huge factor in the fundability of your business.  Many things affect your business credit history, but the more accounts you have reporting on-time payments, the stronger your credit score will be. 

Business Information

On the surface, it seems obvious that all of your business information should be consistent across the board.  However, when you start changing things up you may find that some things get missed. This is a problem because a ton of loan applications are turned down each year due to fraud concerns simply of things not matching up.  

Maybe your business licenses have your personal address but now you have a business address.  You have to change it. Perhaps some of your credit accounts have a slightly different name or a different phone number listed than what is on your loan application. Do your insurances all have the correct information?  

The key to avoiding this problem  is to monitor your reports frequently.   

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. 

Business and Personal Financial Statements

This encompasses a broad spectrum of things.  First, both your personal and business tax returns need to be in order.  Of course, you also need to be paying both your business and personal taxes.  

Beyond that, it is best to have an accounting professional prepare regular financial statements. Having an accountant’s name on financial statements lends to the legitimacy of your business. If you cannot afford this monthly or quarterly, then at least have professional statements prepared annually. Then, they will be available whenever you need to apply for a loan. 

Bureaus

There are several other agencies that hold information related to your personal finances. Everyone knows about FICO.  Your personal FICO score needs to be as strong as possible. Almost all traditional lenders will look at personal credit in addition to business credit. 

In addition to FICO reporting personal credit, there is ChexSystems.  This keeps up with bad check activity. It can make a difference when it comes to your bank score.  If you have too many bad checks, you will not be able to open a bank account. That will cause serious fundability issues. 

For this point, everything comes into play.  Have you ever been convicted of a crime? Do you have a bankruptcy or short sell on your record?  How about liens or UCC filings? 

Personal Credit Does Affect Business Fundability

Your personal credit score from Experian, Equifax, and Transunion all make a difference.  You have to have your personal credit in order because it will definitely affect the fundability of your business.  If it isn’t great right now, get to work on it. The number one way to get a strong personal credit score or improve a week one is to make payments consistently on time. 

Also, make sure you monitor your personal credit regularly to ensure to stay ahead of mistakes.

Application Process

So much plays into this that you may not even think about. First, consider the timing of the application.  Is your business currently fundable? If not, do some work first to increase fundability. Next, make sure that your business name, business address, and ownership status are all verifiable.   Lastly, make sure you choose the right lending product for your business and your needs. Do you need a traditional loan or a line of credit? Would a working capital loan or expansion loan work best for your needs?  Choose the right product to apply for can make all the difference. 

But What is Business Credit? 

Now that you see how business credit is just a piece of the bigger picture of fundability, it is easier to put it into context.  There is still the all-important question of what is business credit left to answer however. At its core, business credit is to your business what your personal credit score is to your personal finances.  Lenders use it to help determine whether you are a good credit risk, or not. 

Here’s the thing.  Business credit does not build passively like you personal credit does. You have to actively work to build it.  The first step in this process has to do with how you set up your business. It is exactly the same as setting up your business with a foundation of fundability.  You cannot build business credit without a fundable foundation. 

Why Do You Need It?

As noted above, business credit is just a piece of what makes a business fundable.  Another piece is the personal credit of the owner. That being the case, along with the fact that business credit simply builds as a result of your personal payment history, why do you even need business credit? 

Here’s why.  Having separate business credit can free up your personal credit from business transactions.  If you have a ton of business debt on your personal credit report, it could make it hard for you to get a loan for things such as a home or a car.  

What is Business Credit and How Do You Get It? 

Now that we’ve answered the question of what is business credit, you need to know how to get it. There is a process for building business credit, and if you follow it, you will be successful.  The first step is that foundation. The next step is getting accounts to report your on-time payments to your business credit rather than your personal credit. 

This is trickier than you may realize at first.  Similar to personal credit, it is hard to get business credit without already having business credit.  We know how to get around this however. 

Vendor Credit Tier

First you need to establish trade lines that report your payments to the business CRAs.  This is also known as the vendor credit tier. Then you’ll have an established credit profile, and you’ll begin building a business credit score. With an established business credit profile and score you can begin to get credit in the retail and cash credit tiers.

These kinds of accounts are usually for the things bought all the time, like marketing materials, shipping boxes, outdoor workwear, ink and toner, and office furniture.

What is trade credit? These trade lines come from credit issuers who will extend credit in the form of net 30, 60, or 90-day invoices without checking your credit.  This is not revolving credit, but since they report to the business CRAs, it serves the purpose anyway. 

Of course, not all vendors will do this. You need merchants that grant an approval with very little effort. You also need them to be reporting to one or more of the big three CRAs.  These are Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian.

You want 5 to 8 of these to move onto the next step, which is the retail credit tier. Go here for more about the vendor credit tier and a list of a few starter vendors to get you going in the right direction.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. 

Retail Credit Tier

Once there are 5 to 8 or more vendor trade accounts reporting to at least one of the CRAs, then move to the retail credit tier. These are businesses like Office Depot and Staples that issue credit cards for use at their stores only.

Fleet Credit Tier

Are there 8 to 10 accounts reporting? Then move onto the fleet credit tier. These include service providers like BP and Conoco. You can only use this credit to purchase fuel, and to fix, and take care of vehicles. 

Cash Credit Tier

This is the top tier.  If you have been using your credit in the other tiers responsibly, you should have a well-established credit score and be able to apply for credit in this tier.  These are general Visa, Discover, and Mastercard options that are not limited by location or type of purchase. They also generally have better rates and rewards. 

What is Business Credit?  Vitally Important!

Business credit is hugely important to the success of your business.  It can open opportunities to funding that you would not have otherwise.  It does take some time and some work to build it, but your business will be better off for it.   

The post What is Business Credit and How Does it Affect Fundability? appeared first on Credit Suite.

You Too Can Get a Bad Credit Business Credit Card

Need a bad credit business credit card? Poor personal credit does not have to affect whether you get a business credit card.

The Best Bad Credit Business Credit Card

We researched every bad credit business credit card we could find for you. So, here are our preferences.

Per the SBA, small business credit card limits are a whopping 10 – 100 times that of consumer credit cards!

This demonstrates you can get a lot more money with business credit. And it also shows you can have personal credit cards at retail stores. So, you would now have an additional card at the same retailers for your business.

And you will not need collateral, cash flow, or financials to get business credit.Bad Credit Business Credit Card Benefits

Perks can vary. So, make certain to choose the benefit you like from this assortment of alternatives.

Get a Secure Bad Credit Business Credit Card for Average Credit

Capital One® Spark® Classic for Business 

For average credit, we like the Capital One Spark Classic for Business. It has no yearly fee. There are cash-back rewards. The card earns an unlimited 1% cash back on all purchases. There is an annual fee of $0.

With this card, you will get benefits including an auto rental collision damage waiver, and purchase security. And you also get extended warranty coverage. And you get travel and emergency assistance services.

But BEAR IN MIND: the ongoing APR is 24.74% variable APR. And the penalty APR is even higher, 31.15%. Also, there is no sign-up bonus.

Get it here: https://www.capitalone.com/small-business/credit-cards/spark-classic/ 

Get a Bad Credit Business Credit Card and Build Your Credit

Discover it® Student Cash Back

Make sure to check out the Discover it® Student Cash Back card. It has no yearly fee. The credit card also offers a six-month introductory period of 0% APR on purchases. And there is an APR of 14.99 – 23.99% variable on all purchases after that period.

One distinct feature is that it offers an incentive for scholars to maintain good grades with a $20 statement credit. If students earn a GPA of 3.0 or better each school year, the card will award the $20 statement credit every year for up to five years.

Details

Use this card to build personal credit. While this is a personal card versus a company credit card, for new credit users, their FICO scores will matter. And this card provides an excellent way to raise FICO while also getting rewards.

You can get 5% cash back at different places each quarter like grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants or Amazon.com up to the quarterly maximum. After that, this card offers unlimited 1% cash back on all purchases.

In the first year, all cash back rewards are matched 100%.

Downsides include a cash advance fee of either $10 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance, whichever is greater. And even though they waive the first late payment fee, a fee of up to $37 applies on all other late payments. There is also a returned payment fee of up to $37.

Get it here: https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/cash-back/it-card.html 

Get a Bad Credit Business Credit Card with a Low APR/Balance Transfers

Discover it® Cash Back

Have a look at the Discover it® Cash Back card. There is a 10.99% introductory APR for six months from date of first transfer. So, this is for transfers under this offer which post to your account by January 10, 2019.

After the introductory APR expires, your APR will be 14.99% to 23.99%. So, this is based on your creditworthiness. Your APR will vary with the market, which is based upon the Prime Rate.

Details

You can earn 5% cash back at different places every quarter. So, these are places like gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, Amazon.com, or wholesale clubs. But this is up to the quarterly maximum each time you activate. In addition, automatically get unlimited 1% cash back on all other purchases.

You will earn an unlimited dollar-for-dollar match of all the cash back you have earned at the end of your first year, automatically.

Get it here: https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/cash-back/it-card.html 

Get an Ironclad Secured Bad Credit Business  Credit Card

Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card

Look at the Wells Fargo Business Secured Credit Card. It charges a $25 yearly fee per credit card (up to 10 employee cards). It also requires a minimum security deposit of $500 (up to $25,000) and it is meant to help cardholders build or rebuild their credit.

Choose this credit card if you want to earn 1.5% per dollar in purchases without any limits or get one point for every dollar in purchases. You also get 1,000 bonus points for every month your company makes $1,000 in purchases on the card.

Details

Also, you get free FICO scores every month. There are no foreign transaction fees. It is possible to upgrade to unsecured credit. Your account is regularly reviewed. And you may become eligible for an upgrade to an unsecured card with responsible use over time. Approval is not guaranteed and depends on factors including how you manage this and your other accounts.

APR is the current prime rate plus 11.90%. There is no introductory APR period and no sign-up bonus. This is not a credit card for balance transfers.

Get it here: https://www.wellsfargo.com/biz/business-credit/credit-cards/secured-card/ 

Get a Bad Credit Business Credit Card with 0% APR – Pay Absolutely Nothing!

Bank of America® Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard® Credit Card 

The Bank of America® Business Advantage Travel Rewards World Mastercard® credit card has no annual fee and comes with a 0% introductory APR on purchases for the initial nine months. After that, the card has a 13.24 – 23.24% variable APR

Earn 3 points/dollar spent when you book travel through the Bank of America Travel Center and 1.5 points/dollar on all other purchases. You can get unlimited points and points will never expire.

Details

There is a 25,000-point sign-up bonus when you spend $1,000 within the initial 60 days of opening the account. Cardholders get travel accident insurance, and lost luggage reimbursement. 

They additionally get trip cancellation coverage, trip delay reimbursement and other benefits.

There is no introductory rate for balance transfers. Also, bonus categories are limited.

Get it here: https://www.bankofamerica.com/smallbusiness/credit-cards/products/travel-rewards-business-credit-card/ 

JetBlue Plus Card

Consider the JetBlue Plus Card for an additional offer of a 0% introductory APR

Earn six points/dollar on JetBlue purchases, two points/dollar at eateries and grocery stores. And get one point/dollar on all other purchases. 

Details

Spend $1,000 in the first 90 days and pay the yearly fee. So, then you can get 40,000 bonus points. New cardholders receive a 12 month, 0% introductory APR on balance transfers made within 45 days of account opening.

After that, the variable APR on purchases and balance transfers is 17.99%, 21.99% or 26.99%, based upon creditworthiness. Benefits include a free first checked bag and 50% savings on in-flight purchases.

There is a $99 yearly fee for this card.

Bad Credit Business Credit Card Credit Suite

Establish business credit fast with our research-backed guide to 12 business credit cards and lines.

Get it here: https://cards.barclaycardus.com/cards/jetblue-card/  

Get an Extraordinary Bad Credit Business Credit Card with No Annual Fee 

Uber Visa Card 

Check out the Uber Visa Card. Uber is the very first ride-sharing service to offer a credit card, in a partnership with Visa and Barclays.

The card provides 4% back per dollar spent at restaurants, takeout and bars, including UberEATS. Also, earn 3% back on hotel, airfare and vacation home rentals. And earn 2% back on online purchases. 

So, this includes retailers and subscription services such as Uber and Netflix. And earn 1% back on all other purchases. Each percent/point has a value of 1 cent. Redeem points for cash back, gift cards or Uber credits directly in the app.

By spending a minimum of $500 in the first 90 days, users can earn a $100 sign-up bonus. Cardholders spending a minimum of $5,000 annually are eligible to receive a $50 credit toward online subscription services. 

Details

If you pay your cellular phone bill with this card, you are insured up to $600 for cellphone damage or theft.

Cardholders are eligible for exclusive access to specific events and offers. Uber expects the majority of these offers will be available in major cities like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and DC. There is no foreign transaction fee.

But there is no introductory rate. So the APR is a variable 16.99%, 22.74% or 25.74%, based on your creditworthiness. Cardholders with less than stellar credit will be on the higher end of the range. 

Also, there are restrictions on Uber credits. To redeem points as credits in the Uber app, accrue a minimum of 500 points, or $5. Cardholders can convert a maximum of 50,000 points, or $500, per day.

Get it here: https://www.uber.com/c/uber-credit-card/ 

Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi 

Not taking Uber? Then you’ll need to fill your gas tank someway. Why not do so with the Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi?

This card earns cash back with every purchase. Get 4% cash back on the first $7,000 spent on eligible gas purchases annually (1% after that). Get 3% cash back at restaurants and on eligible travel purchases. Also, get 2% cash back at Costco and Costco.com. And earn 1% cash back on all other purchases.

So note: the $0 yearly fee is only for Costco members. And an active Costco membership is required. Cardholders will get access to damage and theft purchase protection, extended warranty coverage and travel accident insurance.

Also, there is no sign-up bonus available with this card.

Get it here: https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/citi.action?ID=Citi-costco-anywhere-visa-business-credit-card

Ink Business Cash℠ Credit Card

Check out the Ink Business Cash ℠ Credit Card. Businesses can get cash back with each purchase. Spend $3,000 in the initial three months from account opening. And you’ll get a $500 bonus cash back.

There is a $0 yearly fee with a 0% introductory APR for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers. Thereafter, the APR is a 15.24 – 21.24% variable. 

The card includes travel and purchase coverage benefits. So, this includes an auto rental collision damage waiver and extended warranty protection.

Details

Earn additional cash back on business categories. So, these include office supply stores, telecommunications, gas stations and restaurants.

Note: this card has a balance transfer fee. Pay 5% of the amount transferred or $5, whichever is more. Also, there is a foreign transaction fee of 3%.

Get it here: https://creditcards.chase.com/small-business-credit-cards/ink-cash 

United MileagePlus Explorer Business Card

Get a good look at the United MileagePlus Explorer Business Card.

Earn 2 miles/dollar with United and at restaurants, gas stations and office supply stores. All other purchases get 1 mile/dollar. Earn a 50,000-mile sign-up bonus after spending $3,000 in the first three months from account opening. 

Benefits include priority boarding, a free first checked bag for you and a companion on the same reservation.

Details

Also, get two United Club passes annually. And get hotel and resort perks including upgrades. In addition, get early check-in and late checkout. And get an auto rental collision damage waiver. 

And also, get baggage delay insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, trip cancellation and interruption insurance. Finally, get trip delay reimbursement, purchase protection, price protection and concierge service.

After the first year, the card has an annual fee of $95. APR of 17.99% – 24.99%, based on creditworthiness.

Get it here: https://creditcards.chase.com/small-business-credit-cards/united-mileageplus-explorer-business 

Starwood Preferred Guest® Business Credit Card from American Express

Another alternative is the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express. 

This card is for those who stay at Starwood Preferred Guest and Marriott hotels often. Earn six points per dollar of eligible purchases at participating SPG and Marriott Rewards hotels.

And earn four points per dollar at American restaurants, US filling stations, and on US purchases for shipping. 

Also, earn four points to the dollar on wireless telephone services purchased directly from US service providers. For all other eligible purchases, get two points per dollar.

Details

Earn 75,000 bonus points when you spend $3,000 in the first three months of account opening. Benefits include free in-room premium internet access, Sheraton Club lounge access, and purchase protection. 

Plus, you get car rental loss and damage insurance. And you get baggage insurance. There is also a global assistance hotline. And there is a roadside assistance hotline. And get travel accident insurance and extended warranty coverage.

The biggest issue is the annual fee. There is a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then it’s $95 after that. Plus, there is no 0% introductory APR. Instead, there is a 17.74 – 26.74% variable APR

Get it here: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/business/business-credit-cards/spg-amex-starwood-credit-card 

Get a Terrific Bad Credit Business Credit Card for Cash Back

SimplyCash Plus Business Credit Card from American Express

Consider the SimplyCash Plus Business Credit Card from American Express. There is a $0 yearly fee. And there is a 0% APR on purchases So this is for the first 15 months an account is open. 

But when the introductory period ends, the APR for purchases is 14.24 to 21.24%. So, this is variable and based on creditworthiness.

Details

This card has several benefits. These include purchase protection, car rental loss and damage insurance. And they also include a baggage insurance plan, extended warranty coverage and a global assist hotline.

Also, get 5% cash back at US office supply stores and on wireless phone services. So, these must be purchased from US providers. But this pertains to the initial $50,000 of yearly spending. Then, you get 1% cash back.

You also earn 3% cash back on spending category of your choice. So, this is from eight distinct categories. They include airfare, gas, advertising and computer purchases. But it applies to the first $50,000 of yearly spending. Then, you earn 1% cash back.

Cash-back bonuses are automatically credited to the customer’s billing statement.

Note: you cannot use this credit card for balance transfers. There is a foreign transaction fee of 2.7%. The card charges up to $38 in late fees. And the returned check fee is also $38. The penalty APR is 29.99%. 

And, it kicks in if you have two or more late payments within 12 months. It can also apply if you fail to make the minimum payment on time or have a returned payment.

Get it here: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/credit-cards/simply-cash-plus-business-credit-card/44279 

Capital One® Quicksilver® Card 

Look at the Capital One® Quicksilver® Card. It offers flat-rate rewards of 1.5% on all purchases. There are no limits to the amount of cash back rewards that cardholders can earn. Also, the card has a $0 annual fee.

New cardholders have a 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months after opening the account. And then they have a 14.74 – 24.74% (variable) APR after that. 

A cash bonus of $150 is available for those who make a minimum of $500 in purchases within 3 months of account opening.

Details

Also, cash back rewards do not expire for the life of the account. And there is no limit to how much you can earn.

This card also offers travel accident insurance. And you get an auto rental collision damage waiver. There are no foreign transaction fees. And there is extended warranty coverage.

Downsides are the flat reward rate, not allowing for any more than that. And the higher APR after the first 15 months.

Get it here: https://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/quicksilver/ 

Bad Credit Biz Card Credit Suite

Establish business credit fast with our research-backed guide to 12 business credit cards and lines.

Get an Unbeatable Bad Credit Business Credit Card for Jackpot Rewards

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Check out at the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card for travel points.

You can earn two points to the dollar spent on travel and dining at restaurants. And you can get one point per dollar on all other purchases. Points can be redeemed for cash back, gift cards, or travel. 

The card’s benefits include trip cancellation insurance, travel and emergency assistance services. They also include an auto rental collision damage waiver, purchase protection and extended warranty protection.

When you spend $4,000 in the initial 3 months from account opening, you will get 50,000 bonus points. These points are worth $625 if you redeem them for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Details

You can get an unlimited two points per dollar for travel and dining at restaurants. Then afterwards earn one point per dollar for all other purchases. Points will transfer equally to 13 leading frequent travel programs with partners. So, these include British Airways, Southwest Airlines, United, and Marriott.

There is no 0% introductory APR on purchases or balance transfers. The card’s standard APR is 17.74 – 24.74% variable. Also, the card has an annual fee of $0 introductory for the first year. And then it skyrockets to $95.

Get it here: https://creditcards.chase.com/rewards-credit-cards/chase-sapphire-preferred 

Ink Business Preferred ℠ Credit Card

Get a look at the Ink Business Preferred Credit Card from Chase. Cardholders earn 3 points for every dollar spent on travel, shipping, internet, cable, phone and qualifying advertising with the card. So, this is up to $150,000 each year. And all other purchases earn an unlimited one point per dollar spent.

This is a Visa card.

Cardholders get benefits like purchase protection, trip cancellation or interruption insurance. They also get cellphone protection. And they get extended warranty coverage. And they get an auto rental collision damage waiver.

Details

Earn 80,000 bonus points when you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months from account opening. There is an annual fee of $95. You can add employee credit cards at no additional cost.

This card only offers 3 points per dollar to a limit of $150,000 a year. So, this is for travel, shipping, internet, cable, phone and qualifying advertising. All other purchases get an unlimited flat rate of one point per dollar. And there is no introductory APR

Get it here: https://creditcards.chase.com/small-business-credit-cards/ink-business-preferred 

Bad Credit Biz Credit Card Credit Suite

Establish business credit fast with our research-backed guide to 12 business credit cards and lines.

The Perfect Business Credit Cards for You

Your outright best bad credit business credit card will hinge on your credit history and scores.

Only you can pick which features you want and need. So, make sure to do your homework. What is excellent for you could be catastrophic for somebody else.

And, as always, be sure to establish credit in the recommended order for the best, speediest benefits.

The post You Too Can Get a Bad Credit Business Credit Card appeared first on Credit Suite.

Support Work Place Mental Health and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week

Are you supporting work place mental health at your business? We show you how to make your workplace friendlier for mental health. Plus, nine more awesome tips to close the deals while treating your employees right.

The Hottest and Most Brilliant Business Tips for YOU – Support Work Place Mental Health and More

Our research ninjas at Credit Suite smuggled out ten amazing business tips for you! Be fierce and score in business with the best tips around the web. You can use them today and see fast results. You can take that to the bank – these are foolproof! Starting better supporting work place mental health for your employees and more.

Stop making stupid decisions and start powering up your business. Demolish your business nightmares and start celebrating as your business fulfills its promise.

And these brilliant business tips are all here for free! So, settle in and scoop up these tantalizing goodies before your competition does!

#10. Be Real!

Our first jaw-dropping tip is all about building an authentic Instagram audience. Entrepreneur says your aim should be to create a community, and not just a bunch of followers. But the tip we loved was the first one – and it leads directly into the one about a community.

Follow Hashtags to Instagram Glory

Now, the truth is, you can do this on Twitter and Facebook as well. Although, note that on Facebook there’s less of a culture of using hashtags on posts, replies, notes, etc. People use hashtags to cull the tsunami of information they get every day on social media. It’s easier to read enough content to fill, say, an hour, versus 24 hours. Heck, it’s not possible to keep up with everything anyway.

This takes advantage of a truth for everyone. We all curate our social media feeds, or we let algorithms do that work for us. Because none of see everything. It’s physically impossible.

This means your ideal audience is doing so as well. The posts they click on and react to are fueling the algorithm. They’re essentially telling the algorithm what interests them. So, let’s say you have a dry cleaning establishment. People might not be taking about it too much on Instagram. But for those who are, they’re probably using hashtags like #drycleaning and #drycleaner. They may even be using hashtags like #laundry and #delicatefabric or #lookinggood.

As you find these people, engage with them. This means commenting on photos and maybe sending a personal message. But be mindful of the fact that not everyone likes personal messages. And, you probably shouldn’t lead with one. ‘Cause that’s just creepy.

#9. Soften Your Sales for Success

The next awesome tip is about how to use soft selling in your sales efforts. Mail Shake notes that soft selling doesn’t mean passive selling. You are still trying to sell, after all. 

Personalization

We have been beating this drum for quite a while, and so have many of the articles we’ve been reading lately. Because of technology, personalization is possible on a grander scale than ever before.

As a result, we loved their comparison between hard and soft selling. For hard sales, you get the prospect’s contact information. But there’s no specifics on that. Whereas for soft sales, it comes from personal contact, such as networking, social media engagement, or inbound marketing. 

We are all on the lookout for scams. What sounds more like a scam to you? Is it someone calling you out of the blue with a sales offer, or someone you know, at least a little, making that same offer?

In the next tip, we’ll cover building trust.

Work Place Mental Health Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Support work place mental health and treat your employees and customers right – plus nine other great tips this week.

#8. Build Trust Brick by Brick in Current Relationships

Our following life-changing tip concerns building trust in extant relationships. LinkedIn lays it all out for us. Of course, we are talking about this in the context of sales. But this could work for your not-so-commercial relationships, too.

Don’t believe us? Then try this tip on for size.

Treat Your Customers as if They Were Prospects

Essentially, as in life, don’t take people for granted!

Kind of a good idea no matter what, eh? 

Checking in on existing customers is a great way to build trust and to set the stage for, perhaps, renewals or even upsells. And, let’s face it, you’ve spent a ton of time courting a prospect and converting them to a customer. Abandoning them once the check is cashed is the very antithesis of that. 

And how should your customers feel if the only times you contact them are when it comes to getting your hands on some more of their cold, hard cash?

How would you feel?

#7. Perfect That Elevator Pitch for Investors

For our next sensational tip, we looked at avoiding errors in your first meeting with investors. Startup Professionals says that there are eight errors which you should be doing your best to avoid.

Actually, this is good advice for any sort of an elevator pitch, such as when you’re bucking for a new job. We encourage you to read the article and see for yourself. Hence, we’ll concentrate on one tip.

Stop. Talking. So. Fast.

Did you know that the attention span for elevator pitches is just 30 – 60 seconds? And that means about 150 – 250 words.

Any more than that, and you’re just overloading your potential investor. This means two things are in order. One, practice, practice, practice so you don’t lose words to um, uh, and er. And two, consult a thesaurus and find better, more descriptive words if you need them.  This doesn’t mean $100 words. Rather, it means being succinct, so long as you can be understood.

That means instead of saying “our product is between blue and green”, you say, “our product is teal”. It’s not just faster and more succinct. It’s also more confident-sounding.

https://creditsuite.wistia.com/medias/94z8msbn94 

#6. Empower Your Employees with Productivity Software

This tip is so cool, and it works! The SBA tells us all about productivity software to empower your employees. That’s a great way to support work place mental health, eh?

Our favorite tip had to do with showing big goals to your entire team. We loved that because it gathers all of the trees into a forest. That means it’s time for a true story.

Your Work Matters

Way back when – as in, the 90s – your intrepid blog writer worked as a data analyst for the Legal Department of a large insurance company. This company routinely spent millions of dollars every year on outside counsel. Their list of law firms topped 3,000 firms.

And so, I was asked to do two things – figure out if a firm is being paid fairly and determine if we can let a firm go and get another to pick up the slack.

This meant gathering a ton of supporting information from local offices. It also meant putting together a system for deciding ‘fairness’. Now, this is before much of the internet (we didn’t have access, anyway) existed, so there was no looking up salaries online. 

With no information on the big picture, I never learned just how much money the company saved because they ended up with a workable system to decide how much to pay their outside counsel.  With no information on the overarching reason for my task, I felt purposeless.

And, you guessed it, I finished the project and left shortly thereafter.

Employees want to have a sense of purpose. Showing them what their work is leading to can do that.

#5. Take the Time to Support Work Place Mental Health at Your Business

Grab this mind-blowing tip while it’s hot! 

Support work place mental health – it’s the right thing to do.

Entrepreneurs’ Organization says work place mental health is not a subject everyone is comfortable with. But they should be.

Now, keep in mind that the article does not suggest that managers or entrepreneurs need to become therapists. In fact, one of their tips is to bring in a work place mental health counselor. This can be someone accessed remotely.

But here’s the tip we really liked and think should be explored in some depth.

Give Your Managers TrainingWorkplace Office Mental Health Credit Suite

 This is not necessarily to be able to tell if someone has a mental health issue. It’s more to train your management to be more sensitive to the employees who report to them. This means praising people publicly when they do well. And it also means kindly addressing problems early, and in private.

If your employees feel comfortable talking to you about their work performance, then they just might feel comfortable talking to you about their work place mental health. And if you are a sensitive manager who pays attention to your employees, then you may notice when they are feeling off.

Depression Isn’t Just Feeling Down

We would be remiss if we didn’t touch upon this. And it wasn’t covered in the article, but it’s still vital. There are a number of memes flying around which claim that depression in particular is just an instance of temporary sadness or even inattention. As if counting your blessings could cure a serotonin imbalance!

So, keep in mind that an employee suffering from depression might not, to you, look ill. They may be holding it together as well as they can during business hours. But then at home, it all comes out. 

And, the corollary to this is also true. An employee who’s down – particularly if there’s a readily identifiable cause – isn’t necessarily a person with mental health issues. That doesn’t mean you can’t offer counseling services, of course. Divorce, death, miscarriage, estrangement from family – these can all make people feel bad, of course. 

Supporting workplace mental health means accounting for that, too.

In short, be kind, for everyone you know is fighting a battle you know nothing about.

Work Place Mental Health Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Support work place mental health and treat your employees and customers right – plus nine other great tips this week.

#4. Hello, My Name is Email

Check out this spectacular tip, all about how to successfully introduce yourself over email. HubSpot notes that there’s an actual formula to writing an email to someone you don’t know – at all.

This is an excellent article, and we strongly encourage you to read it through to the end. It truly is that good.

So, instead we’re going to concentrate on one of their steps.

Make Your First Line About Them

How many times have you received an unsolicited email that started with – my name is ___? Or it started with – I’m writing to you because ___. You may have sent emails like that. Your intrepid blog writer sure has (oops, sorry).

But it’s an email. The sender’s name is already on there. And it isn’t, then the sender can add their name in their signature line, and they should. 

Rather, try opening with a line like – I see that you won the __ prize recently. Or, I just saw your post about __ on ___. Here’s another: I’ve never learned so much from one piece of content.

Then, segue into why you’re writing – and it should be related to your opener. By definition, that means it needs to be related to the recipient. Here’s an idea:

I’ve never learned so much from one piece of content. To that end, I would love to get your quote for a similar article I’m writing.

By the way, this approach could work for anything from sending a resume to contacting someone’s dating profile… 

#3. Where Do You Want to Go Today?

It’s not your imagination: this winning tip can help you create a vision board. Score tells us that vision boards are a way to see where you want your life to go. And that can be for either your personal or professional life. 

This article concentrates more on vision boards for a personal life. But there’s no reason why it can’t be adapted for professional use.

Consider the Future

For a personal vision board, it might be representations of a place you’d like to live or visit. Or it may be images of fitness or other goals. For professional goals, it could be visuals of success – for you or the business.

What does this spell, in terms of images? It could be a corner office or a picture of a second location. Or it could be an image of a lot of employees.

So, Where Do You Want Your Business to Go?

What are your business’s goals? If you own a trucking company, maybe you want to be the premier provider in Utah. Or maybe you want to hire more drivers or get more trucks. It could be that you have a company you’d like to snag as a client.

Having a visual representation of success can be inspiring to a lot of people. Why not decorate your workplace with a vision board? Talk about supporting workplace mental health, too. Because when you take others’ ideas into consideration, then they can feel a lot less isolated. That might make a difference for someone.

#2. Are You Meeting 401(k) Standards in Your Business?

Our second to last unbeatable tip can give you a new perspective on making sure you meet 401(k) standards in your business. Effortless HR reveals all about this essential part of benefits handling.

Our fave tip was about having what is essentially a form of insurance. It’s actually an ERISA fidelity bond. The bond has to be equal to the lesser of $500,000 or 10% of the total investment accounts that you hold. This insurance bond protects your business if errors are found in your management of the 401(k) plan. 

Did you know you needed that in order to offer a 401(k) to your employees? 

#1. Master the Clock

We saved the best for last. For our favorite remarkable tip, we focused on improving time management. Under 30 CEO says better managing your time means you’re that much more likely to achieve your goals. 

We’ve seen some of these tips before, to spend your leisure time on leisure, and to stop multitasking. Another tip we’ve already seen is to leverage your commute for minor work tasks (which is technically multitasking).

And while this tip is also something we’ve seen before; we’d like to showcase it anyway because we think everyone should do.

Banish Distractions

Quartz says the average smartphone user gets 63.5 notifications per day. We think this figure is grossly understated.

Of course, this isn’t the only source of distractions out there. But it’s one over which we all have some control. Do you honestly need to know every time someone has commented on a topic you answered in a forum? Or can you wait for a daily digest? Maybe you can skip the notification 100% and just visit that forum whenever you feel like it.

Yes, we all want to know when our appointments are. And we need to know if family are ill or otherwise need us. But do we really need to immediately know how many people liked a tweet?

Go into your apps and any sites you visit, and fiddle with the notification settings. See what works for you. You’ll probably find you don’t need to know everything, all the time, ASAP.

Take back your life.

So, which one of our brilliant business tips was your favorite? And which one will you be implementing now? 

Work Place Mental Health Credit Suite

If you are as passionate about succeeding in business as we are, please help us spread the word about how to take the plunge and save time and money – and your sanity! Support work place mental health and treat your employees and customers right – plus nine other great tips this week.

The post Support Work Place Mental Health and More –10 Brilliant Business Tips of the Week appeared first on Credit Suite.

What is Your Business Credit File and Why Does it Matter

What you don’t know about your business credit file can hurt you.  You see, your business credit file is to your company as your personal credit file is to you as an individual.  It details your credit history. In addition, it makes predictions about your ability to repay debts both now and into the future.  These predictions are based upon not only your credit history, but also company finances and data received from other sources, such as public records.  Lenders use it to help determine whether or not to lend to your business.

Your Business Credit File Affects Your Fundability, and That’s a Big Deal

The thing is, your business credit file isn’t the only thing they use.  It is simply a piece of a bigger puzzle known as fundability. When lenders look at your credit file, they are looking at it with fundability in mind.  What is fundability? It is, overall, how your business looks to lenders in regards to return on investment. 

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. 

Lenders are in it for the profits.  If you do not pay back the debt, they do not make money.  Therefore, they only approve loans to those businesses that appear to be fundable.  These are business that have all their ducks in a row. All licensees are in place. Contact and ownership information is complete, dedicated, and verifiable.  There is a business bank account, and bills are being paid. All of this and more, including your business credit file, come together to create a complete fundability picture.  Find out more about fundability and how to become fundable here. 

How to Start a Business Credit Filebusiness credit file Credit Suite

Unlike your personal credit file, your business credit file is not something that occurs passively.  For it to be complete and correct, you have to take action. This looks different depending on the business credit reporting agency (CRA.)  Some of them do automatically open a file once a business starts opening accounts and those accounts start reporting. However, if that business is not set up properly to build business credit, the information will be all tangled up with personal information and will not accurately reflect the creditworthiness of the business itself. 

Other CRAs requires you to manually take action to open an account specifically with them.  For example, with Dun & Bradstreet you have to get a D-U-N-S number.  

Other than that, the main thing to do is get accounts reporting to the business CRAs.  There are several, but the most commonly used are Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax.  The key is to open business accounts that will report your payments to these agencies. With some, you can also self-report accounts to get your credit rolling, but that isn’t always the best idea.

Self-reporting

Dun & Bradstreet and Equifax each allow you to self-report your payments on accounts.   If you are already in business with vendors that will not report payments, and you cannot make a change, this may be an option.  

Don’t forget you have to have a D-U-N-S number before you start reporting to D&B.  If you don’t have that number already, accounts reported will not matter. Also, it costs money to self-report.  

Additionally, they will try to sell you other products in the process.  If these products will be useful to you, feel free to consider them. Just know that they are not necessary to open your business credit file.  In fact, many of the products and services you will be offered are provided for free by other companies. 

If you choose to self-report with Equifax, you will have to meet certain minimum requirements.  For financial businesses, this means you must have a minimum of 500 vendors to report, and all other businesses must have a minimum of 2,000 vendors. 

Experian does not allow self-reporting, but rather relies on verified information from third-parties. In fact, if you are currently running a business, you probably already have a business credit file with Experian.

 While it is allowed, self-reporting can be costly.  Not only that, but it doesn’t always result in a score increase.  Accounts will report to your business credit file for free anyway if you handle things properly.

It is better to ensure your good credit practices are reported to all three credit agencies by verified third parties rather than self-reporting.  How does this happen? 

Check with Current Vendors

If you have any current vendor relationships, find out if they report your payments to the credit agencies.  If they do not, ask them to do so. They don’t have too, but if they won’t, see about finding other vendors that will. While it isn’t always possible to switch vendors, it is worth it to try. 

For future vendors, ask the question before you begin a business relationship.  This will help establish a business credit file from the beginning. 

Work with Vendors in the Vendor Credit Tier

The credit tiers are a new concept for many business owners.  Here is how it works. You start by opening accounts with vendors, often called starter vendors, in the vendor credit tier. These are vendors that will extend net 30 terms without a credit check, and then report your payments to the business credit reporting agencies. 

After you get enough of these reporting, you can apply for credit cards in the retail credit tier, the fleet credit tier, and the cash credit tier, in that order.  Find out more about starter vendors and the process of working through the credit tiers here. 

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. 

Get a Business Credit Card

Virtually all credit card companies report to the credit agencies.  Use your business name and contact information and apply for a business credit card.  You may have to make do with a lower credit limit and higher interest rate early on if you do not yet have a business credit score.  However, once you build your credit file a bit, you can ask for an increase in limit or apply for a card with more favorable terms.  

Remember to look for cards with other perks as well.  A few examples of business credit cards and the perks they offer include: 

    • Capital One Spark Cash for Business– unlimited 2% cash back on all purchases, which can add up to a lot over the course of a year.   In addition, you get a 0% introductory APR and, if you spend $4,500 in the first 3 months, you qualify for a $500 cash sign up bonus. 
    • Chase Ink Business Unlimited- unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases, and you can earn a $500 cash bonus here too.  There is no annual fee, and you get 0% on balance transfers and purchases for 12 months. 
  • Ink Business Cash Credit Card- 0% APR for 12 months and 5% cash back on purchases made in certain business categories, as well as a $500 sign up bonus. 

Be aware that you probably will not qualify for these immediately if your business credit file is new or incomplete.  Once you get the ball rolling and have a strong business credit score however, these should be accessible.

Ask Utilities to Report Payments

Most utilities do not report payments to credit agencies.  Furthermore, they don’t have to. However, some of them will report if you ask.  The worst they can say is no. Then, if they say yes and you pay on time, it can only help you. 

Consider Taking Out a Private Business Loan

Some private lenders will offer business loans with a low credit score and report payments to business credit reporting agencies.  Here are a few to consider. 

BlueVine

Many private lenders offer options more similar to invoice factoring and lines of credit.  Why? These types of products present less risk than straight term loans.    

The minimum loan amount available from BlueVine is $5,000 and the maximum is $100,000. Annual revenue must be $120,000 or more, and the borrower must be in business for at least 6 months. Personal credit score has to be 600 or above. Also, BlueVine does not offer a line of credit in all states.  You can find out more in our review here.

They report to Experian.  They are one of the few invoice factoring companies that will report to the business credit bureaus. 

Fundation

Fundation offers a fast automated process. Originally, they only offered invoice financing.  Later, they included the line of credit service. Repayments are automatic.  They draft them electronically on a weekly basis.  One thing to remember is that repayment could be as high as 5 to 7% of the amount you have drawn currently. This is because the repayment period is relatively short.  

You can get loans for as little as $100 and as high as up to $100,000, but the max initial draw is $50,000.   They do have some products that go up to $500,000.  Though there is no minimum credit score requirement, they do require at least 3 months in business, $50,000 or more in annual revenue, and a business checking account with a minimum balance of $500.

Fundation reports to Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax SBFE, PayNet, and Experian.  As a result, they are a great option if you are looking to build a healthy credit file. 

The Business Backer

These guys offer a product they call FlexFund Line of Credit.  Funds vary in amounts from $5,000 to $240,000.  Draws can be repaid on either a weekly or daily basis.

They report to Dun & Bradstreet and Equifax.

OnDeck

With OnDeck, applying for financing is quick and easy. Apply online, and you will receive your decision once application processing is final. Loan funds will go straight to your bank account. The minimum loan amount is $5,000 and the maximum is $500,000.

There is a personal credit score requirement of 600 or more.  Also, you must be in business for at least one year. There is an annual revenue requirement of at least $100,000 as well. In addition, there can’t be a bankruptcy on file in the past 2 years. No unresolved liens or judgements are allowed either. 

OnDeck reports to the standard business credit bureaus.

Check out our best webinar with its trustworthy list of seven vendors to help you build business credit. 

Credit Monitoring

You know what your business credit file is and how to start it.  You have a toolbox full of tips to help make it stronger. Still, you have no clue what yours actually says.  How can you find out what is on your credit file? Furthermore, how can you correct any mistakes on your file?  That is where credit monitoring comes into play. 

Monitoring your business credit file can help you get an idea of how it is affecting the fundability of your business.  Unfortunately, you cannot get a free copy of your business credit reports like you can with your personal credit reports.  It costs money to monitor your business credit as a general rule.

For example, the big three charge close to $50 or more for each report: 

  • Dun & Bradstreet reports range in price from $61 to $229 per report. 
  • Experian reports are $49.95 per report. 
  • Equifax is $99.95 per report. 

However, you can monitor your credit with D&B and Experian at a fraction of these costs by going to https://www.creditsuite.com/monitoring/. 

What to Do If You Find a Mistake on Your Credit File

First, if you find any inaccuracies in contact information, simply update it.  You will need to do so in writing. Next, look over reporting accounts. If you see any accounts that are not yours, you will also need to contact the company in writing.  It is likely the mistake is due to another business having a similar name, so you may have to do some research and send in copies of your incorporation documents. You may also have to contact the company that is reporting the account. 

If you find accounts reporting late or missed payments that you know are incorrect, notify the CRA of the mistake in writing.  Send copies of supporting documentation showing that the payments were made and when they were made. 

Monitoring your business credit file is vital to keeping it complete, accurate, and healthy.

Your Business Credit File Affects Fundability: It’s Important!

Your business credit file is only one part of the much bigger fundability picture.  However, it is a hugely important part. In fact, without it, the whole picture is pretty much ruined.  For your business to be fundable, your business credit has to be in order.  

This means ensuring your business is set up as an entity separate from yourself, and making sure all your information is consistent across all channels.  

The post What is Your Business Credit File and Why Does it Matter appeared first on Credit Suite.

Save Your Bank Credit Score and Get Business Financing

Business financing is a challenge for many businesses. Don’t make it harder to get business financing with a bad bank credit score. We show you how to fix it.

Business Financing Can Be a Challenge If You Damage Your Bank Credit Score

Of course you want business financing. Every business owner does. But there’s a little-known number called a bank credit rating. And it may be making it harder for you to get money.

Your Bank Credit Rating – What’s it All About?

Did you know there are many ways you can ravage your bank credit rating? It is, regrettably, rather simple to run a power saw through your bank rating.

However prior to going any further, do you understand the distinction between bank credit ratings and company credit?

Company credit is the full and complete amount of money that your company can get from all types of creditors. That means the banking system, credit unions, credit card companies, and renting companies. And it also means providers, under what’s called trade credit or vendor credit or trade lines. That is, the vendor credit tier.

A bank credit score, on the other hand, is a measure of the sum total of borrowing capability which a company can get from the banking system only. 

Bank Credit Ratings Explained

A company can get more company credit rapidly, so long as it has at the very least one financial institution reference and an average daily account balance of at the very least $10,000 for the most recent three month period. This setup will generate a bank credit score of a Low-5. So this means it is an Adjusted Debt Balance of from $5,000 to $30,000.

A lower score, like a High-4, or balance of $7,000 to $9,999 will not instantly turn down the small business’s loan application. Nonetheless, it will slow down the approval process.

What is a Bank Rating?

A bank rating is a measure of the average minimum balance as maintained in a business bank account over a three month long period. Thus a $10,000 balance| will rank as a Low-5, a $5,000 balance will rank as a Mid-4. So a $999 balance will rate as a High-3, and so on.

A company’s principal objective ought to always be to maintain a minimum Low-5 bank score (or, an average $10,000 balance) for at the very least three months. This is because, without at least a Low-5 rating, most banks will operate under the presumption that the business has little to no ability to repay a loan or a business line of credit.

However there is one thing to keep in mind: you will never really see this number. The financial institution will just keep this number in its back pocket.

The Bank Score Ranges

The numbers work out to the following ranges:

To get a High-5 score, your company will need to have an account balance of $70,000 to $99,999. For a Mid-5 rating, your company has to have an account balance of $40,000 to $69,999. And for a Low-5 score, your company has to keep an account balance of $10,000 to $39,000. So your business needs this level bank score or better so as to get a bank loan.

For a High-4 rating, your company needs to have an account balance of $7,000 to $9,999. And for a Mid-4 rating, your business must have an account balance of $4,000 to $6,999. So for a Low-4 rating, your business will need to have an account balance of $1,000 to $3,999.

Ruining Your Bank Score

And now, without further ado, below are 7 ways you can leave your bank score in tatters.

1st Way to Ruin Your Bank Credit and Miss Out on Business Financing

Banks are extremely motivated to lend to a company with regular deposits. And a business owner must also make regular deposits in order to maintain a positive bank score. The business owner must make several consistent deposits, more than the withdrawals they are making, in order to have and preserve a great bank rating. If they can do that, then they will have a great bank credit score.

Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, right? So be a free spirit!

2nd Way to Destroy Your Bank Credit 

Do not let your company show a positive cash flow. The money coming in and leaving your firm’s bank account should reflect a positive free cash flow.

A positive free cash flow is the quantity of income left over after a firm has paid all of its expenses. According to Investopedia, it “represents the cash a company can generate after required investment to maintain or expand its asset base. It is a measurement of a company’s financial performance and health.”

When an account shows a positive cash flow it shows your small business is generating more income than is used to run the business. That means the bank will feel your company can pay its bills.

So if you truly want to damage your bank score, purchase whatever’s expensive for your small business so your expenditures outstrip your profits. Doesn’t every manufacturing facility deserve plush carpeting in the loading dock?

Business Financing Credit Suite

Check out our professional research on bank ratings, the little-known reason why you will – or won’t – get a get a bank loan for your business.

3rd Way to Damage Your Bank Credit Score and Miss Out on Business Financing

To add to #4, do not include overdraft protection to your bank account as soon as possible, to avoid NSFs. Why bother thinking ahead or planning for the future? Everything is going to be excellent forever, right?

Writing checks insufficient funds (NSFs) is a sure way to ruin your bank rating.

4th Way to Damage Your Bank Credit Score

Never handle your bank account responsibly. This means that your small business ought to not avoid writing non-sufficient funds (NSF) checks at all costs, because those annihilate bank scores. Non-sufficient-funds checks are something which no small business can afford to let happen.

Balancing checkbooks and accounts is so boring anyway. You’ve got adequate cash without even making sure, right?

5th Way to Ruin Your Bank Credit Score and Miss Out on Business Financing

To go along with #6, do not make certain that each and every credit bureau and trade credit vendor likewise lists the business name and address the precise same way. This is every keeper of financial records, revenue and sales taxes, web addresses and e-mail addresses, directory assistance, etc.

No lending institution is going to stop to consider the myriad manners in which a business may be listed, when they check out the business’s creditworthiness. Thus if they are not able to discover what they require easily, they will either deny an application or it won’t be reported to a business credit reporting agency such as Experian, Equifax or Dun & Bradstreet.

Therefore, if they are unable to discover what they need conveniently, they will just deny the application. So see to it your documents are a mess!

6th Way to Damage Your Bank Credit 

Don’t bother to guarantee that your business bank accounts are reported precisely the same way as every one of your business documents are, and also with the precise same physical address (no post office box) and phone number. Sow confusion in this area by changing one and not another, or not remedying an error if there is one.

Business Financing Credit Suite

Check out our professional research on bank ratings, the little-known reason why you will – or won’t – get a get a bank loan for your business.

7th Way to Ruin Your Bank Credit Rating and Miss Out on Business Financing

Don’t maintain a minimum balance for a minimum of three months. Since every bank rating cycle is based on the previous three months, a consistently seesawing balance should damage your bank score.

Destroy Your Business’s Bank Score – Although You Will Never See It

You, the entrepreneur must never make consistent deposits. And these deposits must never be more than the withdrawals you are making, in order to destroy your bank credit rating.

If you can do these things, then your business will have a horrible bank credit score. And, consequently, a bad bank credit rating means your firm is far less likely to get business loans.

Just Kidding: Of Course We Don’t Truly Want You to Ruin Your Business’s Bank Credit Rating!

So, where do you go from here?

The 1st Great Way to Rescue Your Bank Credit Score and Get Business Financing

Maybe the simplest way to achieve and maintain a good bank credit score is to deposit at least $10,000 into your business bank account and maintain it there for as long as a half year. While you will still need to make consistent deposits, this one easy step will help in three ways. One, you will have kept a good minimum balance for at the very least three months. Two, you will more than likely not overdraw with such a good balance. And 3, you will be at the magic minimum for a Low-5 bank credit score. Therefore you will be dealing with our #4 and #7, above.

And you might even be able to get around our #3. Yet we still highly recommend overdraft protection.

The 2nd Wonderful Way to Rescue Your Bank Credit Rating and Get Business Financing

A 2nd requirement is to ensure your small business account information are consistent across the board, all over. While it might take some work order to make sure everything is right, you will be dealing with our #5 as well as #6, above.

The 3rd Great Way to Rescue Your Bank Credit Score and Get Business Financing

A third requirement is to make consistent deposits, as well as make certain they are greater than the quantities you are taking out every month. This will take care of our #1 as well as #2 smoothly.

Make it Easier to Get Business Financing With a Great Bank Credit Score: Takeaways

Your bank score is not to be trifled with. Although the financial institutions maintain a secret concerning them, failing to keep your bank credit rating high will make it a whole lot harder to do well in business.

Business Financing Credit Suite

Check out our professional research on bank ratings, the little-known reason why you will – or won’t – get a get a bank loan for your business.

The post Save Your Bank Credit Score and Get Business Financing appeared first on Credit Suite.

Organisation Broker Guide- How To Choose A Reliable Business Broker

Service Broker Guide- How To Choose A Reliable Business Broker Organisation brokers or service transfer representatives are valuable in offering your service at greater rates. A service broker gives purchasers as well as vendors for various services. Company brokers locate purchasers for you to make a reliable organisation sale. Company broker can be an individual …

How Fundability and Minority Small Business Grants Can Build Off Each Other

First, to be clear, minority small business grants, and any grants for that matter, are totally free money that you do not have to pay back.  As such, those awarding grants typically do not consider your ability to repay a grant in the selection process. That doesn’t mean that fundability doesn’t matter though.  It does.  … Continue reading How Fundability and Minority Small Business Grants Can Build Off Each Other

The Secret To Protecting Your Business Assets

The Secret To Protecting Your Business Assets

No matter the kind of company you carry out, there is a considerable danger of being filed a claim against in our litigious culture. Legal actions can vary from insurance claims of oversight to faulty items to disagreements with workers. Including is a way of defending against these prospective hazards.

Solitary Incorporation – Protecting Your Personal Assets

Including your organisation is a technique for producing a lawful wall surface in between your individual possessions as well as organisation. If a judgment is provided versus your company, the service possessions are as excellent as gone.

Dual Incorporation Strategy – Protect Your Business Assets

If you integrate your service, it is all well and also great that your individual possessions are not at threat. Simply integrating your company will certainly not secure these possessions since they are had by the company entity. Because an effective suit would certainly result in a judgment versus the service entity, all possessions of the service can be taken as component of the judgment.

As the name recommends, the dual consolidation approach entails the development of 2 organisation entities. The initial is your “at danger” service that engages with your customers or clients. The 2nd entity, a “holding company”, is after that developed to have the important properties of your organisation.

Lots of people understand that a company entity can be utilized to produce a safety guard for their individual possessions. Currently you can utilize this dual consolidation method to safeguard those properties as well if your service has high worth possessions.

Including your organisation is an approach for developing a lawful wall surface in between your individual possessions and also service. If a judgment is provided versus your company, the service properties are as excellent as gone. Just including your service will certainly not shield these properties since they are possessed by the company entity. Given that an effective suit would certainly result in a judgment versus the organisation entity, all possessions of the service can be taken as component of the judgment. The 2nd entity, a “holding company”, is after that developed to have the useful possessions of your service.

The post The Secret To Protecting Your Business Assets appeared first on ROI Credit Builders.