How to Establish Business Credit?
With the rapid change in the financial world, everything related to finance is changing, whether it is credit facilities or investments. Steps are being taken to make everything simple, convenient, and fast. There is a consensus among financiers that businesses have different financial requirements, and there is a need to resolve them.
One such step was taken by these, which may help businesses, small or big, is to establish business credit. This is an option that you can avail of, where financial institutions provide loans, without needing the credit rating or the personal assets of the owner as security. And, most importantly, the organizations of every size and age can avail of it, whether it’s old or new, big or small. Whether you need finance for setting up or expanding the business, purchasing material or equipment, or advertising, this facility is always there for you.
Steps
There are various steps involved in establishing it. The first point that you should remember is to ensure strong fundamentals of your business. Moreover, you should also take care to see to it that you meet the requirements of financiers. Ensuring this would make listing of your business with commercial credit reporting agencies easier.
The next step is to develop a connection with suppliers and vendors. These suppliers and vendors should be such that they not just extend credit payments, but most importantly, report the history of your payments to the respective agencies. You need to have the backing of at least five such vendors, and they should not tie your personal guarantee or social security number while giving you such credit.
Obtaining credit cards for the same is the next step. You should get three such cards, but make sure that they are not connected to your personal credit. Moreover, you should also ensure that these credit card companies report your transactions and payment history to the concerned agencies. However, unluckily, there are not many types of such cards, which would consider approval without checking your personal credit report. In such a scenario, you should look around and search for such a card.
Take your time in this step as it can be crucial. In case you are not able to pay your corporate bills on time, your personal credit would nosedive, even if you have an excellent history. Similarly, if your commercial credit history is excellent, but your personal one is not that good, it would affect your business credit ratings. So, it’s absolutely important to segregate both these entities. Once these steps are done, you can then opt to use these references so as to obtain bigger credits.
How to Establish It for the First Time?
Today, suppliers and creditors are increasingly checking, not only your personal but also your commercial credit reports to decide on how much to lend and at what rate. This is the reason why it has become necessary to set up a separate report. In case you have set up your business credit for the first time and still haven’t established it, you can opt to get trade lines so that you can start building your respective report. You may incorporate or apply for a Limited Liability Company so that your business seems to be a separate entity.
You can also get an Employer Identification Number from the Federal Government. Open up a bank account for it. Moreover, a dedicated phone line would do you a whole lot of good, but make sure that you list it. Once these steps are done, you can ask for business credit in the name of your company and start building a good score.
How to Establish It With Bad Personal Credit?
Even if you have a bad credit history, it is still possible to establish it. For this, you should legally separate from your business credit. If you don’t opt for this and you apply for one, your social security number would be used, and your bad personal credit would come in the way of getting you a good deal. For separating your personal finances from it, you need all the necessary licenses, and most importantly, apply for a tax ID number.
You need to start small as getting a business credit loan is easier for a startup without credit history, in case you have dropped your personal credit. Build it over time, paying off the amount you have borrowed on time and making the required payments on time.
You should not only concentrate on building the credit score of your business credit but also work on rebuilding your personal one, as well. Ultimately, you may need to approach a larger financier for a bigger loan, and in such cases, financial institutions consider both these scores.
Thus, the most important thing to remember, alike in all other cases, is that you should try to make your payments on time so that you can establish it fast. These are the necessary steps that will help you to build up a good credit score.
