Many entrepreneurs seeking financing for their business don’t realize that without first having excellent business credit scores their business will never obtain significant financing. Business credit scores function exactly like personal credit scores, and so you have to build your credit scores up properly before you can seek large amounts of capital for your business from any lending institution. It is nearly impossible to obtain capital from a lending institution without having first establishing excellent credit scores for your company.
The question that companies face is how do they go about establishing the business credit scores that are a prerequisite for financing them. First, every owner must make sure that all of their business lines of credit or any aspect of financing for their company is reporting to the major business credit bureaus. Unfortunately, less than ten percent (10%) of all corporate lending in the United States gets reported to the major credit agencies. This means that while your business may have existing financing, if that financing is not being reporting then your company will never build business credit scores up to where they need to be.
To properly establish credit scores it often times can take three to six months to get a business credit score that is worthy of large amounts of financing in the eyes of the lender. A lender wants to make sure that their loan has the chance of being repaid, and one of the only ways they can justify that is to see if you have established a business credit history with a solid score. This is the same concept as when you attempt to get a personal loan or a car loan. They will pull your personal credit history, and if you have a poor credit history or no credit history you are either denied, or are forced to pay higher interest rates on the loans.
The secret to building excellent credit scores for your company is a 1-3-5. That is starting with five vendor lines of credit, three business credit cards, and one business bank loan, all of which report to the business credit agencies and none of which are reporting against your personal credit.
There are many firms now that offer to build your credit for you without you having to do a thing. Ask yourself, “could that happen with my personal credit?” And you know the answer is NO! Beware of business credit building services that claim they will build your credit overnight. They charge exorbitant rates for their services, which will do you no good. A good rule of thumb to live by is that if it sounds too good to be true, than it probably is. Business credit building is a process that you must do yourself, just like you built (or destroyed) your own personal credit scores. The best services are those that give you all the tools and guidelines to do it yourself, not those services that make false promises.
Make sure that as you go along the process of obtaining capital that you never submit a loan request to a lender that you are not pre-qualified for. Credit inquiries can kill any business credit scores that you already have. Make sure you avoid the practice of submitting a business loan application to multiple sources.
Another thing to be cautious of are Internet businesses that allow you to store your business loan application information in one place. You may find that your application gets automatically submitted to hundreds of sources at once. This is finance suicide for your corporation, and all you will end up with will be a destroyed business credit scores and no funding.
Financing your business is not simple, and to get approved there are other aspects beyond just having excellent business credit scores. It is highly recommended that you look into a good business finance coach to help guide you along the way.
