Nexus Planning Group, LLC

Thousands of business owners find themselves uncertain as to what business credit is or how to go about establishing business credit because they are unfamiliar with the "rules of the game".

Here are some of the questions we typically ask in our seminars and personal consultations:

• Who are the two largest business credit bureaus?
• What are business credit scores?
• What 5 key things do you need to do before pursuing business credit?
• How do you find vendors or companies that provide credit to small businesses?
• Which vendors or companies report to the business credit bureaus?
• How can you obtain credit in your business' name without a personal guarantee?
• If you are personally guaranteeing credit provided to your business, how does it affect your FICO?
• Can you build business credit regardless of your personal credit?
• What is the biggest advantage of having good business credit?

If you find yourself struggling to answer even a few of these questions, you are far from being alone.

What is Business credit?

Business credit is also known a trade credit or corporate credit. Trade credit is when one business sells a product or service to another business and it is the single largest source of lending in the world; far more than banks lend to businesses. Trade credit is tracked by business credit bureaus, primarily Dunn & Bradstreet (Paydex) and Experian (Intelliscore).

Your business credit score determines whether or not the business will be granted lines of credit from suppliers/vendors, bank loan/lease approval, the interest rates charged and it certainly affects the credibility of your business.

What are the steps to building business credit?

In order to create and build a business credit profile that is separate from your personal profile, you must have a business entity...a corporation or LLC. There is no such thing as a business loan or business credit for a sole proprietor, even if you are holding out to do business (dba) under a business name. Without a legal business entity, there is nothing for a lender to lend to nor is there anything for a vendor to provide credit to.

Once you have a legal business entity in place you can initiate the process to begin building credit for the business.  There is a well defined step-by-step process that you must engage in to successfully build a strong credit profile. Please contact us for information about these steps and procedures.

What are the benefits of business credit?

• Reduces the need for personal credit checks
• Reduces and/or eliminates the need for personal guarantees
• Allows access to lines of credit for business expansion
• Increases your monthly cash flow
• Saves money by lowering the interest you pay
• Prepares your business for current and future lending needs
• Saves time with the major conveninece of purchasing with open lines of credit instead of using cash
• Greatly increases your ability to succeed long term
• Gets personal credit back to averages for a higher score
• Creates peace of mind knowing that business creditors cannot attach your personal assets

For the answer to these and other questions about building business credit and/or to obtain information about our credit builder programs Please contact us anytime! We look forward to hearing from you.