Maintaining a Small Business Credit Score
Small businesses are responsible for the majority of the wealth in the world. Small businesses are found throughout the world and work in a number of industries ranging from farming to manufacturing. While it is difficult to start a business, the rewards are great.
The only way to have success as a business is to grow. If you business doesn’t grow then you won’t be around very long. In order to grow, a small business needs cash and commercial activity. The main foundation of growth is credit, but you need to know how to safely get it and extend it. Your small business credit score will determine how much credit you can get.
What is a Credit Score?
A business needs access to credit for two reasons. First, credit allows a small business to get a loan or line of credit from a financial institution. Second, credit can let a small business buy the necessary supplies and goods. No matter why you need credit, it is giving you something of value in return for a promise of repaying all the cash in the future.
So who provides credit to a small business? A relative will often help, but what about the bank in town or a supplier that is separated by a continent? How can someone who doesn’t know you and has never met you determine your creditworthiness?
These companies would do exactly what you would do: they go to a reputable credit risk management agency in order to get a credit report. Through a comprehensive small business credit report, these companies can learn about all aspects of your business including your financial condition, credit history, top management and other important information. All of this is determined by your small business credit score. This single number can tell a potential lender whether or not you are a good risk. Often this score is a number on a scale, but can include alphabet letters. This score allows banks, lenders, suppliers or other creditors to determine whether or not you are likely to pay your bills on time.
Getting a Good Score
While the small business credit score may seem like a simple number, it is actually a complex statistical model that determines the credit risk for a company. A credit risk management agency comes up with the score from data that they collect through a wide number of sources. The information is determined to be accurate by crosschecking and filtering the data into an easy-to-read format. There is no specific way that you can improve your score, but you can make sure your report accurately reflects the best possible score for your business.
First, you want to make sure all your loan payments are made on time. The biggest factor that influences your credit score is to calculate your payment history with previous creditors. Second, you need to regularly check on the status of your credit report. You want to make sure that the information in the report is up-to-date and accurate. Negative information can’t be removed, but mistakes can be corrected. Lastly, credit risk management companies gain data from trade companies. Not all creditors report trade information, but it helps to have credit with companies that do report trades.
Keep in mind that your business credit score is going to change over time. When you keep up-to-date on your credit score then you can be sure you are one step ahead of the competition.
