Business Credit Report

[fastbreakrob]

Does anybody know where they obtain your sales data and the such for your business Credit Report? I obtained mine the other day and it was way off… Not to mention none of my distributors, credit accounts, previous leases or anything are reflecting on my credit report.

I’d like this information to show up, so I can start building my business credit incase I’d ever need a loan for another store, etc.

Thanks

 

[Jeff_Ward]

The only company I know of that compiles this information is Dun & Bradstreet. You can find them on the web at http://www.dnb.com.

As for the “value” of the information they provide, it all comes from the owner of the business, namely you. It’s not worth anything when it comes to borrowing and credit worthiness. Credit eligibility comes from the documents you provide the lender, like financial statements and tax returns for the business. This is why it’s a bad idea to under report your revenue so you can get a little tax-free cash under the table. Unreported revenue can’t be used to qualify for a business loan or to justify a higher selling price when you decide to sell the restaurant.

If the credit worthiness of the business isn’t such that it can support a business loan you will normally need to make a personal guarantee and pledge your personal assets as collateral.

It’s the old story of those who need the money are the ones who are least able to borrow!

 

[SaraH]

Jeff Ward:

As for the “value” of the information they provide, it all comes from the owner of the business, namely you. It’s not worth anything when it comes to borrowing and credit worthiness. Credit eligibility comes from the documents you provide the lender, like financial statements and tax returns for the business.

The timing of this post is great. We just got a letter in the mail the other day from D&B saying we should call them because our “Score” had changed. It said we could request our score online. I went to their website to do that (thinking it would give it to me online) but all it did was have me fill in a phone number where I could be reached. They called me Friday and said they could provide me the information about the bad things on our report and that they would put good references out there for us if I would supply them with the names of six of our vendors/customers/etc. who would give us good references. The cost for that—$818.00. I said, thank you, I will get back to you later.

The thought that went through my head was, if according to your report, a company has a bad credit rating, how can it afford to pay $818.00 to get a better credit rating? :roll:

Thanks for the info, Jeff.