For the sake of Fundability™, you need to have accurate, perfectly matching business information. And good Fundability leads directly to better chances for small businesses to get business credit and financing.
All of your preexisting or new business setup details will matter. Let’s look at your small business information today.
Your Business Particulars all Matter
All your small business details can either help a business in its quest to get financing, or they can hinder it.
I’m talking about what we call the Fundability Foundation™ here. It covers everything from, yes, phone numbers, to business structure, business name, address, online presence, licensing, and more.
Business Fundability Matters
Most small businesses can’t get by without some business credit. And they certainly can’t survive if they don’t properly market their goods or services or turn any profit. Fundability is vital because it helps a company to access more purchasing power.
Business Credit and Fundability
Virtually all starter vendors and other business credit providers require certain aspects of Fundability. Not request—require.
Since good business credit can help any company purchase what they need and also qualify for business financing, there’s a major benefit to be had from building Fundability.
Fundability, Marketing, and Sales
Your average customer will try to access your business online. So will potential clients. By building Fundability, you will exude a far more professional demeanor. This can help assure your prospects when they connect with your small business.
Fundability Helps You Better Conduct Business
In most states, new businesses and even preexisting businesses will need to have proper licenses and probably also have unique business names. They’ll need to pay taxes and probably register with the applicable Secretary of State’s office. All of these are pieces of the Fundability puzzle.
Small Business Legal Protection
Fundability also helps here, because any new business or preexisting one will need to incorporate. This is to create a separate and unique legal entity—one which will build business credit.
But this type of business entity will also protect the owners from most financial risk. More about your business entity later.
Fundability Foundation—the Details
Let’s look at the details which define whether a business has a good Fundability Foundation, or not. And along the way, consider all the areas of Fundability. Does your company meet all of these standards? If not, what are the steps you’re taking to correct matters?
Business Name
Your business name can help you attract clients and prospects. But it can also telegraph risk. Lenders and business credit providers are understandably cautious when it comes to risk.
Keeping the name of a high risk industry in your company name is inviting fast business financing denials. While there is no guarantee of a “yes” from lenders, keeping a problematic industry name out of your company name can help protect against immediate denials.
Your state government will most likely require you to register your business name. This is to assure it is unique so as to avoid consumer confusion.
Industry
High-risk industries tend to have one or more of these characteristics:
- They engage in a high number of cash transactions.
- There’s a higher chance of personal injury or property damage, whether at a sales location or a factory or elsewhere…
- … and/or there’s a low barrier to entry, which can flood an industry with owners with less experience. Online businesses in particular allow for anyone to have easy access to starting a business. But less experienced entrepreneurs are less likely to stay in business.
These are goods such as selling chainsaws, services like construction, and trade like operating a market that’s open at all hours.
Business Structure
Businesses will need to incorporate in order to access the ability to build business credit. Becoming a corporation means the creation of a separate entity, one which can have its own credit score.
This is a special feature of corporations that a partner situation cannot match. When the owners of a business are partners, they share liability for any time the company is the subject of a lawsuit. Hence a corporate entity can be a strategy to protect company ownership.
But one downside to incorporating an organization is the taxes. A general partnership does not have to pay income tax. But the tax treatment of a corporation means you end up being taxed twice.
First is various federal and other taxes. The second time is when shareholders get dividends. This is the case even if there is only one shareholder, there are no employees beyond that owner, etc.
A corporate entity provides legal protection and businesses can build credit once incorporated. But it’s a trade for the kind of taxation that business partners don’t have to worry about.
Business Address
As a business grows, it may need a separate location. But you can start with your home address. Still, you may want a separate location for contract negotiations or job interviews. We recommend virtual offices.
Virtual offices can be a smart choice as they provide a more prestigious address. In addition to conference rooms, many will also accept your mail or even answer your phone number.
But we do know of one starter business credit vendor which will not accept virtual office addresses.
Business Website and Email
Customers want to connect with businesses more than ever these days. But if you don’t have an online presence, where will they go? You’re missing out on sales opportunities!
Owning your own domain is most professional.
In addition, it is best if your online domain is your business name or as close to it as possible. Check your domain name and make sure it doesn’t end up being accidentally offensive. Just ask companies like A Nu Start and anything with ‘Therapists’ in the name about their domain name issues.
Register with a domain names provider. The larger ones often have tutorials or services to help with how to establish a company website and otherwise get started online, even with privacy policies which will satisfy the government.
Business Bank Account
A small business bank account is vital for loans and other financing, as it’s where any financing you get will actually be deposited. It will also help when you pay taxes for the small business, because it makes it far more difficult to commingle funds.
Register for a business ban account as soon as you can, because lending institutions will look at the age of your account.
Merchant Accounts
Make sure to register for a merchant account. That way, you can start to take credit cards. Numerous studies have shown that consumers will pay more if they can pay with plastic.
Business Licenses
Licensing means paying fees. But fees are far better than fines.
Check with local, city, county, and state governments to be sure your company has all necessary licensing.
EIN
For proper tax treatment, a business needs its own identification number. Must like you’ve got a Social Security Number, a company has an EIN. You get an EIN from the IRS website.
This number is free and, if you say you want to receive it electronically, you can get the number in less than an hour.
D-U-N-S Number from Dun & Bradstreet
You can’t start building business credit until you’ve got a D-U-N-S number. The number is free; you don’t have to purchase anything. Note that the Federal government no longer uses a D-U-N-S for identification when a business bids on contracts.
The Federal government changed its number and created one for suppliers. This way, you can still do business with them even if you don’t have a D-U-N-S. But you should get a D-U-N-S number anyway.
Business Phone
Customers are going to want to call your company. But you don’t want them calling your personal number at all hours.
How are your children going to feel if an angry client calls and they pick up? And how will you feel if a customer calls while you’re trying to sleep? Do you really want to try to serve that client at 2 AM, most likely before you’ve had any caffeine?
You can protect your privacy with a VoIP. A separate business phone is best, and a VoIP can do just that.
VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. It is essentially a way for your business to make phone calls over the internet. You will also be able to set more than one number to ring to the same device. Hence you can have a separate company
number and use it to register for any number of services.
But only you need to know that it’s just another number linking directly to your cell phone or landline.
Takeaways
Your business information can make or break your ability to get financing. It can even affect whether clients want to do business with you. And it can affect what your company pays in taxes—and what sort of legal and other protection you may have.
It is well worth it to pay attention to all the details!
