Did You Know You Can Boost Credit Score Fast?
Yes, you really can boost credit score fast for your business.
But let’s start with some definitions and background on business credit.
Business Credit
This is credit in a business’s name. It is not tied to the owner’s creditworthiness. Instead, business credit scores depend on how well a company can pay its bills. Hence consumer and business credit scores can vary dramatically.
Business Credit Benefits
There are no demands for a personal guarantee. You can quickly get business credit regardless of personal credit quality. And there is no personal credit reporting of business accounts. Business credit utilization won’t affect your consumer FICO score. Plus the business owner isn’t personally liable for the debt the business incurs. And yes, you can boost credit score fast.
Business Credit Details
Being accepted for business credit is not automatic. Building business credit requires some work. Some of the steps are intuitive, and some of them are not.
Fundability™
Fundability is the current ability of our business to get funding. Some factors are within your control. Others (like your time in business) aren’t. Your online presence and data are one area which is at or close to 100% with your control.
Boost Credit Score Fast: Understand Fundability, and Business Funding Applications
The better your business credit and fundability are, the more likely you will get approval for business financing. Today, let’s concentrate on your online presence, that is, your email address and your website. It’s a great way to work to boost credit score fast.
Lenders Use Data to Decide on Your Application
They check information from a variety of sources, and they don’t tell you about any of them. Knowing what these secret sources measure can only help you. Understanding what matters the most makes getting a loan A LOT easier, because you know what to improve first. This information is the difference between getting an approval and getting a denial.
Lenders Use LexisNexis Information
LexisNexis is one source where many of the lenders reviewing loan applications get their information from. They offer information regarding likelihood to pay, or not. Lenders compare LexisNexis information to what you put on your loan application. If the application and LexisNexis don’t match, then, the loan providers will deny you a loan. They will see the inconsistency as fraud.
LexisNexis connects all of the data that pertains to you, both positive and negative. They have access to
- criminal records
- every email address you’ve ever used (these are your professional and personal email addresses)
- your speeding tickets
- any mortgage you have ever held
Lenders Use Online Information Including Your Business Email and Website
One place where lenders and vendors will be looking for your business is online. Even if they’re not specifically checking out your online presence, they may still need to know how to order your product or service, or where to send praise or complaints. Your online presence is where they will find that information, or not.
Boost Credit Score Fast and Work on Your Website
What happens if your family member or a friend built your website? Maybe that person is talented, but business websites differ from personal ones. A business website needs to be easy to navigate. It needs to answer customers’ questions.
Styles differ. Wedding photographers and construction companies differ. They have dissimilar sites and design sensibilities, but they both have Contact and About pages, and information about what they do.
Make sure you own your domain, and not just your domain at Wix or WordPress or the like. You can do this by buying hosting. This is through hosting companies like GoDaddy or HostGator.
Your Email Address
Given that so much more of lending decisions is going on online these days, then your email address is an opportunity for your business to puts its best foot forward. Don’t squander this easy and free opportunity! General email addresses like [email protected] tend to be best.
With a general email address, if someone leaves your employ, another employee can seamlessly take over that email address. A username like admin, webmaster, or even hello is far, far better than cutiepie or the like, even if you’re in a playful industry that caters to kids. After all, your bank and banker aren’t.
Records Congruency
Keep your records consistent! This includes your online records. LexisNexis and the SBFE (Small Business Financial Exchange) are looking at everything, so it had better match.
Inconsistent records will lead to a denial due to fraud because that’s how lenders interpret inconsistencies. This is a cause of denials which is in the business owner’s hands. You have the ability to change and correct this.
This means your business name, address, phone number – everything! – must look the same in these places and more:
- Every place your business has an online presence (your website, Yelp, SoTellUs, etc.)
- IRS records
- Your business’s records with Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax
- All licenses needed to run your business
- Incorporation documents
Copy/paste this information; don’t chance it with retyping.
Boost Credit Score Fast with Fundable Business Credit Applications – Avoid Denials
Keep your business looking fundable (legit) with:
- A professional website and email address
- A toll-free phone number
- List your phone number with 411
- A business address (not a PO box or a UPS box)
- Get all necessary licenses for running your business
Online Fundability
There are some aspects of fundability where you should pay particular attention to what’s going on online. They include:
- Business owners listed and listed ownership uniform
- Business name and address uniform
- Industry aligned
- Company domain
- Information uniform on all records
Business Ownership Listings
Records consistency matters here, too. Your website should show who owns your business. And that information needs to be consistent. So if the owner is named Susan Johnson on your website’s About page, then she can’t be listed as Sue Johnson on your Contact page. If your business ownership changes, you need to show that here.
Business Name and Address Uniformity
Abbreviations can be your downfall here, as can punctuation like hyphens, commas, and colons. If your Contact page says your main office is on Main Street, then your About page can’t say it’s on Main St.
If your business moves, or you add subsidiaries and other locations, then you need to update that information everywhere. This even means whether you use your 5-digit ZIP code, or a ZIP plus 4 code (9 digits).
Industry Alignment
If your business is over the road trucking, then it needs to be listed that way. Pro tip: when your industry can be called several different names, like long distance trucking, mention those other phrases on your website.
Your Company Domain
When your company domain matches your business name, it helps with fundability. Pro tip: try to match what people will be searching for online, so if (for example) the word ‘brothers’ is in your company name, then determine if ‘brothers’ or ‘bros’ will be used by people searching for your company and its goods and services online.
Boost Credit Score Fast: Takeaways
More fundable businesses can get more money, and they tend to get more prospects who decide to become customers. One area of fundability you have total or near total control over is your business’s online presence. Keep it professional, uniform. and appealing, and easy to use. We can help you with even more aspects of fundability and you can boost credit score fast!