The kids are back to school. Now it’s time for you to get back to business and focus on building what’s best for growing your small business, including a good business credit rating. 

Remember, your company’s business credit information is one of the first things lenders, suppliers and others will look at before deciding to do business with you. If it’s strong enough, it can even help you avoid personal guarantees.

Improving your business credit rating can make it easier for your small business to get loans and lines of credit, or improve your existing credit terms. Furthermore, it can lower your interest rates and insurance premiums to help your business save money. 

In short, it’s time to get back to business and focus on making your business credit work to your advantage… Take the time to know it, protect it, improve it and build it.

You’ve got a great idea, the capital and the know-how to make it happen. Yet entrepreneurial success also depends on something else many small business owners don’t pay enough attention to: your business credit profile.

Here’s a tip! Just as your personal credit rating has a big impact on your financial health, your business credit rating can help you get competitive business loan rates and terms. Having complete, up-to-date information on your business credit profile can help improve your credit rating…and maintaining a good credit rating is the best way to obtain favorable financial terms.

To obtain a recent copy of your business credit profile online, and to make sure it’s updated with accurate information on your business, visit BusinessCreditFacts.com. Click on the orange button that reads “Update my report”.

We’re all aware of the increasingly bold moves fraudsters take to steal personal identities to secure jobs, cars, homes and more—but what about business-to-business fraud? As a small business owner, how much thought do you give to fraud protection for your business?

You have a lot to fear and even more to lose if you become a victim of commercial fraud. Approximately 30 percent of all business credit losses are attributed to some type of misleading or fraudulent information. Ultimately, financial damages from these and other business scams far overshadow losses from consumer fraud. View Experian’s white paper on Identifying Small Business Fraud to get more information about types of common fraud.

On average, losses are 3 to 10 times higher than personal identity theft damages. So, it’s time you become aware of business credit fraud. To learn more about protecting your business, and what to do if it falls victim to fraud, click here.

Credit reporting companies require a minimum amount of information on your small business before they can generate a credit rating for your business. The process of scoring your business can include more than 200 factors into its model. To build a business credit history and rating, encourage your suppliers or vendors to report your company’s payment history to Experian’s business database. You can download an easy-to-use letter template located here, and send your request to your current suppliers.

There are many varying answers to this question, including one that often gets overlooked…. We all know that a prime factor for business success relies on being able to generate customers, and generating customers often means having the business capital and financial means required to market effectively to those customers. So what’s an important “To-Do” to have a successful business? The answer should include: Monitor and maintain a healthy credit score! Why? Because a good small business credit score will grant a growing business the best financial terms and capital to help you gain customers. Want more? Here are four compelling reasons to monitor your business credit:  http://www.businesscreditfacts.com/pdp.aspx?pg=faq-19&lsv=www

Unlike personal credit information, which is regulated and can be viewed only with the permission of the report holder, access to business credit is not as restricted. Business credit information is available to anyone for any reason, including customers, competitors and suppliers. This makes it imperative to monitor your business credit on a regular basis and proactively manage it. Outdated or incorrect information can give the wrong impression about your business, resulting in unfavorable decisions by potential lenders and creditors – which can negatively impact your bottom line. Plus, if your business has grown or changed over the last year, it’s important to update the data reflected in your report. It can help your business reputation. For more information on how to update your business information, visit www.BusinessCreditFacts.com.

We’re honoring small businesses and their owners during National Small Business Week, May 16-20, with the gift of knowledge. This week only, business owners and principals can view their small business credit profile for FREE at SmartBusinessReports.com/SmallBusinessWeek. This is a limited, one-time offer per person, so act now before it is gone, and share the news with your business colleagues and friends.

In addition, business owners can also download a free ebook entitled, “Business Credit: What you don’t know can hurt you,” which discusses the fundamentals of business credit, and provides tips on managing a healthy business credit profile.

If you’re a small business owner, knowing and understanding your business credit is the first step to helping your business grow. It can help you with a variety of business challenges that range from building capital to gaining customers. In honor of financial literacy month, take the time to educate yourself about your small business financial and credit situation.

Here’s a short True or False quiz to help you get thinking. Test your commercial credit score knowledge and determine whether it is as well-honed as is necessary to survive in today’s thriving small business market: http://www.businesscreditfacts.com/scoreiq