If you're considering doing business with another company, you're probably aware of the importance of checking its business credit score. What you may not realize is that obtaining a business credit score may not be sufficient. By focusing on the credit score alone, you may be overlooking critical information about the business. It's preferable to run a business owner search, which can uncover information about the owner's background and give you a more comprehensive view of the fraud and credit risk associated with the business.

Here's how you can manage risk proactively in these situations:

• Identify principals who are over-leveraged
  A business owner's risks and liabilities may not be fully apparent at the entity level. Get a more complete view of a principal's obligations across all business interests.
• Verify that the person applying for credit is affiliated with the business
  Does the person applying for credit have the authority to apply for commercial loans or make a purchase on behalf of his or her organization? Making sure the individual is an authorized representative of the business will help reduce the likelihood of fraud.
• Evaluate a business owner’s relationship with current and former business interests
  You can get an idea of how trustworthy a business owner is from current or past relationships that overlap with yours. Learn what his business relationships say about him and how that may affect your dealings with the business.

All of these assessments can be made with Experian's Business Owner Background Report^SM to help you reduce commercial credit risk.