The commercial life cycle: How the use of credit changes as a business matures

Document: Published Jun 27, 2017

As people age, so do their needs. The same is true for businesses, especially in terms of how they handle credit. A startup company with few customers is likely to need more commercial loans than an established business with a strong customer base and predictable cash flow. On the other hand, a mature company is likely to have many open tradelines with the suppliers with which it has built long-term relationships.

But there are some notable exceptions to this pattern, as we discovered when analyzing the behaviors of commercial customers throughout their life cycles. This whitepaper examines those trends based on 1 million active business credit profiles between 2010 and 2016.

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