Today, we’re going to look at some steps that you can take to get the needed credit to start up your own business credit – good advice from a CPA in Riverside, California. While establishing business credit may sound challenging, it’s far from that, in fact, establishing business credit isn’t all that different from building up your own personal credit.
Five Ways To Get Business Credit For Startups
- Use Payment Terms
When you have suppliers, you can often use payment terms. If you’ve established your own business, there’s a chance that you can get terms from your suppliers for payment. Typically, a supplier will extend to you a credit arrangement via net 30 credit terms.
Of course, if you do choose to apply for credit you’ll expect the supplier to check on your credit via Dun & Bradstreet. They may also require a partial payment with your order.
Action: You may wish to consider applying for vendor credit if they allow it. Especially if you’re a new company. You can check the starter vendor credit building systems and go from there.
- Apply For A Business Card
Business cards are a quick way to build up your credit history. When the card issuers report to the credit agencies, you’ll be building up your credit. Sadly, many of the cards that are labeled business cards will only report to consumer agencies.
A business credit card can help you to separate both personal and business purchases and allow for more flexibility as well as control and convenience that is required to help you understand your finances. Not all business cards will help your company credit file.
Action: In order to pre-qualify please check our post regarding stated-income and business credit.
- Open A Service Agreement
When you open a service agreement it’s a credit arrangement. It doesn’t matter if you enter into this agreement via phone, the Internet, or a web site, you’ve entered into an agreement with a provider and you’ve agreed that your company will make the payment each month.
Action: When you set up service agreements make sure that it’s in the company name. Service agreements are credit references that can be used for future applications of credit.
- Secured Business Cards
If you have a poor credit rating and need to build it up, you may wish to consider a secured business card. This can help you to build up your credit rating. You can do this for both your personal as well as your business account.
Card issuers will occasionally review your account in an opportunity to upgrade unsecured business credit cards. If you keep your account in good standing you can use this as a stepping stone to improved credit.
Action: Deposit at least $500 to open a secured business card. The car limit will equal the initial deposit. Wells Fargo allows you to deposit as much as $5000 to $25,000.
- Apply For Retail Credit Cards
There are innumerable retailers offering revolving credit cards for their stores. As a startup, you can use these store credit cards for purchases including office supplies, building supplies, computers, electronics, and more.
Retail accounts can be a trade reference that can then be utilized on future credit applications. Also, if retailers fail to report your credit history, you can then rely on the trade references in your file with the Dun & Bradstreet paid program.
Action: Before applying to a retailer, you may wish to consider three starter vendor accounts for our credit rating. Retailers will require a personal credit check before they will give you credit for your account.
Pro Tip: There is a list of starter vendors and other businesses that will report to business credit reporting companies in our credit building system that has a step-by-step explanation for you to follow. If you follow this, you’ll be well-equipped to build up your credit and your creditworthiness. It takes time to build up your credit so you’ll have to be patient and work toward your goal in a dedicated state of mind.
Now you have all of the information that you need. Five new ways to get your business credit for your new startup. Remember, establishing credit in your name will help you to build up a creditworthy profile. Your business will have a stronger credit-ability. Per the SBA, businesses have a ten to one hundred times greater capacity to build credit over a personal credit profile. Start slowly and build your way up for the best success in your new startup business. These five tips will help you to achieve your success and your goals in your new startup business.
To your success, in your business, and in your life. When starting a new business, you may want to consider starting a corporation.
