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5 Tips To Improve Your Credit Score Now For Better Business Loans

June 21, 2013
By Nicole Russo, Marketing Director

Credit scores, including credit history, are one of the primary factors in obtaining the best SBA loan offers and terms. Every small business can benefit from tips to improve credit scores.

While a new business has no alternative but to rely on the personal credit score of the owner, it is good practice to build a business credit score as quickly as possible. Business credit is comprised of rent or mortgage payment history, tax payments, equipment financing, credit cards in the business name and any other related credit payments. Businesses need a tax EIN in order to build credit, and can also apply for a Dun & Bradstreet DUNS number.

A Commercial Credit Score (CCS) through Dun & Bradstreet is used by banks and lenders to determine the likelihood of a business paying its obligations on time. The score ranges from 101 to 670, with 670 being the highest score. (more…)

Six Tips for Building Business Credit

June 20, 2013

What do established companies looking to expand and start-ups in the earliest planning stages have in common? They want access to money and credit without having to provide a personal guarantee. This sentiment is consistently and strongly expressed by entrepreneurs I work with. It’s no secret that building and expanding a business credit profile has become a greater challenge over the last few years. Many established small companies’ cash flow sheets were hit hard during the recession and as a result, many lenders and suppliers have either added a personal guarantee policy or modified their current policy.

Most business owners know Experian, Equifax and TransUnion as the three major credit bureaus that provide information about their personal credit; however, they also may provide a credit profile about your company’s creditworthiness. Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) is the most well-known provider of business credit profiles among business owners because their business model serves them, whereas Experian, Equifax and TransUnion primarily exist for the benefit of creditors. (more…)

Where To Go When Banks Say No

June 20, 2013

Many banks do not lend today without collateral, and entrepreneurs look for additional funding options to help launch their business.

In a  survey on alternative investment strategies, “Retirement Fund Programs in Franchising,”  FRANdata, shows a growing number of  businesses using rollover funding to start or recapitalize a business.  For almost 40% of respondents, the total required investment needed to fund the start-up of their business came from the use of such rollover retirement funds.

Additionally, they are able to finance their investment by using only a portion of their retirement assets, investing a weighted average of 52% of total Retirement assets. Which still allows them to keep their safety net of retirement funds.  The best part is, when rolling over  retirement funds to start a business, you do not incur penalties or tax and can start your business debt free. (more…)

“Yes, We Accept Checks!”

June 4, 2013

Those of us in the payments industry may often think “electronic is better,” but there are still those who prefer paper. Specifically: checks. 91 percent of U.S. consumers use checks, which is more than any other form of payment?1 In fact, the average U.S. consumer writes over five checks per month for retail payments, and 22 percent of total U.S. non-cash payments were made by check in 2010.2

However, checks often shift risk and hassle onto merchants who have to transport them to the bank, deal with bounced checks and worry about fraud.

Luckily, new advances in check acceptance technology make it safer and easier than ever before to include checks as a customer payment choice. These technologies provide merchants with more secure and convenient options when deciding whether and how to accept checks. (more…)

What Merchants Need to Know About EMV

May 28, 2013

What is EMV?

EMV is a technical standard that ensures chip-based payment cards (also known as smart cards) and terminals are compatible around the world. A chip-based payment transaction occurs when a microprocessor embedded in a plastic card or mobile phone connects to an EMV-enabled POS terminal (either contact or contactless) in order to execute a payment. The smart card technology provides an additional form of card authentication for the transaction—validating the legitimacy of the payment type being used and helping reduce the use of counterfeit, lost and stolen payment cards at ATMs and retail points of sale.

Implications of Smart Card Adoption

Payment industry experts generally agree that a chip-based standard (i.e., EMV) will come to the U.S., but predictions of when and in what form vary dramatically. Smart card adoption in the U.S. is an industry-wide issue, and there is substantial education required for all participants to understand what chip-based payment enablement means to them. In the face of this uncertainty, merchants should start considering how smart card implementation would affect their businesses, and look into options for accepting chip-based credit and debit cards. (more…)