Hello everybody and welcome to the show today. Today we're talking about the top 5 mistakes
and entrepreneur make when building corporate credits, so for those of the you that don't know me
my name is Ty Crandall I'm actually the CEO here at Credit Suite and at Credit Suite that's what we do we
help business owners get capital we help you get money and we do it by helping improve your
fundability which we'll be talking about today. The things that make you more fundable we also do it by
helping you build business credit for your EIN that's not linked to your social and accessing all loans
and credit lines in one place. So if we can help you along the way feel free to visit give us a call
at 877-600-2487 we also have a really cool business credit building guide, I think it's been
downloaded like over a million times now it's really a lot of downloads. So go to creditsuite.com/ein to
grab that guide, so look if business credit building was 100% intuitive and everybody would be doing it
right but again getting good corporate credit can lead directly to getting financing but a lot of
people don't know how to do it and a lot of people are applying and failing because they're getting
automatically declined when they're trying to get financing for their business, and that is the
problem that we are going to solve today okay. So let's talk about why it's so easy to get lenders
to decline your applications well the reason is is there's a formula but you've got a meet to
get approved. If you meet it will them in a lot of cases you're going to get automated approvals but
if you don't meet this criteria well then you're going to get a decline instead so you've got to
know this formula you got to know what lenders and credit issuers you're looking at to have the best
chance of getting approved okay, if you don't well then that's going to be what gets you denied. So my
following advice we're going to talk about today during the show you're going to work to get
automated approvals that's my goal for you because when you apply for a credit card that's what
happens right you either get an automated approve where you get that dreaded message that you'll hear
by mail and 7 to 10 days which usually is it a coin so how do we get the approvals what's by knowing
what lenders or credit issuers are looking for and meeting that criteria before you even apply. Let's
talk about the mistakes people are making first of all one of most common mistakes that people
make is that the lender can't find your actual business when you apply this is the biggest mistake
that we see. We see people come in all the time and they say look like what's going on I just got denied
for this loan, got denied for this credit card and what we find is very simply the name and spelling
that they have on the application doesn't match exactly in other places like Secretary of State
I'm telling you it's the most commonly overlooked mistake we see business owners make you've got
to make sure that they name on your of your business is the same on the application is the
Secretary of State which means if you log into your Secretary of State's your business name including a
DBA that's exactly the name you need to use on your application, also needs to be the same
name you're using a licenses utilities statements bank statements everywhere else offline, you also
need to make sure it's exactly the same everywhere online, Yelp, Facebook your website believe it or
not places like Dun & Bradstreet get information from all those sources. So if Yelp and Bing and
Google my business all has different names spellings well then that's going to be what's
gets you denied you've got to make sure that the spelling of your name is congruent everywhere
online and everywhere offline as well. So while checking your name make sure your business is
active as well make sure it's active and in good standing okay on almost all stage you're going to
have to file annual reports once a year and if you file those reports once a year then you're
going to have to you're going to have to file those reports once a year to make sure your business
is active. If you're not filing annual reports of paying a fee once a year then what often happens
is your business isn't active, so you've got to check that to make sure your business is active.
Okay the next thing you want to know is that you want to make try to avoid business names that
indicate you're in a high-risk industry, weapons, on ammunition weapons manufacturing bail bonds
check cashing, energy, oil trading, finance, pawnshops, political campaigns. Okay these are all
considered high risk everything even considered to be in financial services as high risk as well ok so
you want to try to avoid names that indicate you're in a high risk industry if your name indicates you're
in a high risk industry that in a lot of cases can throw up red flags when you go to apply for credit
or financing or it will just automatically get you declined. So you have to make decisions when
we've started our business we knew this was going to be difficult and we still put the word credit in our
name because we wanted our name to indicate what we do, you have to make those decisions as
well it's harder for us to get merchant accounts and bank accounts it's harder for us to get loan and
credit lines, but since that's what we specialize in is getting financing we know we have advantages
there that can get us the capital we need you might not have those same advantages. So you've
got to be conscientious of this decision whether or not you're going to choose being in a high-risk
industry to put that in your name or not and know you're going to be scrutinized heavier if you do
have that in your name. If your name indicates that you're in a high-risk industry. So to get financing
your credit for your business you've got to have a business entity okay corporation or LLC gives you
more credibility when you're choosing entity so first of all but you can have an entity and not
have an EIN but you can't have EIN without an entity. Entity is one of the first things that
lenders and credit issuers look at to make sure that you're credible, you're going to choose an entity
consider a corporation consider an LLC they give you more credibility. They reduce your liability
they reduce your chances of getting audited with the IRS as well. So a lot of benefits there and
they help you separate liability completely when it comes to corporate credit building meaning if
you're using a corporation or LLC you can come in and build corporate credit and not be personally
liable for it because you've chosen an entity where you and the entity are not the same you and
the business are not one of the same. So make sure you set up your entity with your state to make
sure you have the right address there that you have everywhere also get your tax EIN number so
think of it like this your Social Security Number in the United States is the number that's used by
the IRS to recognize you as an individual and a legal citizen of this country. IRS does exactly the
same thing with businesses using an EIN. The EIN is what tells the IRS and the government that you
have a real legal legitimate business you also need it for things like opening a bank account
building business credit as well. So set up your EIN and then take the time to verify that it's
listed the same we're the same way everywhere it's listed I have done this mistakenly myself where I
put the EIN in one place it was the wrong EIN it was EIN for another business I owned and then
what happened was I kept referring back to that same document with the wrong EIN again and again
When I need the EIN for that business. So it does happen you right here EIN number that once
the wrong way then you go back to that multiple time this can really create this kind of issues.
Make sure you have the proper licensing setup for your corporation as well okay if your license if
you're a plumber that needs to have licensing well then make sure you get that licensing set
up the city the state the county your industry you need to make sure you have proper licenses
for all of those that are required in a lot of cases lenders and creditors our systems are going
to automatically look for that or they're going to manually ask for that when you go to apply for
things like credit cards your loans. Your business address really should be a real brick and mortar
building mistake number three that we see a lot of people make you need a real deliverable physical
address okay that becomes very important, okay it really should not be a home address it really
should not be a PO Box either okay don't use UPS mail addresses either. So let's talk about
this UPS addresses and PO Box are all housed in a database that lenders and credit issuers have so
they know you're using a mailbox when you do that they do not like that and it ultimately results
in a lot of automatic declines, so you need to know that when you're using a home address you're okay
you're better to use a home address than a UPS or a PO Box address ironically when it comes
to getting credit and financing but nowadays Google Maps or Dun & Bradstreet putting Google
Streetview from Google Maps on the credit report. So if you've got a an old house with a beat-up
car in the front of your lawn that's the picture that shows up on your commercial credit report
if you don't want lenders and credit issuers to see that you really need to consider not using a
home address but again you're better off to use an actual home address then you actually are to
use anything else you're actually better off to use a home address then you are to use a PO Box
or UPS address okay, but some sources like Walmart won't approve you for credit cards if you're
using that home address okay. So try to not use the home address but you can use a real physical
address or a virtual address a home address at last resort but make through Regus, DaVinci those kind
of places but avoid using a real or a PO Box or a UPS address those can really get you in trouble. So
let's talk about phone numbers lenders want to see a toll-free phone number it makes you look
credible okay even if you're using home-based business then forward your cellphone forward
your home phone to the actual business or to the actual business excuse me take the business
phone number the toll-free one that you get and then forward that forward that address to your cell
phone if that makes it easy but never use your cell phone on an application you need to give
them the perception that you're a big legitimate company and toll-free numbers do that for you. So
it's very easy and very cheap to set up toll-free numbers to make sure you get one for your
business and get a fax number as well, most services out there will offer you a phone number
that can be your fax number as well that's what I have. So I have for a business number a phone number that is
also my fax number and it gives me the ability to tell people I have a fax when I'm filling
out applications where they're asking for a fax. Never use cell phone never use a home address
on an application for credit or financing or it's not going to make you look established you're going
to look unestablished. So don't give those out as your business phone number you also need
to take the business phone number you get and list it with 411 believe it or not a
lot of credit issuers and lenders use this basic check to determine if you're a legitimate or not
if you're not listed with 411 you don't get approved if you are you do again I can't tell
you how many people we've helped correct the name on the application that matches the Secretary
of State and they get approved or how many people we get listed with 411 and they get approved
when they typically we get denied. So you need to get a phone number it needs to be listed with 411
it should be toll-free you should have a fax number as well and you also need to make
sure that that's listed everywhere online the same. Now for like we are we moved after many
years into a bigger office and in doing so we changed our address so we used a service called
listyourself.net for 411 that's a good service you can use and there's
also services like Yext, Y e x t that will then update all your information across also almost
all legitimate sources online and one change to their service. So use list yourself to list your
phone number with 411 use services like Yext if you change addresses to make sure that all
the addresses all the phone numbers the spelling of the name is congruent everywhere online. So
mistake number 5 skimping on website and email look they're going to look at your actual website or
the computers will ultimately look at your website to determine what you do, it's best that they learn
everything they need to learn about your business from that website not having a website or not having
enough information about your business on the website severely hurt your chances of getting
approved. So you can use places like templatemonster.com to buy cheap template for
your website you can go to places like upwork.com to pay somebody to put it up or you can
use places like we use we use a service called custom marketer that's the company's name and
custom market or makes it really affordable to put clients websites up for our clients regardless of
what you do get a website up some people say I'm not in an industry where I need a website yeah you
are everywhere now you need a website it makes you look credible. So if you're not even using it to
sell anything get it for any other for at least the reason of credibility. You'll also need a business
email address you can set up in places like GoDaddy it needs to be professional not Aperta not not
a Hotmail not an AOL not a Gmail. Those don't look legitimate okay think about that I don't know about
you I have absolutely chosen to not do business with businesses before because the people are
emailing me from Gmail addresses. It's not legit if you work with a legitimate company you have a
legitimate URL in your address my email is info@creditsuite.com okay that email is congruent
with my website right if you go to creditsuite.com that's our website and the emails
info@creditsuite.com that's what you want to do you need to avoid AOL, Gmail, Hotmail type email
addresses okay. We often see a lot of denials due to the applicant not being set up at the business credit
reporting agencies you need to get a DUNS number with Dun & Bradstreet okay you also need to get a
BIN number with Experian a Business Identification Number. You can do both of those by going to
creditsuite.com/reports as a matter of fact creditsuite.com/reports gives you a free
way to check Experian Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet to see if they know about you now they
see if they have anything reporting for you. Look business credits very different than consumer credit
in a really big way you need to know, you can and will be issued a failing business credit score even
if you have no credit. The minute Experian and Equifax know your business exists they create
a credit report and if you have no credit they automatically give you failing credit scores
so you need to know if a report exists for you now and you could do so at
creditsuite.com/reports and if you want to monitor your business credit we make it really
affordable to do so at creditsuite.com/monitoring so that's a place that you're
able to go right there as well. So something lets you definitely definitely want to check out okay,
so something it becomes very important for you to check out and look into because again the key
here is that you need to make sure that you're actually set up where you're actually able to
access and you can do so by getting your approved getting your information for free at
creditsuite.com/reports and using creditsuite.com/monitoring for the monitoring of
your business credit as well to see if it's actually accurate. You're often a client if
you aren't listed with the reporting agency so you've got to start building some establish or
you got to start establishing some actual corporate credit it becomes very important
that you do so as well. So you really need to make sure that you're doing that you can also
get a denial if you have a low score so this is why you need to access that information and
start building some business credit because that alone can get you denied. Okay also mistake
number 7, business account mismanagement you've got to have a business account a business
bank account set up okay it becomes essential for your credibility okay and essential for you to
be able to start to get bank loans. Okay your business banking history is also vital it's very very
very important it's important because again you have things called a bank credit score a bank rating
that's used to determine if you should get loans or credit cards from the banking system. So if you
ever want to walk into a bank and get approved you need to make sure that you're managing your bank
account responsible and that you have a business bank account set up the date you open your bank
account is also very important as well because that says when you actually establish the business
in some cases. So if you buy a shelf corporation or you change ownership into interest or change
ownership in your business then ultimately they'll start looking as a default too when you open the
bank account as when the business opened. So you need to make sure that you set up a bank
account right away to give yourself more longevity and credibility when it comes time to applying for
credit cards and for financing. Also as your business grows try and you start to get to a
point where you're going to apply for bank loans well then make sure that you maintain an average
balance of $10,000 in your bank account if you don't do this you will not have what's called a
low 5 bank rating which means you're just not going to get money from the banking system it's that
simple now don't get me wrong you could still go get a credit card you could still go get a loan
from alternative lenders that lend not based on your bank account or not big banks but it's real
tough to get financing through big banks if you're not maintaining that kind of balance because
they're looking at your bank rating that won't give you a high enough rating if your balances
are high enough. So in the startup phases you don't need to keep 10 grand in your bank account you're
not applying for an SBA loan, but as you start to business it starts to grow and you start to get
to a point where you're applying for those kind of loans you really need to make sure that you're
maintaining that kind of balance in your bank account. So let's talk about a few more thoughts
personal credit quality obviously important if you have any credit issues work with a professional
credit improvement company that can help you there I found that the majority of derogatory items
on credit reports aren't being reported legitimately and if they're challenged the right way then in a
lot of cases it gets deleted because they're not supposed to be there. So work with a professional
that can help you we do not deal with consumer credit but there's plenty of companies out there
that can help you in that space so if your personal credits not in order make sure that
you get that improved it's only going to help you sometimes as you start to get loans they're going to
want to see collateral. So account receivables inventory equipment purchase orders those kind
of things really increase the value of your business because again it gives you collateral
you can use to offset lenders risk as well so some final thoughts. So to recap set up your business
fundable where it's fundable to go it's that simple okay a lot of people that get a lot denied for
loans and credit cards they think they're getting denied because they don't have enough income or
credit or other things and that's not it most applications over 50% of applications are denied
because of fundability. They're not even looking at revenue they're not even looking at your credit
they're denying you for many of these things we talked about that are basic requirements to set up
your business where you look fundable if you don't meet these you're oftentimes going to get denied
and also build your business credit. Building business credit helps goes a long way to making
sure you get financing you get it at the best terms and you get the most amount of money you can get.
So again I appreciate you tuning in our phone numbers 877-600-2487 if we
can help you get approved for financing along the way if your interested in building business
credit grab our free guide at creditsuite.com/ein and also check out our website creditsuite.com
the top right of our page you'll find our Facebook link where we go live weekly you'll
find our YouTube link where we go live weekly and have hundreds of videos that will teach you
everything you need to know about getting money and growing a business, and also you'll see links
on our Twitter and our Instagram where we've got videos and posts daily all that are designed to
help you get the most money for your business. So make sure you check out those resources
on our website at creditsuite.com thanks everybody for tuning in hope you have a great day.