As small business owners recover from the recession it's hard to imagine that getting business credit can be easy. However, the largest use of capital from business to business is the use of vendor credit lines which happens to be the largest source of small business lending in America today according to the SBA.
So what is vendor credit?
Vendor credit is when a company, like an office equipment supplier, allows your business to purchase products or services and pay for them at a later date. Typically the terms range from Net 15, Net 30, Net 60, Net 90, or even Net 120 payment terms. These vendor credit lines work like a charge card meaning that the balance must be paid in full on or prior to the due date.
The primary benefit to getting business credit with vendor credit lines is that it will provide your business with thousands of dollars in products it needs up front while allowing your business to defer the payments for later. This helps you conserve cash flow for more critical short term costs your business may have. The flexible payment terms also allows your business plenty of time to pay the invoice when it comes due.
A second benefit is vendors report your positive payment experience to the business credit bureaus. The more vendors you establish credit lines and payment experience with the stronger the profile you will build. This alone can positively impact the size of the credit limit recommendation for your business which is determined by the bureaus and publicly disclosed on your file.
However, one of the biggest mistakes made by small business owners is assuming that every vendor reports their payment history to the business credit bureaus. Currently there are over 500,000 vendors who extend lines of credit to businesses but less than 6,000 report your payment experience to the bureaus.
So if getting business credit to build your business file is a must be sure to select vendors that report. You can verify this by inquiring with a vendor that you plan to apply with or become a member of the Business Credit Insider's Circle which provides its members a vendor directory of companies that report. Be sure to ask what business credit agency they report to and how often they report.
One of my favorite aspects to vendor credit lines is the minimum qualifications required for approval. In many cases an application only requires your business contact information, Federal Tax ID#, Dun & Bradstreet#, authorized name and signature and not your social security number or personal guarantee.
The specific vendors requesting only this information will pull a business credit report to base their approval which makes obtaining vendor credit lines much easier and more convenient compared to credit cards or loans. A prime example of one of these types of vendors is a company called Quill.
Quill offers a net 30 account and reports to Dun and Bradstreet. Best of all they report your positive payment history every 30 days. For small orders you can get approved if your business has a listing on the 411 directories and a working website. New businesses can start out with smaller limits that will increase when you pay on time every month.
As you can see getting business credit with vendor credit lines can be an ideal source to fund short term needs at the same time provide your business a way to build a strong file while avoiding the use of your personal credit and guarantee.
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