At some point, bad internet advice convinced business owners they could “skip” the Social Security Number on credit applications and plug in an EIN or DUNS instead—and it’s been causing chaos ever since. In this post, I break down what each of those nine-digit numbers is actually for (tax identity vs. business credit identity vs. personal identity), why they’re not interchangeable, and how using the wrong one can trigger fraud alerts, denials, and long-term headaches for you

Do you have a slow payment showing on your business credit report that is bringing down your scores and ratings? Have you thought about disputing it but didn't know how? Or did you successfully dispute a slow payment only to see that it reappeared a month or so later? Let's do a deep dive on the facts about how the slow payment dispute process works so you can make an informed decision as to whether you should dispute that slow payment or not — and why you may not want to.

The one topic that baffles more small business owners than any other is how to legitimately add positive payment history to the D&B file to help build or boost business credit scores and ratings. So I've made a list of the most frequently asked questions, and I've provided the answers to make the process a little easier for anyone who just needs a little help getting from Point A to... well... the best D&B scores they could even imagine.

Right now, while everyone else seems to be standing still and waiting to see how things will turn out — innovators will be charging forward. Head up. Back firm. Shoulders braced. Undaunted. It's not that they are unafraid... They just understand that fear and uncertainty has motivated some of the greatest successes in our nation's history. Reach out to me directly if you want to be prepared for every potential opportunity by boosting your business credit scores and ratings i

D&B's new security process requires that specific owner's information be entered into the system to verify a principal's identity in order to gain access to the site — and they'll need to undergo an intense identity verification process that may include QR codes, selfies, and accessing your business bank account to verify your ownership. If you need help accessing your file via D&B's new DUNS Profile Manager, give me a call. I can help you get access within just a few minute

Some credit enhancement companies will try to talk you into using the same old cookie-cutter creditors they use on all their other clients. I encourage my clients to save time and money by submitting their existing vendors and suppliers to D&B. When those creditors provide strong responses to D&B's questions, their answers will carry a heavier weight, accomplish ten times more in the creditbuilding process, and can usually get your credit file built out in just a fraction o

Adding just one vendor to your D&B file has the potential to boost your scores and ratings by up to 90%. What most small business owners don't realize, though, is that choosing which vendors you can use to get payment habits reported to the business credit bureaus isn't as hard as you might think, especially if you consider that even small mom-and-pop shops, contractors, and suppliers right in your own neighborhood are often among the most beneficial to your scores and rating

f you want your existing payment history to get added to your D&B file, it's actually pretty simple — but ONLY if you know what you are doing, how and when to do it, and you have the time and determination to track your progress on a daily basis. For all you Do-It-Yourself'rs out there, here's my: Step-by-Step Guide To Adding Vendor Payments To D&B. Reach out to me directly if you want to boost your business credit scores and ratings.

When you're first starting a business and income is limited, you need to pinch every penny and make sure you're spending every dollar as wisely as possible. For most small business owners, that starts in the decision about how you're going to structure your business, because the last thing you want to do is cripple your new company and destroy your own personal FICO scores in the process. The pennies you pinch here could cost you a fortune later.

You are going to spend money this time of year, so why not make sure your company gets credit for that spending? And while lots of people tend to focus on getting Net 30 accounts (the forest), they completely miss out on all the other opportunities for growing their business credit (the trees). But having a variety of payment types is just as important as having a variety of vendor accounts, and BOTH can benefit your business. After all — 'tis the season to boost business cre

If you don't know by now, the single, most-impacting step a business owner can take to boost their potential for credit approvals is to add positive payment habits. Unfortunately, some people fall prey to some shady characters who promote even shadier strategies that do more harm than good. So... instead of letting you fall into some common traps, I've outlined ten common trade line trip-ups to help keep you on a straighter path to success.

Do you have slow payments or bad debts showing up on your business credit report? If so, you aren't alone. Even the most conscientious business owner is going to make a mistake at some point. But that doesn't mean you have to live with it or suffer the consequences. If you have a slow payment or bad debt reporting on your D&B file, use these tips and techniques to launch your dispute to remove them from your D&B report.

Most business owners don't realize that adding just one positive payment to their credit file can boost their scores and ratings by up to 90%, so just imagine how much you can boost your company's credibility if you have 5, 10, or more payments to add! Reach out to me directly if you want to add your existing payment history to your business credit report to boost your business credit scores and ratings.

You're completing a credit application, and everything is going smoothly until you reach the section at the bottom. You know the one—where you're asked to provide a personal guarantee—and suddenly, you pause. Why is it that, despite your efforts to keep business and personal credit separate, suppliers or lenders want to combine them again? It feels like hiring a divorce lawyer before even getting married!

You probably already know the best way to build up your business credit is to add payment history. If you don't have any vendors or suppliers, you may try to use some of the more familiar trade lines offered up online. Unfortunately, this can lead to "cookie-cutter" credit where you end up with the same generic payment history as everyone else and nothing of substance that proves your creditworthiness. Believe it or not, using generic suppliers can actually do more harm than

Getting approved for business funding is actually not as difficult as some might think, especially if you have a good grasp of what specific information lenders are looking for from your company, such as how many years you've been in business, what industry you're in, and what your base income and expenses are.

Several years ago, I decided to test my "email address" theory using my graphic design business as a guinea pig. To test my theory, I created two new retail credit accounts with the same company just minutes apart. On the first, I used my generic Yahoo email address I've had for 20 years. On the second, I used a business email address. Since the business information is the same, there should be no difference between the two online accounts I created, right? Except the resul

D&B's practice of withholding creditor information has been challenged all the way to the Supreme Court. In the end, D&B has always prevailed, in part because they mount some pretty tough arguments to support their overall objective: maintaining the sanctity of the proprietary data used to generate scores and ratings. Year's ago, while employed at D&B, I often struggled to defend their "vendor anonymity" requirement. Here's six key reasons DNB doesn't identify credit reporter

By now, you probably already know that you need payment history to boost your business credit scores and ratings. What you might not know is that you need that payment history to come from a variety of suppliers across an array of industries and resources to get the most benefit and convert those excellent credit scores into excellent credit approvals.

Contrary to what most frustrated business owners believe, there is no mystery formula and no secret algorithm that establishes this score. There is no personal influence that can be weighed in from any D&B employee. Amazingly enough, you can be the deciding vote on what your D&B rating will be. But before you do anything, you need to understand the score and what you can do to influence it. Reach out to me directly if you want to boost your business credit scores and ratin