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.

If you're planning to spend money on holiday gifting, buying those gifts now (and doing it the right way) could mean that many of these "seasonal" purchases get reported to the commercial credit bureaus and count toward boosting your business credit scores and ratings. Sometimes it can be as easy as creating a new account in your business name and paying for your purchases using your business debit or credit card! Reach out to me directly if you want to boost your business cr

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.

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

Most business owners would love to reap the rewards of better business credit scores and ratings, but most will tell you it's just not in the budget. Little do they realize there are five free things they can do right now that will boost their D&B scores that won't cost them a penny — and most can be completed in less than fifteen minutes! Most business owners who take the time to complete these steps see a significant boost to their business credit scores and ratings.

When a DUNS number is generated, D&B creates a very generic credit profile based upon information that is readily available, whether that is provided by local, state, and federal agencies, third party resources, or autoreporting vendors and creditors. They lay down a white sheet of canvas for your non-specific business as it compares to others in your same area, same size, same age, and same industry.

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.

If you’ve been using vendor accounts to build your Dun & Bradstreet PAYDEX score, there’s one simple habit that can make a bigger difference than most business owners realize: re-ordering. In this post, I explain why vendor tradelines can quietly age out—or disappear entirely—when you don’t use them regularly, and how a once-a-year purchase can help keep accounts active, refresh reporting, and protect the scores and ratings you’ve worked hard to establish.

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

There are two questions I ask new clients: What was the last thing you purchased online? (and) What are you shopping for right now? How they answer those questions is an invaluable tool in determining ways they can continue to build and boost their business credit capability with very little effort. Sometimes, something as simple as creating an online account with a supplier and making a purchase using your business debit or credit card can do more to boost your scores more t

Pretend for just one minute that you're the owner of a little coffee shop and diner down the street. It's unlikely all of your daily needs would come from just one distributor, so it's easy to identify areas where you might need to have multiple suppliers. Your business is going to draw from an equally diverse group of suppliers specifically suited to your company's day-to-day business needs, and you're probably going to have multiple vendors for many of the products or serv

Nine times out of ten, adding your own existing payment history to your business credit report is going to be far more beneficial than following someone else's cookie-cutter roadmap. If you have already been paying bills and making purchases in your day-to-day operations, those transactions are the ones that are going to say more about your company's capability and credibility than any cookie-cutter tradelines ever will. Reach out to me directly if you want to boost your busi

Are you like Sam? Sam told me he didn't have any vendors. He said, "I don't have any credit. All I ever use are local guys and small businesses who have probably never even heard of D&B." "Like who?" I taunted. "Just throw a few names at me to see what I can find." Sam started listing off some of his contractors and companies he'd worked with. In the fifteen minutes we were on the phone, I found all 7 of those companies in D&B's system. And then 16 more. And then 4 more.

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

What are you planning to buy this week? What's on your shopping list? Ink or toner for your printer? Some lumber for a project? A new tablet to organize your schedule? New windshield wipers for your truck? Business cards or marketing materials? Whatever is on your shopping list, make sure you buy from a company that can report your payment to the commercial credit bureaus. It's what I refer to as "passive" creditbuilding — buying what you already need, but in a way that benef

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