Most business owners assume Dun & Bradstreet builds their business credit profile from banks, vendors, and public records—but one of the most powerful (and overlooked) factors is you. If your company’s D&B file is incomplete, inconsistent, or missing key details, it can quietly slow approvals, limit credit lines, and make your business look riskier than it really is. In this post, you’ll learn why becoming an “active participant” in your own business credit profile—verifying data, correcting errors, and supplying the right information at the right time—can strengthen your scores faster and help your business qualify for real funding based on its own merit, not your personal credit.

The bulk of the data appearing in your business credit profile is acquired by sources outside of D&B, whether from banks, credit card underwriters, state and federal agencies, vendors and suppliers, or third party providers. Very few people actually take into account that they, as an active participant in their own company, are oftentimes D&B’s most valuable source for business data. There is no one who knows more about your business than you, and nothing can compare to this inside information. Are you actively participating in your progress?

READ MORE: Stop Bootstrapping And Start Building A Business Credit Blueprint

I compare building your own business credit to building your own pizza — which may be easy enough if you are in the pizza business. If you already have the flour, salt, and yeast for the dough, the tomatoes, peppers, onions and seasonings for the sauce, the pepperoni, mushrooms and cheese for the toppings, and (most of all) the time, energy, and recipe to put it all together, you can whip it up in no time. But for most of us, getting a hot and tasty pizza requires you to pick up the phone and order from your favorite pizzeria.

If you’re like me, the last thing you want to do is put in a lot of time and energy to be able to satisfy your immediate hunger. But even if you choose to take the easy way out, you still have to be an active participant. You have to actually pick up a phone, place an order, and take out your charge card. You still have to wait for delivery and, eventually, you will have to “open the door” to get to your goal of eating the pizza.

A solid D&B report is crucial to being able to fund your day-to-day operations and plan for growth, expansion, or investment. But it also requires you to be an “active participant” in order to move forward at a steady pace. Even if you hire a company to do the bulk of the legwork, you will still need to provide the required information, answer the necessary questions, follow the directions you are given, and take on some of the tasks that only you can accomplish.

READ MORE: Get Credit Where Credit Is Due

Only you can actually “open the door” to get to your goal of a complete, creditworthy business profile. The difference between succeeding quickly, taking longer to get to your goal, or failing altogether can oftentimes be attributed solely on a your willingness to participate. To think that you can hire anyone to do the work and then not participate in the process is foolish and unrealistic. We work very hard to set the appropriate expectations, but YOU are still the one in control of your progress.

READ MORE: Turbo-Boost Your Paydex Score

You have a business to run. That's why our service is popular with busy owners who have enough on their plate already. While we are able to accomplish much of what we do without your constant attention, there are certain elements that cannot be completed without your participation. Even if you have someone within your own business tackling these tasks, their progress will still depend on how much effort, determination, and stick-to-itiveness you put into the tasks at hand.

Each business has an equal opportunity to obtain credit. Each has all the tools they need to be able to achieve, now and in the future. Each will move at a different pace depending on their individual drive, determination and obstacles, but only clients who are willing to become active participants in their own future will get to their goals. Without the willingness to “open the door” your credit potential will be left outside on the steps.

ONE MORE TIP: Request a free consultation and business credit assessment to see if we can help you get to the finish line faster.