CAPITAL GROUNDWORK
Business Credit: A Guide for Small-Business Owners
Business credit is information used to evaluate the creditworthiness or financial risk of a business rather than an individual consumer. There is no single universal business credit score, report, or automatic score created simply by registering a company or obtaining an EIN.
FREE CHECKLIST
Building business credit? Start with the groundwork.
Use the free Business Credit Starter Checklist to organize your business identity, reporting accounts, monitoring, and next steps.
Get the Free ChecklistWhat is business credit?
Commercial credit reporting organizations can maintain information about businesses and produce reports, scores, ratings, or risk indicators. Those systems can use different data, models, and scales.
Business credit vs. personal credit
Business and personal credit are separate concepts, but personal credit can still matter for some business financing products. The exact process depends on the provider and financing product.
How business credit gets built
A business credit profile can develop when information about a business is collected or reported to commercial credit reporting organizations. Not every business account reports, and not every account reports to every bureau.
Why check your business credit?
Reviewing available business credit information can help you determine whether a profile exists, inspect identifying information, see reported payment experiences, and monitor changes.
Business credit is not funding readiness
A business can have commercial credit activity and still be unprepared for a particular financing product. Revenue, cash flow, time in business, existing obligations, documents, collateral, personal guarantees, amount requested, and use of funds may also matter.