Peter Bolin, Director of Consulting and Analytics for Experian appeared on episode #380 of the Business Insanity Talk Radio Show recently to talk about your business credit score. The show is hosted by Barry Moltz. In this blog post we include a transcript of Pete’s appearance along with a link to the recording on Soundcloud.
Barry Moltz: A lot of small business owners pay attention to their personal credit score, unfortunately, they don’t pay attention to their business’s credit score. To discuss this is Peter Bolin who is the Director of Consulting & Analytics at Experian, Peter welcome to the show.
Pete Bolin: Thank you very much, Barry. It’s very nice to be here.
Barry Moltz: Now I don’t find too many people who have a LinkedIn profile like yours that starts with “we torture data.” So what does that mean?
Pete Bolin: That’s the truth. We try to use the data assets at Experian to squeeze out as much predictive information, and as much marking information that we can, and to help our customers, and clients and small business owners benefit as much as they can from our data.
Barry Moltz: So why is it important, we all know how important it is to have a high personal credit score, but why should the business have a high credit score?
Pete Bolin: Having a high credit score for business is critical. It helps them negotiate with creditors better, it helps them negotiate with their wholesalers better and it provides them the opportunity to get the best offer. Get the best rates. Get the best credit terms available and that’s all driven by a high credit score.
Barry Moltz: Now as a business do you check your credit score the same way you would check your personal credit score for example like on Experian?
Peter Bolin: Yes, we have a web site, BusinessCreditFacts.Com, where a small business owner can go and access their credit report, understand all the information. It’s very informative, it’s very educational. They can even check the credit score planner, which gives them key information on the critical data elements that actually affect their score, and they can start to educate themselves about the factors that they can potentially use to improve their score.
Barry Moltz: So Peter what are some of those critical factors? I think we are all familiar with the ones for our personal credit score. What are those for business?
Peter Bolin: First of all, you want to make sure that you limit your debt. You want to make sure that you get that as low as possible. You want to make sure that the balance-to-limit ratio which calculates the balances to the total overall balances and keeping that very low will help your credit score. Also, obviously pay your bills on time, that’s a big one. Limit the number of inquiries – meaning, limit the number of times you’re actually shopping for credit. Only look for credit when you absolutely need it. Those three things are critical in keeping a credit score very high.
Barry Moltz: So what’s a good credit score for a small business, I know for myself for my personal credit score I try to keep it in the 750’s if I can. What is good for a business?
Peter Bolin: That depends on each lender. I can say that on average, teh average business credit score, base on our IntelliScore Plus is a 50, it ranges from 1 to 100. So the average score is about a 50. So I would recommend keeping it above that in order to get the best terms and conditions for your loan.
Barry Moltz: Well I certainly appreciate you being on the show, where can people get more information on all of this to improve their business credit score?
Peter Bolin: BusinessCreditFacts.com, which gives you access to the business credit report and also the score planner which is a key educational feature.
Barry Moltz: Pete thanks so much.
Peter Bolin: Thank you for having me Barry.
