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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Welcome Letter ...................................................................................... 6 Marks Story ........................................................................................... 7 SECTION ONE: Understanding the Power of Business Credit .............................. 13 The Benefits of Business Credit According to Dun and Bradstreet ......................... 14 Most Frequently Asked Questions about Business Credit .................................... 20 SECTION TWO: The Business Jumpstart Process ............................................. 28 Step One: Building your Credit File to Qualify for Cash...................................... 29 Questions to Ask Before you set up your Corporation ....................................... 31 Step by Step Guide to Setting up your Corporate Entity .................................... 35 Common Mistakes to Avoid while Incorporating .............................................. 41 3 Action Steps to Incorporation ................................................................. 44 Step Two: Getting your Corporate Credit Scores ............................................ 53 Obtaining Your Dun and Bradstreet Number .................................................. 59 Frequently Asked Questions about Dun and Bradstreet ..................................... 59 Monitoring Your Dun and Bradstreet File ...................................................... 65 Step By Step Guide to Setting up your Dun and Bradstreet Number ...................... 70 Getting your Experian Report .................................................................. 72 SECTION THREE: The Credit Application Process ............................................ 73 Using 30 Day Accounts to Accelerate your score ............................................. 75 Secret Places to find Hidden Sources of Cash ................................................. 77 Leveraging the Power of Your Spouse for more credit ...................................... 78 Working with Credit Partners ................................................................... 83 Applying For Vendor Lines of Credit ........................................................... 85 Turning Credit Card Accounts into Lines of CASH............................................. 90 Quick Look Resource Guide ...................................................................... 96
Dear Friend, I want to thank and congratulate you on your investment in Business Credit Jumpstart. Not only is it an investment in your business, but in yourself as well. Education is the most important thing you can invest in. EVER! Its the only thing that they cant take away from you. Id like you to keep in mind while you are going through the course that getting business credit isnt a destination. Rather, its a life long journey! You can keep building forever and the best part is that you can do it with multiple corporations. Theres no stopping you! Thats why I am so incredibly passionate about teaching as many business owners and entrepreneurs about the advantages of business credit. This is truly powerful tool that can be used to launch, grow or expand your business ANY business! To Gargantuan Lines of Business Credit, Dustin Mathews P.S. Please dont feel intimated by calling us! I encourage you to share with your success stories and ask any questions that may come up in the process. Remember were here to support you!
It wasnt until my wife divorced me that I realized all my credit was in her name. When she left she took all my credit history with her. However she did leave behind my two beautiful kids and a ton of bills! I realized then that I needed to not only have more time for my family, but I also needed to run my business better and become more profitable. I figured out that if could just get a loan for $50,000 I could add another location and turn it into a $100,000 a year business. However, with no credit history of my own this posed a problem when it came to getting a loan.
Uneducated about what I needed to do to get a credit history, I simply closed my business and was reduced to teaching in the backyards of some of my past students. Most of these challenges were based on one consistent variable -- my finances. Even with the amount of business I was doing it was difficult to make ends meet. I knew I was at a critical tipping point in my life and needed to take action.
Then I stumbled upon the concept of business credit! I had a credit score in
the five hundreds and knew it would to be a challenge to obtain business credit. However, at this point I was determined to make it work -- not only for myself but for my family.
Getting business credit was not an easy task. I was turned down again and again based on my personal credit history. I was getting discouraged, but I knew that what I really needed to was to learn more about business credit, and learn how to do this the right way. I knew that if others had been successful at it, I could be too. That is, if I could only learn the secret formula that they knew. I found a mentor who walked me through the process and taught me the concept of adding credit partners. I took on two credit partners and went from zero business credit to over $200,000 in a week. Needless to say I was addicted and it made me want to know more. I estimated that I could help hundreds of entrepreneurs do the same thing in order to fulfill their business dreams. Now, I have hundreds of students all over the world using my system to get business credit. I feel that if even a few people get past the small business hump because they implement my system and use it to leverage the growth of their businesses; I have contributed to their success in some small way. It is my hope that this course will be your guide on the business
credit journey, not just one time -- but over and over again.
What is unique about me now is the fact that I am a loan broker as well as a borrower. Not only do I get to teach others how to set up their files to obtain credit, I can also lend it to them myself. This also gives Business Credit Jumpstart a unique advantage. As a lender, I get journals that tell me how not to give people credit or what to look for in the files that I should lend credit to. I also see what the banks look for and the questions that they ask. What this means is that I understand the criteria that they look for and also the common mistakes that businesses make in the process that cost them in the long run. Because of this I can use my skills as an educated lender to make sure that you learn all you need to know to bulletproof your business credit file in order to keep the cash flow coming in on a consistent basis regardless of what business you are in.
When I was in lending school the most amazing thing to me was that the people who were teaching the class had no idea about some of the things that you will learn in this course. I sat in class for many hours and many days. By the end of the course they wanted to refer my services of obtaining business credit out. They were teaching the students how to get money -- with no knowledge of the keys for qualifying for money! They were not familiar with Dun and Bradstreet and had no idea how to get a Paydex score of 80 both critical steps to getting credit. These were steps I had learned to use at my advantage that you will learn very soon!
With this thought, I want to share a story by Dr. Russell Conwell. It is a parable that I referenced over and over again even when I thought about giving up. I hope you use it to get past any point in your business that presents itself as a roadblock. It is called Acres of Diamonds.
The story is about a farmer who lived in Africa and through a friend became tremendously excited about looking for diamonds. Diamonds were already discovered in abundance on the
African continent and this farmer got so excited about the idea of millions of dollars worth of diamonds that he sold his farm to head out in search of these diamonds that he believed would bring him great wealth. He wandered for years all over the continent, constantly searching for diamonds and the wealth it would bring him once he found them. He never did find the diamonds. Eventually he went completely broke and threw himself into a river and drowned.
Meanwhile, the new owner of his farm picked up an unusual looking rock about the size of an egg and put it on his mantle. A visitor stopped by and in viewing the rock practically went into terminal convulsions. He told the new owner of the farm that the funny looking rock on his mantle was about the biggest diamond that had ever seen. The new owner of the farm said, Heck, the whole farm is covered with them - and sure enough it was. The farm turned out to be the Kimberly Diamond Mine... the richest the world has ever known. The original farmer was literally standing on Acres of Diamonds until he sold his farm.
Dr. Conwell learned from the story of the farmer and continued to teach its moral. We are all in the middle of our own Acre of Diamonds, if only we would realize it and develop the ground we are standing on before charging off in search of greener pastures.
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Opportunity does not just come along it is there all the time - we just have to see it.
Remember when I started this, I had a failing karate school business and a credit score in the five hundreds. To be good at anything in life, you have to be determined to overcome obstacles. Many of the people who sign up for my course have credit challenges. Often they make it all the way through the process and give up right at the end. This is crazy and I do not want this to happen to any of my students. If you give up you will never make it. Regardless of where you are starting from, if you use this system, the only excuse you have for not attaining large amounts of cash for your business is either lack of organization or motivation! I will teach you step-by-step what you need to do to succeed in my course. I will walk you through the process on a live webinar.
Dont ever give up. I was there and I made it through just by using two simple tenets: get started and dont give up until youve reached your goal. I got credit partners. I got several hundred thousand dollars of business credit. I built a corporation. I was free to do whatever I wanted to do. You, too, can do the same. But it will take work and determination on your part. The seminar is just the beginning. With a strong base, you can change your position in any area of your life! You just need to get up, get going and keep going until you have reached your goal. I look forward to working with you and helping you attain your personal goals.
MARK BRAVO
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50 % of small businesses will fail in their first year. 95% of small businesses will fail by their fifth year.
Small businesses are the major driving forces in our economy. So why then do these businesses fail at such an alarming rate? The answer is simple: they run out of MONEY! Business Credit Jumpstart is not going to teach you this process so you can get new rims on your car. We are going to teach you how to get money to grow your business. It is up to you how you spend that money wisely. Within the scope of your business, you need to figure out where that money will pay you back the most and then make it work for you.
My job is to teach you the process that will get you the money that you need to reach your business objectives. By the time you finish this course you should have your Corporation set up, a Dun and Bradstreet number and an Experian file. These are the three critical things that you must do first in order to get business credit working for you. You will then be implementing a massive action plan to get unlimited amounts of cash to explode your business.
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Section One
Understanding How the Credit System Works
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to lease the equipment you need to grow your business to increase your line of credit to help you carry more inventory at competitive prices to give you favorable financing rates and terms you stack up favorably against other companies competing in your market space This type of information is listed in your business credit profile, along with scores and ratings that are derived from your businesses past behavior to predict its future behavior. For example, your ability and willingness to pay your bills on time in the past is factored into your ability and likelihood of paying your bills in the future.
Its not just about getting access to financing; business credit has increasingly become the primary vehicle for setting terms on business loans, determining insurance premiums, even setting lease payments. Good business credit can earn you lower rates, strengthening your cash flow.
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Character includes factors such as: size, location, number of years in business, business structure, number of employees, history of principals, and appetite for sharing information about itself, media coverage, liens, judgments or pending law suits, stock performance, and comments from references.
Capacity assesses the ability of the business to pay its bills, i.e., its cash flow. It also includes the structure of the companys debtwhether secured or unsecuredand the existence of any unused lines of credit. Any defaults must also be identified.
Capital assesses whether a company has the financial resources (obtained from financial records) to repay their creditors. In general, this portion of the credit report is the one most closely reviewed by the credit analyst. Heavy weighting is given to such balance sheet items as working capital, net worth and cash flow.
Conditions consider the external factors surrounding the business under consideration - influences such as market fluctuations, industry growth rate, political/ legislative factors, and currency rates.
A credit manager or loan officer will answer these questions by locating and reviewing: requests for credit information customer supplied information bank information trade information
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These factors are also taken into consideration by other service providers, such as insurance companies to set premiums. More than ever, companies are using automated decisioning, which means they input scores and ratings that summarize the 4 Cs into a financial model to determine the risk of doing business with you. (smallbusiness.dnb.com)
4. How can I influence your business credit profile? Knowing what information is most important gives you the inside edge and allows you to pay more attention to the important factors of business credit.
You can develop a strong business credit profile by: Paying on time. The payment experiences other companies have with you are the most impactful data in your business credit profile. For this reason, you should ensure that you pay within the terms set forth by your suppliers. This is the most direct way to drive a positive credit rating.
Ensuring all relevant trade experiences are represented. Are you paying large sums on a timely basis to key suppliers and lenders that arent being reflected in your profile? If so, you are missing out on a key opportunity to get the credit you deserve for paying your bills on time and for conducting a larger volume of business. You should check your profile often to make sure that all the vendor payment relationships are captured.
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Keep your personal finances in good order. If you are the owner of an emerging business, until your company develops a robust credit profile of its own, your consumer credit profile also may be reviewed by prospective creditors. How well you manage your personal finances can impact your companys creditworthiness. Keep in mind, though, that your business and personal ratings are separate and distinct. One is not used to directly impact the other.
Keeping your business credit profile in good order. At D&B, we strive for accuracy, timeliness, completeness and consistency of data. If you see accounts that arent yours, mistakes your bank made, or false negative activity youve already addressed, you should address these inaccuracies in one of two ways: by signing up with D&B eUpdate, our online tool that allows businesses to easily update their data, or by calling our Customer Service Center at 877-753-1444.
Keeping your debt financing down. The capital structure of your businessthat is, the extent to which you use equity or debt to finance your operationsis an important determinant of your creditworthiness. If other companies see a lot of debt on your balance sheet, whether in absolute terms or relative to your competitors, they are less likely to extend credit as you pose greater risk of default.
Contributing to your own profile. Some credit managers prefer detailed reports with a lot of supporting information, enabling them to assess risk based on a broader frame of reference. Communicating as much information about your business as you can to D&B assures a more robust report. Likewise, doing business with companies that you know frequently report their experiences to us builds your profile.
Keep an eye on the key financial indicators in your own report to see how they compare to other companies in your industry. In doing so, you can benchmark yourself, identify areas
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for improvement and ensure a profile with adequate information for a satisfactory credit investigation.
You may seem overextended. Because businesses require more cash to operate than consumers do, your personal credit will not be portrayed accurately if you are using it to run your business.
To prevent people from becoming overextended, consumer credit keeps track of how many credit or loan applications you make, most of which count against your consumer credit score. On the other hand, business credit does not count numerous applications for financing against you, since businesses usually seek financing on a regular basis as a way to run and grow the business.
Unless you are using the right credit information for the right purpose, you may be putting yourself into a situation where you will be unable to get financing for your business or yourself when you need it.
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What Dun and Bradstreet Wont Tell You But We Will about Building Business Credit
1. What is the real difference between business and personal credit?
The real difference is that business credit will not be showing up on your personal credit report. If you have business credit and it is showing up on your personal credit report then it really is not business credit after all, is it? I see this often when people think they are getting a business credit card. When it arrives, it shows up on their personal credit report. It is really just a personal card with a business name on it.
The system that you will learn to do by using this manual will teach you how to get real business credit by using your tax ID number. Notice that I say system, meaning that there are a series of steps that need doing in order to get to this point. There are only two credit applications that wont reflect on your personal credit that dont ask for a Tax I.D. number: Capital and GM. If the credit card applications do not ask for the tax ID number, you will not be filling out a business credit application. Remember our goal -- to get business credit! There is a real big difference here. You are getting invisible credit -- meaning that it will not show up on your personal credit, but you are using your personal guarantee to get the business credit. In the future it will be unsecured and guaranteed in other ways. For example, if you were to get a line of credit on your home, the house is guaranteeing the loan, not you. By developing your business credit file you will be doing the same thing. Your business will guarantee the loan, not you personally!
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Let me elaborate on this a bit more. When I started this process I had a credit score in the five hundreds. In spite of this I was able to build a corporation, but it did take me eight months to do this. Now, I have had the privilege of being able to do it for hundreds of people all over the world in all different types of situations. If you apply the information that is taught to you throughout this course you will be able to be one of these people who are constantly getting an endless supply of money in order to grow your business.
Obviously, the better your credit score from the start the faster this process will be able to be done. I have found that if you have a least a 680 credit score, your chances of accelerating this process increase. However, if this is not the case not only will I teach you ways to increase your personal credit but also how to take on a credit partner that will help you get lines of credit
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much faster.
Whether you are starting out with great credit or not, you should establish a corporation. Then you can get secured credit cards to help build your corporations credit score. These are cards that are issued based on an amount of cash you put into a secured bank account. Once you receive the secured credit card, use that cash to pay bills that you would normally pay monthly, such as rent or the phone bill. You can use the card to establish buying activity as well keeping a track record of payments in order to get or increase your scores. The credit bureaus will then report these types of cards and help you build credit under the business name. Remember, you want your corporation to look good so when you present yourself to somebody in a future business deal, whether it is a lender or another investor, you want to show what credit you already have, and what your scores are for your corporation -- not yourself personally. Many will be impressed by that because not many people can do this.
I built a corporation in spite of this with a little effort and some patience. Then I added two people as credit partners and in one week I received $200,000 in credit. I did not have great credit, but I brought people on who did, and I was able to leverage their resources to get what I needed. In business, understanding and utilizing the power of leverage of other peoples resources can get you far ahead of the game. If you have bad credit or youre credit challenged for whatever reason, you can get a credit partner and build $200,000 just like I did. So long story short -- the answer is yes, you have to have good credit if you are building credit under your name. If you are building credit under your businesses name and following this process, your credit wont matter at all!
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Although we are working on developing your business credit rating, in the beginning of this process you will be using your personal credit to start with. That is why it is important to know where you are starting from. There are many books that teach you how to build up your personal credit score in addition to many services that also will maintain your credit score by keeping you updated with any red flags.
It has been said before that sometimes things need to get worse before they can get better and the same is true for your personal credit score when going through the business credit application process. I can teach you strategies to control it, but you can expect your credit score to drop up to 20 points just based on the inquiries that you will be getting as you apply for credit. I have had a lot of people tell me that they had a good credit score and dont want it to drop. My response is this, Well, if you want up to $400,000 in credit, your score is going to drop 20 points based on the number of inquiries you will accumulate to be able to get it that $400,000. Personally, Id rather lose 20 points on my score and have $400,000 to grow my business than have a higher credit score and no cash. That is just good business savvy in my book, but to some,
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The good news is that down the line you can make up those 20 points. I have done research on every company that handles removal of inquiries. The result is that your chances of getting the inquiries removed from your file before their time is due is 50 percent no matter what you do or what you pay. When you request a credit inquiry to be removed, the credit bureau sends a request for confirmation of the inquiry to the creditor that requested it. The creditor is then given 30 days to investigate the inquiry and report back to the bureau.
I f
y o u p a y $3,000
o r
chances remain the same. Lets say you have ten inquiries and you go after them. Lets say you get ten inquiries the next month but have received $200,000 to $300,000, in the meantime. If you can take those inquiries off you will increase the amount of time that you are still able to get money.
This is how the credit system works but it does not mean that you cant challenge the system.
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For example, I have a friend who has $2 million in business credit that he accumulated in a little over ten years. He tracked his report and saw that he had accumulated ten, twelve and thirteen inquiries. Every four months he would set time aside to just go after them. He did this himself and he would be successful at taking six or seven of them off. Then he would be able to get another $200,000 in credit. He just followed this system until he reached the $2 million dollar mark. He is a great example of that to win in the money game sometimes all you really need is a bit of patience.
Now I offer a service that can do amazing things for your credit in just 90 days. If you have bad credit I recommend that you start here while you are building your corporate file. To find out more about this program please visit our website at www.businesscreditinfusion.com
You will not be able to remove foreclosures, bankruptcies and tax liens yourself. You will need the help of an attorney. I had a
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client who had claimed bankruptcy thinking that all her loans were in there as well. She asked me why, even though the bankruptcy was removed. What she did not know was that there are three things that cannot fall under the category of bankruptcy. Those three things are Student Loans, Child Support and IRS tax liens.
Keep in mind that her attorney never told this woman that these were her responsibility. You cant rely on others to take care of your past mistakes. You must be proactive with these. The bankruptcy attorney that I recommend is Shawn Yesner. You can contact him via www.Yesnerlaw. com. Tell him you are a student of mine.
One of the ways that you can use the copy of your agreement against the credit companies is to remove lates. Lets say for example that you were actually 40 days late. If the fine print states the late is reported if you are 30 days late, you may be able to get it off since, technically, you were late but not within the 30 days that it states. I have seen people leverage these kinds of tasks to credit companies that clear up your credit. At the end of this manual there is a list of companies
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that I recommend. Regardless of the cost, some are as low as $39.00 while others charge as much as $5,000; the quality will be the same.
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SECTION TWO
The Business Credit Jumpstart Process
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Incorporate your business Attain a Dun and Bradstreet Number Develop Your Experian File
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this yourself very quickly. This is the first step. Once you know how to proceed, you will be able to repeat the process again and again to keep applying for credit that can help you grow your business FAST!
Why is this so important? Beyond the fact that it is the essential first step, let me give you an example by which to understand its importance. If you are doing real estate and you build one corporation and then tap it out at $300,000 or $400,000, what happens if you need more money? Lets say in this situation that it can make or break a deal. You dont want to pay the high price for hard money, and you will not have to if you have a corporation with money available for you to use. You see, one of the real benefits of having access to money is that it always provides you and your business the power of choice. He who has the choices also has much more power. If you can have access to cash faster than the other guy, you know that that gives you the ability to get deals that others cant. It is an old clich but so true. Money Talks and setting up your entity fast and the right way is the first step toward leveraging money to develop your business.
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I have found a program called www.managemyminutes.com. This program is really easy and allows you to fill in information required for documentation. It actually has prompts and walks you through the process so you can keep your records. Then as soon as you enter the information required it can print out minutes and resolutions. You print them and add them to your corporate file and youre done. For $199.00 having this company do it for you is a no brainer. Most people do this through an attorney and it costs $500 to $3,000 dollars. It even provides standard contracts in it that you can use. In addition, you can set it up so it emails you lets take for example at the end of the year that you need to do your statement. It will notify you when it is due.
In addition, many are afraid of C corps because they think they need to be one big company to be a corporation. In reality, in most states you only need one person to have a C corporation while others do require at least two. The other benefit as an Entrepreneur is through benefits. A C corporation can cover up to 100 percent and have a write off. Lets say for example that, God forbid, you get cancer. If your business is set up in an LLC, you are going to be responsible for 20% of the bill. There are a lot of things the C Corporation can do that the LLC cannot.
Remember, I am not an accountant so I recommend you consult with your own team members
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when it comes to the best asset protection based on the nature of your business. What I have found is that the C Corporation is the best entity with which to build your credit file. If you are in real estate most likely you will have an LLC set up. You can do the same process of getting business credit with an LLC, but I have found that the easiest entity to get money with my process is with a C corporation. It is well worth your time to educate yourself about the pros and cons of the different entities by reading Incorporate and Grow Rich.
Many people have been talked into setting up their entities in Nevada. While there are some benefits to doing this, getting credit for your corporation is not one of them. If you want to have an LLC in Nevada so you can save on the fact that they have no income tax, for example if you are in real estate, I understand that. But I still think that you should incorporate in your home state and this is where you build credit, not with your LLC. Im not saying that you cant get credit if you do this. You can probably build some credit on it but you wont be able to build cash credit.
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You may be able to get some supply lines, maybe a little bit of cash credit but they are not going to give you credit unless its in your home state. This is a number one thing; you want to open it in your own home state for credit purposes.
The easiest way to find out if the name that you want is available is to search it on the Secretary Of State website in which you are incorporating. Save yourself some time by checking that the name is available first, that way you dont fill out all the paperwork and try to file it, only to find out that the name you chose is unavailable.
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money, one of the keys to making your money grow is to make your money work as hard for you as you have worked for it. Real Estate is the vehicle that many people use to do this. Here I will also tell you how you can use your real estate to build equity within the company as a strategy to get even more cold hard cash for your business.
Today, in the seminar world, it is often taught that when you are buying real estate you should hold your properties in a trust. This is true. However, your corporation should own your trust, NOT YOU! A lot of you who are buying real estate at a rate of 60% on the dollar will show that you have 40% equity built in. If this is the case, then you should be able to put that property under a corporation, even a new one since banks want at least 35% equity.
If you have 35% equity, then you can put that property under a corporation. Most people dont do that. Theyre too busy buying property in their own name! Most people I come across have eight or nine properties in their own names based on how easy it was to qualify for a personal loan in the last few years. You just stated what you made for income and boom, there you go -- you had your money! Unfortunately times are changing. If you are buying properties under market value because of the equity, they should be going under your corporation. This is what will stop you from using your social security number in the future.
In the beginning you will be using your personal credit, but once you get these properties under an entity, you shouldnt have to use your personal credit anymore; the properties will guarantee the credit themselves. Then you can still get lines of credit or equity lines of credit all under your
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corporation, not your personal social security number. While this can take some time for you to be able to do this, it is a huge benefit to having a corporation.
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The other way you can do this is directly online via your states Secretary of State website. People do not use this resource enough. You simply Google your states web address. Normally, it is the name of your state plus .gov that will get you to the Secretary of States website. Once you are there, you can download all the forms you will need. Also, they walk you through the process. You can print out the directions and they also give you a contact number to reach them directly with any questions you have. The cost to incorporate per state does vary but should be disclosed on this website before you start the process.
A few years ago the going rate to have an attorney set up a corporation was $2,000 to $6,000 to file the same paperwork that you can now access via the Secretary of States website. I say this to drive home that it can be easy! This is the first step, and once you start to get credit you can set up another corporation and not need an attorney or pay those hefty fees that come with doing it that way. You will also be amazed to see that it only takes a few days to incorporate online, while it takes an attorney several weeks. You can own as many corporations as you want. Well, technically you cant own any corporation, but you can be the founder of as many as you want. Then you can repeat the filing of the paperwork step-by-step for another corporation and just keep the money stacking up.
Filling out the paperwork to set up Your Corporation Correctly with Socrates
If you are using the Socrates Incorporated program as I recommend, you will have to start by choosing what entity you want to create -- an LLC or a Corporation. Then you will choose the state in which you will file. If you choose to use the Secretary of States website to file directly online, each state will walk you through the process. However these directions can still be used to fill out the paperwork accurately.
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There are services that offer a legal mailing address for a fee. Usually $300-$400 a month is what I have found. With that fee you usually get a receptionist that will answer the phone for you, but the prices and the services offered vary from state to state. This is an option. However, just keep in mind it is adding to your operating expenses monthly.
In the next part of this section it will ask you to state what type of business activity the corporation will do. I always write Business Management. You probably are much more specific in what your company will do. However this title is general and therefore can cover your butt as you may want this to change over time.
2. Number of Shares
This is a real important step since the system does not put in shares or the par value automatically for you. Every state has a different maximum of shares that you are allowed to own. You will have to reference your states Secretary of State website to find out what yours is before you fill out this section.
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Par Value - The Par Value you should fill in as ZERO. If you want, you can put in a value. Depending on what state you are incorporating in, you may be charged. I always go with zero unless the state requires you to put in ten cents or something (Again, found on the Secretary of States website).
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As I mentioned at the beginning, the best software, and it is super inexpensive, is the Socrates Media Company Incorporation program. There is a link to buy it on our website, www.
businesscreditinfusion.com. I dont recommend that you purchase the downloadable system. Buy the disk and the manual so you can access it again and again. You can also buy it at Office Depot. Socrates has its own section where you will be able to find it. If you do not want to do this, but would rather file online directly via the Secretary of State, you can do that too.
If the name is available when you search it, then it will say something along the lines of No results found which means you can file with this name. Now, if you do not file at that exact time
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there is a chance that someone else might file with the name you want.
Lets say for example that you file on a Tuesday and somebody else filed on Monday with your name. The state will kick your request back and tell you the name is taken and to choose a new one. If you dont intend to file at the moment that you are looking up the name, then some states will allow you to pay a fee to reserve it. I recommend that you simply just set time aside to do this all at once and get it done. Having the name taken from you is why I do not recommend that you set up your business phone line or set up your corporate books until you have your Articles of Incorporation, the official sign that the name is yours and you are all set to go. The states website will walk you through filling out the paperwork and paying for the file. All you have to do is fill in the information that I have referred to above exactly as I have told you to do.
I highly recommend that you play on your Secretary of States website since it is a wealth of information. It can tell you anything you need to know when it comes businesses, what corporations can do, what types of licenses you need, etc. You just seek and you will find out the answers to many of the questions that you have about doing business in your chosen state.
Remember, if you are going to set up one corporation this will be an easy and fast way to do it today. However, if you are planning on building multiple corporations then I recommend using the Incorporation software that was created by Socrates.
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Most states can turn the paperwork around in the matter of a few days when you file online. Some states are so sophisticated that you can print them out instantly. You can also walk in to the Federal Building in the state in which you are incorporating and file the paperwork over the counter yourself. This will also take just a few days to get the paperwork back. If you dont know where your states federal building is you can also look this up on the Secretary of States website. If you opt to send it in the mail you are looking at between two-six weeks delay, so avoid that if you can.
Creditors understand that people work out of their homes. You will not get less credit by working out of your home. That is not the issue. If privacy is your issue, you have to get another location for an office or you will not be able to build much credit. You cannot use a P.O. Box. I have had some do this and get some credit but it is never much compared to when you have an established address on your credit file.
In fact, I have had instances where clients used Mailbox Etc because the address looks good on
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the applications. They get some credit with it and then out of the blue the lender figures it out and cancels the credit. You never know when it may happen and it can. This is why I advise that if you are going to put effort into building business credit that you avoid this and do it the right way to get to your end result. It is not worth cutting corners to obtain credit and then get it taken away eight to ten months down the road because of cutting corners.
Change of Address
When I started I was a home based business. I then transferred into an office. I messed up my file because I changed my address so they red flagged me. To Dun and Bradstreet it looked like I was moving around and they dont like that. Since many people also start out in the same situation, here is my recommendation so you do not get red flagged as you are building your businesses credit file: Get an office position so it appears on your credit file as a second location. Make the second location your primary location and still keep your tax write off for your home business office, too. Dont make the mistake that I did and change the address. Add the second address and tell them it is your primary. Eventually, you can fade that one away if you choose to, but dont do it right away because it looks like an address change.
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Moving the business address is not considered a big thing if you dont do it all the time, but it is a negative. So add the second location to avoid this whenever you move the business. Eventually, you can work up to building credit at both locations.
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If you tell them this they will give you a license -- no problem. If you tell them differently they can hold you up because they want to know what you are doing. I went to the city and was in the process of purchasing a building to operate my business so they wanted diagrams and everything.
There are some states that require you to have a state license but not a city license. We have had people ask us before, Well, if I am not doing business in my city why do I need that
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license? If you fail to do this easy step then you are not in compliance with your states business requirements. What happens is the phone company or any of these creditors are all tied to the same database. They can see if you are required to have a business license or not, and if you are and you do not have one they will look at you as if you are not in compliance and therefore not a legitimate business. You can find out everything you need right at your city hall.
2. Get a Business Phone line and 411 listing. Switch your cell phone to a business if it is not already.
This is real simple. You can just call the phone company and tell them you want a business line by using the Tax ID that your corporation was assigned on the account. Then you should ask them to please list your business in the 411 directory. This is important because business creditors hire companies to check these types of things to see if you are really in business. You do not want an 800 number -- they are much harder to build credit on. You want it to appear that it is a line that goes directly to an employee since; after all, you are in business.
Remember, all your phone lines need to go under the business tax I.D., not your social security number. This also applies to your cell phone as well, but that needs to be separate from your
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landline and yes, you should have both for your business.
Most people will never use this land line. Here is a shortcut that I use since I am paying for it anyway. I use the call forwarding feature. What this does is forward the incoming calls from your land line to another phone without revealing that to the caller. When you get personal calls you will most likely answer HI, which you can still do. But set a ringtone so that you know that the call is being forwarded and you know it is for business. You answer with your business name. Sometimes I will even say corporate office after the title of the business. I do this because many creditors will call and not say anything -- they just want to prove that you have a landline into your business that they can verify.
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Your Dun and Bradstreet number is comparable to your FICO score in the world of personal credit. Building up your Dun and Bradstreet file for your corporation is the next pivotal step toward getting business credit. What you will be doing for Dun and Bradstreet by getting your Duns number is basically telling them the story of your business how you started your business and if you pay your creditors on time. This is what you are going to tell them and this little story is also what is going to help you get your business credit.
Getting your Dun and Bradstreet number is easy, but many people dont even know why they should get it or that it is out there to benefit them, simply because it is not a legal or required step that you need to do to be in business. In my perspective it should be for business owners if they want to obtain business credit to expand their business. When it comes to the business
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credit process it is perhaps the most important step. Getting your Dun and Bradstreet done right is critical so that you can qualify to get business credit. This is why I spend so much time on it. Some people have businesses but no desire to have credit for their business because they are unaware of the power it can give them. If you have made it this far in the course then you are clearly not one of these people I am referring to. I cannot stress enough how understanding the power of Dun and Bradstreet can help you build a track record for your business and lead you to the cold hard cash that you need faster than you thought possible.
I see this quite often where many people start to go after cash credit before they have taken the time to understand this step. It is so easy and fast to get done as long as you give Dun and Bradstreet the right information. Learning how to do this the right way will be worth the price of this course alone. Many times I see people hungry for credit, but without this Dun and Bradstreet number they end up setting themselves up for failure at obtaining business credit from the start. The reason is that they keep applying and then the business credit inquiries add up and you start getting turned down for credit just based on that. They dont know that by having a Dun and Bradstreet number it can lead more easily to cash credit. In fact, some lines of credit will ask for a Duns number on their application. Lending
companies ask for this since they trust that Dun and Bradstreet organization to give them accurate picture of your businesses history.
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Getting your Duns number can take as little as 24 hours when paperwork is filed correctly by me. Otherwise it can take you anywhere from a week to 30 days to get it. It is FREE but Dun and Bradstreet will call you and tell you that they can accelerate the process for a fee. DONT take them up on it. To start go to www.dunandbradstreet.com and click on the tab that says get my DUNs number to get started today. Next, I will walk you through filling out the paperwork exactly the way you need to be successful in setting up your credit file. Then I will teach you how to get five trade lines. You will need at least five trade lines to be able to what is called a Paydex. Paydex is your credit score from Dun and Bradstreet. It will be your goal to get your corporation Paydex score to a Paydex of 80. This part with take a minimum of three six months but it will be well worth the wait when you see the type of cash credit it can bring in. After that I will show you how to get your Intelliscore through Experian, which you will also want in order to work your way to achieving a two digit score of 80 or above, as well.
You want to state that you have been in business at least two years from the date you are filling
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out the application. Now I am not asking you to do any illegal here and here is what I have found by working with many business owners through this process. The time you started the business and the time you put it into an entity are two different things. Most of you thought a long time and did many things to get to opening your doors before you were set up as a business. If you have been in business in some form or fashion it was not that you werent legal, is was that you were ignorant. You had no idea that you had to do this, so therefore; those years do count so you will need to fill that out on the DUNS application. Otherwise, trust me; you are preventing yourself from getting the most amount of credit you are entitled to.
Just recently I had a client that who was setting up her corporation so she could apply for business credit. She called her attorney to ask if she can be her agent, resident agent. He got mad at her because she is head of her own corporation and he wanted to charge her$1,200 to do it. She then explained why she was doing this and it was to apply for business credit. He then replied, No, no, no, you cant get corporate credit on a new corporation, it has to be at least two years old. She did what I told her to do on her own.
In fact, he was right. However, there are shortcuts around making your business look older than it is on paper. Now, I am not saying you are going to lie about the age of your business. Using a Dun and Bradstreet number is one of the vehicles that you can use to help your corporation appear at least two years old in age. By the time you have completed your Dun and Bradstreet number you will be two years old when we finish with it, but as a corporation will you be more than two years old, the answer to that is no! Let me give you an example to illustrate my point.
Lets say that you are a real estate investor and you have been going to seminars before you bought one piece of property. You can actually count that year as working on the development of your business and show that to Dun and Bradstreet when you file. If you are a plumber and you
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have been in business for ten years, if you went from a sole proprietor and then switched over to a corporation, you should not lose your history as a plumber. We are going to get that retained for you in your business history. If you wanted to be in the restaurant business, I am sure that you did some research prior to setting up a business and that can be added to your history. To prove that you have been in business more than two years is a combination of two things. First, you need to be a bit creative. Second, you will need to fill out the paperwork just as I will show you how in order to build credit pretty quickly.
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credit file so you know when you have achieved a Paydex of 80 once your number is attained. I spend time on this mainly because dealing with Dun and Bradstreet can make or break your credit file. Once you get your number you will then create a password so you will be able to monitor your credit file with them.
Let me give you an example: I had an attorney client. Dun and Bradstreet called him with a question. He then went into his file and he saw stuff on their conversation that they documented that was not said. Now, he had to go back and get it removed. Once you are all set up with them, they will start coming after you because they want to sell you stuff. This is what you need to train yourself to tell them, because if you do not do this they will find a way to hold what you answer against you. Document it in your file and then you will have to work just as hard as my attorney client to get it removed. Here is what you will want to tell them.
I would love to talk to you, but I have an agreement with the other officers and I cannot talk to you unless there is an agreement between us. The best thing I can say is email me your questions; I will review them with my board and get back to you with the answers as soon as I can.
They will then email you the questions that you can answer correctly with some strategies, Questions that they may have tried to ask you over the phone in a much sneakier way. For example: You might just be setting up your file and they ask you for your password. If you give them an inaccurate one then you will have to go through a whole process to be able to get it corrected and they may notate that on your file. The two most important things to always remember is that you have been in business more than two years and that you are an officer of the entity. Once you have received your password to access your account from Dun and Bradstreet, you are going to click where it says update your DNB file or view it. The information that you will want to
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enter, in the exact order you want it entered will follow in the next section.
Then it will say other businesses. If you have DBAs this is where they would go. These help you predict your income. With DBAs you can claim 250,000 for each DBA. If you have multiple DBA then you could create up to a million dollars in income on your DNB file with this strategy.
Then it will ask for a phone number. Fill in your business phone number, but be aware that DNB will contact you. My DNB file on this part was not filled out and I have over $1 million in credit, so trust me on this, skipping this part will not make or break your file.
Next will be the address. Put the business address that has the most history from the time the corporation began. Dont switch it or put a P.O. Box. It will create a red flag and remember, you
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only have one shot at doing this the right way or it will become a hassle that you will not want to deal with and complicate the business credit process including how fast it will take you to build the file to obtain credit.
Officers
Next, you will move on to page two which is the most important one. It will ask you the name of the CEO and you want to put yourself. When you do this a good idea is to put CEO/President. That way, if the system ever asks you this as a security question, you cant get it wrong. I say this because, if by chance you get it wrong when entering the system just once, it will be such a hassle because Dun and Bradstreet will want to reset your password thinking that someone else is trying to access your account. The most important thing is that you remain consistent with that title. CEO gets a lot more emphasis since many picture a larger company where presidents are referred to smaller size companies. You cant put vice president and keep changing your title. Dun and Bradstreet will track this and they will catch it and lock you out of the system if you are making changes to your titles and officers often. They then will ask you about other positions but I leave these entirely blank at the beginning. As long as it says you are the CEO you should be fine. I recommend you leave CFO blank because what you can do if you eventually bring on a credit partner is add his name here as the CFO and avoid making changes that will bring attention to your account. I leave all my positions blank with the exception of myself listed as CEO and it has never stopped me from getting credit.
Years in Business
This is the most important question when it comes to DNB. You
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only have one shot to get this right. Lets say for example you have been in business for two or three years put it down here as far back as you can justify the business operating. Whether you were doing research, attending seminars, whatever, if it can relate to your business, then you can use this information to your advantage. Just fill it in, whatever you do dont call Dun and Bradstreet to find out how to determine how old you are because it will show up on your file and come back to haunt you. This happened with a student who was a lawyer. He wanted to engage DNB in a conversation. He did and now his date that he began his corporation makes it appear that he is only a few months old when it fact he has been in business for years. Now, he has to go fight with them to prove he has been in business longer than that. So that is what can happen if you talk to them and leak TMI Too Much Information. The key is to figure out how you can surpass the two year benchmark.
Current Owner
Here is where you put you. If you are a woman and youre a CEO you should always put more than 50 percent owned and controlled. By doing this you get put on a separate list since you are still considered a minority in the business world. Hey, I dont make the rules, I just teach them! This is one of those times that being a woman in the business world can literally really payoff. There are many people who look to lend to women specially and they will buy this list of all women CEOs and send you some kind of credit offer. In fact, in some states there are benefits available to companies that loan a certain amount of money to women. The same applies if you are a minority, a veteran or disabled. Take full advantage of this while you can and claim it while you can.
This is also the section where you would list other owners in the form of entities. For example, lets say you own a corporation that is a parent company to another LLC and it owns more than 50 percent of the business. That LLC would also be listed as another owner. Now, where this really
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helps is if your parent company has good credit and good history -- it helps the company that it owns. This is really a secret way to build cash.
Employees
Next it will ask you how many employees you have. I would list up to five. I had one guy that said that he does have five employees, but he was paying them all under the table. You are better off, for credit purposes, showing the number of employees here rather than showing none other than yourself since it makes it appear as more of a legitimate business. This can change all the time in the real world as well as what you pay them and how, but for your credit file five is the number that I recommend. If you are in real estate you may start off as yourself. However, if you treat it as a business you will be most likely hiring an administrator, a marketing person, bookkeeper and sales agents over time. Therefore put five and just leave it here regardless of the actual size of your team at the present moment. In this instance you can predict the future in order to achieve the best credit rating and the secret number is FIVE!
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Internet
Check that you do ten percent of sales on the internet here regardless if that is accurate or not at the present moment. Right now the internet is still considered somewhat risky. But in five years it will be just as common as people making a million dollars a year from their home based businesses. You will have a website. You will most likely do a transaction via the web in todays day and age for sure.
Servicing Area
Put International. You never know where you may do a deal. Also, with the internet the market has become global. Here you should also check the box that part of your 10% of your service market is on the internet. Because we are now operating in this global economy the chances of you doing business in many different countries over the internet has become quite high.
Import/Export
Same thing here -- click on as many different people and organizations that you deal with. Dun and Bradstreet is again colleting information that they can compile to sell as a list. They are also
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using it to conduct market research and track business trends with it as well.
Here it will give you a dropdown and ask you about the square footage of the offices you occupy. Be accurate so they dont call and ask you about it.
Financials
Here is where they are going to ask you your financials. To this day I have not done my financials. I have over $1 million in business credit and it has not stopped me. So by not doing your financials, unless you have a great CPA, I would click I do not wish to input my financials at this time. Then you are pretty much done.
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Final Changes
At this point you will be done and it will ask you to save your work. Before it does this it will ask you to if you want to make any changes. The answer is ABSOULUTELY NOT! If you go back to make even the slightest change Dun and Bradstreet will then call you to make sure that you did want the requested changes in an effort to hold up your whole file.
Once you are done with setting up your file you will then leave Dun alone for at least three to four months. You are not going to get a Paydex overnight. Maybe once a month come in here to check your file until you do have a Paydex score. Other than that do not come here or change anything.
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Since I help so many people set up Dun and Bradstreet numbers, I do have a contact there. If you are my student you are entitled to a $100.00 off on the self monitoring program. To do this when you set it up you will need to mention that you are working with Mark Bravo and they will honor that pricing. If you have any problems with them just call my offices directly as we will take care of it.
Establishing your private Dun and Bradstreet profile to get your Paydex of 80
If you subscribe to the self monitoring program it is a live feed and you can monitor your business profile. I highly recommend you do this as you work to build your Paydex of 80. Often you will find reasons that your score is affected and then be able to correct them. Also, I have used these live reports with my profile as documentation to do everything from applying for a business line of credit with a bank to using my Duns number to buy a house based on the fact that I owned a business to qualify for a loan.
In my program most of the people who are using my system start with a Paydex of 0 and then I work to get it to a score of 80. This is the score at which you need to be to qualify for the most credit. Once you start getting trade lines of credit you will be conducting transactions and paying them off to build credit history with Dun and Bradstreet. You will find that once you have these
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trade lines, if you show no activity, your score will drop because the creditors are not reporting any activity.
Below are a few of the things that having access to the self monitoring program allows you to see and then improve in order to improve your overall Paydex score. Remember it is going to take four to five months to build this Paydex score up. Lets say you want to lease a car for your business. If you have a Paydex of 80 you can get a new car under a leasing program because of this. This is also a great way to build your credit file. The lease will show up on your credit file and will make it appear that you already have corporate credit because you have a lease. Once you are able to get a lease under your corporation you will be doing something right because other lenders will start contacting you to give you more credit.
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As you build up your accounts you will not be able to see who specifically the creditors are. For instance, lets say you have an Office Depot card. It will just show up with the line of credit under miscellaneous. What you will get from each of these lines is a payment status rating. This indicates to lenders the rate and accuracy that you pay your bills. It will tell you if you are a fast paced, slow pay or satisfactory. If you pay 10 days ahead of time you will get a fast pace rating. If you pay closer to the due date you will get a slow pay. Satisfactory is late but you still paid the amount due.
Next on your profile you will see public filings. This is where any liens you may have will appear. It is not uncommon to have liens that you might not be aware of. For example, I have had clients who had a $200.00 lien from changing their business name and not knowing there was a fee involved. They never got a bill for it so it appeared on their report. What you need to do is look into and clear any liens that appear in your file and this will help raise your score instantly.
Then you will be able to review your work history. Remember you want to be general here since you are in business management services so you dont limit the amount of money you can qualify for. If you have service industry experience, for example, you have been in the plumbing business for twenty years, that gives you credibility and you can list that if you want. If you are in real estate, dont list things such as specializes in investing in properties. Remember, you want the option of using this entity to your advantage and working in multiple businesses because of it. You dont have to be making money in any of them, but this is where you want to be versatile.
Remember, this is a private subscription based report that is not for public use. However, it can be really useful in your attempt at not only developing your Paydex score but also monitoring it in order to use this information to build credibility in other scenarios.
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6. Enter corporate business phone number on field entitled local phone number 7. Enter corporation toll free number on field entitled toll free number 8. Enter corporation fax number, if applicable, on field entitled company fax number
Ownership
1. Enter corporation C.E.O./ business owner on field entitled title 2. Enter any other title if applicable in field entitled if other enter here 3. Enter email address of the CEO/Business owner on field entitled name@company.com
Shareholders
1. You may enter 1% of stock owned by president 2. You may enter 1% of stock owned by secretary 3. You may enter 1% of stock owned by treasurer 4. You may enter 97% of stock owned by the C.F.O. 5. Do not check this box entitled this is a publicly traded company 6. Enter the year in the business started in field year business started 7. Enter the corporations mailing address on field entitled mailing address 8. Enter the corporations mailing address phone number on field entitled number 9. Enter the corporations mailings city state and zip code on field entitled city, state, zip code.
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Step Three: Developing your Experian File Experian is Easy Because its Automatically Done for You!
This is the next step but one that you will automatically be doing as you go through the other steps of developing your businesses credit file. It is automatic just like when you get personal credit they start tracking you. In fact once you start obtaining some lines of credit, they will start tracking your buying and payment behaviors.
So if you get a credit card under the business some companies will automatically be tracking it with Dun and Bradstreet. However, with some banks, although you have a card from them, they fail to report to the agencies. This is why you want to make sure that you call and make sure that the bank knows that you want them to report for you. Once in a while when you do this they will ask for a resolution. Remember, you are a representative for the corporation so you can get them that. LLC may be a different story since they report a bit differently.
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Section Three
The Credit Application Process
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NEBS.com Uline.com Quill.com Arco.com (if you are on the west coast) BPsolutions.com (if you are on the east coast) Fedex.com UPS.com Kinkos.com
You want to find companies that you can do business with and get a 30 day account. You want to choose companies that you can do business with as you will buy from them on your account, pay them in full and then ask them to report to Duns to build this credit history. Gas accounts
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are a great one to do this with. Find a local gas station with a 30 day account. Try to stay away from Mom and Pops who do not report to Duns. The bigger chains that offer accounts like these probably already are reporting there so this is what you are looking for to be able to build some credit. Stay away from the big chains such as Shell and Mobil since they will require a Paydex and proof of three open trade lines while the mid size companies that are usually regional can help you attain your Paydex at a much faster rate. Once you have your Paydex you can then apply for the actual credit cards they offer.
Go to these sites I mentioned above and set up a 30 day account. I use FedEx and Kinkos a lot so that one is easy to help you reach your Paydex. They are going to approve you instantly. Uline has trash cans and bags. Nebs offers printing. Just buy something you need for your business so you can have some buying activity. Do this every month until you are getting a Paydex. The gas will be easy. Dont spend a ton of money until you get a Paydex which again will take you between four to six months. How this gets you a Paydex is that these companies have to report. Not all of them will report to Duns every month but over time they will and this is what leads to your business showing up on the radar screen and getting a Paydex score.
The cool thing about using these 30 day accounts is that the bigger companies usually require three or more trade lines to apply for their credit cards. If you open just a few of these 30 day lines and get them working for you, you can go after some of the bigger guys and really accelerate this process. The Paydex will put you on a whole other tier of access to credit. It is great to get these lines and then apply for a Shell Gas card. You can get a card with a line of credit for maybe between $2,000 -$5,000 and charge and keep track of all your gas. I then pay the minimum each month unless I have a really good month and then I pay it off completely. Then, you can increase that line and your Paydex score in the meantime. This is a nice thing to have, especially with the cost of gas right now.
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Another thing that you can use these 30 day accounts for is to accelerate your payment status. What you need to do is call the accounts that you have 30 day status with and see if they allow you to pay more than your monthly bill. I know Fed Ex will allow you to do this. Let says that you place an order online for business cards with Quill.com and they bill you $32.00 for that month. Instead of paying the $32.00 you pay $300.00. What they will do, if they allow this is, the company will then report you as a fastpay since you dont owe them any money and they will need to place you with a credit on their books. Many students will start with the 30 day accounts and then once they have their Paydex do away with the accounts. I did this at the beginning and it was a big mistake. Even once you have a Paydex you can use the net 30 accounts to get Fastpay status and bump up your score if you need to by a few points.
Once you have started doing this with your business you can then start going after revolving cards such as Office Depot and Staples. Then the next level will be leasing a car under your new Corporation. But you will not be going after these until you show that you have a Paydex and Experian.
Secret Places to Find Cash That You Might Not Think About
If you are anxious to get going in this chapter we are too. We are going to show you some of the secret places you can find credit available that many people do not think to look for. A lot of people
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dont know that Costcos and Sams Clubs have credit cards and they both have up to a $100,000 line of credit. They are two of our favorite places simply because once you have this history with them, and once you have a business credit score, you can apply for that $100,000.
What I recommend is going to Costco or Sams Club. Sams Club has two lines of credit; a private one and a Discover card. I tell people to stay away from the Discover card initially. If you have an existing personal account with them you can transfer it over to your business account. Stay with the private label which means that you have credit to shop there only. This is why if you have a personal account you can switch to a business account and have a head start because it will transfer your previous account activity. If you start a new business account, I recommend that you buy business supplies, groceries whatever you want under your business account and show at least three months of buying activity. Pay three payments to them. They will then offer a line of credit that you can go after. You dont want to just apply and have no affiliation with them.
In normal circumstances, when a husband and wife are in the same corporation and they apply for credit, the application will ask you to name the owner. The husband and wife will say we are both owners. Well, guess what happens then? Both names then go onto the application, theyll
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Now, this is what they could have done if they had taken the time just like you to get educated on this process. Each one of them could write a resolution that will be kept in the corporations file. This resolution would say something to the effect that each of you has the right to say you own the stock 100% for credit building purposes only. Therefore, you can both go on two different applications and state that you are owners. You can double everything you do just by this one concept. If you just did this for a couple of months, instead of building $100,000 or $150,000, you will be able to double whatever amount you would have had as co-owners. This is a huge concept that will help you get tons of cash when applied.
I have a married couple who have got up to $700,000 by doing it this way. This can be a huge advantage, especially if you both have good credit scores.
Another thing that I have seen quite often is another opportunity to have your spouse help you build some credit. I talk to couples all the time and the wife sometimes has never taken the time to do that. She is just using a credit card that her husband gave her in his name. She may have a great credit score based on him; however, she has no leverage of her own. That is why I recommend that you always build your own credit. I have seen others that have added their children to their accounts to help them built credit. If the parent has bad credit it also reflects
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If you have done this, one of the easiest ways to get them off the card is to call and say that you have lost the card. Then tell the bank when they re-issue the card Dont re-issue to the children. It will then come off their credit, and vice versa for husband and wife. Just make sure that you do check that it has come off their account. It may take a full 30 days for them to report and the credit bureaus to pick that information up.
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CFO Resolution
I/we the board of the following Corporation ____________________ dually elect ________________________ as CFO. He has the power to state. He controls one hundred percent for stock, for credit purposes only. He does not own the stock for a personal nature. He is not held liable for any reason or purpose. This resolution will expire 90 days from the date it is notarized. This resolution has been elected for the only purpose to build corporate credit on behalf of the corporation named above. _____________________ has the power to use his references now that he has joined the organization as CFO on a temporary basis. He can use all references to build corporate credit up to the certain amount of $___________________.
__________________________ President
___________________________ Secretary
KAG Business Credit | 147 W Route 66 Suite #713 | Glendora, CA 91740 support@kagbusinesscredit.com | (866) 310-4949
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On the Resolution, when you are adding a credit partner, you will want to get that notarized. Remember, the credit partner is going to be listed as your CFO. If the partner ever comes back and says, Hey, I never authorized you to build credit with my name, you then have it documented. This document is very important because, lets say that you build $100,000 under his name and then he decides to contact your creditors and say I never authorized this guy to build credit on my name. You fax them this document, notarized, and your butt is covered.
On the Resolution with a husband, wife, and a brother on a company, I would still do this form for each one of you because if you notice this form, it says on there that you have the right to state that you own 100 percent of the stock for credit building purposes only. So, if there are three people on this corporation, theyre all partners, they cant own it all, not all three people can own 100 percent, but using this form can help you get three people different people to qualify for credit. Its called a financial form. You create that. All three people would go on their financial forms and they would each have a resolution. So then they can get creative in applying for credit. This form is not just for credit partners. Its also for guys if you want to create credit on more than one corporation. This is an internal document. You just dont have to show it to the public. This is just to protect you if you ever got audited or if somebody tries to say youre trying to defraud someone. This is just to protect you if you ever got audited or if somebody tries to say youre trying to defraud someone.
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There are two things that you should disclose when approaching a credit partner. However, in my opinion, there is not much of a downside to either one. The other thing that needs to be addressed when it come to credit partners is that, yes, the business credit inquiries when applying for credit will show up on their personal credit report as well. You need to make sure you disclose that, yes, their score may drop 20 points based on inquiries but if it gets you closer to hundreds of thousands in credit, than what is that worth to them? The fact is that whether they are a friend, stranger or a business partner they are responsible for the credit. Over time, as inquiries disappear or are removed, their score will return to normal.
Lets take a look at another situation. If a corporation files a federal bankruptcy, it can dump all its debt, but they still may come after you. However, if you file bankruptcy as a sole proprietor all that debt immediately falls on you and your chances of getting any type of credit become dead in the water. If a corporation and you have debt, and its under the business but you guaranteed it, they MAY come after you. However, it does depend on the company. It may also be unlikely since many companies opt for the tax write off that they get because of personal bankruptcy laws.
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As you obtain credit you need to use this money wisely and use it to grow your business. The other thing that you should be using it for is to clean up your personal credit while positioning yourself to build your business credit file. I say this so eventually you can remove that credit partner from the corporations file.
Credit Partner Suggestions: We see that the average cost of paying a credit partner is $500 per month. But this is totally negotiable. If a deal is involved (real estate transaction) people are typically paid up to 15% of.
Removing the credit partner: They would resign from the corporation by typing up a resignation as CFO on company letterhead. You would call the bank and replace that credit partner with another one of if your credit is now high (from cleaning it) then you would replace the CFO. Tell the banks that the CFO is resigning and that youd like to replace him with another credit partner or yourself. Ask them what theyll require as each bank is different. You could also pay the credit down and close the accounts.
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One of the strategies that I also teach is that once you have a business line of credit you can use this cash to pay down personal credit cards with high interest rates. In most cases, before you had business credit some of this money was probably spent on your business expenses so you can justify this. Then you can pay these cards down and increase your cash flow by not paying that high interest each month. Your credit score will go up and you can then go after more credit.
Here are the top three credit cards that I suggest you look in to:
CITIBUSINESS CARD AMERICAN EXPRESS PLATINUM BUSINESS CHASE PLATINUM BUSINESS CARD
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You can also visit www.SecretBusinessCreditCards.com where we update the the links of the credit cards we recommend on a consistent basis.
Once I start applying for cards I then use this checklist below. You will also be able to print out a copy of this on the forms disk included with the manual. The first year that I started this process I attained 87 different cards. Half of them are supply, half of them are cash. So you this list to track your progress so you dont miss any opportunities and know where you are.
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What to do when Your Business starts to get turned down for Credit.
This is the exact reason why I give you an action plan to follow to set yourself so you make the most of the time you have in the credit application phase of the system. When you own a business an old clich says that you have to assume that it is not if you will be sued, but when. The same goes for business credit. It is not a question if you eventually get shut down for credit; it is a matter of when. The when is the point that you have had too many inquiries and because of this it has led to a incremental drop in your credit score. Then it is simply a matter of time to allow the inquiries to come off or work to remove them faster until your score rises to credit worthy number. At the end of this manual you will be develop a personal plan of attack for the credit application process so that you can continue to pursue credit and keep growing the amount of cash your business has over time.
When they start to turn you down it will be because of three possible reasons: lates, your balance is to high, or too many inquiries. If you are using the method that is taught in this system, then in most instances it will be because of number of inquires. Keep going after a few more cards because sometimes you can sneak a few more in there before you go in the clean up phase and start the application process again. Then you should wait a while for these inquiries to clear -- usually a few months before you start the application process once more. In the meantime this is where it is a huge benefit to have multiple corporations that you can work with while the activity on that one rebuilds itself.
You will still be getting inquiries on your personal credit. Lets say for example that you go for five lines of credit, whether it be a line of credit at a bank or credit cards, you will have at least
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five inquiries. Inquiries drop your credit score by points over time and by the ninth or tenth time you will be shutdown for credit. There are companies that can remove inquiries for you out there. The good news is that I will be able to help you also get these removed in record time with my personal credit clean up program. All you have to do is call my office and ask about the personal credit services we offer. Why I recommend the shotgun approach when it comes to the credit application process is this: You need to be strategic with your plan and treat it as part of your business plan that intends to generate revenue for your business. If you want to succeed at anything you need a plan and the same applies with business credit. Getting credit is part of your business plan to lead to income generation so you need to have a strategy to work from once they do start to say NO!
I say this because I think you should get all the credit you can get, and then start working on clearing up the inquiries that you get because of it. But you must have a plan developed to do this and then work it! Lets say for example you have a 680 credit score. The reason why is that you have three or four credit cards that are maxed out at $10,000 and $20,000. So what you want to do is get $60,000 to $100,000, pay the credit cards down and then your credit score should raise 20-30 points. At this point you then can go to round two of the application process. Go to Sams Club, go to Home Depot -- do it all in one day while you have leverage on your score.
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Just a year ago I could send people to five different places and they would get tons of credit, but now technology is catching up to it. For example, Bank of America has multiple processing centers in California. I used to be able to walk into the Orange County center and the Los Angeles Center in one day and apply for two cards without them being able to cross reference it. Now, with todays technology, they are catching it. This is a great opportunity to leverage by having a spouse or credit partner apply separately.
The Rule of 43
Once you have begun to get turned down reapply again in 43 Days. Why? Every 42 days lending companies dump everything that was disapproved. They cant keep it in their records so they just get rid of it and it is like you were never there. I learned this by applying 42 days after and they said you just applied. Then I went back on Day 45 and applied and I got it. This is one of my tricks of the trade simply made by trial and error. It is the same thing when it comes to your personal credit. If you try to challenge something before a certain cycle they wont like it or you. Go beyond the cycle and your chances of them working with you will improve greatly.
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Some of you might already have an American Express card. American Express has a line of credit. It usually falls between $10,000 to $50,000. Thats designed for you, a small business. However, you will not qualify for this unless you have an American Express card. The easiest American Express card to get is the Gold card. I tell people all the time to go after the gold card since it is a 30 day card. You have got to pay it, and youre forced to pay it every month. So youre not going to spend a lot of money on it and yet the gold card reports, plus you can get the $50,000 line of credit in the future. So, thats how you would get the American Express line of credit, by getting their credit card first. Costco and Sams Club have $100,000 lines of credit and its the same thing.
Banks are the same way too. Get their credit card, which is $5,000 to $35,000. Then, as I told you, when you have money sitting in your checking account, they will tend to give you money. It is the same scenario when you are starting your business and have a little cash and you have to pay for dinner. Then, when you are finally making money, everyone wants to take you out to dinner, The same applies to your checking account. If you have no money in the account then it is a lot harder to get more. When you do have money they throw more at you. That is why I recommend you take cash advances and deposit them into your accounts. If you have $10,000 to $15,000 in your back account all the time they will invite you to apply for their line of credit.
One of the ways that I teach people to get to this point is cash advances from the credit cards
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you receive. There is a limit to the amount of cash advance that you can get on these cards. Most cards only allow 50 percent of the credit. So if you have a card with a credit limit of $20,000, the most you can take out is $10,000 for a cash advance. Then I say pay down your higher cards with this money to bring up your score for more credit or what you can do here is also deposit it into your business checking account to make your application stronger for a line of credit with the bank. With a 700 credit score you can usually get up to $35,000. If you have a 680 Ive seen as high as $20,000.
Lines of credit are different in many ways from cards because they are based on 15 year terms, similar to a home equity loan so your payments are a lot lower. Most often people think they need to go to banks to get lines of credit but companies like Costco, American Express and Capital all offer lines of credit.
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to make me appear professional. You will be amazed at how preparation such as this can pay off by getting lines of credit! You have helped them do a lot of the work, as well as made yourself look legitimate.
The other great thing about doing this is that you will save getting an inquiry on your file since you are showing them everything they need live. You are not hiding anything. This will work 40-50 percent of the time. Some banks are going to pull your credit no matter what. Wells Fargo is one of them and that is why we dont deal with them as much. I have seen students go to Bank of America and get up to a $100,000 line of credit with this strategy. Remember, you want to stay under a $100,000 so you will not be required to show financials. If you are at that point where you can show financials you want to move onto some bigger opportunities to see if you can qualify for some other sources of money such as SBA loans.
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