Business Credit Reports: why use them?

June 27, 2014

Running a company in today's business climate brings with it varied challenges, but there are some easy ways to make running a business easier and more profitable. Nothing provides a business owner with more accurate information that the credit reports of customers, competitors and suppliers.

Running business credit reports are one of the best ways to protect your business and assist you in obtaining information on a potential bad debt or changes to customers' businesses. This information helps you to make smarter business decisions.

10 Reasons Why You Should Use Business Credit Reports to Reduce Your Company's Exposure to Risk: 

1. Prevention is better than cure - checking a business' credit report will provide you with the confidence you need when choosing whether to supply or be supplied by another company.

2. Finding out whether or not a company has past legal notices and whether its directors are linked to bankruptcies, will help ensure that your business does not begin a partnership that could have a negative impact.

3. A company credit report provides you with in-depth knowledge on how a company manages its financial responsibilities. A simple credit check will help you to identify if a customer can pay upfront, which will save you time and resources chasing late payments. 

4. If a company suffers from financial or legal issues, its credit report will tell you. This will enable you to protect your business from unreliable suppliers or potential late payers / debtors. 

5. If you rely on certain suppliers for your business, then monitoring them and following their credit activity such as rating and limit can help when making those crucial business decisions and give you the peace of mind when entering into a business relationship. 

6. Monitoring your customers' credit reports will also help you decide whether the company in question is of greater risk of default than in previous reports. With this level of information, you can then look at how you can change the payment terms or options for that customer. 

7. Checking credit ratings for businesses helps to minimize the chances of having to pass cases to debt collection agencies. 

8. Staying up to date with and monitoring your own company's credit report is just as important as looking at external businesses. You will be able to ensure that you reduce risk, make better business decisions and take the necessary steps, if necessary to improve your rating.

9. Your own company's credit report also gives you the chance to view your business through the eyes of your customer, supplier or competitor. Would you do business with you? 

10. Checking company credit reports of your competitors will give you valuable knowledge on their business development, their financial position and if there are any legal filings against them. This allows you to keep ahead of the game and maintain a positive position for your company in the marketplace. They are probably using company credit reports to keep an eye on you!

LinkedIn Corporation c 2014