How to Structure your Business to get Business Credit Approvals

When it comes to getting business credit, its important to setup your business properly so that you are positioned right from the start for getting business credit and don’t have to worry about changing things later. Setting all this up will allow you to get business credit setup under (business tradelines) the EIN of an entity vs being under your name. It all starts with setting up the business so you can get your EIN and Dun & Bradstreet number which will allow you to build up a D&B Paydex score and other business credit scores. 

That being said, it would seem that since Covid, a lot of the things shared on this list that USED to be cold hard facts with these institutions have softened up and they aren’t as strict as they used to be. For example, business email, phone number and location used to be hugely important pre-covid and you 100% couldn’t use a PO box or your home address, now it would appear that some of these things are laxed at some banks/institutions. Personally, I would again rather just set all this up correctly (based on the norm) from the start.

Here is our revised 2023, guide to setting up your business! Keep in mind #4 & #5 are interchangeable- doesn’t matter which one you do first or work them both at the same time.

1. Decide what state you want to incorporate in
2. Double check business name to make sure it’s available
   1. https://thebalancesmb.com/secretary-of-state-websites-1201005
3. Make sure no trademarks exist on your business name in your niche if you are planning on selling online, or planning on making over $100k per year.
   1. https://trademarks.justia.com/
4. Setup Business phone number/virtual phone number- if not attached to your virtual office.
   1. Grasshopper.com, phone.com, 800.com all around same price these are virtual phones meaning they forward to your cell phone/any number you want
   2. Could also opt to setup T-mobile business contract (could use other provider I have only done this with T-mobile), setting up new lines and use that as business phone number. Qualifying is pretty easy, they even accept subprime credit scores
5. Setup business virtual office
   
   1. Alliance Virtual Office- Middle of road option, $200 setup and $17-$50 per month on average, you would use this as office to work out of or better version of business address with phone answering options.
   2. Regus– Upper Mid-tier $200+ per month but includes business phone answering/number and has a large network worldwide you could tap into with membership.
6. Designate Registered Agent- if you don’t care about Google My Business (GMB) or you just need mailbox and forwarding then just use a registered agent.
7. Open up LLC 
   • Keep in mind you will have a state filing fee to pay as well, average is $132)
8. Submit articles of organization
9. File for EIN
   1. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-number-ein-online
10. Setup D&B Number Paydex
    1. https://www.dnb.com/duns-number.html
    2. They offer a Credit builder for $149/month https://www.dnb.com/products/small-business/credit-builder.html
11. Setup a Business checking
    1. You will need to pick who is managing members (which should just be you by yourself unless you have partners), provide business niche, basic information like address, phone number etc.
    2. You will need to show articles of incorporation and EIN number
12. Pick 2-5 vendor accounts- Pick vendor accounts you ACTUALLY need, otherwise don’t bother
    1. Creative CEO to buy teeshirts, mugs etc
    2. Uline for boxes and packaging materials
    3. Quill/staples for printer and basic office supplies
13. Pick 2 Fleet gas cards- I got my Shell and Conoco back to back on brand new LLC with fresh EIN, someone else just did similar (as of Feb 2023).
    1. Shell, Conoco and Gulf are easy
14. Setup Divvy account tradeline
    1. Link up bank account, either credit builder or credit card
15. Tilful account setup – Track your business credit score (offers Experian Intelliscore)
    1. Credit builder for $20-$50 per month
    2. Secured credit card, minimum $500
16. Nav account setup -This is probably the best pound-for-pound business credit score tracking solution for the price and features you get.
    1. You get the following scores; Intelliscore plus v2, D&B Paydex, Equifax business delinquency score, FICO SBSS- prescreen for SBA loans, Experian and TU vantage 3.0 personal all with the Business boost- $49.99/month plan (reports tradeline to business bureaus)

There you have it, you are walking away with upwards of seven tradelines—all things you need by the way on a brand new entity, personal credit unaffected, and now we are off to the races building credit history! At that point, wait a month or two for all that to start reporting, and you are ready to start getting bank tradelines.