Separate Business and Personal Credit

One thing that many entrepreneurs do when they are starting a business is to use their personal credit get the ball rolling. While this may be the only way to get started, it is important to realize that it is vital that your business have its own credit as well. You want to make sure that your business is building up credit in its own right, so that you can eventually get the loans you need for your business on the credit worthiness of your business.

Keeping business separate from personal credit

You want to be able to protect your personal finances if something should go wrong with your business. By setting up business credit, you can accomplish this to a certain extent. Get a DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet, and use that in your business transactions. Whether you are buying things from suppliers, or taking out a loan, your DUNS number can help you build up a business credit history that can be separate from your personal history.

You should realize, though, that if you are looking for some major financing, most lenders will also check the personal credit of a company’s owners. They want to see that the owners are in good shape as well. But that doesn’t negate the need for a company to have good business credit.

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