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Provided by Buzgate.org Small Business Resource Referral Network, content partner for the SME Toolkit.

Make better-informed financial decisions with greater confidence through affordable, online access to objective credit reporting tools. Monitor your own business credit as well as suppliers, customers and potential investors to minimize risk and maximize profits.

Your BUZGate Educational Sponsor

Learn about...

Why Credit Reporting Why Monitor Your Credit Why Monitor Other's Credit Minimizing Business Risk Saving Money

The Power of Credit Scoring Timely Credit Updates Correcting Credit Errors Who Benefits

10 Great Reasons Credit Terminologies Where to Begin About Your Sponsor

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Why Credit Reporting

Objective, accurate Credit Reporting provides access to critical information needed for making informed financial business decisions about "who you do business with" and "at what price." The chart below presents what data is available, why you should care and where to go to learn more:

What You Get:	Why it Helps:	Where to Begin
Business background information	Decide whether to do business with a company	Member Benefits and Login
Comprehensive financial information	Assess business risk of extending terms and credit levels	Member Benefits and Login
Credit risk factors	Avoid surprises from current customers when you review them for credit increases	Member Benefits and Login
Banking, trade and collection history	Know what to expect based on an account's historical business practices	Member Benefits and Login
Past liens, judgments, business registrations, and bankruptcies	Quickly determine whether you can confidently make a credit decision concerning a new customer or if further investigation is needed	Member Benefits and Login
Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) filings	Determine your credit position relative to other creditor positions that may already be in place	Member Benefits and Login

Why Monitor Your Business Credit

Your business credit is the basis by which other businesses are making decisions about you. By using a convenient, online Credit Reporting Service you can make sure that your data is accurate, which will help to ensure the following financial decisions are made in your favor:

How much credit a supplier will extend to you What interest rates you will pay How much money lending institutions will loan you How your customers view you What your insurance premiums will be The level of potential investor interest

Why Monitor Other's Credit

Many experienced and successful entrepreneurs all agree that success is in the details. By utilizing an objective Credit Reporting Service , you can discover in advance...

The status of prospective customer's payment practices, Existing client's business conditions, Supplier's historical relationships with others, Notifications about changes to suppliers or customers credit reports, What your competitors are doing, and Other financially pertinent details

Having immediate access to such data can mean the difference between your profit and loss - your success and failure.

Minimizing Business Risk

Receiving updates about the credit status of key business relationships is easy, affordable and convenient using an online Credit Report Monitoring Service. There are no hardware or software requirements; access is through your web browser; and critical credit data is delivered to your email address. Track more than one key account relationship and monitor issues that indicate when a business may be headed for trouble such as:

Learning if a key supplier is planning to go out of business Knowing when a key account begins to get behind on payments Discovering if your own credit report contains errors that can negatively affect your cash flow position

How Credit Reporting Saves Money

By reviewing public records and other business information, companies save every year on the costs of acquiring new business and managing liability and potential fraud. Reviewing public records and other business information also establishes sound business relationships that can extend for years.

Learn more about the types and value of data available to you for making better-informed financial decisions by viewing sample report formats:

>>   Standard Reports >>   Credit Score Reports

>>   Business Profile Reports >>   Business ProfilePlus Reports

The Power of Credit Scoring

Credit Scoring is a statistical approach for determining the level of risk involved when extending someone credit and their ability and willingness to repay. In a business-to-business environment, monitoring prospective customers Credit Ranking Score will reveal whether they are a high or low repayment risk. Credit Ranking Score is determined through a statistically derived algorithm that determines risk based on multiple factors, including:

Number of trade experiences, balances outstanding, payment habits, credit utilization, trends over time Status, recency, frequency and dollar amounts of any applicable liens, judgments, or bankruptcies Years in business, SIC/NAICS code, size of business and other demographic data

Learn more about the types and value of data available to you for making better-informed financial decisions by viewing sample report formats:

>>   Standard Reports >>   Credit Score Reports

>>   Business Profile Reports >>   Business ProfilePlus Reports

Timely Credit Updates

Receive timely Credit Report Updates via email to support early detection of customer negative payment trends. With early warning, you can proactively protect your business from customers, suppliers or subcontractors who may be suffering financial or legal trouble.

Correcting Credit Errors

When choosing a Credit Reporting Service provider, be sure to learn what level of assistance they provide in helping to correct credit reporting errors as well as other services. Your BUZGate™ educational sponsor, SmartBusinessReports, supports its customers with the following 3-step error request process:

On the credit report, circle the item(s) in question On company letterhead, provide an explanation of the situation and any related background information; Variations of company names including 'Doing Business As (d/b/a)', and any 'Formerly Known As' over the past 10 years Provide current and former addresses including PO Boxes if applicable for the past 10 years Include the name and signature of an authorized officer of the company and a telephone number. Mail or fax the letter, credit report copy, any supporting documentation and officer information to: Experian - Commercial Relations SBRD PO Box 5001 Costa Mesa, CA 92628-5001 Fax no. (714) 830-2903

Who Benefits

Anyone making financial decisions relating to how a business operates can benefit from using a Credit Reporting Service. Below are examples of Industries and types of Job Titles that apply.

Industries Construction Legal Manufacturing Property Management Real Estate Retail Transportation

Job Titles CEO/President Partner/Principal/Owner VP Finance/Controller Accounts Receivable Manager Credit Manager Accountant/Auditor Administrator

10 Great Reasons to Access Credit Reports

Knowledge is power and there are many reasons why you want to have power when it comes to Credit Reporting

Monitor your credit report to manage what decisions others will make about your payment terms, credit line, interest rates, insurance premiums, and investor relations Know who you're doing business with before you extend credit to maximize the likelihood of repayment Avoid the hassle and cost of collection procedures Ensure key suppliers will be around to continue supplying reliably Minimize risk with credit report monitoring services Schedule five (5) or more key accounts for routine monitoring to remain abreast of problematic developments Stay on top of what your competitors are doing by monitoring their credit Take advantage of comprehensive, up-to-date, real-time access to credit data through your web browser - no hardware, software or technical know-how required. Convenient, secure, online member sign up Flexible credit reporting offers flexible solutions for supporting small business financial decisions

Credit Terminology

Knowing some of the basic terms associated with credit reporting will help you to make smart credit management decisions.

Where to Begin

Know what to look for when choosing a Credit Reporting Service and then Sign Up using convenient online form:

Feature	Benefits	Sign Up
Breadth of reporting scope	Offers a credit and public record database comprised of more than 18 million U.S. businesses	Member Benefits and Login
Timely reporting	Offers Credit Report Monitoring Services	Member Benefits and Login
Accessibility in reporting	Reporting services available 7-days per week; 3-step accuracy in reporting process, and nationwide coverage	Member Benefits and Login
Up to date reporting	Database records are accessed in real-time; data is updated daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly; and report to publish times range from 24 to 72 hours depending on reporting source	Member Benefits and Login

About Your Sponsor

"Experian provides consumers, businesses and the public sector with credit information and analysis to support better-informed financial decisions and credit management practices. SmartBusinessReports.com , is a product of Experian that offers flexible Credit Reporting products to help businesses monitor the credit-worthiness of customers, suppliers, competitors and investors as well as their own credit standing."