Keeping Your Eyes Trained On Your Business Credit Score

As the owner of a small business, be it a new one that's just finding its feet or an established one, you do know that there are few things on your plan that are more important than the job of managing your finances properly. Your ability to manage your business credit record responsibly and effectively should be one of the most important things you do here.

Business credit doesn't work much differently than individual credit does. You do need to realize though that the credit rating that your business enjoys should be kept separate from your own. If your business is to stand up on its own and survive as a separate entity, it needs to be able to establish and maintain an independent credit reputation.

Why does your business need to stand on its own reputation? The answer is simple - when your business needs to borrow money, it will get far lower rates if it has a great credit score. You need to keep your business finance completely separate from your personal stuff. Your business has its own credit cards, its own business account and there's no reason they should ever mix.

Of course, there's a lot more to getting your business a good credit reputation than just that.

The first thing you need to do is to establish one name for your business that you decide on. You need to use it everywhere and for everything. It has to be the same name, address and contact information right from the start. This is the only way the credit reporting agencies will be able to keep track of your business and to know that it's been a responsible and dependable entity for a long time.

Whatever purchases you make for your business, you want to pay them through checks written on your business account. You want to make sure that vendors you do business with actually do report to the credit agencies. Make sure that you pay even before payments are due. You get extra credit for that.

When you go in to apply for a loan for your business at any time, the lender will usually ask to see earnings statements and tax records for your business. They also want to see how well you plan for the future of your business - they want to see a business plan too. This kind of thing goes in your favor.

For businesses, Dun & Bradstreet has a big name and credit reporting. As soon as you get into business for yourself, apply for a DUNS number. It'll take a month to arrive. Once you do that, you want to make sure that whatever business your business deals with, report to D&B. You want to milk everything as far as possible.

And finally, do check your business credit from time to time. PAYDEX is the firm that compares credit scores for businesses. The top score for businesses is 100. Get anything above 80, and you are doing well.

Putting an SEO Team at Your Business

Just about everyone who runs a business now knows that they need a website and they need search engine optimization to make the website come up for all relevant searches. The question is, what is the best way for a small business owner to get said SEO done on his company website? Should he outsource it to a company that's skilled in this kind of thing, or should he build an SEO team in-house right from the start?

Well, you have to understand that it's always an SEO team. It's never just one person tinkering about with the website. For instance, a search engine optimization person cannot do anything for your website if he doesn't have content creators who write large amounts of content for him or create videos or something for him to put on there. So when you hire an SEO person, you will need to give him perhaps two or three creative people to work with.

He will need other experts to help manage the whole project and to do data analysis for him so that he'll know what kind of keywords are bringing in what kind of traffic, and so on. It's also a full-time job for one professional, to do link building - an activity whose importance cannot be over-emphasized. In short, when you hear that you need an SEO team, no one's just saying that.

Now if you go with building an SEO team in-house, you may find that you don't really have to hire new employees. You can just create the department, and staff it with people pulled from other departments part-time. You may find that you don't really need people who are trained in this. They may have the right kind of skills obtained from other areas that help them. All you need is to get someone who will train them a little bit. There are online training courses too by the likes of the University of San Francisco and Bruce Clay Inc.


If you just don't have the kind of staff that you need to build an SEO team from scratch in your own company, an outside SEO consultant might be a good idea. You could retain such a professional, and you could get your SEO project underway in no time flat. It could be cheaper and quicker. Usually, they charge you per-project - it could cost you anything from $2000-$10,000.

Your SEO professional will tell you if perhaps, your SEO needs are far too involved to be wrapped up in one single project. If that's the way he feels, you might have to  build an SEO team from the ground up - at about $100,000 a year.

3 Ghastly Family Mistakes As A Home Business Professional

"What are these ghastly mistakes?" you ask.

They are:

1. Don't listen.
2. Don't care enough.
3. Do move full speed ahead.

*** Ghastly Mistake Number One: Don't Listen ***

Walking in the front door of your home, you hear your spouse say: "I need you to listen to me for a few moments (or more) and I need your attention."

And glancing his or her way, you do "listen" -- at least to a degree.

You hear, but you don't hear the heart.

You take the time but you come up just shy of really "being there."

You give attention, but in reality it falls short of the dedicated attention you would normally give to a business associate who needs your assistance.

"Listening" in this way, the one interacting with you immediately senses the reality of your presence in the room: you are not "there."

Not totally.
Not for them.
And not tuned in to their needs.

*** Ghastly Mistake Number Two: Don't Care Enough ***

During the middle of your normal 60 plus hour business week, your child hints at going to the park...

Or visiting the pet store,
Or taking a ride,
Or getting something for school,
Or playing catch,
Or anything else her or she might enjoy.

You, however, remain too busy: again. And your "being too busy" was not the first time: not by a long and very, very sad shot.

*** Ghastly Mistake Number Three: Move Full Speed Ahead ***

You don't listen because you must keep moving.

You do not stop to enjoy, care or spend time because you must keep moving forward or "it will never happen."

And what is this somewhat illusive yet never too far from the home front "it" that must take place? Answer: it is whatever occupies your time, energy and/or personal space at the expense of the needs, joys and realistic desires of those in your home.

You simply move forward because successful, on target, purpose-driven business people keep moving.

They set the pace.
They keep up the momentum.
They make things happen.
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How To Avoid The Three Ghastly Mistakes!
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1. Listen.
2. Care.
3. Move Forward In Wisdom

*** Avoiding Ghastly Mistake Number One: Listen ***

Listed below you will discover three suggestions that will help you avoid this all too common blunder made within the home environment:

1. Decide in your heart that you will listen: *truly* listen.

2. Train your heart to hear the heartbeats of those closest to you.

3. Don't give up!

Simply deciding helps. Easy? Is it easy to *truly* listen?
Absolutely not.

But it is absolutely necessary.

Honestly decide to improve your skill set as a listener.

Learn.
Grow.
And train your heart.

You train by trying, failing, getting back up again on the inside and working at it again and again on the outside.

1. Work at hearing the heart and not just the words being said.

2. Watch the body posture, listen to the voice tone, look at the eyes.

3. Work at carefully listening to the spoken and unspoken needs of those closest to you.

*** Avoiding Ghastly Mistake Number Two: Care! ***

Care "enough."

That is, care just enough so that the other person:

Knows it,
Feels it,
Senses it,
And is Grateful for it.

Can you guarantee "being grateful" for your efforts? No, you cannot.

You can, however, know from the inside out that you: (1) took the time you needed to take; (2) listened as best as you could; and (3) loved as you would love to be loved.

Allow your caring heart to drive you deeper and deeper *toward* those you love as opposed to farther *away* from them as you care for the needs of your business.

Keep working at caring in these ways and your own heart will guide you in the process of caring yet more.

Listen.
Listen to your heart.

As you listen, act and respond in love to the promptings of your own heart, you will increase the probability that those around you will feel in their hearts that you are caring... "enough."

*** Avoiding Ghastly Mistake Number Three: Move Forward In Wisdom ***

What does moving forward "in wisdom" mean?

It means that as you learn, grow and develop in the disciplines of listening and caring for those closest to you, that you:

1. Pay attention to your shortcomings and correct them as you go.

2. Affirm your worth as you continue to grow and experience your various "at home successes."

Notice the two concepts involved: personal correction and personal affirmation. Moving forward in wisdom means carrying on a healthy balancing act between these two important aspects of self-development.

*** Now Go And Do! ***

Listen.
Care.
And Move Forward In Wisdom as you do!