Extending Credit to a Small Business? Why a Business Owner Background Report Is Important
When you are onboarding a new customer or supplier, you want assurance that they will pay their bills on time or provide you with the goods and services you need to run your business efficiently and profitability.
Unfortunately, as many as half of small businesses will close their doors within their first five years.
Protecting Your Business and Managing Credit Risk
With large corporations and well-established businesses, a business credit report is a great tool to assess their financial health. With small businesses or companies that have not been in business as long, that may be more challenging. These small businesses may have limited or no credit history to rely on when extending credit. Instead, you should look at their overall credit history using a small business owner report.
Besides evaluating the business, a small business owner report looks at the consumer credit report of the owner and shows previous employers, legal filings, payment history, and past-due bills.
For a more in-depth assessment, you can proactively manage risk and optimize your portfolio performance with an easy-to-read Business Owner Background Report. You get in-depth visibility into owners, principals, partners, and key senior employees and their relationships with current and former business affiliations.
Download the Executive Report on this page to learn the six ways business owner background reports help you protect your business and minimize your credit risk.
- Uncover Other Business Interests
- See Total Liabilities
- Look for Patterns of Poor Management
- See Links to Problem Customers
- Detect Warning Signs for Fraud
- Help with Collections
Finding the Right Business Credit Report
You can get Business Owner Profile reports on the owner of a business, general partners, individuals providing guarantees on business obligations, or others who have provided written authorization. This gives you a more comprehensive way to evaluate credit risk than simply requesting a business credit report.
Many small business owners tend to blur the lines between business and personal finances. If a sole proprietor takes a home equity loan or second mortgage on their home to fund their business, it will not show up on a standard business credit report. However, that may be important information to know when assessing credit risk.
A business owner background report will combine current business information with any other affiliated businesses and give you greater visibility into total assets and liability.