One Major Mistake
Business Owners Make When
Funding Their Business

The Panelists
Seth Perlman
Business Credit Manager
Anderson Advisors LLC
AndersonAdvisors.com

Corey Pierce
President & CTO
Level4Finance LLC
Level4Finance.com

One Major Mistake

One Major Mistake Business Owners Make When Funding Their
Business is co-mingling their personal credit and finances with
their business credit and finances.
Let’s take a look a few examples of this:

Example #1
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You start your business.
You open a business bank account.
You collect whatever resources you can.
You deposit money into that account.

BIG MISTAKE!

Here Is A Better Way

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You start your business.
You open a business bank account.
You open a certificate of deposit.
You use the CD to secure a business loan.
You get the same amount of cash to work with.

Why Do That?
When your business loan reports it does not report as secured.
It does alert other potential business lenders that your business
was worthy of getting approval for a bank business loan.
Your business is now on other business lenders radar.
You must check with your bank to see if they will do this. Then you
have to make sure that your bank will report your new business
loan to the business credit reporting agencies. Inside the system
we provide you with a list of banks that do both.

Example #2
You personally have good credit scores.
You believe you can use your scores to secure business financing.
In many cases you are correct.
But you haven’t taken the time to know if your business is in
lender compliance.
Instead you just apply.

Unfortunately You Get Declined.
You got declined because the address you provided was a
residential address and you didn’t know that business lender
declines all home based businesses.
By not being ready to apply you have now damaged both your
personal credit and business credit.
The solution to this is to know that you and your business are truly
pre-qualified and ready to apply before you actually apply.

Example #3
You are operating your business as a sole proprietor or
partnership.
While these are viable forms of business, you are “in” business
but you are not “a” business.
This means is that you do not have a business entity and
everything you do in that business comes back to you personally.

Personal Liability or Lack Thereof
Not having an entity means any debt or liability the business
might have you are now personally liable for, which is a major
risk for your personal credit and finances.
The solution is to have a separate business legal entity that can
be responsible for the business liabilities and that can develop its
own credit scores that are separate from you personally.

Business Finance Pre-Qualification Test
Let’s take a moment to look at how our business finance
pre-qualification test and business finance system can help you
to get ready to apply for financing, build a business credit asset,
and secure business financing.
The first step is to take the business finance pre-qualification
test. This will show you where your business stands right now.
Completing the test provides you with your pre-qualification
results and gives you a User ID and Password to the system.

Your Test Results
This is what the test results page looks like.

Business Finance System
When you login you will start at this dashboard view. The dashboard has
panels which represent the main sections of the Business Finance
System.

Business Credit Reports Panel
This panel provides a quick summary of your existing Experian
Business Credit Report status. From here you can see if your business
currently has an Experian business credit file, how many trade-lines
are reporting a credit history, and if your business already has a credit
score.

Business Finance Progress Panel
Here you to see where you are in the system, what you have
completed, and what you have left. Clicking this button is the
place to start and will always take you back to where you left off.

Business Finance Pre-Qualification Test Data
This panel allows you to view and update your business finance
pre-qualification test. So as things change in this system you can update
your test answers which will update your available business finance
programs.

Accessing The Finance Programs
The system begins with a review of the available finance programs. It
walks you through each program. If you already pre-qualify, you can
submit your applications. If you do not yet pre-qualify, this lets you
see what it takes to pre-qualify for each program.

Finance Program Tracking
This panel tracks the programs you have qualified for and applied for.
You will see the qualifications for each funding program with a
detailed explanation of their features and benefits. You can see the
status of your applications and if there are action items you need to
address.

Lender Compliance Panel
We track if your business is in lender compliance. If your business is not
yet in compliance, that means there are items still need to be addressed.

Example of Lender Compliance Item
Most business lenders will not approve home based businesses.
The system checks to see if the address you provided is listed by
the U.S. Postal Service as being a business or residential location.
If it is residential then the lender’s computers will most likely
decline your application even if you are credit qualified. There is
a simple and inexpensive fix for that.

Nationwide Virtual Office
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Provides a U.S. Postal Service business listed address
Can provide a local (your area code) business phone
Phone number verifies as “business” in the FCC database
Mailing forwarding service
Phone forwarding service
Addresses available in all 50 States

Using a residential address, PO box, cell phone, or residential
phone for your business will most likely result in you getting
declined. The nationwide virtual office program solves that.

Other Lender Compliance Items
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Entity in good standing
FCC business registered phone number
Business email address
National 411 directory assistance listing
Active Federal EIN
Exact business legal name
Business web site

Knowing Who Reports
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Estimated over 500,000 companies are extending credit
Less than 5,000 report business credit payment history
Many report only in the event of late payment or default
Know who reports and what they require before you apply

We maintain a database of lenders, credit card providers, vendor
lines of credit, equipment lessors, banks, credit unions, and
more. If they report or not, who they report to, and what their
approval guidelines are.

Personal & Business Credit Not The Same
With your personal credit you can pay every bill you have 29 days
late and still have great personal credit scores.
With business credit every day counts. They track if you pay how
many days you pay either early or late. Pay all your bills 10 days
early and your scores go up. Pay them all 10 days late and scores
go down.
Goal of the system is to help you obtain and maintain business
credit scores of around 80.

Maintaining Your Entity
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To maintain entity protection, treat it as a business.
Stay current with annual corporate compliance filings.
Keep the required meeting minutes and resolutions.
Remember to file all foreign entity status requirements

It is easier to have someone on your team that is responsible for
making sure that all of the required filings are completed to
maintain the protections that your business entity provides.

Free Consultation Services
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New business structure, having the right entity type
Bookkeeping, tax planning, and tax filing services
Update to date, credible, third party prepared financials
Provide a reporting business credit trade line account

Having the combination of the business finance pre-qualification
test, the business finance system, along with the Anderson
consultation services, provides strong tools for your business.

Business Credit Asset
One of the main goals of our system is to build a business credit
asset that you can use over and over again, not only to access credit
and financing, but to also enhance the value of your business.
How? Well, unlike your personal credit, which goes with you when
you leave your business, your business credit asset remains attached
only to your business.
Your business having its own strong business credit scores creates an
asset. This asset is valuable because it can be transferred to the new
owners and is immediately available for their use.

Business Credit Asset Section
You are shown the right way to set up your business credit profiles
with Experian Business Information Services, Dun & Bradstreet, and
Equifax Business, and how to manage and protect your business credit
profiles.

Business Credit Building
Building strong business credit scores is all about having reporting trade
lines that you use regularly and that you pay on time.
To optimize your business credit scores your business will need at least
10 positive reporting trade lines which show a pattern of month in and
month out usage with good payment histories.
The Business Finance system maintains the largest database of its kind
for obtaining vendor credit lines and business credit cards. Included
with each provider, is what they require to extend credit terms to your
business and which business credit agencies they report to.

Accessing Credit Providers
Here you have access to the largest list of available vendor credit
lines and business credit cards, complete with what they require
for approval and which business credit agency they report to.

Your Virtual & Live Advisors
Throughout the system you have a virtual advisor that provides
detailed instructions for the particular section or page you are on and
covers the most common questions that arise.

The system also has live advisors that are available to assist with any
questions you have about finance programs, lender compliance,
building your business credit asset, & managing your credit providers.

What To Do Now?
Those of you who complete the Business Finance Qualification
Test will receive a free trial of the Business Finance System.
If you have questions and would like a free business finance and
credit consultation before you take the pre-qualification test
please call 800-561-5854.
Now let’s get your questions answered …

Question & Answer Part of Webinar
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Take the free Business Finance Qualification test
Get a free trial of the Business Finance System.
Receive a free small business consultation
Call 800-561-5854 before or after you take the test.

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Get all your business finance, credit, structure, and planning
questions answered … it doesn’t get easier than that.