Lehi Business
Discover the Best Credit Reporting Services for Small Businesses
Credit reporting is crucial for all small businesses, especially when it comes to the end of the year, seeking loans to grow your business, or simply trying to keep tight books.
While many products offer credit reporting help, many small businesses are looking for specific services that will allow them to focus on their business and not have to worry about their credit reporting software, bank statements, or anything that might distract them from doing what their business is there for.
Here are several credit reporting services that every small business needs.
Technological Integration
In today’s age, working strictly from paper is not only outdated but unrealistic. The essential services small businesses need from their credit reporting software are internet suites and well-functioning APIs (Application Programming Interface). This ensures that companies and leaders can have a full suite of information regarding their credit reporting and integrate their service with any applications they use to run their business or budget.
Monitoring
Beyond merely small business owners, anyone’s nightmare is to find something unexpected, unnoticed or doesn’t seem right in their credit report. Therefore, credit monitoring is one of the essential services for small businesses to have in their credit reporting software. Especially when the monitoring is easy to access and intelligent (notifies of changes or discrepancies), small business owners can focus on their business and trust that anything that changes regarding their credit will lead to notifications or assistance.
Analytics and Data
You can’t make changes if you don’t know what to change. This is where analytics and data assistance come in handy. Small businesses need solutions that provide them with everything from credit reports to fraud alerts, trended data, identity reports, demographic data, and decision analytics. A system or API that provides these opportunities gives small businesses the necessary resources to make financial moves and changes without fretting, worrying or feeling like they are making an unwise movement in an uncertain direction.
Investor Services
When you are looking for investors as a small business, you want to be able to check their viability and make the process simple without hurting their or your business’s credit. A credit report service that does this for you and makes the process seamless and straightforward is crucial for small businesses.
Growth-Oriented
While a small business can find any number of services in their credit reporting software or service, the most important is that their service is focused on their growth. Small businesses utilize credit to help themselves grow, serve more, and do more.
Credit report services for small businesses need to include data and solutions for profitable growth and ease of function within the business walls.
This means that the service will assist with finding good loans, avoiding bad ones, maintaining current, regularly updated information, and making the process easy on the business owner.
How do I Choose a Credit Reporting Service?
While there are several things you, as a small business owner, may want for a credit reporting service, there are several options. Avenues such as Experian, Dun & Bradstreet, Nav, CRS Credit API, and others all have different offerings for small businesses, so how do you pick the best one for you?
First and foremost, focus on functionality. Most of these services have similar pricing models unless the price difference is extreme. Don’t sacrifice functionality to save $15 in the long run. You may end up losing a lot more. Look to functionality before you look to price.
Next, make a list of the services that you need the most. Each small business is unique, and you will have unique needs when it comes to credit reporting. Make a careful, intentional, well-thought-out list that orders what services are most important to you in their order of importance. This will allow you to compare your needs with each credit reporting service to narrow your options down to those that best serve you.
Once you’ve narrowed it down, focus on ease of use. As a small business owner, you want a platform that doesn’t require too much from you. The more you can focus on your business and be assisted by your reporting service, the better. Narrow down which services have the easiest user interface, require the least amount of time from you in the long run and will watch your back when necessary.
Lastly, compare all of these factors, including price, and go with the credit reporting service that feels most natural and intuitive. But, again, this is your small business and should be your solution.
