Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Build Business Credit with Angelic Williams

Transcript

How to Build Business Credit with Angelic Williams · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition.
• 0:06
  Lift off.
• 0:09
  Ending small business failure.
• 0:11
  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number 1 small business expert, Melinda
• 0:17
  Emerson.
• 0:18
  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 0:23
  you need succeed and live the life you dream of.
• 0:26
  Now here's your host, the small Biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
• 0:34
  Have you subscribed to the small bizchett podcast?
• 0:37
  Well, it's time every Wednesday we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start
• 0:43
  and grow a successful small business.
• 0:45
  And just 20 minutes or so a week you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
• 0:52
  business forward.
• 0:53
  Be sure to subscribe to the small beachhead podcast today.
• 1:04
  Hi, everybody.
• 1:05
  This is Melinda than the small biz lady, America's number one small business expert.
• 1:10
  And I'm so excited to welcome you to another episode of the small biz chat podcast.
• 1:15
  So now it's time for me to introduce my guest there.
• 1:18
  She is miss Angelique Williams.
• 1:21
  She's an executive consultant with Jay Gault finance.
• 1:25
  She's a creative Swiss army knife, business consultant, business credit builder, and
• 1:30
  recovering perfectionists.
• 1:32
  I I think I'm one of those 2, where she has a diverse background spanning architecture, real
• 1:37
  estate, and entrepreneurship She's built affordable housing and started numerous start
• 1:41
  ups and has helped other businesses build their company.
• 1:45
  She's also been featured in essence magazine.
• 1:48
  She works to help business owners build their business credit so they can make their dreams a
• 1:54
  reality without suffocating under personal debt.
• 1:57
  For more information, you can go to jgult.ai, and people who wanna schedule an appointment
• 2:03
  with her, Her scheduling link will be in our show notes.
• 2:07
  So if you wanna hear more from Angelique, I have all the ways for you to reach her So,
• 2:12
  Angelique, welcome to the small business chat podcast.
• 2:15
  Thank you.
• 2:15
  I appreciate you having me.
• 2:17
  Oh gosh.
• 2:17
  I am so excited to have you here with me today.
• 2:20
  So let's just jump right into it.
• 2:24
  What is business credit, and how is it different from personal credit?
• 2:29
  I love it coming in hot.
• 2:31
  So, chunks of the Chase.
• 2:34
  So business credit is one of 3 types of credit that we have.
• 2:38
  Available to us in the country.
• 2:40
  So there's personal credit, there's business credit, and there's corporate credit.
• 2:44
  Business credits, as we call it, we think is the same as corporate credit.
• 2:50
  It's actually not.
• 2:52
  So and it's because that business credit is attached to you as a Emerson.
• 2:57
  It's attached to your Social Security number.
• 2:59
  So any business on our list and who knows when you incorporate a help, whatever the structure
• 3:02
  is, it doesn't matter.
• 3:04
  You gave all the business information.
• 3:05
  You gave your name, your address, a contact email, and phone number, and that was it.
• 3:10
  These four things is all they needed.
• 3:11
  When you go to get credit, you give them some weird pesky 5th thing, which is your Social
• 3:15
  Security number.
• 3:17
  And why would we ever get anyone that's very important information?
• 3:21
  To one identify us, but mostly to track and collect debt from us.
• 3:27
  That's it.
• 3:28
  And so business credit is just a fancy name for personal debt.
• 3:33
  Because if it wasn't, you wouldn't have to give them your Social Security number.
• 3:39
  In essence, by doing so, we pierce that corporate shield that an LLC, then s corp, that
• 3:44
  a C corp is supposed to protect us from.
• 3:47
  Corporate credits is truly what we're after and what we actually want, but it's very hard to
• 3:53
  get.
• 3:54
  Alright.
• 3:55
  So
• 3:56
  why is corporate?
• 3:58
  I mean, all of us all of us little business owners out here, and I'm an s corp.
• 4:02
  Why is corporate credit so hard to get?
• 4:06
  It's by design.
• 4:08
  Quite blank.
• 4:09
  It is by design.
• 4:11
  It is highly unregulated.
• 4:14
  It is typically for the 1%.
• 4:18
  And it's because and by 1%, I don't mean, like, the people that make $500,000 a year, whatever
• 4:24
  it is.
• 4:24
  I mean, if your business makes over 20,000,000 in annual revenue, You won't have to give a
• 4:30
  personal guarantee.
• 4:31
  You don't have to give your social security because corporate credits are made for the big
• 4:34
  boys.
• 4:35
  That's what it's for.
• 4:37
  But it is still available to every single business owner.
• 4:40
  But by design, it is hidden, it is fractured, and it's sold, in a package that makes you
• 4:47
  think that is actually building your business credit, but it's not.
• 4:52
  It's available, but it's just very, very hidden.
• 4:55
  Okay.
• 4:56
  Okay.
• 5:03
  Before these people stop asking me for my Social Security number?
• 5:06
  Yep.
• 5:06
  You go to the bank.
• 5:07
  You go to the SBA.
• 5:09
  These entities are regulated by the US government.
• 5:12
  So they have very specific criteria, and one of those is a personal guarantee.
• 5:18
  Now when you go to other companies like PayPal or Stripe or QuickBooks.
• 5:22
  Whoever has lines of credit and working capital loans, they copy some of those underwriting
• 5:27
  criteria, which we can talk about, but Again, it's attached to you.
• 5:33
  It's always gonna be attached to you.
• 5:34
  And for those of you that have never heard personal guarantee, this does not mean, Melinda
• 5:39
  a nice lady.
• 5:40
  She's honest.
• 5:41
  I trust that she'll call me back.
• 5:42
  That's not what that means.
• 5:43
  That means that no matter what happens to Melinda's business, The s corp, no matter what
• 5:49
  happens to that, when, lose her draw, Melinda's gonna pay me.
• 5:52
  And I don't care that the s corp was supposed to protect her illegally and financially.
• 5:55
  She said something go wrong, She signed this piece of paper and gave me her social, so I can
• 6:00
  go check this debt now.
• 6:02
  And that's what we all do.
• 6:03
  That's what we all know.
• 6:04
  I went I went to Business School of Columbia.
• 6:07
  I did not know this.
• 6:08
  My friend that's a VP at Goldman Sachs does not know this.
• 6:11
  We know credit rating systems exist, but we don't know how they work because, again, it is
• 6:17
  tough for that 1%.
• 6:19
  Okay.
• 6:20
  Okay.
• 6:20
  Okay.
• 6:21
  So so so help me understand.
• 6:23
  So you're telling me that my American Express Platinum card.
• 6:30
  It's not really a business card.
• 6:32
  It's a personal card.
• 6:34
  Is your name on it?
• 6:36
  Yes.
• 6:36
  My company name and my name's on it.
• 6:38
  Then it is not a true business credit card.
• 6:41
  A true business credit card would not have your name on it.
• 6:43
  We don't think about it, though, because we're used to seeing our name on our credit cards.
• 6:48
  Really?
• 6:49
  No.
• 6:49
  It's not.
• 6:51
  Wow.
• 6:52
  Wow.
• 6:52
  Wow.
• 6:53
  Wow.
• 6:53
  Wow.
• 6:53
  Wow.
• 6:53
  Okay.
• 6:54
  So talk to me about a paydex score.
• 6:56
  What is what is the pay debt score.
• 6:59
  I heard that that's, like, the business credit scoring number.
• 7:03
  Is that is that correct?
• 7:05
  Yes.
• 7:05
  Correct.
• 7:05
  So for us, we have 5 goals.
• 7:07
  350 to 850 makes 0¢.
• 7:10
  The pay deck score to port them onto a payment and index.
• 7:13
  That's why it's called that.
• 7:14
  And so all it is is tracking the businesses ability to repay payments on time.
• 7:20
  Again, there's specific little form formula there, but that's what it is.
• 7:24
  The score itself is much easier to understand than ours.
• 7:26
  It goes from 0 to 100.
• 7:29
  And 80 is like a 720 a 90 is like an 800, but that is what the paid export is.
• 7:34
  And so I'll ask people, do you have business credit?
• 7:36
  So, yeah, my credit's, like, 7.50.
• 7:38
  Not what I asked you.
• 7:39
  If you give me anything over a 100, I know that you don't know because most people don't, and
• 7:46
  most businesses I talk I run their business credit through our software, 80 to 90 percent
• 7:51
  don't have anything, even if they have lines of credit, even if they have businesses loans
• 7:55
  because it is not attached appropriately to track this.
• 7:59
  Wow.
• 8:01
  So so what search engine do you use to find out your paydex score or if you have one.
• 8:08
  Like, where do you go to even find this information?
• 8:10
  Yeah.
• 8:11
  So, Experian sorry.
• 8:13
  Dun and Bradstreet has it.
• 8:15
  Experian for business and Equifax for business.
• 8:17
  They all have that.
• 8:18
  The latter 2 are completely separate from the consumer versions.
• 8:23
  They're not the same thing.
• 8:24
  They have their own website it's it's on different vertical.
• 8:26
  It's on different business structure.
• 8:28
  But Dun And Bradstreet, is kind of the biggest one, credit bureau that people know.
• 8:32
  And so that's where it is.
• 8:34
  Conversely, you can email me your business name and city and state is registered in, and I can
• 8:38
  check it for you for free.
• 8:40
  Most of these tests will charge you anywhere between $40 $200 depending on what it is
• 8:45
  they're offering, and they will always upsell you with things that you quite frankly, don't
• 8:48
  need because you don't know how to use it.
• 8:51
  Wow.
• 8:52
  Wow.
• 8:52
  Alright.
• 8:53
  So You've already explained to us business credit, corporate credit, personal credit.
• 9:02
  What what does a business owner have to do to start building this all important corporate
• 9:07
  grant if they're not at 20,000,000 yet?
• 9:09
  Like, what What do what do you need to do to start building business credit?
• 9:14
  So the very first thing is making sure all your ducks are in a row on small things.
• 9:18
  So most people think that business credit is tied to revenue, and it's not.
• 9:23
  It's one of a 125 data points that make up what's known as corporate credibility.
• 9:28
  Which in lender speak means fungibility.
• 9:30
  So the very first thing, very first thing, we gotta talk about professionalism.
• 9:35
  As a lender, my very first thing I'm looking for is fraud.
• 9:39
  I have to know.
• 9:40
  Is this real business?
• 9:41
  So I should be able to find you online.
• 9:44
  Do you have a website?
• 9:46
  Even even if it's a landing page, I need a website.
• 9:49
  Don't get I should not just find an Instagram or Facebook page.
• 9:52
  I need an actual website.
• 9:54
  Email addresses.
• 9:56
  Email me from a professional email address, not a Gmail, not a iCloud, not a you can get
• 10:00
  disqualified for funding.
• 10:01
  From using the wrong email.
• 10:03
  Because anyone can have an icloud, anyone can have a Gmail.
• 10:07
  Truthfully, anyone can have a professional email as well, but it's a little bit more work.
• 10:10
  So, again, we're just trying to find credibility.
• 10:15
  2nd thing would be addresses.
• 10:17
  This is very, very important.
• 10:19
  So most people don't have an office, and most of those people don't want to use their home
• 10:24
  address.
• 10:25
  So they go get a PO box or a UPS mailbox.
• 10:28
  These two things, these 2 types of addresses, even though they are street addresses,
• 10:33
  automatic denial from lenders.
• 10:35
  Because from a fraud standpoint, This is not a business.
• 10:39
  This is a little box inside of another business.
• 10:43
  So no.
• 10:45
  That doesn't make any sense.
• 10:46
  So the work around is find your local coworking space.
• 10:48
  They typically have mail service where you can collect your mail there.
• 10:51
  Maybe $20 to $50 a month, depending on where you live.
• 10:54
  And that address works because, again, lenders know this is a business where multiple
• 10:59
  businesses do work asynchronously.
• 11:03
  And your address needs to be the same everywhere, specifically IRS, secretary of
• 11:10
  state, Dun and Bradstreet, secondarily, bank accounts, utility bills, any and everything,
• 11:16
  because there's a platform called Lexis Nexus, that knows everything about your business from
• 11:22
  account balances to history to pay every single thing you've ever done.
• 11:26
  So that address needs to be consistent across the board.
• 11:29
  Because, again, as a lender, I see 67 different addresses.
• 11:33
  I'm thinking fraud.
• 11:34
  The truth is I moved.
• 11:36
  I was busy.
• 11:37
  My statement my statement of affirmation is due only over 2 years, so why does it matter if it
• 11:41
  matters?
• 11:43
  And the and the very last thing I'll mention because it's very, very cockamamie 1, and we've
• 11:48
  talked about this is 411.
• 11:51
  If you're under 30, you may not understand what that means, but it was a phone service where
• 11:55
  you would call and say, can you can me to the Domino's on Fifth Street, and they will connect
• 12:00
  you.
• 12:02
  That still exists.
• 12:03
  It is digital now.
• 12:05
  And if your business phone number is not registered with National 4011, a local number,
• 12:11
  not 800, a local one, automatic denial for 99% of corporate lenders.
• 12:19
  And it cannot
• 12:19
  Wait a minute.
• 12:20
  So you basically are saying that you have still have a landline phone?
• 12:24
  Yes.
• 12:24
  Because it cannot be a cell phone number, and it cannot be a VoIP.
• 12:28
  So you don't have to actually go by a phone.
• 12:30
  But you do need to buy a landline through Verizon or Time Warner or Xfinity.
• 12:34
  Whoever gives your internet, they have that option.
• 12:37
  And you take that number, And, again, you apply with that number and you just forward it to
• 12:41
  whatever number you actually use.
• 12:43
  No one's ever gonna call it, but it's just the way of the world.
• 12:45
  And, again, This think about where this comes from, from the underwriting.
• 12:49
  This comes from big banks.
• 12:52
  Underwriting does not get updated very often.
• 12:55
  So imagine I'm Apple.
• 12:57
  I'm Toyota.
• 12:58
  I'm Stripe.
• 12:58
  I'm PayPal, and I'm gonna bring my own I'm gonna have my own lending arm.
• 13:03
  I'm not gonna reinvent underwriting.
• 13:05
  I'm just gonna copy what the banks do, and so that's why it's there.
• 13:11
  It's the exact same thing and it's meant to trip you up.
• 13:14
  It's it's again, it's this is by design.
• 13:16
  The the way I hate to sound conspiracy theorists, but it's meant to make sure that the
• 13:24
  1% doesn't go to 2% or 4% or 10% God forbid.
• 13:29
  God forbid 10 10 percent of businesses in America made over $20,000,000 because you would
• 13:34
  understand how it works.
• 13:36
  And you could shake things up, and they don't want that.
• 13:40
  So wow.
• 13:42
  You you're just you're blowing my mind with some of the stuff And it, you know, it's
• 13:46
  interesting.
• 13:46
  I've always kept my landline for my business all these years.
• 13:49
  We were like, why do you still have a landline?
• 13:51
  Cause because I did know about this landline stuff.
• 13:55
  Okay.
• 13:55
  So tell me something.
• 13:57
  What if I wanna get started, you know, if I have all my ducks in a row, the things that you
• 14:03
  just said, and I wanna start building my business credit.
• 14:08
  What do what do I need to do?
• 14:10
  Like, you know, who what what kinds of credit do I need to get so that it starts registering
• 14:16
  me to get potential corporate credit?
• 14:20
  Yeah.
• 14:20
  So once all your ducks in a row, then you open the appropriate accounts.
• 14:24
  I say appropriate because most business credit cards, trade lines, Bank loans, SBA loans don't
• 14:32
  report to the business credit bureaus to help you build that profile.
• 14:35
  I'm a say that differently.
• 14:36
  Only 7% actually do.
• 14:39
  So for example, the Chase Inc card does.
• 14:42
  The Capital One spark card does not.
• 14:46
  But, truly, at the beginning, it's really, trade, trade accounts, vendor accounts.
• 14:52
  So Melinda and Grainger are very common, accounts to open.
• 14:56
  The minimum spend is 50 bucks a month.
• 14:58
  Because the reason why 93% don't report is because it costs the money to report when we
• 15:02
  pay them on time.
• 15:04
  That's it.
• 15:05
  That's all.
• 15:06
  Okay.
• 15:06
  So why would I multi $1,000,000,000 business?
• 15:08
  Wanna help you court business owner with something you don't even know exists.
• 15:12
  I wouldn't, and I would just put it to my bonuses for my shareholders at the end.
• 15:16
  That's the end of the story.
• 15:17
  So you start with those trade line accounts to get that to build.
• 15:20
  So you're about trade trade credit, vendor credit.
• 15:24
  These are real things you may not think it's important because you're like, oh, well, why do
• 15:28
  I need this card?
• 15:30
  Why do I need to go get a gas card?
• 15:31
  Or this and that, like, I actually need other things for my business.
• 15:34
  Well, these are the building blocks of corporate credibility.
• 15:39
  Because business credit has 4 tiers.
• 15:41
  It's just tiers 1, 2, 3, 4.
• 15:43
  It's very sophisticated naming system.
• 15:45
  But You go through this vendor process, and each tier, you get more and more credibility.
• 15:52
  Until you can get to tier 4, wherever you give me a household name, they're there, and you can
• 15:59
  do infinite amount of things once we get to tier 4.
• 16:03
  Wow.
• 16:04
  Wow.
• 16:05
  Well, listen.
• 16:06
  You're watching the small bitch chat podcast.
• 16:08
  And when we come right back, we'll be talking more with Angelique Williams on how to build
• 16:14
  business credit.
• 16:16
  Stay with us.
• 16:23
  My brand new course, branded demand, Coolort 2.
• 16:27
  If you're an author speaker coach or consultant and you wanna become a brand, you wanna have
• 16:32
  brand loyalty, you wanna have corporate opportunities come to you, then you need to
• 16:37
  learn how to do it in my branded demand 6 month coaching program.
• 16:41
  Check it out.
• 16:42
  It's smallbizladyuniversity.comforward/brandanddemanddashgroupcoaching.
• 16:50
  And I'm gonna throw in a free photo shoot.
• 16:52
  If you sign up before my next class, we're gonna hook you up.
• 16:56
  My personal grand squad is gonna make you look fantastic.
• 17:00
  So I want you to be here hanging out with us.
• 17:04
  So the class is virtual for 6 months.
• 17:07
  So go ahead and sign up.
• 17:08
  It's at smallbizladyuniversity.comforward/branded
• 17:12
  demand dash group coaching.
• 17:23
  Hi, everybody.
• 17:23
  Welcome back to the small biz chat podcast.
• 17:26
  I'm Melinda Emerson small biz lady, your host.
• 17:28
  And today, we are talking about building business credit.
• 17:33
  And, miss Angelique Williams is blowing my mind because all these things I thought I was doing,
• 17:38
  you know, running 100 of 1000 of dollars in my AmEx every year.
• 17:41
  Apparently, it's doing not jacked for me.
• 17:43
  So, anyway, alright.
• 17:45
  So, Angelique, talk to us about some of the common mistakes that small businesses make,
• 17:51
  when they're trying to build business credit.
• 17:53
  Yeah.
• 17:53
  Absolutely.
• 17:54
  So one of the first things in general is using your personal credit cards.
• 18:01
  Like, let's like, before we talk about building business credit, like, The common mistakes
• 18:05
  people do is draining their 401 k, borrowing against their house, running up their credit
• 18:11
  card.
• 18:12
  Reckoning for the person that every business owner you talk to will tell you.
• 18:16
  I had great credit.
• 18:17
  So I started my business.
• 18:19
  Because people, unless we there's some big expense or some unexpected event, we have
• 18:25
  finite expenses that don't change that much.
• 18:29
  Businesses always need something.
• 18:31
  There's always something, some subscriptions, some contractor into hire, some new service, I
• 18:36
  need to do some new product is always something that costs money.
• 18:41
  And what most people do is they max out those credit cards.
• 18:43
  They try to do it themselves.
• 18:45
  Then they try to go get business credit and they can't get any.
• 18:49
  So what most people do is Again, like I said, the the non matching addresses is is is a big
• 18:57
  one.
• 18:57
  That's a big mistake.
• 18:59
  But most people, they will go they'll focus on, you know, traditional bank loans or SBA loans
• 19:05
  or different things like that, and they'll get denied.
• 19:09
  And then they think oh, it's because my business is bad.
• 19:13
  It's because my idea is is is wrong.
• 19:17
  I'm a bad business person.
• 19:18
  I'm a and as a creative or an ambitious an immigrant combo, that denial is personal.
• 19:25
  And the thing and and the truth is is that Most of us, again, becoming perfectionist, most of
• 19:31
  us struggle to ask for help or try to think beyond what I see in front of me.
• 19:39
  Because banks and and SBAs and these types of peep it's one type.
• 19:44
  It is not the only way.
• 19:46
  It's looking at what are my other option available.
• 19:49
  One of the biggest biggest mistakes with people I talk to is I will ask them.
• 19:54
  I'm gonna give you a magic wand.
• 19:55
  I'm gonna say that in 12 months, you're gonna have $200,000.
• 19:59
  What's gonna happen in your business?
• 20:01
  And they'll paint this entire big picture of what they can do and blah blah blah blah blah.
• 20:05
  And then, you know, and I I do all my consultations for education purposes.
• 20:09
  That's fine.
• 20:10
  But then they'll say, I'll look at this in a year.
• 20:14
  Because they're not ready for it.
• 20:17
  It's too we have as much of a fear of success as we do a failure.
• 20:24
  Of course, if I fail, I put myself out there.
• 20:26
  If you were gonna think I'm dumb, what what have I done?
• 20:29
  You know, I might have egg on my face.
• 20:31
  I don't want that.
• 20:32
  But also, oh, I could do a $1,000,000 in revenue.
• 20:36
  That's really scary.
• 20:37
  Right now I need to pay my late bill.
• 20:39
  So I'm gonna focus on this.
• 20:41
  And I'll come back.
• 20:42
  But the truth is it takes 6 to 12 months to really build a business credit profile.
• 20:49
  So in a year, again, businesses always need stuff, and you're gonna run through that money.
• 20:54
  And the things that you can do to be like, I can't spend any more money because I'm maxed
• 20:58
  out.
• 20:59
  When the reality is you have to take the blinders off.
• 21:02
  You have to look up and think, am I doing this in the short run, or am I trying to build
• 21:07
  something sustainable Am I trying to build something scalable?
• 21:09
  Am I trying to build wealth for my family, for myself, whatever?
• 21:12
  And if so, Gotta put the big pants on.
• 21:17
  We gotta do it, but common biggest common mistakes, thinking small.
• 21:22
  Thinking small and thinking that something isn't for them, when it actually is.
• 21:26
  Well, but I also wanna clarify something too.
• 21:29
  I mean, 8000 loans are turned down in America every day.
• 21:33
  8 1000.
• 21:36
  So it's it's extremely common, and no one should take that Emerson.
• 21:41
  They just need to apply someplace else.
• 21:43
  I mean, really.
• 21:44
  You know?
• 21:45
  And so I I wanna allow people's fears because everybody's had it happen to them that they got
• 21:50
  their cameras.
• 21:51
  I mean, it It's so common that it's common that it does if it doesn't happen.
• 21:55
  Right.
• 21:55
  And I know people who've been in business 20 years who've never been able to get a line of
• 21:59
  credit.
• 21:59
  Like, just crazy stuff.
• 22:01
  And I'll and I'll tell you exactly why.
• 22:02
  I will tell you exactly why.
• 22:03
  Let me let me bust that myth real quick is because people again, they think it's based on
• 22:08
  revenue, but here's what happens.
• 22:11
  If we apply for for our credit card, we're gonna get a notification from the bank, from
• 22:15
  whoever that oh, there's a hard pull.
• 22:17
  Right?
• 22:17
  We're gonna know that.
• 22:18
  And, again, that is still fairly new.
• 22:20
  That's that's because consumer protection loss changed.
• 22:22
  That was not the case in 2000.
• 22:24
  Now it is.
• 22:26
  But business credit anyone can run your business credit at any given time, and you will
• 22:31
  never know them.
• 22:32
  So, again, 80% of the business that I talk to don't have anything existing.
• 22:37
  So I can go to the bank with a $5,000,000 business.
• 22:39
  I'm doing $5,000,000 a year.
• 22:41
  I come in with my P and L, my pay stubs, my taxes, and they say no.
• 22:46
  Whatever that number is, I might need a $100,000, 500,000, they'll say no.
• 22:50
  And the reason that that happens is because, again, they're checking for corporate
• 22:54
  credibility.
• 22:55
  You don't have any.
• 22:57
  You'll get or you might be on tier 1, and I need you to be on tier 4.
• 23:01
  So you don't have any existing credit credibility.
• 23:04
  I'm at this $5,000,000 is no longer the consideration.
• 23:07
  We gotta get rid of it.
• 23:09
  Who do I have left to look at?
• 23:11
  You, the business owner.
• 23:13
  Well, much money do you make?
• 23:15
  What's your debt to income ratio?
• 23:16
  What's your utilization rate?
• 23:18
  Will you, as a person, cannot support this debt?
• 23:24
  So the answer is no.
• 23:26
  That's what's happening.
• 23:26
  Every business owner, when they go to the bank or lines of credit, that's what's happening.
• 23:30
  And, again, because as business owners, we take our credit, we don't pay ourselves enough, all
• 23:35
  these different things.
• 23:36
  And unless you're independently wealthy, there is a there is a cap.
• 23:41
  That a workers in can support.
• 23:43
  Business is another hand.
• 23:45
  Walmart has a $100,000,000,000 in available credit.
• 23:50
  That's insanity.
• 23:52
  It's insanity.
• 23:54
  Imagine a person be like, I've only been doing dollar credit line.
• 23:57
  You what?
• 23:58
  Right.
• 23:58
  That would that would never even possibly happen.
• 24:01
  Right?
• 24:04
  So You said the main sources of business credit, you said, are trade accounts, vendor
• 24:12
  accounts, But how can you find out?
• 24:15
  Like, a lot of us are sitting here with business credit cards in our wallet.
• 24:19
  How can we find out if our credit card company actually were reports to the business credit
• 24:24
  bureaus?
• 24:25
  Unfortunately, it is not an easy process.
• 24:29
  You'd either have to call underwriting department, and they probably don't know.
• 24:32
  Or you'd have to read your terms and conditions.
• 24:35
  That's, you know, again, if you run a a credit, credit safe account, credit report or business
• 24:41
  credit report, you will see what's reporting there.
• 24:44
  And if it's not there, that's those are kind of the 3 ways you pay for a report, call
• 24:48
  underwriting, read in terms of conditions.
• 24:50
  It's a it's, again, there's a 93% chance they're not.
• 24:54
  And and that's kind of the big thing.
• 24:55
  So Amazon, for example, their business credit card does report.
• 25:00
  But, again, we talk about these tiers.
• 25:02
  So Amazon's on tier 2.
• 25:04
  And if you haven't passed, go, you can't get to tier 2.
• 25:08
  A lot of people say, oh, I applied for an Amazon business credit card, and I got denied.
• 25:11
  I don't get it because you don't meet the requirements.
• 25:15
  Right.
• 25:16
  And you don't know what the requirements are either.
• 25:19
  So it, you know, I I talked to someone, last week, and she's learned a lot is on TikTok, and
• 25:25
  it's it's really interesting.
• 25:26
  And she said, yeah.
• 25:27
  You know, everything you're talking about, it makes sense.
• 25:29
  Make sense.
• 25:29
  They talk about the vendor credit card.
• 25:30
  They talk about this, and talk about tier 4.
• 25:33
  And so I feel like I have step 1 and 2 and 10, but I don't have steps 3 through 9.
• 25:39
  I'm like, yes.
• 25:41
  Because they don't know it themselves.
• 25:44
  Most people that understand what true business credit is can get to tier 1, maybe tier 2.
• 25:50
  But after that, the walls get even higher.
• 25:55
  And so, you know, that's where people like myself, my company come in and really help with
• 25:59
  that and demystify and put you to the right places.
• 26:03
  But that that's that's really the challenge is that it's independently done, there's been some
• 26:08
  research about this.
• 26:09
  It takes an individual business owner that's looking for this.
• 26:15
  About 5 to 7 years to build it on their own because of trial and error.
• 26:20
  So imagine I'm 90% trans wrong every single time, and I'm trying all of these cards.
• 26:26
  And I might have to put my social down for some of this, and I'm just getting ding ding ding
• 26:30
  ding ding ding.
• 26:30
  So It's really catch 22.
• 26:33
  It sounds like it sounds like so tell me how can people work with you?
• 26:37
  Like, if someone wanted help and say, look.
• 26:40
  I'm I've I've gotta do this because I've got some big things I wanna do, and I wanna get
• 26:45
  access to certain things.
• 26:46
  You know, how how long you know, how do they work with you, what kinds of ways do people
• 26:52
  work with you, and how long does it typically take if they're working with an agency like
• 26:55
  yours to fix their business credit?
• 26:58
  So, that's a great question.
• 27:00
  So just the length in time, we are contractually bound, whichever way we work, to
• 27:05
  get someone to tier 4 work with that 80 plus 4 12 months or less.
• 27:09
  And it's because when you run a business credit report, it only goes back 12 months.
• 27:14
  It's not 7 years like us.
• 27:15
  So it can build very fast and business credit grows exponentially.
• 27:19
  So the way this one works with us is they talk to someone like me.
• 27:22
  We talk about what their goals are, if it's a good fit, and fit really comes down to 2
• 27:27
  things.
• 27:28
  1, if you have a US issued EIN, You don't have to be a citizen.
• 27:33
  You may just need this EIN.
• 27:36
  We can't work with international companies.
• 27:37
  It's a because the laws are a little bit different.
• 27:40
  But we need a US issued EIN, and you can't be in one of our no go categories.
• 27:45
  So that qualifies as oil and gas.
• 27:48
  Ammunition, adult entertainment, politicians, cannabis, things of that nature.
• 27:56
  Because vendors are skittish about these things and don't wanna be involved, from either a
• 28:01
  exposure risk or federal regulation risk like cannabis.
• 28:04
  So as long as those two things are true that you have a USEIN, and you're not in the no go
• 28:09
  zone, we can work with you.
• 28:12
  What happens is you get assigned a certified credit analyst.
• 28:15
  They're US based.
• 28:16
  They work with you 1 on 1.
• 28:18
  They meet with you the 1st month.
• 28:19
  There's, like, 2 maybe 3 1 hour meetings.
• 28:22
  After that, it's one meeting a month.
• 28:25
  And all they do is say, okay, Melinda, what are you doing?
• 28:28
  What are you spending?
• 28:29
  What are your goals?
• 28:30
  What do you wanna And I always tell people in that meeting, take the lid off because they're
• 28:34
  gonna engineer this to what you want.
• 28:37
  If you just say, well, we see where you get with it.
• 28:39
  That's fine.
• 28:40
  You'll still get a nice credit profile.
• 28:41
  That's fine.
• 28:42
  But if you say, I wanna buy a building, I wanna grow my team.
• 28:45
  I need this equipment for this thing.
• 28:47
  I wanna franchise.
• 28:47
  I wanna do this.
• 28:49
  Then they'll go, okay.
• 28:50
  So we need to do some other situations and make this really work for you, like, a really press
• 28:56
  the gas on this to make sure we get there.
• 28:57
  And so they work with you on a 1.
• 29:00
  On the flip side, we have a network of 400 lenders and vendors that we know's 2 things
• 29:05
  about.
• 29:06
  Will they report to?
• 29:07
  Cause they have to report to the business credit bureaus.
• 29:09
  Otherwise, why are you here with us?
• 29:12
  And the second is what their underwriting criteria is.
• 29:15
  So we know automatically, because your business info is loaded into our system, we know
• 29:20
  automatically if you qualify.
• 29:22
  So it'll say recommended, not recommended, recommended, not recommended.
• 29:26
  So we know if you apply, you're gonna get approved, and all we're going to do It's rocket
• 29:32
  science.
• 29:32
  Just listen in.
• 29:33
  All we're gonna do is take your exact same spending and move it from this credit card and
• 29:39
  this bank account that is paying out of to these credit cards that are vendor accounts,
• 29:44
  some of which you have to use at the location like BP or Shell, some of which you don't have
• 29:48
  to.
• 29:50
  And that's it.
• 29:51
  And we're just gonna pay it off.
• 29:52
  Like, we already would.
• 29:53
  It's all we're gonna do.
• 29:54
  So what is the typical investment for that kind of service?
• 29:58
  So we have 2 different programs.
• 29:59
  We have a 1 year and a lifetime.
• 30:04
  We have payment plans for both.
• 30:05
  Our lifetime is 10,000.
• 30:07
  Our 1 year is 6000.
• 30:09
  The lowest in for lifetime right now is 1000 down and 500 a month.
• 30:14
  For 22 months.
• 30:16
  The down payment for the 1 year is 24100, 24.50 down and 2.95 for 12 months.
• 30:23
  Once that payment is done, we don't take any more fees.
• 30:26
  That's just everything's included.
• 30:27
  The difference between the two is that the bigger package, it has cash flow mapping
• 30:32
  software, annual business evaluations, a suite of executives, that are actually our company
• 30:37
  execs, that help you with marketing legal, fractional CFOs, things of that nature.
• 30:42
  You can pull business credit reports on other people.
• 30:44
  So if you're working with someone, you can say, oh, they may not have any.
• 30:47
  That's fine.
• 30:48
  Or, oh, look, they never painted the long time ever.
• 30:51
  This is a brand issue for me, so let me not work with them.
• 30:54
  And that that's really the key.
• 30:56
  And then we have some third party vendors where If you have w 2 employees, it's typically the
• 31:01
  largest expense for a business.
• 31:02
  We work we work with the only payroll provider in the country that reports w two payments to
• 31:07
  the business credit bureaus.
• 31:09
  Wow.
• 31:09
  Earning payroll on time, and you can build your credit.
• 31:13
  We have the same thing with credit card processing, with keeping and marketing.
• 31:16
  These are optional services, but they are available.
• 31:19
  One special thing if you consider special is people that come into Jake all through me, get
• 31:25
  me as their internal sort of strategy Emerson, and I meet with them and kind of go through
• 31:29
  what are they trying to do?
• 31:30
  Because, again, knowledge is great.
• 31:33
  Money is great.
• 31:34
  Pull out the strategy.
• 31:37
  It's kinda useless.
• 31:38
  So that that's that's really how we work, but we are contractually bound to get everyone to
• 31:42
  tier 4 with that 80 plus 4 12 months or less, we've done it 44,000 times and have unlocked
• 31:48
  1,400,000,000 in credit.
• 31:50
  Of our clients get at least 50,000.
• 31:52
  The average is about 2 to 400,000.
• 31:53
  But, again, the people that went up to a million people that are, you know, it just
• 31:57
  depends.
• 31:58
  It just depends.
• 31:59
  Wow.
• 32:00
  Okay.
• 32:01
  Well, give us your contact information again so that people, if they wanna get in cont contact
• 32:05
  with you, they can.
• 32:07
  Absolutely.
• 32:07
  My email, is a Williams, like Venus and Serena, w I l l I a m s, at jgaltz.
• 32:15
  That's jgal t.i0, or please text, please do not call this number.
• 32:21
  I swear.
• 32:21
  Just please don't.
• 32:22
  It's just a personal thing.
• 32:24
  But it's 5108 336429.
• 32:27
  And as I was mentioned, my scheduling link will be in the show notes.
• 32:31
  So please reach out to me.
• 32:32
  Please ask me any questions.
• 32:33
  My job is to educate, so I'm happy to do so.
• 32:37
  Awesome.
• 32:37
  Thank you so much, Angelique.
• 32:39
  You have really dropped so many pearls on this smallbizchat podcast today.
• 32:44
  And I really look forward to, you know, how you're gonna help so many of my loyal
• 32:50
  listeners, transform their businesses.
• 32:52
  So thank you so much, and I'll see you next time.
• 33:01
  Thanks for listening to the small biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 33:06
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday for more
• 33:11
  fantastic information and interviews.
• 33:14
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 33:18
  website succeed as your own boss.com.
• 33:22
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.