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EP326 Stop Using Personal Credit to Fund Your Business · Profit With A Plan

• 0:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hey, are you still using personal credit to fund your business? Well, that's a profit killer. When your business and personal finances are tied together, one mistake could wreck your credit and your confidence.
• 0:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: In this week's Profit with a Plan, we're breaking down how to build corporate credit so that your business stands on its own, your personal assets stay protected, and growth finally feels sustainable. It's time to separate, scale, and succeed, so tune in to Profit with a Plan.
• 0:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hey entrepreneurs, are you working too hard for too little profit? Well, welcome to Profit with a Plan Podcast, where we help you scale smarter, increase profitability, and build a business that's worth more, whether you keep it or sell it.
• 0:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I'm Marcia Reiner, business growth strategist and profit booster behind Infinite Profit. I've helped countless entrepreneurs to turn their businesses into highly profitable and sale-ready assets, so they enjoy more income now and a bigger payday later.
• 1:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So join me for practical strategies, expert insights, and proven steps to make your business more profitable, more valuable, and built to last.
• 1:13
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: By the way, today's episode is sponsored by Infinite Profit, where we don't just talk profit, we deliver it.
• 1:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, but before we dive in, I've got something special for you. If you're tired of flat revenue or marketing that just doesn't pay off.
• 1:28
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• 1:40
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• 1:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, let's jump into today's episode. Sue Schuster is a powerhouse when it comes to funding businesses, business growth the right way.
• 1:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: She's a corporate credit and profit acceleration coach who helps entrepreneurs access capital, scale sustainably, and protect their personal credit along the way.
• 2:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: With over 20 years as a business owner and the background of a competitive athlete, Sue brings the discipline, focus, and real-world experience that business owners trust.
• 2:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: After selling her own company, she discovered one of the best-kept secrets in business finance. Hey, it's corporate credit!
• 2:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Now she's, teaching Main Street entrepreneurs how to use the same strategies that Wall Street has used for years. Building credit tied to your EIN, securing funding without personal guarantees, and unlocking growth in as little as 90 days.
• 2:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, welcome to Profit with a Plan, Sue. I'm so glad to have you on today.
• 2:44
  Sue Schuster: Thank you, Marcias. Great to be here.
• 2:46
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, with the… minus the hiccups we had to get started on.
• 2:49
  Sue Schuster: It's all good, you know.
• 2:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's so funny. But you know what, I mean, doing a podcast and having as many as I have, I just kind of, you know, every once in a while, I'll hiccup a little bit, and we just keep on… keep on going, so it's… it's good. But, yeah, super excited to talk about this, because corporate credit is that,
• 3:07
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: forgotten thing that people forget when they're running their business in the early ages to flip that switch on. So, I'm really excited to have you come on today. But before we do that, why did… where did corporate credit come into your play? I mean, did you get it from your business?
• 3:25
  Sue Schuster: No, it came out of the blue, according to me. I mean, you say they forgot about corporate credit. I think most of us never learned about corporate credit.
• 3:33
  Sue Schuster: So where did it come into play? So as I sold my business and made my way into the coaching, through my coaching, I learned about corporate credit, and I'm like, it hit me in the head with a 2x4. I'm like, wait, I could have what? I could have… I mean, my personal credit wouldn't have been hit every time, and especially in the trades industry, these poor people are leveraging it
• 3:54
  Sue Schuster: night and day, now they can't even get their own car or their own house because their personal credit is in the toilet from their business. And there's ways to prove that and to go around that, but it's just hard.
• 4:06
  Sue Schuster: So separating from the very, very beginning is huge, just people don't even know it's a thing, and there's a lot of myths about that. I'm sure we'll get into that.
• 4:15
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, absolutely. And I know it's not just getting a corporate credit card, I mean, that's… that's… it's still… that's still attached to your personal credit. It's establishing everything, so… so I'm really excited about having this conversation and going through that.
• 4:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, okay, with that in mind, let's kind of figure out
• 4:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: where we want to bring the audience in to what corporate credit really is. Can you define the.
• 4:43
  Sue Schuster: Different?
• 4:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: between personal and corporate?
• 4:46
  Sue Schuster: Sure, so think of your EIN number. Now, you have to have an EIN number, you have to be a business. I can't tell you how many entrepreneurs, coaches, and stuff. I talked to them, I'm like, alright, let's look up your personal… not your personal credit, I'm no business in that, but your business credit, and I said, okay, what's the legal name of it? And they're like, what are you talking about? I don't have one. I'm like, you don't have a business, let's tackle that first.
• 5:09
  Sue Schuster: Anyway, the biggest problem is people think they have corporate credit, credit just on their EIN, separate completely from your social security number, because the world told them they did.
• 5:22
  Sue Schuster: Their bank says, here's your business card, it has your business name on it, they think it's actually reporting. No, it's personally guaranteed. Either it's getting reported on your personal, or it's getting reported to nowhere. It's doing you no good.
• 5:36
  Sue Schuster: And then you have these business credit cards, like,
• 5:41
  Sue Schuster: Some of them do report, but most of them don't. And those who don't, don't report anywhere. But those who do, sometimes, like Amex is a big one.
• 5:52
  Sue Schuster: reports to an intermediary stage, and so all the good stuff. You've been using this card for great. I mean, you're using it, paying off, using it, paying off, and by the way, that's how you build corporate credit. It's not on your revenue, it's on your expenses.
• 6:05
  Sue Schuster: But… so you've done that for years, and then one time you're late.
• 6:10
  Sue Schuster: That gets reported. And when I say… What? Yes. Not fair. It's rigged. So the three reporting agencies are Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. Okay, slow down just a second. So, they're not…
• 6:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: They're not Equifax, TransUnion, and Asperian, which we all know as the personal ones. They're completely different reporting agencies, right?
• 6:32
  Sue Schuster: Correct.
• 6:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Can you repeat those 3 again?
• 6:34
  Sue Schuster: Sure. The big one is Dun & Bradstreet.
• 6:37
  Sue Schuster: Dun & Bradstreet is the OG in all of this. Everybody should have a DUNS number. And that's free!
• 6:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It's not even your own number, it's not your EIN number, it's a DUNS number that you need.
• 6:47
  Sue Schuster: Or, yes, but Experian has its own number 2, and so does Equifax. And, like, when you're talking TransUnion.
• 6:56
  Sue Schuster: Experian and Xbox personal, they all look at things a little bit differently. Between your usage, and your ratios, and your limits, and all those things, they all look at it slightly different, that's why they take these three and put it together for a FICO score. They do the same thing with business credit.
• 7:13
  Sue Schuster: So, Dun & Bradstreet looks at it one way, Experian Business looks at it different, Equifax Business looks at it a different way. They all have their own numbers, and they put it together along with your personal, as the business owner, you should know how to work your own finances, but.
• 7:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You should hope.
• 7:31
  Sue Schuster: We should hope. And that's called the SBSS score.
• 7:35
  Sue Schuster: they're actually funding on, and it's a combination of those four things. When you get the funding, it's not attached to your personal, but your score itself is attached to your personal.
• 7:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Interesting. Okay, so the score you're looking for is that SBSS score, right?
• 7:53
  Sue Schuster: Correct.
• 7:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And so now I've had my… let's go back to your American Express story, right? I've been charging, I've been paying it off, I'm buying only business stuff, I'm… I'm doing really well, now I want to go get a line of credit through my bank. And…
• 8:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: they're asking me for something I don't have, because you're saying that American Express probably didn't report anywhere unless you were late.
• 8:21
  Sue Schuster: Yes, not… the top card, the black card for American Express, that you have to pay millions of dollars, and it's all… whatever, it's a thing.
• 8:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And annual fees, right?
• 8:31
  Sue Schuster: Yes, that one is… that one reports. All the rest of them don't.
• 8:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay. And they report to this agency called the SBFE.
• 8:39
  Sue Schuster: And it's just… so I ended up calling them, because now I'm curious, I just learned about this world, what the heck?
• 8:45
  Sue Schuster: Because I got in a little bit of a thing with one of my clients. He's like, it is reporting. I said, I'm looking at your credit score. No, it's not. Yes, it is. No, it's not. So he calls, and he finds all this information out, so now I call, because I'm interested, and they… Dun & Bradstreet answers the phone.
• 9:02
  Sue Schuster: And, for the SBFE. And I'm like, well, why isn't this reporting? Well, you can have it report if you jump through these hoops, and da-da-da. So you can make a report.
• 9:14
  Sue Schuster: If you're completely aware of it up front, but most business owners are busy chasing fires and putting… or chasing clients and putting out fires that they're not thinking about this, they're just…
• 9:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Chugging along, thinking they're.
• 9:25
  Sue Schuster: But they're thinking it's reporting. It's not.
• 9:29
  Sue Schuster: Not fair, I know.
• 9:31
  Sue Schuster: That's what I do.
• 9:31
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, so that's crazy.
• 9:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, so now we know that we've got to have these three things. Do we have to… I mean, to build credit, do we have to jump through all these hoops, or is there an easier way?
• 9:42
  Sue Schuster: Unfortunately, no. There's not an easier way. I wish I could tell you yes.
• 9:47
  Sue Schuster: It does take time to build business credit, just like it does personal, but… so think of it like this, so you're an 18-year-old kid, and you start to build your credit. By the time you're 19, you don't have much more credit. You're still having your parents personally guarantee all… you're not getting a mortgage, you might have got a car, maybe.
• 10:05
  Sue Schuster: But the difference between an 18-year-old to a 19-year-old, or a business, a startup to a year 1, a year two, is huge.
• 10:13
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Mmm.
• 10:14
  Sue Schuster: So you build credit a lot faster, but it's not in a month.
• 10:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it.
• 10:19
  Sue Schuster: So, the first thing that you have to do that everybody likes to skip, they want to go right for the vendors and trade lines and everything else.
• 10:28
  Sue Schuster: And that's not where you have to start. You have to build a credible business first.
• 10:32
  Sue Schuster: And that looks at your EIN number, that looks at the,
• 10:38
  Sue Schuster: state, making sure that you're not filed as a lawyer or something random, and you have the right address in there. Is your address a home address? They don't like home addresses.
• 10:49
  Sue Schuster: I know, us home businesses can do really well, and we do do really well, but the banks don't like it.
• 10:54
  Sue Schuster: And the reason why the banks don't like it is because a lot of people
• 10:58
  Sue Schuster: claim to be something for an interim amount of time. Like, they lost their job, got laid off, and now they've decided to be, I don't know, a shoe salesman for this amount of time, and they use their home address and get an LLC, and now they want funding on that? And it takes, like, 6 months, and now they're back into the corporate world, which I don't suggest, but is a thing.
• 11:17
  Sue Schuster: That's why they don't like home addresses?
• 11:20
  Sue Schuster: They don't like cell phones?
• 11:22
  Sue Schuster: They want a business phone?
• 11:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The business phone meaning a landline phone, not even a voice-over IP phone, right?
• 11:29
  Sue Schuster: No, that's a voice over IP phone. It's something that you did an extra step to.
• 11:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it, got it, okay.
• 11:35
  Sue Schuster: So if you're using Google Voice, or using whatever else, that still counts.
• 11:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, so, so to get this clear.
• 11:42
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you're… you're proving that you're A legit, right? And B, that you've had some time under your belt, and that you have…
• 11:51
  Sue Schuster: you have a real address. So now, if I'm working a home business, right, my practice happens to run out of my other room.
• 12:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So if I had a personal mailbox, or a UPS box, or a, you know, even go to the post office box, is that still good enough?
• 12:12
  Sue Schuster: Post office boxes are not good enough. You end up getting a virtual address.
• 12:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: A virtual address would work.
• 12:18
  Sue Schuster: Right, hopefully one in your area that you can go to if you need to.
• 12:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 12:22
  Sue Schuster: Least in your state?
• 12:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh my gosh, right? Okay, so then… and then, to further that out, why do they need all of that stuff? I mean, if… if I'm… if I'm not at that fake address, and I'm not at that fake VoIP phone, but I have my cell phone, and I'm in this physical address, why wouldn't that be good enough?
• 12:44
  Sue Schuster: Because it's not good enough for the banks is not my rule. I wish I had a better…
• 12:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it, okay. So they just want… they just want legit companies, right?
• 12:52
  Sue Schuster: I don't be objections.
• 12:53
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: track you down, and they think they can track you down out of a PMB before they can, out of your home address.
• 13:01
  Sue Schuster: Right.
• 13:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay. Another thing is your email address.
• 13:04
  Sue Schuster: They don't like Gmail, Google… all… all the… The not-real email addresses?
• 13:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:11
  Sue Schuster: I want you to have.
• 13:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Are you at Yahoo?
• 13:13
  Sue Schuster: Yeah, Juno? I mean, let's be old about it.
• 13:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: AOL.
• 13:17
  Sue Schuster: Yeah, all of those things. They don't like those free addresses. They want a real one. You need to have a website.
• 13:24
  Sue Schuster: Because they're going to look you up.
• 13:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it.
• 13:29
  Sue Schuster: creditors, whether they're huge, like we're talking Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, they go and do research online without asking you anything. So they're going to the Secretary of State, they're going to your website, do you look real? Do I want to land?
• 13:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it.
• 13:44
  Sue Schuster: Because they're lending the business money, so the business has to be credible.
• 13:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it. Okay, so step number one, legitimize your business and make it look and real, feel like a real business. Correct. It is functioning and has been functioning for a period of time. Okay.
• 14:02
  Sue Schuster: Well, it doesn't even have to be, you just have to be well-organized.
• 14:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well, I can…
• 14:05
  Sue Schuster: apply for your EIN. Also, what also we think should be happening is, like our social security number, we put that down, that tracks us. That number tracks us.
• 14:16
  Sue Schuster: But, your EIN number is only really being tracked by the IRS.
• 14:22
  Sue Schuster: Because that's where you file your taxes, all your things. However, corporate credit is on your address.
• 14:27
  Sue Schuster: So if you've hopped around address, so you had your LLC made by some lawyer, oh, I don't have an address, fine, I'll use mine. So you got that address, and then you finally get your address, and then you move states, and da-da-da-da-da. I found somebody with
• 14:40
  Sue Schuster: 7.
• 14:41
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh my goodness.
• 14:42
  Sue Schuster: One business, seven, because she had hopped around and she had changed in DBAs and whatnot else.
• 14:47
  Sue Schuster: But there she also, according to Dun & Bradstreet, had 7 accounts. So now we have to call and get them all linked, this is one company, it's a mess. So your address is actually what is tracking this, rather than your EIN number.
• 15:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's crazy. That is… okay. So, legitimize, get a solid address, and is there a period of time there, looking back? You mentioned 7 years, so if I did move around 7 years, and I, you know.
• 15:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I was smart enough to keep the same…
• 15:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you know, number it at Dun & Bradstreet, would it… would it matter? I mean…
• 15:25
  Sue Schuster: No, they're just looking at the articles of incorporation. That's… that year. That's the number they're looking at.
• 15:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, cool.
• 15:31
  Sue Schuster: Your business for funding on itself usually should be at least a year old, but 3 years old is best.
• 15:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, cool. So a 3-year window is best to do that, and you… and that's if you're getting credit, so then you have to look back 3 years and make sure you're establishing yourself early on. So, as you mentioned, from starting from day one, let's build this out the right way.
• 15:52
  Sue Schuster: it's so much easier from day one, but, you know, most of us don't know, so then today, or tomorrow.
• 15:58
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Awesome, awesome. Okay, so now we've got all that set up, we've got our EIN number, we've got our address lined up, what else do we need to have?
• 16:06
  Sue Schuster: So, next thing, so now we have a credible business, next thing is letting these bureaus know you exist. So, register your number, these… free advice here. Register your number with 411.
• 16:19
  Sue Schuster: go to Dun & Bradstreet's website, get yourself a DUDS number. It is free, they want you to pay for it, there's ways around it.
• 16:27
  Sue Schuster: Experian business, do the same thing. Go register yourself with it. This is my business, I'm here, hey, I exist. Do the same thing with Equifax. So now all three of the agencies know you exist, 411 has your number, again, all going back to, I have a credible business.
• 16:46
  Sue Schuster: After you do the…
• 16:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Legit address and an EIN.
• 16:50
  Sue Schuster: Well, with a fake address that they think's legitimate.
• 16:54
  Sue Schuster: Some of this doesn't make sense to me, I didn't make the rules. I would love to.
• 16:59
  Sue Schuster: After we do those two things, which honestly takes the most amount of time.
• 17:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I was gonna say, those are pretty, you know, big, big checklists that you have to do to knock that one out, but…
• 17:09
  Sue Schuster: Right.
• 17:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But it's important.
• 17:12
  Sue Schuster: For sure.
• 17:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Because you're establishing a foundation, it sounds like, for
• 17:17
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: stating and raising your hand, saying I'm a legitimate business, which, you know, here in Las Vegas, you have to go get a… a… you have to file with city, you have to file with county, you have to file with state, right? So then all those three filings also, you know, legitimize everything as well, but they all need to have the same address and the same telephone number and, you know, everything else that lines up, so…
• 17:40
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yikes.
• 17:41
  Sue Schuster: Right, it's really positioning your company in the best light, and you should have done it anyway. You're not building.
• 17:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Should've.
• 17:48
  Sue Schuster: You shouldn't.
• 17:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: We didn't! No problem. So all of this is repairable, though, right? It's changeable and correctable and getting it cleaned up and organized so that you can actually stand in front of a bank when you want to borrow some money to buy new equipment, or buy the building you're in, or invest in some sort of
• 18:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, growth opportunity, you're… already did it, right?
• 18:09
  Sue Schuster: Exactly, correct. It's like going into… you know if you have good personal… if you're going into a bank because you want a loan, and you've got a 750 score, you go in there with some swagger.
• 18:19
  Sue Schuster: If, yeah, if you go in there with, like, a 520, you're like, hmm, probably not gonna happen. So, when the businesses go for credit.
• 18:28
  Sue Schuster: Okay, so now we're like, okay, well, we do have a credible company, we don't have a credible company, I don't know. But you go in and you ask for a business loan, and if you have no idea about this, you're gonna go to your bank, ask for a business loan. They'll say, sure, we gave you your little card, all these things.
• 18:45
  Sue Schuster: You may be… you have probably billed some sort of corporate credit with your bank if you have longevity with them and you've done a really good job. They might give you something that's not personally guaranteed. Maybe.
• 18:59
  Sue Schuster: But if you don't like their terms, or you don't like the bank, or if you used a credit union, nothing against credit unions, but none of them do anything with business finances,
• 19:09
  Sue Schuster: you can't go shop around. This is not something you can shop around. You cannot go to the Ford dealership and say, I want to build… get a van for my business, because I have a plumbing business, and I want a van. They're not going to say yes. In fact.
• 19:24
  Sue Schuster: the Ford company probably, or whatever company, usually whatever, probably doesn't even know that's a thing. That's a definite argument we have when I go, okay, no, use this bank, this is my corporate credit, just contact this person, and it'll be fine. And then they do, and then the representative or the
• 19:41
  Sue Schuster: person who's selling the car, the dealer, will be like, hey, this actually worked. Yeah, dude, it actually works.
• 19:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Nice.
• 19:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Nice. Okay. So,
• 19:53
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, you gave us a lot of information there, so let's summarize it up so that way the audience can stay intact. We're gonna keep the, we're gonna keep the address consistent across the board.
• 20:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: with a telephone number, we're gonna make sure we have an EIN, and we're gonna make sure the credit that we're building is actually reporting, and we've registered with those 3 agencies, right?
• 20:15
  Sue Schuster: Oh, let me add one. Nav… nav.com.
• 20:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: What is that?
• 20:20
  Sue Schuster: N-A-V.com. That actually works as your, like, ex… like, when you do your own personal, and you do the Experian account, and it tracks it, NAV does it for business. It's also free.
• 20:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, awesome. I love the free stuff, you know, and…
• 20:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And it is true, you know, most places, they want to sell you something, but you… there's always a free option to, you know, get the… the…
• 20:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: the benefit of, especially in the credit space, right? All right, so we've done all that. How do we start to really build? So, how do I go to my credit company, or the place that I have a card, or as you mentioned earlier, vendors that I already frequently do business with? How do I get them to report on my behalf?
• 21:02
  Sue Schuster: Good luck, honestly.
• 21:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay.
• 21:05
  Sue Schuster: Just being honest, if you chat, Google this mess, and you ask, how do I build corporate credit, it's gonna send you to one of three places, all three. Excuse me, Grainger?
• 21:15
  Sue Schuster: Uline.
• 21:17
  Sue Schuster: Quill.
• 21:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it, okay, familiar with all three of those.
• 21:20
  Sue Schuster: 3 of those will issue you some side of, like, net 30, net 15 corporate credit for, like, 500 bucks. Nothing big. But that starts to build corporate credit.
• 21:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's a line of credit, a line item on your credit report saying that you have paid on time.
• 21:40
  Sue Schuster: Correct. Over and over and over again. And even if you're an home business and you're buying, like, toilet paper or whatever from these type of things, that's fine. Another one is a bunch of gas carts.
• 21:52
  Sue Schuster: Really? And the business name.
• 21:55
  Sue Schuster: Yeah, and the business name will give you some sort of net 30 line of credit that you can utilize for your business. Okay. Most banks…
• 22:03
  Sue Schuster: I can… this is where I'm gonna hold back some stuff, because, you know, that's the secret sauce. Who actually reports? You can do it the hard way and, like, just try, and then check your nav and see if anything happened. I mean, that just takes a long time. But a few banks report. You can get their credit card, and it reports.
• 22:21
  Sue Schuster: Lots of banks, like credit unions, none of them are reporting.
• 22:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: God.
• 22:25
  Sue Schuster: Then there's.
• 22:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: They're actually filing a monthly report, to the three bureaus.
• 22:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: On your behalf.
• 22:34
  Sue Schuster: Right, maybe one of the bureaus. They're probably… it costs them… the problem is… well, one of the problems… there are many. One of the problems is that it costs them to report.
• 22:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it.
• 22:45
  Sue Schuster: So, nobody wants to report because they don't want the extra.
• 22:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: They don't want to pay. They don't want to pay.
• 22:49
  Sue Schuster: Okay, so if you go… I'll just pick on something, like a Kohl's card.
• 22:55
  Sue Schuster: If you're buying a… using a Kohl's card, that one's definitely not going to report. Right. But depending on… there's 4 tiers. Depending on the tier, like.
• 23:05
  Sue Schuster: Cole, Lowe's and Home Depot do report.
• 23:10
  Sue Schuster: However, you have to get the special card, and you already have to have some sort of business credit. So, if you just go in there and say, I'm… I'm Sue, and I have a plumbing industry, and I want… I want a corporate card. They'll go, great, it's personally guaranteed. You have to jump in.
• 23:27
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And they're not reporting.
• 23:29
  Sue Schuster: And they're not reporting.
• 23:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: To their upscale one.
• 23:31
  Sue Schuster: Correct.
• 23:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well, that's really important for the trades industry, you know, to have that kind of thing, because they're in there buying products all the time for their clients, right? They're buying… so, as an example, I had a client a few years ago that would buy… that would do the remodeling of,
• 23:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: cabinets and pantries and closets, and those kind of things, and garages, and she'd go and buy all this stuff, and then sell it to her… her client with a small markup, and then install everything in there, and build it all out. And I'm thinking to myself, I bet she never… she did it all on her personal card, thinking it was all good, right? And she was not building anything.
• 24:13
  Sue Schuster: Correct.
• 24:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, yeah, so if you're buying supplies for your products, or buying widgets to make your product that you actually sell, then you definitely want to have those relationships that are reporting, right?
• 24:27
  Sue Schuster: Right. And some of them, like, I was talking to a chemical person, and half of his budget
• 24:34
  Sue Schuster: And keep in mind, corporate credit is not built on more money. It is on your budget, just getting to a vendor or a trade line that actually reports. That's the key. Okay. So, in some cases, we can actually get them to report. So he was buying a ton of chemicals.
• 24:50
  Sue Schuster: And he's like, I need this line item to report, because I can't get it to report anywhere else.
• 24:56
  Sue Schuster: And,
• 24:58
  Sue Schuster: sometimes you can get into negotiations with those type of vendors, and they will report. But that's kind of few. There's a way to report payroll, a few… one that I know of, payroll company reports. It's not ADP.
• 25:13
  Sue Schuster: And then, if you can get your utilities to report.
• 25:19
  Sue Schuster: There's a way to do that as well. It's not going to be through whatever your gas company or electrical company is. There's, like, an intermediary place.
• 25:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right.
• 25:29
  Sue Schuster: So you can get those to report. So it's all these strategies to get what you're using now to actually report, and you need several trade lines. You need a couple things to report, and I have a buddy who uses 4 different gas cards.
• 25:45
  Sue Schuster: So…
• 25:47
  Sue Schuster: And every time he goes to the gas station, he's using a different card, going to a different gas station, and pays them off as he should, and now he's got 4 lines reporting, all in gas cards.
• 25:57
  Sue Schuster: And that has helped… I mean, the little bits. We're not.
• 26:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The little bits add up, yeah.
• 26:02
  Sue Schuster: For sure. There's not a whole lot of money in this.
• 26:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well, so… so, okay, let's… let's go back to the original question of why is this so friggin' hard, and yet all the banks are requiring that you have this credit, this corporate credit established, and it's so flippin' hard to get it to… to get any credit.
• 26:22
  Sue Schuster: Okay, I have no proof of this.
• 26:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But…
• 26:25
  Sue Schuster: I think Dun & Bradstreet broke it on purpose.
• 26:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Really? Okay.
• 26:30
  Sue Schuster: I have no proof, zero, zero proof, but they are from my hometown, their first office and everything, and back when I was a teenager, like, people would go there and do data entry. But…
• 26:42
  Sue Schuster: the banks actually want you to personally guarantee things. They don't want this sort of unsecured thing, so the bank…
• 26:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: They don't want this entity… they don't want to loan money to the entity, they want to loan money to you.
• 26:53
  Sue Schuster: Right, and then they want your house.
• 26:56
  Sue Schuster: Or your kid's college savings fund, or whatever else. So, the banks make it sound like you're building business credit, but they really don't want to lend a business credit. They want to lend you credit, because you're on the hook.
• 27:11
  Sue Schuster: So, yeah, I think it's a broken…
• 27:15
  Sue Schuster: Broken system. Before I even got to it, and now I'm learning about it, and I'm like, wow, this is really broken, but I know how to game it.
• 27:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know what, and I think that's the value. You know, we as business owners, right.
• 27:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: There is that corporate veil that you establish when you become an S corporation, a C corporation if you're a bigger company, an entity, I mean, an enterprise, or if you are an LLC, right? Those are meant to protect your personal assets from any business threats, right?
• 27:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And so, I mean, dumbing it down here is as much as possible, but that's the whole idea, and then there's tax advantages and so much more that you get because you have corporations, right? But the whole corporate veil is meant to protect your personal entity from your business life.
• 28:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So then now, if we're looking to really protect that corporate veil.
• 28:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right? We really want to have that corporate credit established as, you know, teeth-pulling as it is.
• 28:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: In place, so you can start to build that credit, and when you go buy machinery, or when you want to go buy the truck, you know, for the fleet, or you want to, you know, do other stuff, or improve, or even, like I said, buy an asset like you're building.
• 28:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You're in a better position to do that.
• 28:38
  Sue Schuster: For sure. So, just on the corporate veil, and I love that you've talked about that. So, if you…
• 28:44
  Sue Schuster: Buy a truck.
• 28:46
  Sue Schuster: And now it's personally guaranteed, because that's what the bank told you you had to do, and you didn't know any better, so that's what you did. And you bought your truck, it's personally guaranteed, it has your name on the side.
• 28:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Joe Schmo and brothers.
• 28:59
  Sue Schuster: Yeah, somebody in flowers, whatever, and the truck gets into an accident, who are they suing?
• 29:04
  Sue Schuster: So you personally own the truck?
• 29:07
  Sue Schuster: Not the business, even though the name's on the side. So, the corporate, every time we personally guarantee everything, we're putting holes in that veil.
• 29:15
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's crazy. Okay, so let's talk one more way
• 29:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: If possible, because I know in the personal credit line, from my old mortgage days, like, you know, 100 years ago, if you didn't have credit in this, you could go and prove
• 29:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: via a letter from vendors, or a letter from the, you know, alternative credit, they called it, right? So you went to the… you went to the phone company, PacBell or Ma Bell at the time, and you said, look, I've had a phone with you for 3 years, can you write me a letter saying I've had good… good credit line with you? And then you would submit that. Is there anything like that with vendors that you can submit on your own? You get it as a…
• 29:56
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, like, you send… they send the letter in, is there any way to… Get alternative credit?
• 30:01
  Sue Schuster: I don't think so, because I don't think people are looking at this.
• 30:04
  Sue Schuster: It is a bot.
• 30:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: No way.
• 30:08
  Sue Schuster: Oh, for sure. It's a bot. The bot.
• 30:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So I'm dating Chad, GPT, so if he knows me and he's friendly with me, will he give me a good mark?
• 30:18
  Sue Schuster: Yeah, so we actually, at Turing partnered with some of the people who made the software for the big banks that walked them through this process. There's 150 things that bot, that algorithm is looking at.
• 30:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Wow.
• 30:32
  Sue Schuster: And we just touched on a very, very few of them.
• 30:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Sure.
• 30:36
  Sue Schuster: And, like, for the Secretary of State, if you're not…
• 30:40
  Sue Schuster: properly in the right category, it'll throw you out just like that. If there's two addresses that are conflicting, it'll throw you out. So… it's a bot.
• 30:50
  Sue Schuster: Unfortunately.
• 30:52
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it.
• 30:53
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it. So… so the… the end-all, beat-all is that corporate credit is ex…
• 31:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Extremely important to protect your corporate veil, and protect your personal finances, and enable you to do more things with your business and leverage opportunities.
• 31:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But you shouldn't go it alone. It sounds like you need to have somebody that understands how to navigate this, because it's not as easy as just going, hey, American Express, or, you know, Discover, or, you know, Chase, report, right? Because they're probably not doing it, even though you think they are.
• 31:32
  Sue Schuster: Yes, for sure.
• 31:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's crazy.
• 31:34
  Sue Schuster: So, yep, the knowledge, and then the follow-up, doing it with a coach is the way that it's been done for a long, long time.
• 31:45
  Sue Schuster: But they were expensive, like $3,000 on up.
• 31:49
  Sue Schuster: That, yeah. So, there's other ways to do it. You can… a coach like me, there is software,
• 31:56
  Sue Schuster: that you can utilize, and I'll give you the link to that and check it out and see if that's good for you. That's AI-driven, so that's good, but then when you need the, hey, Sue, what about, then there's a.
• 32:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah. Hey, it said it was, it's not, how come it's not, you know, to have that… have that hand-holding, I think, is worth… worth the setup and the establishment, and then the, you know, the annual review, I think, would be… look at me, I'm setting up your business, right? Saying that you're giving an annual review. But, I mean, that would be something, to me.
• 32:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: as a business owner looking to establish credit so I can protect everything and do the right way, I need somebody to do it, because again, I'm not focusing on that. I'm just spending.
• 32:39
  Sue Schuster: Yeah, your head's down, and you're building your business, and you're doing the things, and this is, like, in the background. It's not your focus. And once you get to established business.
• 32:49
  Sue Schuster: Dun & Bradstreet, everybody knows you exist, and you go to the vendor's line, then it's just a matter of using it, and paying it off, and using it, and paying it off. So you go through months of that, and that's what builds your corporate credit. So there is a…
• 33:02
  Sue Schuster: A run-up, but then it kind of dies off, and it's not top of mind anymore, because now you're in the process and you're doing it.
• 33:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it, got it.
• 33:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, so Sue, this is like you opened up so many cans of worms that I didn't think existed, because I thought I was doing it the right way originally, but apparently I'm not.
• 33:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, now I need help. So, how does someone who's sitting in their car right now, or, you know, on the treadmill, listening to this, going, holy crap, right? I'm not where I thought I was. How do I check this out? How can they get some help?
• 33:36
  Sue Schuster: Sure, you can contact me on LinkedIn, as I'm on that all the time, and
• 33:43
  Sue Schuster: My, kind of.
• 33:46
  Sue Schuster: page that'll tell you a bit more about this is on the platform, and it's suzanne at tryturing.ai. There's no N in that.
• 33:56
  Sue Schuster: is a great way just to look it up yourself, and to kind of see what the heck's going on with that. But LinkedIn is a great way, or email me at subiz-phy.io.
• 34:08
  Sue Schuster: And I'll hook you up there.
• 34:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Perfect. And listeners, all of that will be in the podcast notes, so stream down about halfway, and you'll see all of Sue's links, so you know exactly where to go, to find her and get some help, because my goodness.
• 34:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The last thing you want to do is have that experience of you driving your work truck, and you crash into something, and then they go after your personal assets because you personally guaranteed that loan.
• 34:37
  Sue Schuster: Yep.
• 34:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right? It's a stupid little nuance that you didn't even realize the risk you were taking. So, don't take those risks, and get some help, make sure you're set up in corporate, and then figure out a way to un-personally guarantee your business assets, your business lines, so it works for you. I mean…
• 34:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: My goodness, crazy stuff on here. Okay, so thank you, Sue. You know,
• 35:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: for me, it's just important to have knowledge, right? If you didn't know, you didn't know, you didn't know, and there's no shame on that, but now you do know, so do something about it, and reach out to Sue.
• 35:17
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, thanks for tuning in today. I hope you picked up some valuable insights and actionable ideas that'll help you make your business more profitable. And I know having a good line of, business credit, corporate credit, that's
• 35:31
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Protecting your personal assets is definitely an important thing that you should have for all the reasons we did.
• 35:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And, so I'd suggest you now are aware and take advantage of it.
• 35:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, though, but before we go…
• 35:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: If you're ready to bring in more of the right clients and keep more of the income that you earn, go grab my free Profit Booster Growth Map. It pinpoints the top 3 moves that you can do right now to grow your revenue and stop those profit leaks fast.
• 36:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You can get it anytime at profitbooster.biz, just click on Growth Map. Again, a couple little minutes, couple questions, and it'll print out a report for you with some really great ideas.
• 36:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And don't forget to subscribe, you don't want to miss future shows. You can always find Profit with a Plan on any of your favorite podcast platforms, and we're looking forward to more great profitable ideas on next week's show. So until then, make your plans and profit with them. Thank you so very much, Sue, this is great.