THE

S U C C E S S
G U I D E

Stephen Smith
 STEPHEN SMITH

Welcome to the Business Credit Success Guide.

I am Stephen Smith, an entrepreneur & business

strategist here to help my community get out of
the rat race and create passive streams of
income through business credit and financial
literacy.

The Business Credit Success Guide 1

 INTRODUCTION
Having access to business credit is the lifeline
for a business. It enables you to obtain the
capital you need to expand, cover day to day
expenses, purchase inventory, hire additional
staff and allows you to conserve the cash on
hand to cover your cost of doing business.

By taking the necessary steps to build

business credit you will have more financial
opportunities.

Living paycheck to paycheck is hard and I

know because I’ve been there. Utilizing
business credit has allowed me to create
multiple streams of income and gain more
financial freedom. Hopefully this guide will be
the first step that helps you do the same!

The Business Credit Success Guide 2

BEFORE YOU START
Business credit can be a hard thing to
understand so here are a few things I wish I
knew before I got started and hopefully some
mistakes you can avoid so your business can
get funding as soon as possible!

The Business Credit Success Guide 3

BUSINESS CREDIT 101
Simply put business credit is capital you
acquire from a lender/bank to your business
entity. This money is designed to help your
business grow thus stimulating the economy.

Having a solid business credit profile will help

you secure high limits and more desirable
loan terms. You can qualify for over $100k in
business credit within a few months, how long
would it take you to save that money working
a 9-5 job? That’s the reason it’s so important
for business owners to obtain this type. of
funding .

The Business Credit Success Guide 4

WHAT’S THE GOAL?
One of the biggest mistakes a new business
owner can make is not having a plan once you
start getting funded. This can lead to awful
financial decisions and put you in debt!
Before establishing a business decide what
you are going to do with this large amount of
funding once you have access to it.

Write down your goal for this new business

below:

The Business Credit Success Guide 5

ESTABLISHING A BUSINESS
You won’t get approved for business credit
without establishing a business entity. There
are many different types of business entities

10 types of business structures

1. Sole proprietorship
2. General partnership
3. Limited partnership
4. Limited liability partnership (LLP)
5. C corporation
6. S corporation
7. Benefit corporation
8. Limited liability company (LLC)
9. Nonprofit
10. Joint venture

I prefer starting S Corps but LLC’s are very

popular you can form your entity directly on
your state’s Secretary of State website or a
third party filling site.

The Business Credit Success Guide 6

STRUCTURE A BUSINESS
Once you have a business entity you need to
make sure this business looks as professional
as possible. To structure a business you need
a website, a business number, virtual address
and more so banks will trust your business
enough to lend it money. This process is
referred to as "structuring" your business
entity.

Here are some steps to this process including:

1. Obtain your EIN through IRS.gov

2. Obtaining a professional business address
3. Using a professional business phone
number
4. Business email address (not gmail)
5. Applying for a DUNS number
6. Obtain a business domain & creating a
website
7. Register your business with 411 directories
8. Opening a business bank account

The Business Credit Success Guide 7

PERSONAL CREDIT
Despite what you may have been lead to
believe good personal credit is actually very
important to getting business credit. You have
to understand that at some point in your
business funding journey it becomes an
absolute necessity.

There are some no PG options (No Personal

Guarantee) If you have below-average
personal credit, however your funding
options will be GREATLY limited. This is your
opportunity to start repairing your personal
credit while you prepare your business entity
for the funding process. You can do this
yourself or use additional tools like The
Ultimate Guide To Credit Repair. clickable link

The Business Credit Success Guide 8

PERSONAL CREDIT VS BUSINESS CREDIT

Personal Credit and Business Credit are very

similar with some key differences here are
some things to note:

SIMILARITIES
Both scores report to specific credit
bureaus Experian and Equifax for example
Lenders use these scores to make a
decision on how trustworthy you are
Not paying debts back on time will
negatively impact both scores

DIFFERENCES
Business credit scores report to business
reporting agencies like Dun & Bradstreet
(Paydex Score)
Scores usually go from 1-100
Lenders usually give higher limits to
businesses rather than individuals

The Business Credit Success Guide 9

 BUSINESS BANK ACCOUNTS

You need a business bank account if you

expect to get funding from any lender, until
you open your business bank account I would
not attempt to apply for ANY type of business
funding. There are plenty of options to choose
from, I recommend doing some research to
find which bank works best for you. A lot of
times the personal bank you're currently
using will have business bank account
options.

For new businesses, starting with a local

credit union or even a national one like Navy
Federal (if possible) is good. I personally
started my business bank account with Navy
Federal. Credit unions usually have lower
fees, lower interest rates, and more lenient
leading practices than commercial banks.

The Business Credit Success Guide 10

 BUILDING BUSINESS CREDIT

Building business credit was something that

took me a long time to understand. There are
so many ways to start building credit for your
business. The most common method and
talked about method is to start tradelines
with Net 30 & Net 60 companies.

These companies let you buy products or

provide you a service that you will need to
pay back in 30 days. This shows lenders your
company can be trusted to pay back its debts.

As mentioned before, if you have good

personal credit this process will be easier.
Most lenders will use your personal credit to
guarantee the money they lend on your
businesses' behalf.

The Business Credit Success Guide 11

 PG VS. NO-PG
Remember I brought up personal
guarantee? A PG is when lenders require
you to use your social security number to
secure funding for your business it's
called a "personal guarantee" because
you are personally liable if this account,
loan, or line of credit is defaulted on.
There is nothing wrong with using a "PG"
unless you plan to default on your debts.
This is also why you need to know exactly
what you’re doing with this capital.

Lenders will not give your business credit

without a PG until you can prove it is
making over 1 million dollars with at least
2 years of tax returns filed. (there are
some expectation with strict terms)
Using a PG is best way of getting business
credit fast!

The Business Credit Success Guide 12

DIFFERENT TYPES OF FUNDING

There are many different types of

business credit you can have for your
business:

Business credit cards: Similar to your

personal credit card, lenders give you a
set limit that can be spent directly from a
card that has to be paid back on a
monthly basis.

Business loans: A business loan gives you

access to cash instead of credit. These
funds must be paid back with interest.
The specific time period varies by your
loan terms.

Business lines of credit: You’ll have

access to cash that you can utilize at ANY
TIME. This form of credit is very flexible &
can be spent just like cash.

The Business Credit Success Guide 13

 Thank you for downloading my
guide!

This will be one in many resources

available to get you started on
your business credit journey I’m
honored to be apart of it.

-Stephen

successwithstephensmith

The Business Credit Success Guide 14

 Resource links:
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🏬 Structure Your Business

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The Business Credit Success Guide 15