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Hi all.
What kind of personal credit is required to start working on business credit? I would like to open a business some day. In theory should I go on and start the process or wait till my personal credit improves?
I'm a biz owner x3 and sought biz credit from scratch for two of them (a S-Corp and the other as a 1099er). Virtually any biz MC, Visa, and Amex CC or loan (maybe certain SBA loans aside) will require a PG when applying. IMO, having good credit is key when starting out. Now that doesn't preclude you from starting the process. There are other credit-like accounts that do report to your biz credit which don't require a PG. I've recently restarted the credit process and opened up a Quill acct and a Staples acct with no PG. I used my biz tax ID for that. There are others aside from that. Look around in here, but only look at the most recent threads. Back in the day, you could apply with many, many companies without a PG, but that's certainly changed in the past 2-3 years.
You can start a business even with bad credit.. Now with that said depending upon what type of business your going to start you Will need to figure out where you will get the money from to start it.. Even with very good credit it's hard to get a loan for start up.
If you have any thoughts of starting a business tomorrow or two years from now you want to form the business now either a LLC or Corp with the LLC being the easiest to run.
Time in business is just as important as the business credit it self and will help build your credit.
I would recommend the following:
Set up a LLC
Apply for your EIN online at the IRS website
You can open a business checking account if you want but not really needed if your noting actually doing any business yet.
Then place a order or two at any of the following or any other starter accounts.
Quill
Reliable
Grainger
MSC Direct
This will start a credit profile for your company with Dun and Bradstreet and then when you actually start doing business your already ahead.
Depending upon your industry and what your needs are you can have around $20k in credit after about 3 months in business. That is spread out across accounts with companies, store branded cards,gas cards etc.
As mentioned the real credit cards will always require a PG for smaller companies with small credit profiles. Notice I don't say business credit cards? That's because they are nothing more then a personal card with a business name on it and more and more are reporting to peoples personal credit reports.