Before Christmas Credit Checking and Credit Reports

Carrying out company credit checks on potential and existing clients should be an everyday part of business life however many companies are still leaving themselves open to the threat of bad debt by not carrying out such checks. Conducting credit checks through company credit reports will usually provide a credit score - allowing businesses to make better informed decisions about whether to extend credit. However whilst carrying out such checks sounds like common sense, less than a third (31%) of UK companies perform a credit check before trading. And this looks unforgivable when you consider that almost half (47%) of UK businesses have lost money in the last year when trading with another company.

Whilst these figures are shocking, we'll now look at some of the other reasons why reviewing company credit reports and other credit checking tools is vital to ensuring your business' success.

Ensure Cashflow

Poor cashflow management is one of the primary reasons why businesses fail. The threat of this can be stemmed by conducting a credit check on any business you are considering extending credit to. This applies just as much to existing clients as it does potential clients, yet in the last year 47% of companies failed to conduct any check on a company before entering an agreement with them and 84% of companies provided goods to existing customers without revisiting their company credit report.

Some credit reference agencies now include payment behaviour which looks at how quickly companies pay their invoices within their company credit reports allowing business owners to plan their cashflow more accurately and ultimately whether to extend credit at all.

Establish Acceptable Credit Limits

Most leading credit reference agencies today not only include a credit rating in their company credit reports but a credit limit. This will help you gauge the level of credit you should extend to a company and provide some peace of mind that the company will be able to meet its financial commitments.

Understand the Company

A company credit report will not only uncover the fraudulent company addresses etc but should also display director information. This information will allow you to review previous directorships which can provide a healthy insight into the current directors' ability to operate the business is a profitable manner.

Expose Fraudulent Companies

It is a sad fact but in recent years there has been a rise in fraudulent behaviour where unscrupulous individuals are posing as actual companies in a bid to trick companies out of their products and services. The fact that 7% of UK companies have fallen victim to this type of fraud in the last year alone highlights that this activity is, unfortunately, becoming more of a concern. Carrying out a company credit check would help safeguard against this sinister behaviour as you can be assured that the company does actually exist.

Sales Efficiency

Performing credit checks through company credit reports is a very efficient way to identify new business development targets. Qualifying your targets first to ascertain whether they are creditworthy or not will help streamline your sales efforts thus saving you time and money.

The statistics used within this article were taken from research commissioned by Creditsafe. The research was conducted online by Creditsafe and involved 597 businesses between 5th March and 4th April 2011. If you would like to review a report first hand please click for free company credit report.

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How Home Based Businesses Can Save The Economy

There is a lot of unrest in the economy lately. There is talk about the value of the US dollar still in question and a high unemployment rate. The rise of people looking for home based businesses are on the rise and it is estimated that there are approximately 150,000 people each week joining different home based business opportunities, most of them being multi-level marketing companies.

Multi-level marketing, or MLM for short, has been a major focus of effort in the home based business area. There are some who are very passionate about it and there are some who detest it. There is such a difference of opinion about the industry. The direct selling or MLM industry has recently been endorsed by many different highly success people such as former President Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Robert Kiyosaki. If you don't know who any of those people are you can go ask Google.

Home based businesses can be run by anyone who has enough motivation and inspiration. There is already enough negativity in the economy already. People with degrees and years spent in the military still remain unemployed. Instead of waiting to get hired by someone, it's time to hire ourselves.

Home based businesses encourage support and are, in essence, people helping people. They allow people to build networks and allow for continual income despite whatever it is that is going on in the economy.

The way to repair the economy is to create our own commerce and trade. By creating our own network of spending and support, we no longer need to be hired or to solely depend on our jobs. It is an employers' market and many skilled people are still unemployed. Home based businesses allow people who are unable to get hired to simply start their own business and not worry about jobs that may or may not be there.

The only thing to do to be successful is to simply decide that this is what you are going to do and then do it. There are plenty of home based businesses that have very low start up costs and have real world value and relevance. There is also an abundance of information online, but sometimes too much information can be bad at the same time.

If you pick a network marketing company to join, the only thing you need to be successful is you. Take the company's mission and apply it to your own life and simply spread the message and you will find success.

Rob Fraser served in the Marine Corps for 12 years and left active duty to pursue entrepreneurship. For more information about starting your own mission and passion, visit my blog at http://work-with-rob.com.

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