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How to build business credit as a small business owner
Access to cash and credit is a small business’s lifeline. Your business’s credit rating shows lenders, suppliers, and other vendors how financially stable your business is, as well as how well you’ve been able to manage your cash and pay your business debts on time.
Establishing a strong business credit score is the first step to helping your business get ahead, such as by making it easier to secure financing when you need it—and with the most advantageous rates and terms possible.
Whether you’re just starting out and building credit for the first time, or you’re running an established business with an existing credit history, it’s important to know how to approach the ongoing process of building business credit throughout your business’s lifecycle.
In this article, Bluevine shares what you need to know to establish, maintain, and build business credit, from getting to know your business credit score to learning how a strong credit profile will open new doors for your business.
What is a business credit score vs. a personal credit score?
Business credit scores and personal credit scores are similar in many ways. They both measure how likely you are to repay your debts, which can influence lenders’ decisions to extend credit to you (or, in the case of business credit, your business), and on what terms. When it comes to accessing loans or financing for your small business, some lenders will look at both personal and business credit scores to make a decision about a small business’s creditworthiness.
What is a personal credit score?
Personal credit score is what most of us are familiar with, since it plays a large role in everyday life, whether it’s applying for credit cards, securing a mortgage, financing a car, or the like. Personal credit score measures your personal payment history, credit utilization, and other key factors to determine your creditworthiness as an individual. A few things to remember about personal credit scores are that they are connected to your Social Security number, range from 300-850, and can be found through reports by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
What is a business credit score?
Like your personal credit score, a business credit score measures financial health and creditworthiness, with the key distinction being that the score pertains to your company as opposed to you as an individual. Business credit scores are important information for any business loan, but not everyone knows theirs—a May 2026 Bluevine survey showed that 49% of SMBs don’t even know their business credit score.
Unlike personal credit scores, business credit scores are linked to you by your employer identification number (EIN) or business tax ID number. They also typically range from 0 to 100. Like personal credit scores, business credit scores are reported on by three major credit bureaus, but the big three for business credit are: Experian, Equifax, and Dun & Bradstreet.
You might have different goals for each score, but when all is said and done, the goal for both is the same: to establish yourself as trustworthy, and boost your value in the eyes of potential lenders.
Understanding the scale
As mentioned above, business credit scores typically range from 0 to 100, with zero representing a high-risk business and anything above 75 typically signaling to lenders that your business is a low-risk borrower.
How to check your business credit score
Just as you’d check your personal credit score by referencing reports from major credit reporting bureaus, the same applies to checking and verifying your business credit score. When it comes to your business credit score, there are three major credit reporting bureaus: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax. While the credit report from each bureau might provide a slightly different score depending on the weight given to different factors, each report will generally look at and provide the same information about your business.
Here’s where things aren’t quite the same as checking your personal credit score: While the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives you the right to free copies of your personal credit reports once a year as a consumer, the same federal law doesn’t apply to business credit reports.
You may still have access to a free snapshot of your credit score—for example, Dun & Bradstreet offers free monthly business credit score insights, and Nav provides a free summary based on your collective score from all three major business credit bureaus. However, it’s important to note that these free services won’t give you the full picture when it comes to your business.
Reasons to check your business credit score
Before discussing how to check your business credit score, it’s important to know why you should do it. Bluevine’s 2026 Small Business Financing Report showed that 56% of SMB owners didn’t check their business credit score before applying for financing in the last year. Not great. Here are four reasons why it’s a good idea to check your business credit score frequently.
1. Mistakes happen
A vendor or lender may report incorrect information, or some other business’s data can mistakenly end up on your report. If you don’t check, you won’t know.
2. Credit scores change
Whenever new information is reported by your lenders and vendors, your credit reports—and, by extension, your business credit score—will likely be updated to reflect the latest information.
3. Fraud can occur
Business credit fraud and identity theft are growing scourges and may result in negative information on your credit report. Monitoring your report on a regular basis could help ensure that you catch any suspicious activity early and avoid bigger problems down the road.
4. You could get better financing
Business owners who understand their business credit are 41% more likely to be approved for financing, according to data from Nav. Unlike with personal credit reports, anyone can buy a copy of your business credit report at any time—with or without your knowledge or permission—in order to evaluate how risky it is to work with you. Diligently staying on top of your score can guarantee that you’re aware of the picture that prospective lenders and partners are getting when they look into your business.
What you’ll see when you check your business credit report
Each ratings agency has its own process for collecting and verifying data, but the main sections are pretty similar. Here’s a list of the things you’ll typically find as you review your business credit report.
1. Business profile
The first thing on your credit report will be a section that gives a snapshot of your business, including your business name, address, status of incorporation, years in operation, sales, and size.
2. Business credit score
Each business credit report will provide your business credit score, along with a brief description of how to interpret that score and the different factors that are impacting it.
3. Risk rating
Your report will include a risk score between 1 and 5 (1 indicating the lowest risk; 5 indicating the highest) to signal the financial stability and creditworthiness of your business.
4. Credit summary
This section of your credit report will highlight details about your credit history and performance, including credit line, days beyond terms (DBT), balance history, bankruptcies, and payment trends.
5. Payment history
This section offers information about your business’s last several years of payment history, showing payments to vendors in addition to lenders and highlighting payment trends, such as continuous on-time payments.
6. Legal filings, collections, and liens
While you’ll get a snapshot of this information in your credit summary, this section of your credit report will break it all down further, giving you more specifics around any negative marks on your score that could serve as a red flag to prospective lenders.
Common mistakes that can hurt your business credit score
Understanding how to build strong business credit is just one piece of the puzzle; making sure you have the right tools to continuously protect a strong credit score and avoid throwing your business off track is the other.
Here are seven common mistakes that can negatively impact your business credit, whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for some time.
1. Maxing out your business credit card
Many lenders prefer to lend to businesses that keep their utilization rate under 30%. This means that if you’re constantly maxing out your business credit card, this could negatively impact your overall business credit score. The good news is that, even if you’re regularly using your credit, you can ask your lender when they issue reports to credit bureaus and simply make sure to pay down your balance before the end of the reporting cycle every month. This will help ensure that credit utilization doesn’t ding your score.
2. Missing loan payments
Missed or late payments are a red flag to lenders and signal that your business is at higher risk of defaulting on a loan. For this reason, failing to make on-time payments on business loans—even just once or twice—could cause your score to drop.
3. Ignoring errors on your business credit report
Again, mistakes happen, so taking for granted that the information on your credit report is accurate could ultimately hurt your score. It’s important to regularly review your business credit reports for errors and, if you spot any, to follow the appropriate dispute resolution process to request a correction.
4. Applying for new credit too often
Applying for multiple new business credit cards or loans within a short period may signal to the credit rating agencies that you’re in a financial pinch, and they’ll see you as a higher-risk borrower. This will ultimately hurt your score and your chances of accessing credit in the future.
5. Not using business credit at all
Responsibly using credit can be an important part of building credit. Even if you don’t need credit or financing right this minute, it’s still a good idea to establish a business credit history. Federal agencies, state/local agencies, and many larger companies tend to screen potential partners and vendors by checking their business credit. So if you want to be eligible for these potentially valuable contracts, it’s essential that you build and maintain a good business credit track record.
6. Exposing your business to fraud
Criminals can steal sensitive business information, like your business’s tax identification number, and use it to open credit lines or get business loans in your business’s name. Keep sensitive company information safe, such as by keeping an eye out for phishing scams, and monitor your business credit regularly.
7. Working with vendors that don’t report positive activity to credit bureaus
Many vendors don’t report to the business credit rating agencies at all, so your history of on-time payments could be going unnoticed where it matters most. To make sure your payment history counts, open a vendor account or line of credit with a company that reports to one of the three business credit bureaus: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, or Equifax.
How to improve your business credit score
Once you are aware of what information is important to the business credit rating agencies, you can take the steps necessary to positively impact your score. Of course, the best way to achieve a strong business credit score is to start off on the right foot and build that score over time. That said, if your business credit score is less than optimal, all is not lost. Improving your business credit is possible, but it could take time.
Keep in mind that, like your personal credit score, negative marks on your business credit report should naturally fall off your report within seven years. However, bigger derogatory marks—like a bankruptcy—can take up to 20 years to fall off your report.
This story was produced by Bluevine and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
