Checklist: Business Credit Profiles

Information that goes into creating a business's credit profile comes from a variety of primary and secondary sources. Make sure that your information is all current and correct in order to get financing. Make sure that you focus on the following:

• Payment and banking data from company suppliers
• Lawsuits
• Liens and judgments
• Uniform Commercial Code filings
• Business Registrations
• Incorporations
• Bankruptcy filings from state and county courtrooms
• Corporate financial reports
• Contracts, grants, loans, and debarments from the federal government
• Web mining
• News and media
• Yellow Pages and other print directories
• In some cases, direct investigations and interviews with company principals (i.e. self-reported data) and other companies that you work with.