Page 96 - Winning The Credit Game Bundle (CK Patrick)

that thrives. If you don’t think you have the wealth or skills to
start a successful business, we’ll change that here. And if you
already own a business, but it’s struggling financially, we will
look at tools and strategies you can use to change that too.
Many of us underestimate the importance of credit. If we
were raised with an old-school mindset, we might feel that
buying anything on credit is like spending money you don’t
have. Some of us avoid taking out lines of credit at all for that
reason. But the reality is much more complex than that.
Those who read my first book, The Credit Game: Plays We Were
Never Taught, know that credit scores affect far more than how
much we can buy without paying up-front. Having a track
record of securing and using personal credit responsibly can
mean getting better prices, better interest rates, and more
purchasing power.
In fact, the financial system is built to punish those who don’t
buy on credit: if you have no track record for paying back loans
or credit cards, you will be considered a less reliable payer for
any purchase or loan you might wish to undertake in the future.
The benefits of good business credit—and the consequences
of not having it—are even more severe. Having a poor business
credit score can mean paying higher insurance premiums, being
denied loans and business credit lines, and getting charged high-
interest rates that cost you over time. This can limit your busi-
ness’ ability to grow, and can even shut you out of the best
markets entirely. Many major vendors and suppliers will not sell
to businesses with poor credit scores at all because they don’t
want to risk their invoices going unpaid. 1
So how do you build good business credit? The good news
is, it’s more about having knowledge than about having wealth.
As with personal credit, knowing how business credit scores
are calculated and what potential lenders and vendors look for
in a business’ credit history is more important than how much
you spend. When you have this knowledge, you can know
exactly what types of credit lines to seek, how to use them

t
strategically, and how o row your borrowing gradually so
g
84