Just a small word of advice . . .

I know that you all are entrepreneurs, new or established, but I have to give a bit of advice as a businessman myself.  Buy a domain.

Now I know some of you have been making millions without buying a mybusinessname.com before today, and I know even more of you have been able to get the business credit that you need without it before, but I have to interject.

In the year 2008, there is no excuse to not own a web domain.  Heck, I bought my name as a domain just for the heck of it, and I buy any domain that sounds even remotely profitable as soon as I devise a new idea.

The reason I am saying this, is not to be a jerk, but to let you know that building business credit is not just about your products and services, it’s as much about how your business is percieved, in fact, I would argue that business credit is ALL about how you are percieved, so lets go through this scenario:

I a looking at a company that makes 300K annually (which means that they have money), has 5 employees (which means that they pay payroll), and a corporate address (which means that they pay rent).  They are thoughtful enough to be sure that they are in 411 (which means that they are paying a phone bill) and their DnB file is nice and all (which hopefully means that they bought our MSBC Services!), but their email address is businessxyz@yahoo.com.  Now, as an underwriter it strikes me as odd that a company is grossing six figures, been in business for a few years, and nobody in the organization has the foresight to buy a domain for the business (Which costs an average of about $10 a year, by the way).  This is a huge red flag, and honestly, it makes no sense.

If I was not a nice person, I would buy all of the domains for businesses that have yahoo addresses and hold on the them for 5 years.  When you become successful, and someone finally reminds you that there is this thing called the “internet” that can triple your business, I’ll gladly sell you your company domain for 50K each.   Of course I would never do that, but part of the reason that people are having trouble building business credit, it that it is hard to believe that some of these companies are really in business.  It’s no secret that many unethical folks are building business credit for the wrong reasons, with no real company behind the credit, but the reality is that you don’t want your business, that you work hard in every day, to look like one of those companies that are being flagged and denied credit.

I want everyone here to be successful, spring the 10 bucks and buy a domain, spend $10 less on your first or second net-30 to make up for it.  Call me if you need me!

–Elijah