My Business Credit Journey to 1,000,000

As I stated before, plentiful of what I write comes from problems that clients’ have, so feel free to ask as many questions as imaginable. I received an email from a reader of this blog whose name is Leonard who download the Business Credit Bible and started to build his business credit. As time goes by things change and part of what we try to do here at MyBusinessCreditBlog.com, is to be restructured with these changes. Leonard had an issue with gaining his DUNS number and I will like to report this for all of you folks to absorb from his experience.

The Client’s Email
Hi Marc
Let me first thank you for all the information you provided, well I will go straight ahead with my question.
You see, I have struggle to get a DUNS number but it seems every time I get to the part of the application that asks me to insert a SIC number, I do it, but I doesn’t seem to respond. This has happed for about 3 days straight in a row and it won’t allow me to go on with the application without inserting that SIC number, I can’t even add it. What am I doing that its giving me a problem?

Leonard

2 Possible Ways to Obtain Your DUNS Number
So currently there are two ways to get your DUNS number:
So for the moment I am writing this post, there are 2 ways to obtaining your DUNS number:
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1. Apply for the DUNS number on their website.
This may seem like a no-brainer and the obvious answer to the problem, but DnB can be a pain to deal with if you do not know what you are doing. You can go to DnB.com and click on the D&B DUNS number tab at the top and apply for your number. You will be forwarded to the iUpdate web pages which will aks you for various information on your corporation which will allow you to register for the DUNS number. Sometimes they send it to you within a couple of days but in many cases you will receive a call from a DnB Rep claiming that youpaur file is not complete and you have to pay to complete your file and to acquire your DUNS number. Although much of what they tell you is not true, they basically control the business credit reporting industry so in some cases you have to submit to their requests. The unnecessary interaction with DnB is why I do not like this method of acquiring your DUNS number.
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2. Get one of the initial companies to report and then request your DUNS number online(my preferred option)
Using this method, you do not have to deal with a DnB rep. When you set up your company, get your phone number, address, tax id number and so on, you usually go for your DUNS number next before applying for credit. The truth is, you do not need your DUNS number to start applying for credit with some of the very first vendors. If you do not know what the initial vendors are I suggest you download the Business Credit Bible. But just to give me an example of a few of these initial accounts, we are talking about accounts like Uline, Reliable, Quill, RapidForms and so on. These guys are the very first net 30 accounts that you should apply for if you are just starting out. None of them require a DUNS number although some may ask you to pre-pay. Once you acquire some of these accounts, order something on net 30 terms and repay it on time. Once you pay them they will take a few weeks to report to DnB. If they report and you do not already have a DUNS number, a DUNS number will automatically be created. Once the number is created you can easily get it online. So let me get into finding out when the number is generated.
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Once you have followed the first instructions in getting an account and ordering and paying it off, you need to now go to the DnB home page. There is a little box in the center on the right of the home page where you can search for a business. You go to that box and fill out your company name, state and country and hit search. If one of the accounts reported and the number was generated, your company will now show up in the search results. Once it does show up in the search results, you can simple click “request DUNS number” and your number will be sent to you via email immediately. Once you have got the accounts and paid them off, I will check DnB at the end of every week for 4 – 5 weeks and it will be there. The more accounts you get the faster your company should show up in DnB as each company reports at different times.
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I hope this helps and feel free to email me with any questions or concerns.