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5 Ways Credit Checks Can Help Your Company

08 October 2015
by redflagalert -- last modified 08 October 2015

Credit checks have been around for decades but the advances in technology in recent years mean that they are becoming an increasingly commonplace feature of routine business operations for companies in a growing variety of fields. Here are 5 ways in which the effective use of credit records might boost your company.


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1 – Investigating potential partners

The relationships established between one company and another can often become integral to the prospects and the performance of both. Therefore it is always well worth finding out as much as possible about the financial performance and credit history of a business that you're considering entering into key strategic relationships with. Credit checks can play an important role in any such due diligence scenario.

2 – Digging a little deeper

A straightforward credit check can provide vital information to one company in reference to another in all manner of circumstances. But, when there is a lot at stake, it can be worth digging a little deeper and pulling together as extensive a range of information and historical data as it's possible to find. An in-depth credit check can make this process quick and easy.

3 – Targeting new potential clients

Every business, whether large or small, is only as good as its customers or its client list and credit checks are increasingly playing an important role in the strategy of identifying potential targets in this context. For business to business operators in particular, credit checks can help refine a list of target clients and inform the process of trimming down and prioritising from a list of viable prospects.

4 – Understanding your options

Ensuring that your company has financial options and a degree of operational flexibility can be the difference between survival and failure in any industry. Therefore, understanding the full array of financial options available at a given moment, particularly in terms of cash flow solutions, can be crucial and credit checks can provide invaluable clarity at vital moments when a company's finances are under pressure.

5 – Making improvements of your own

Just as your company can use credit checks to investigate the potential viability and performance history of any business you choose, so any other business can investigate your company. Therefore it is generally a good idea to retain a full awareness of how your company might be perceived in terms of its creditworthiness at a given moment. From that position, it becomes much easier to make improvements and to secure a credit rating that reflects well on your operation and makes the process of securing credit generally more straightforward.

These days, data is always at our fingertips and credit checking is becoming a much speedier, comprehensive and flexible process. For any company keen to stay ahead of the game therefore it makes sense to start using these developments as fully as possible to your advantage.

Mark Halstead is from Red Flag Alert, part of the Begbies Traynor Group, and is now in his 10th year with the business. He's worked at companies across the financial services industry and is a fellow of the Institute of Sales and Marketing.

Red Flag Alert is a business database containing over 6 million records on businesses in the UK, from sole traders through to limited and quoted companies.

Red Flag Alert

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Red Flag Alert is a business database containing over 6 million records on businesses in the UK, from sole traders through to limited and quoted companies.

www.redflagalert.com