Finance Blog
Welcome to the New Small Business Blog
Small business owners are the backbone of the American economy, but over the past six years, no one has been hit harder: Changes in tax laws, new payroll regulations, rising gas prices, insurance requirements and tight lending standards make sustaining a small business a daunting proposition.
Still, new businesses open every day. Small business owners brim with optimism, but they’re risking their money while sacrificing time at home with family and friends. It’s a lot to put on the line every single day. And often, the rewards aren’t particularly rich – especially in the first few years. Even in the best of times, starting up a new business is challenging; today, it’s harder than ever.
It’s clear that the Mom and Pops of the world can use a little extra help, a few new, cool tools that might make a big difference, no matter what type of business.
I’m proud to announce our new Small Business channel on the Equifax Finance Blog. Starting this week, the Small Business channel will offer tools and solutions that meet the unique needs of small business owners. If you’re a regular Finance Blog visitor, you’ve probably looked for help with your finances or credit. But you may also be a small business owner who wouldn’t mind understanding how a change in the tax law could help you grow your business. In our new Small Business channel, we’ll share small business Success Stories, Game Changers, and grow a library of resources for building, managing and financing your business.
We know that owning a business isn’t just a 9 to 5 proposition, and leaving the office may only be half way through your real workday. At the end of the day, all small business owners share the same concerns about the direction of the economy, the cost of health insurance, retaining talent, and making payroll. Over the next few months we’ll share the best advice from successful business owners to help you grow your business and build value.
So whether you’re fulfilling a lifelong dream exploring a new opportunity, or continuing a family legacy, our Small Business channel will provide you with the resources, education and support to make it a success.
While we’re here to help, we also want to hear from you. Please leave your comments, questions and suggestions. We want to tailor this information to help you make the best decisions for your money and your business. Your stories will serve as a signpost for others because as we all know, the best advice comes from those who have already walked that mile, in the same pair of worn out shoes.
I look forward to starting the conversation with you.
Ilyce
Ilyce R. Glink
Managing Editor
Equifax Finance Blog
4 comments
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I commend you for helping small business owners understand business credit and for requesting suggestions. The one thing most small business owners can’t afford to waste is their time, tools and solutions should help them save that precious commodity.
Towards that end, I’d suggest that when Equifax sells a business a copy of it’s own credit report, it should do a better job of explaining that the $99.95 report is pretty much useless since it is only a summary of their credit report. For example, what if a business owner needs to know which creditor reported information that is showing up on the report? They wouldn’t be able to ascertain that information from the summary. What to do?
It would be then helpful to know that for $25 more a business can purchase a “detailed” credit report that actually shows each account that makes up the summary report. If this option is on the website, I did not see it.
It would further be helpful to know that even when the business owner gets the “detailed” credit report on his/her business, it really isn’t all that detailed since Equifax has chosen to omit their “subscribers” name from the report. Yup, that’s right! The person that just paid $125 for the business credit report and waited for it to be sent in the MAIL gets to go through all of their vendor files and do their best to match up account numbers with the report! How convenient! To quote a phrase made popular by Sweet Brown, “ain’t nobody got time for that!” And it get’s even better when after diligently looking through drawers of vendor files and not coming up find a file from an account that has been paid off and closed! Yay!!!
Hours of productivity lost and for what? Consumer reports are detailed from the start. Business owners should be entitled to the same level of reporting in order to make decisions about operating and growing their business.
Thanks!
Hi, Doug. Thank you for being the first to comment on our new small business category on the Equifax Finance Blog. We appreciate your business and your feedback. We are constantly working to improve our products. I will share your concerns and ideas with our product team.
It’s difficult for small business owners to survive. Equifax is doing good to offer some tools and solutions which helps small business owners to meet their needs.
Thank you, Godwin. I hope you are enjoying our new small business section. We want it to be very useful for small business owners, whether they’re just starting out or they’ve been at it for 50 years.