Business credit bureaus provide reporting on the creditworthiness of business clients.  It’s funny how businesses who extend credit to an individual will routinely run a credit check, but they will extend credit to a business without taking the same precaution.  Here’s how you can run a credit check on a potential business client:

Checking on a client or supplier to see if they are financially stable is now something you can do online with any of these three major credit bureaus. Not only can you order a one-time credit report on a company, but you can also ask the credit bureau to continue monitoring them and alert you to any problems. This means that you will be notified if they have a problem paying their bills on time and you won’t be the last to know that they are in trouble.

Here are links to where you can order business credit reports online from each of these major business credit bureaus:

• Experian Business Credit Reports

• Dun and Bradstreet Business Credit Reports

• Equifax Business Credit Reports

Running an initial credit check on a potential client or supplier is not enough.  If your business is going to endure significant pain if a particular client or supplier runs into financial trouble, then it’s cheap insurance to sign up to have them monitored for you on an ongoing basis.