Build Your Business Muscles Protect Your Company’s Credit Score Building a business can require long hours growing sales, putting out fires, and driving ideas to fruition. Checking your business credit score might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but it can make a difference in your ability to achieve those other goals. A low credit score will inflate your borrowing costs and make attracting strong business partners and vendors harder. To establish business credit, register for a Dun & Bradstreet Data University Numbering System or D-U-N-S number. Your payment history, the age of your business credit accounts, the size of your debt, and trade credit extended by suppliers all affect your score. To put your best foot forward, check your score frequently with Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian. Ensure your business and financial information, revenue figures, and industry classification are accurate. Mixups happen more easily with business credit scores than personal ones because identifying information is indexed only to your business name and address. If your DBA is similar to another company’s, your business might be confused with theirs. Also, pay your bills on time or, preferably, before they are due. The clock runs faster on business credit than on personal loans. While consumer debt typically isn’t treated as late until 30 days after invoicing, business debt payments are considered “late” if only one day overdue. Your payment history determines your Dun & Bradstreet Paydex score and serves as the primary source of information for vendors. Paying your bills on their due date will earn you a Paydex score of 80 on a scale of 100. To achieve a higher score — closer to 100 — you’ll need to pay your bills before the due date. Also, segregate your business and personal borrowing as much as possible. When starting a business, maxing out a personal credit card is a common but ill-advised strategy. Businesses typically use far more credit than consumers and can access far more credit. Following these basic rules can help you demonstrate your trustworthiness to prospective business partners and lenders, increasing your financial flexibility and opening up new opportunities!
Kids’ Fast Food Makes Parents Smile Too Adult Happy Meals
The fast-food industry is cashing in on a new marketing strength: nostalgia.
From Gen X to Gen Alpha, successive generations of children have grown up with fast food. Many Americans under age 60 consumed a lot of burgers and fries from bags and boxes when they were kids, from Burger Chef’s Fun Meals to McDonald’s Happy Meals.
The trend has reached the point where promotions for kids’ meals are almost as appealing to nostalgic parents as to their children.
McDonald’s newest cultural phenomenon is the Minecraft Movie Deal, which includes 1 of 12 figurines inspired by “A Minecraft Movie.” In a recent article, Forbes credits the chain with accomplishing a “generational crossover” among millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha (those born since 2010). Parents who embraced “Minecraft” around its initial release in 2009 may like the promo almost as much as their kids, for whom “Minecraft” is a primary form of entertainment.
Kids’ meals were not always so brand-savvy. The brainchild
of a Kansas City ad man, the first Happy Meal in 1979 included generic, Cracker Jack-like toys such as circus wagons, tops, stencils, and erasers. McDonald’s later elevated its toys to branded items, including
Barbie, Disney, Hot Wheels, Hello Kitty, Transformers, and “Toy Story.” Some Happy Meal promotions have been so successful that restaurants sold out of the toys. Remember Beanie Babies Happy Meals in the 1990s, or “Star Wars” toys in the 2000s? Longtime McDonald’s fans aren’t just missing the toys — they yearn for Happy Meals snacks too! In a wave of fast-food nostalgia, a McDonald’s menu item from past Happy Meals, the hot apple pie, emerged as No. 1 in a recent fan vote on Reddit as “the discontinued fast-food item you want to come back.” One survey participant wrote that she yearns for the Happy Meal pies “that were molten hot lava and gave mouths third-degree burns!” Where will it all end? With collectors paying $500 and up for those Teeny Beanie Babies from 1990s Happy Meals, the fast- food lovers’ nostalgia trip shows no signs of slowing.
2
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator