The question of funding for small businesses comes up quite often, and I found myself yet again recommending Nav.com to a client recently. It’s been a while since I mentioned the two helpful webinars offered by them on CPAacademy.org — both archived so you can access them anytime:

Help Your Clients Build Strong Credit And Get Lender-Ready

• Learn how strong business credit scores can help businesses grow.
• Understand the process for building business credit.
• Identify and avoid common ways business activity puts business owner’s personal credit at risk.
• Help your small business clients become “lender-ready.”

Where’s The Money? Financing Sources For Your Small Business Clients

• Understand the pros and cons as well as lender requirements for the main types of financing.
• Learn about financing options for start-ups, business owners with poor personal credit, and other challenging situations.
• Help your clients prepare for financing and avoid expensive pitfalls.
• Get free tools you can use to help your clients evaluate costs and make better borrowing decisions.​

I have no particular allegiance to Nav over any of the other companies, such as FundBox, except that I’ve been very impressed with their mission and their commitment to client education, especially from Gerri Detweiler, the Head of Market Education. A quote from their website:

We launched Nav in 2012 to solve a major challenge faced by small business owners: finding affordable financing. There are more ways than ever to get business funding—over 44 options at last count—but it is still a complex and miserable experience. Business owners need a partner, not just a loan. As small business owners themselves, our founders, Levi King and Caton Hanson, experienced this challenge first hand. They believed small business owners deserved an easier, transparent way to manage their financial health and find the right financing.

The two webinars above do a great job of outlining how you can help your accounting, bookkeeping and finance clients become more credit-worthy and prepare for future borrowing. And Nav itself does a great job of helping them find the least expensive loan for their risk-level.

Some tips they mention in the webinars, for businesses wanting to establish credit: maintain under 30% credit utilization; have 5 or fewer credit inquiries in the past 6 months; and have at least $5k in personal credit limits.

I want to specifically mention the app “Nav Business Loan Reality Check App” — a great tool for small businesses to see the lender’s view of their creditworthiness. Another is the “Match Factor” tool, which I remember as impressive, along with these helpful links:

– Business Financing Options
https://www.nav.com/business-financing-options/

– Link to the Interest Rate Traps calculations feature from my website to help clients calculate the APR of business financing.
https://www.nav.com/business-loan-calculators/

For accountants, you can set up your own account, check your credit score, and even see if your business has its own credit score. You can also join their accountant advisor program and get free business credit reports to send to clients who are considering looking at borrowing options. I recommend signing up to receive their “Accounting Professional’s Guide to Business Credit” if the webinars leave you hungry for more.

And as always, none of this is sponsored material. I’m just a fan of the company because they’ve been helpful to my clients, and their webinars have been helpful in making me a better consultant.