YouTube can be a great resource for learning how to do things yourself, but if you’re trying to build business credit, you’re going to run into a lot of issues.
Affiliate Links Are Not Your Friend
YouTubers who are “sponsored” by companies get paid for every person who links to what they are selling. This is called an “affiliate link”. It may seem like a great deal to get a discount on something for your business, but to build business credit, you can trust an “expert” who is motivated by commissions and not by the success of your business.
Creditors will fund you in a Virtual Office and OTHER LIES
One of the biggest pieces of misinformation on YouTube is that you can run your corporation from a “Virtual Office” or PO Box. During the approval process for business credit, the first a creditor will do is search your address on the internet. When ten other businesses have the same address, or when it shows up as a UPS store, YOU WILL BE DENIED CREDIT. Why would my YouTube expert recommend the Virtual Office? (See Affiliate Links above)
More Clicks Means More MONEY
YouTube is INFOTAINMENT, not sound business advice. The “experts” can say whatever they want to keep you tuned in, whether or not it is true. The more outrageous the claim, the more clicks, shares and likes. Your business advisor should tell you the truth, supported by experience, and not just click bait that “may surprise you!”
There is only one way to build business credit, the right way
YouTubers may say they have the “secret trick” to getting massive amounts of credit approvals in record time, but the simple fact is that the only way to do it is by following an organized plan designed to build business credit step by step, layer by layer. Following the advice of someone who is just making it up as they go along can be costly, take LONGER than it should, and can even get you flagged or blocked by the major credit bureaus.
Scammers Gonna Scam
Lots of people mistrust the notion that you can build a completely separate credit profile for your business without any personal guarantee or social security verification. The FACT is that business credit is a powerful tool that allows businesses to leverage ten times the amount of credit than they could with personal credit alone.
It is the backbone of American business and has paid for every utility truck, backstock inventory, office building, and just about every Main Street business from California to New York. Since that sounds “too good to be true” it is taken advantage of by scammers who can take someone’s dream and bend it to benefit themselves. YouTube is a major contributor to those scams because of the sheer amount of unchecked misinformation pouring out of the screen.
No Personal Guarantee Should Mean No Personal Guarantee, PERIOD
There are lots of loan products and credit companies that claim no personal guarantee that get promoted by “experts” on YouTube, but when you click that affiliate link and apply, guess what? They ask for your social security number. That is a personal guarantee! Business credit should never ask for your social security number in the early stages of your build. A true business credit funding expert knows when a “PG” can benefit you and when it won’t, and they should NOT be getting kickbacks from financial products they recommend. So if they are pointing at the bottom of the screen at a blinking link that says “Apply Now!” just keep scrolling.
Fake Vendors Means NO Biz Cred, EVER AGAIN
YouTube “experts” like to recommend low end vendors that sell fake products to add fraudulent tradelines to your credit reports. If you fall for this, you probably deserve it. The only way to build business credit the right way is to but from REPUTABLE vendors that report to the major credit bureaus. Not only will you waste your money and your time, this is illegal and will result in your business being flagged, which means in no uncertain terms, that YOU WILL NEVER be able to build your business credit profile with your corporation again. There is no way to fix this, so just don’t even try.
Who writes this stuff!?
Nowadays YouTubers need content for their advertisers and affiliates links, and with the advent of ChatGPT and other AI generated writing, all they need to do it prompt a bot to spit out 1000 words on business credit and they have their next article or video. It is becoming even more important than ever before to trust the source of your advice, especially for your business.
REAL experts depend on your success to make their living.
YouTube is fine if you want to learn arts and crafts or how to cook the perfect pot roast, but you wouldn’t watch YouTube and go represent yourself in court or learn to scuba dive, and certainly not to build business credit. If you did there could be serious long term or permanent consequences. The only business credit experts that have been in business for years are ones that rely on the success of their clients, because that’s how they stay in business, and that’s what makes them professionals.
If you follow the wrong path, you will get FRUSTRATED!
There is no clear path to building the strongest credit profile possible, custom tailored to your situation, just sitting there online waiting for you to find it. To build business credit, it takes patience and making the right moves at the right time. You won’t even know you are doing it wrong until you already have, and TIME IS MONEY. The only way to do it right the first time is to get sound advice from experienced professionals that have done it for tens of thousands of companies just like yours for decades.
