Did you know that D&B offers a free 13-day look at your D&B data, scores and ratings? While the service is intended to entice small business owners into purchasing one of their paid services, the free 13-day look is also providing many with a welcome overview of the data and scores that impact their ability to get contracts and achieve credit approvals.

When you sign up for the free CreditSignal service, you will be given access to just one page — a summary of some scores and ratings that define your company's credibility and creditworthiness, including:

• Paydex Score

• Delinquency Predictor Percentile

• Financial Stress Percentile

• Supplier Evaluation Risk Rating

From the Dashboard, just click Launch to get access to the CreditSignal service.

Just an FYI... For the most part, the Company Profile should contain specific data in all of the categories shown below. If anything is missing, it can keep you from having all of your scores and a full D&B rating. Absence of that rating is the one factor that usually stands between your company achieving credit approvals based on its own merit.

• Your DUNS Number

• Legal Structure

• Company Name

• Physical Address (and mailing address if different from physical)

• Telephone

• Employee count

• When business started

• Named Principal

• SIC code (Line of Business)

If you need help analyzing the data or scores in the free CreditSignal, just save a copy of the report to your computer and then email it to me. I'll gladly take a look at the report (at no charge) and provide you with a summary of what is missing and what you can do (yourself) to improve the file.

If you would like me to take on the task of updating the data and building the scores, you may be interested in signing up for my Powerboost service. You can see what is included in that service HERE.