Business Insights

Kickstart your New Year with Cultivate Advisors

Updated on July 25, 2024
Category: Business Services
5 minutes to read

As we approach the new year, entrepreneurs and small business owners are gearing up for fresh opportunities, growth, and success. One resource that can play a pivotal role in kickstarting your business’ new year resolutions is Cultivate Advisors. These experienced advisors bring a wealth of knowledge, guidance, and support to help small businesses owners create a custom plan to guide your vision. In addition, all advisors are current or former entrepreneurs, so they’ve been in your shoes.

Consulting with experienced business advisors can provide valuable insights, tailored strategies, and expert guidance to fuel growth across key developmental areas of:

Leverage the expertise of Cultivate Advisors to transform your business as you plan for the new year. Enhance your strategic planning, achieve financial stability, and benefit from mentorship with their guidance. Their support sets the foundation for growth, resilience, and success. Cultivate Advisors offer a fresh perspective on challenges and opportunities. Propel your business beyond expectations with their expert advice.

How to get started with Cultivate

Visit Cultivate Advisors to start your free online comprehensive health & value assessment and schedule a free two-hour consultation call to dive further into your business to identify the gaps and value drivers. There’s no obligation for our members.

Start building your roadmap to success with Cultivate’s free business assessment today.

NEWITY LLC and its affiliates do not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any transaction.

Read more Insights

What is an SBSS Score?

Key Takeaways

Your SBSS score is your business’s credit score that accounts for several factors, spanning both business and personal finances
SBSS scores range from 0-300, with “good” SBSS scores starting around 165
Your SBSS score is used in determining if you could qualify for a small business loan

What Is An SBSS Score?

SBSS stands for Small Business Scoring Service. This is a credit scoring service developed by FICO specifically for evaluating business credit. Unlike personal FICO scores, an SBSS score takes into account multiple factors, including business age, revenue, and the personal credit of all business owners.

SBSS scores range from 0-300 and are used by lenders to evaluate the financial standing and trustworthiness of small business loan applicants.

Why Does Your SBSS Score Matter?

When you’re interested in receiving small business funding, your SBSS score can impact whether or not you qualify and how much financing you’re eligible to receive.

That’s why it’s so important to manage your personal and business finances responsibly and monitor your credit regularly, ultimately ensuring that you’re prepared when it comes time to apply.

How Is An SBSS Score Calculated?

Unfortunately, you cannot calculate your own SBSS score. This score is calculated by FICO when you’re applying for business loans.

Here’s how it works:

Let’s say you’re a small business owner looking to apply for funding. When you submit a loan application with your business’s financial data and information about the owners, the lender or loan facilitator performs a credit pull. When you apply through NEWITY, we perform a soft credit pull, which does not affect your credit score. This credit pull gathers your personal credit data as well as your business’s credit data from business credit bureaus.

Your SBSS score is then generated. This is done by combining the following pieces of information:

Personal credit history of all owners
Business credit history
Time in business
Annual revenue
Cash flow and bank balances
Public records (e.g., liens, bankruptcies)
Industry risk profile (NAICS code)
Trade Lines
Payment History

How Your SBSS Score Can Vary

Just like personal FICO scores have different versions, your business might have multiple SBSS scores, depending on how a lender chooses to configure the scoring model.

Lenders can customize how the SBSS model weighs different types of data. For example, one lender might prioritize your business credit profile, while another might place more emphasis on your personal credit history or financials. This flexibility allows lenders to tailor the score to their specific risk tolerance and lending criteria.

The model is also designed to be adaptive. If a lender prefers to pull business credit data from Experian but there isn’t enough information available, the system can automatically check Dun & Bradstreet or Equifax instead. If business credit data is still too limited, the score may be calculated using personal credit data alone, possibly supplemented by financial information from your application.

Because of this dynamic setup, your SBSS score can vary from lender to lender—and it can change over time as your credit reports and financials are updated. That’s why it’s important to maintain strong credit habits across both your personal and business profiles.

All loans facilitated by NEWITY use the SBA’s model for calculating SBSS scores.

What Is Considered A Good SBSS Score?

At NEWITY, SBA 7(a) loan applicants must have an SBSS score of 170 or higher to qualify for funding.

If you’re using your business’s SBSS score to set benchmarks for your financial growth, here is a chart to help you understand the context of your score:

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