For a small business owner, a state with a high business credit score is a good indicator of how easy it is to get funding, hire workers, and get through periods of low cash flow because of the available credit.
The second annual Business Credit Snapshot by State from Nav gives small business owners this important data to help make important decisions about how to operate and perhaps even where to locate your small business.
2018 Business Credit Snapshot by State
In looking at the credit health of America’s small businesses, the Nav Business Credit Snapshot by State lets entrepreneurs know which states are performing well. If a business owner is looking to expand or move, the data can be one more factor in making an informed decision. And this includes considering last year’s results.
Using the Experian Intelliscore Plus scale of 0 to 100, Hawaii had the best score with 54.6. Rounding out the top five states are Washington with 52.6, Illinois with 50.0, Oregon with 49.7 and West Virginia with 49.4.
States with the lowest credit rating included Alaska at 38.7, Kansas at 39.7, Indiana at 40.0, Maine at 40.7 and Rhode Island at 41.3.
The report notes there is only a 16 point difference between the top and bottom spots. This is because there is a narrow range of business credit from 0 to 100, unlike the hundreds of points on personal credit scores.
By highlighting the value of this data in the report, Nav said, “A number of surveys look at consumer credit scores, but there’s much less information available on the credit health of America’s small businesses. Both personal and business credit scores can impact a business owner’s ability to get approved for business credit cards, loans and trade credit.”
The data by Nav was compiled by generating average business credit scores. Nav looked Experian’s Intelliscore Plus business credit score from 15,478 of its small business customers and grouped each credit score by state and it averaged each business’s’ credit in each state. For the consumer credit score, it sourced the data from Experian’s 2017 State of Credit report.
What about Personal Credit Scores?
Speaking of personal credit, the correlation with high business credit scores is not always present. Hawaii is the only state in the top 10 with high scores for both. On the other hand, Alabama and West Virginia had good business credit scores but delivered some of the lowest consumer scores.
Image: Nav