Business Owners...

[ToyMaker94566]

What degree of importance is Dun & Bradstreet to my small company? These guys are constantly calling me and sending me warnings and heads up about so and so. Who thinks these guys are important and should I be more involved with them? Are there other organizations doing a similar thing? It just seems that once I opened my doors, everyone tells me I need their help. They just seen like another opportunist trying to pull money out of my pocket. Maybe I'm wrong and should care more about what they have to say. Who knows these people well?

Thanks!

~Gary

[mechengineer]

Hi,
I've been meaning to respond to this post to offer what I have seen for a while and now I have a chance!

I am not positive about my impressions but here they are:

From what I heard they are a business credit agency (similar to Experian but for businesses). Many companies ask for your D&B (Dunn and Bradstreet) number when you fill out their credit application. This allows them to contact D&B and have them generate a credit report.

Another area that I have seen this company is when applying for a Cage code (CCR?). When applying, they ask for your DUNS number; I think this number is different from the D&B number requested by businesses but it is provided by Dunn and Bradstreet (and they somehow handle the assignment process). While we were applying for our CCR, we had to find or DUNS number which surprisingly we already had (even though we never tried to get one before). It appears that they already made one for us and they sent us it.

Another time I heard from D&B is when they wanted us to pay them to create a credit profile with them. They were asking for something like $254. It didn't seem like too much but we didn't see the need to do it so we said no thank you. I still have the letter ready for whenever I do want to proceed with this.

Hope this helps. If you find anything else out, do keep us (me) posted. I'm curious what else people know.

[harryn]

D & B makes a business out of being a data base of business credit info, and is quite good at it. They try to charge for you to make a profile, and then charge again for others to inquire about you, then charge you to see who inquired about you.

The trick is to use the free parts, and not pay for the parts you don't care about.

It is useful to get a DUNS number and make up a basic profile, but this doesn't cost you anything - unless you are in a hurry. Basically, you pay to do it "quickly".

Just put in the application info and say it is for the purpose of applying for a government grant. The US govt requires a DUNS number as part of the deal, but bans DB from charging for it, if that is the primary purpose. This also lets you insert some basic company info - just enough for what you want to share. You can be pretty non specific, as it really is not in your interest to share too much of your private business info.

Its not a bad idea to register for the US govt CCR program, even if you are not actively going for that business, as this more easily allows larger contractors to sub stuff to you. Make sure you use a "secondary" email adr or you will get a flood of junk mail from it.

Just make sure when you register for your DUNS number that you get a free pin number for your account, and look at it once in a while. You should be able to do this for free. Of course, there are areas that you won't be able to access, but if you are reasonably doing business, usually it doesn't matter.

D&B seems to always call everytime someone does a transaction with you. If you buy a few bolts from a new supplier, somehow they get wind that you are buying stuff, and call to see if you need a report. Just tell them no thank you. Yes, they are persistent, so is stink on s.... That doesn't necessarily mean that their reports are a benefit to your business.

It is always useful to keep at least some level of positive contact with firms like your bank and D&B, as it can be useful. When D&B calls, I just ask them to send a detailed offer of what they are selling, the exact benefits to me, and the price details by email - and then I will call them if needed. Seems to usually work.

Good luck.

Harry

[ToyMaker94566]

Thank you gentlemen. They sounded like extortionist to me and your input has definitely shed some light on them. I hear the term D&B thrown around quite often and was really unsure what they meant to me. I too received many calls from them and to tell you the truth, they feel very invasive. I still think they are extortionists but I guess sometimes we have to play the game. God Bless America!