Received a Dun & Bradstreet Letter

Have you ever received a letter from a company called Dun & Bradstreet ? I recently did and decided to call the number and check into it. Typically, I would throw this type a letter away because it seemed like junk mail, but I was actually somewhat familiar with Dun & Bradstreetfrom a previous experience.

A few years ago I was working with some friends on a fitness app start-up. The app was ready to put into the Apple Store but we hit a snag. We were unable to get an Apple Developer’s Account because we didn’t have this mysterious Dun & Bradstreet corporate number that Apple required. I feel like I tried for months to get that Dun & Bradstreet number created for our start-up company, which was formed as an LLC, had a bank account, and everything else you think would be necessary. I was never able to get the number and therefore never able to get the app launched in the App Store. Our start-up pretty much fizzled out from there (mainly because a competitor app raised $150 Million and crushed us).

So when I received a letter showing my digital agency HAD A DUN & BRADSTREET NUMBER , I was ecstatic because I knew what a pain it can be to acquire that number!

WHAT DID IT SAY?

The letter basically said I had recently received a credit check from another company but my company profile was incomplete. It included a number to call to "update" my company's information.

WHAT DID YOU DO?

So I called the number of course! A very nice account rep quickly answered and here’s what he had to say.

Dun & Bradstreet is basically a service that monitors corporate credit much like Equifax and Trans Union monitor individuals' personal credit. So if your company needs loans or is hoping to take on investment or even looking to do business with another company on credit terms, Dun & Bradstreet is probably the first place others can inquire about your company's credit worthiness. It seems it's also a way of just checking if a company is legitimate or not ( thus why Apple wants your D&B number to let you upload apps ).

The Dun & Bradstreetrep mentioned there were some paid services for companies looking to expand their profile but I probably didn't have a need for these services (yet). So he referred me to a simple website address where I could update my business details with Dun & Bradstreet: www.CompanyUpdate.com.

What a great domain! It's basically just a redirect to the company update page on D&B's website.

SUMMARY

So quick summary, if you get a letter from Dun and Bradstreet, at the very least write down your Dun and Bradstreet number because it’s kind of like your business' Social Security number. At least you'll have it on file when you're ready to launch your billion dollar mobile app in Apple's store!