The Ultimate Guide to Corporate Credit: Build Wealth and Success

John Harcar (00:01.538)
All right, hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m here today with Brittany Winner. And what we’re going to talk about with Brittany is, know, of besides her experience and her journey in business, we’re going to talk about, you know, how she really helps business owners strategically build your credit, right? Great topic. You remember guys here at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, I mean, really all real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X their business.

You know, we do it by providing the tools and resources to help grow that business you want to grow, which, you know, helps live the life you want to live. Brittany, welcome to our show.

Brittany Winner (00:39.806)
Thank you. Glad to be here.

John Harcar (00:41.678)
Yeah, I’m excited to have you on here. I think a lot of people don’t put the attention on building their business credit as they should. Maybe take too many personal liabilities. But before we talk about all that kind of stuff, tell our audience about you, your background, how you got into this business, and kind of what brought you to today.

Brittany Winner (01:02.388)
Of course, so I was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. I got the opportunity, I went to Northeastern, studied biology, worked my way through college via restaurants, and was presented a really great opportunity in my 20s to own and operate a couple dive bars. So I jumped on that opportunity. Of course, biology and restaurant managing was not.

hand in hand, but it was my path, right? And so my husband and I met in 2016, got married in 2019, and we bought our first house about a week before our wedding. So I was owner operator of those restaurants. We kind of got general managers to manage them. So my time was a little bit freed up, became the food service director at Boston University. That was my nine to five. and my husband’s a firefighter. So I had to compensate for his lack of income.

John Harcar (01:50.676)
okay.

John Harcar (01:54.424)
Hahaha.

Brittany Winner (01:55.118)
And so when COVID hit, we found out we were pregnant with our first son, Brody, actually he’s right there, who was born October 10th, 2020, right in the thick of COVID. In September, I was furloughed from VU’s campus and I had to liquidate the restaurants and because I was signing for everything, it came to my attention that I still owed the bank 160K and they wouldn’t leave me alone until I paid that. So we sold our house in Boston.

John Harcar (02:00.961)
Awesome.

Brittany Winner (02:25.202)
So instead of getting a check for hundred and sixty two thousand, I got a check for two and we decided at that time, hey, you know what? Memphis is mass hiring right now. They’re offering double the salary. We’ll move down to Memphis, Tennessee because we don’t have any money. Cost of living is better. I’d be able to stay home with Brody. And I was going to be a stay at home mom for about six months and maybe three weeks into it. I knew it wasn’t for me. So I felt me that I know. Right. So I went out and I found a company that

John Harcar (02:40.333)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (02:50.061)
Why not?

Brittany Winner (02:54.952)
claim to help people not personally guarantee and build credit on the EIN and I haven’t looked back since.

John Harcar (03:01.005)
Hmm. That’s awesome. If you’ve ever watched any of my podcasts, I like to go backwards. I always like, I think there’s always value in journeys. So you’re studying biology. I mean, what prompted you to buy three bars? said three bars, right? Three dive bars in Boston. Is that what you were working? Boston. What, what prompted that?

Brittany Winner (03:14.536)
Correct.

Brittany Winner (03:20.766)
Correct.

There was a regular at one of the bars that I worked out on the weekends. He was a trust fund baby for Ken’s Steakhouse.

And he just had a really great opportunity where I could be 30 % owner and it was great money. you know, in your 20s, it’s kind of cool to be running a bar and staying up till 2 a.m. learning all of that. And I had to learn a lot in business too. My first day they fired their CPA, so I had to learn how to do the books, I had to learn inventory, I had to get them out of debt. So it was a very, really great learning experience on the business side, but it was also a lot of fun.

John Harcar (03:41.1)
Yeah.

John Harcar (03:57.646)
OK, yeah, that background noise, it’s difficult to hear a little bit. OK. So when you were running these bars, how long did you run the bars for?

Brittany Winner (04:07.983)
six, seven years.

John Harcar (04:09.857)
Okay. What were some of the like struggles you had when you started in that business?

Brittany Winner (04:14.696)
Well, when I first married…

that person, you know, the business with them, they were about $265,000 in debt. So my biggest hurdle was making sure that everything was organized, making sure that the liquor wasn’t going to the bartenders, right? And tightening up there. Again, this gentleman was a trust fund baby, so it was more of his play toy as opposed to running a business. And then, you know, purchase a sale of the buildings we wanted to get done. So we weren’t spending money on rent and

John Harcar (04:23.951)
jeez.

John Harcar (04:31.489)
Mmm, okay.

Brittany Winner (04:47.51)
things of that nature. So it was more or less reconstructing the business. These were dive bars. We wanted it to be more family oriented. So just getting systems and operations in place to support that. When we did liquidate, we were in the green 165K. I just didn’t know where the trust fund maybe went to get that money.

John Harcar (05:07.959)
Got it, okay. All right, so you did this for a while. So let’s talk about kind of what you’re doing now. I mean, what prompted you to help people better their business credit?

Brittany Winner (05:19.1)
I really just don’t want anyone to ever go through what I went through. I was very much so blindsided when they spoke of a personal guarantee and the banks came after me. I had no idea what they were talking

How could me, a 30 % owner, be responsible for the whole amount? So I dove deeper into that and then found a product that was, people were charging between $3,000 and $10,000 for this product to help them build corporate credit. I said to myself, how is Main Street ever gonna survive and expand and grow if they have to spend $3,000 to do this, or $10,000 to do this? So I educated people on what that means and how to do it. And now I’m able to help people at a very low cost

John Harcar (05:33.676)
Right.

Brittany Winner (05:59.302)
cost.

John Harcar (06:00.587)
Okay, so how did you learn how to do it?

Brittany Winner (06:04.092)
Well, I started a shelf corporation back in 2021. And I built corporate credit on that with no expenses, no income, no money sifting through there, anything of that nature. I made mistakes. It took me a lot longer to do than I can get people to do now. But I tested everything. What I found in that research was 95 % of financial institutions don’t report the positive payment history. They only report the negative when you default to your lead. So I found that 5 % and I’ve put them into a platform where you can actually see

which business credit bureau they report to and their underwriting criteria. So let’s say my credit score has been shot because I just purchased a commercial property and it goes under 680 and the underwriting criteria for that is that your credit score needs to be 680. You’re not going to apply. So there’s no increase. It saves a lot of time and frustration for the business owner.

John Harcar (06:55.489)
Hmm. Okay. That’s yeah, that’s, that’s interesting. So all this kind of, guess, spawned off from the selling of those other businesses of what you owed from the other businesses personally. Okay. So what, what are you seeing as, know, okay, I’m an entrepreneur, right? I’m starting a real estate business, right? Hypothetically, right? So I go out there and I want to try to get some credit to buy houses, but I don’t have any business credit. What do I do?

Brittany Winner (07:06.996)
Correct.

Brittany Winner (07:23.604)
Well, it depends on your investment, right? So you could go out there and talk to me about a shelf corporation. You could also look at a commodity like data placement, purchase that data and place it and backdate it on a corporation, which would qualify you for 500,000, 750,000 in 90 days. And that method is, it’s quick, but it’s expensive, right?

John Harcar (07:44.269)
Now what do you say expensive? What does expensive mean?

Okay, so you’re paying to get good, you’re basically just buying good credit. Yeah.

Brittany Winner (07:49.907)
2530K, which is cheaper.

Correct, correct.

Or you could organically grow it over the course of nine to twelve months using your personal expenses, which is what I did with my shelf corporation, which down the line, right now it owns my minivan, because now we have three kids, it owns my minivan and I rent it from my own corporation. So again, husband’s a firefighter. If the pit bull that he just brought home off the street bites the postman, I don’t own anything. They can only take the shirt off my back.

John Harcar (08:24.685)
Yeah, that’s interesting. So how do you find your clients? I mean, do you work with a specific client? Do you work with any industry?

Brittany Winner (08:33.684)
enjoy working with people in the trades and real estate investors because I can do a lot with them. I can help them structure. I can show them the good, bad, or indifferent, and they’re making educated decisions so they appreciate it more. But we can work with any business owner, anyone from pre-seed to when they’re trying to sell their corporation. We can do a valuation for them, help grow that valuation so they can get the most out of it.

John Harcar (08:54.637)
Okay, and then when you say we, what does your team look like? Is that, is one of your team members the person in the background with the, the vacuum?

Brittany Winner (09:03.368)
No, those are my cleaners. That’s why I’m not in my office.

John Harcar (09:05.088)
those are cleaners. Okay.

Brittany Winner (09:08.34)
We have a team, so we have multiple corporations, right? We can coach business owners, we can help them build corporate credit, we can sell them shelf corporations, we can even help them get out of debt in seven years as opposed to 30 years. So it’s more of a conversation. When I sit down with a business owner, it’s where are you at and what do you want to be when you grow up? And these are not just goals of things that you have to do. This is what are your dreams? Let’s make those dreams goals and now let’s create a roadmap on how to get there.

John Harcar (09:12.064)
Okay.

John Harcar (09:19.34)
Mmm.

John Harcar (09:35.67)
Yeah.

John Harcar (09:39.255)
Got it. I love it. What are some of the mistakes you’re seeing people make, right? When people come to you, maybe they’ve already made those mistakes. I don’t know. But what are you seeing as some of the main mistakes people are making when they’re trying to, you know, build their credit, get business credit, et cetera?

Brittany Winner (09:54.344)
thinking they’re too small.

John Harcar (09:57.005)
How do you mean?

Brittany Winner (09:59.124)
You know, you get the real estate investor that their goal is to get three properties this year, right? Why is it three? Why do you choose that number? Oh, because I can survive off of that income. OK. What would give you enough confidence to sleep well at night and not worry about bills? What would allow you to purchase your vacation home and the Cape? Right. I’m from Boston, so it would be the Cape for me. And how can we get you there? It’s about

John Harcar (10:22.221)
Right.

Brittany Winner (10:28.956)
It’s about creating wealth, right? We don’t want to, it’s not just about paying your bills or making sure your kids are fed or making sure you have an emergency fund. It’s how do you make your money work as hard as you do?

John Harcar (10:41.741)
I love that. What do you see? Are you seeing any trends in the business credit law area or you know this topic? Like are you seeing anything that might be coming down the pipe that we should be aware of looking out for?

Brittany Winner (10:54.482)
Yes, banks are tightening up. And I always tell people, get money when you don’t need it, because when you need it, you won’t be able to get it.

John Harcar (11:02.133)
Mm-hmm. Why do you think they’re tightening up?

Brittany Winner (11:06.324)
Just the economy, people are scared to spend money right now with politics and things of that nature. It will calm down. So a year ago, I could probably access 50 banks that would not give a personal guarantee. Well, those banks are now asking for a personal, they’re asking for the fingerprint, right? But if I can layer my assets to collateralize, it removes me from the situation and everything is in my corporations.

John Harcar (11:23.767)
Mmm.

John Harcar (11:33.333)
Okay, so is it asset protection also that you do? Okay, yeah, and that was gonna be… yeah, I was gonna say, tell us a little bit more about kind of your business and all the services you do provide.

Brittany Winner (11:38.164)
Absolutely, We deal with tons of problems.

Brittany Winner (11:50.814)
Basically we’re a one-stop shop. if they need something, have a platform that business owners can sign up for. It’s only a hundred bucks a month, but it takes care of legal zoom. helps them build their corporate credit, takes care of Canva. They can store all their business documents in a vault in there. And as they move through that journey, the platform sees what they’re doing and then can say, okay, now you’re ready for this. All right, let’s get vehicle financing, equipment financing, real estate financing. Now you’re prepared.

It also reveals something that’s called their SPSS score, which is a mixture between their FICO score and their business credit score, so they know what they qualify for.

John Harcar (12:30.701)
Okay, is there like a qualification that someone has to have like a certain length in business? They have to have, you know, done a D, whatever, like is there something they have to qualify for to be able to work with you guys, to be able to get help?

Brittany Winner (12:48.852)
They have to have $100 a month and they have to be coachable.

John Harcar (12:52.877)
All right, so simple as that, easy peasy. What do you think makes you guys stand out more than another credit coach?

Brittany Winner (13:03.828)
So think about a junk drawer. Right, everyone has their junk drawer. And they have all these tools in that junk drawer, but the right hand is never speaking to the left hand. I’m so sorry about the background noise. We’re the one… Let me see if I can move. me one second.

John Harcar (13:15.285)
Yeah, it’s hard to hear.

Brittany Winner (13:28.915)
Is that better?

John Harcar (13:30.763)
Well, yeah, definitely not as bad, but yeah, it’s good.

Brittany Winner (13:35.188)
So

We’re kind of the one stop shop that can organize that junk drawer and you know exactly if you’re peeling a potato, this is the peeler that you should use. you’re in, it’s not about all of our services. It’s about what do you actually need? So our goal is to always be doing the right thing for the client, right? If I only have a screwdriver, I’m always going to be selling a screwdriver. You can use it from the hole here. You can use it for this. You can use it for that, but it doesn’t necessarily make sense for what my goals are. Whereas we have all of these different services. So,

John Harcar (13:45.068)
Right.

John Harcar (13:57.665)
Right

Brittany Winner (14:07.382)
I can truthfully say to a business owner, okay, this is the avenue you need to go down, you need to go talk to this person.

John Harcar (14:14.059)
Yeah, okay. Do you work with a lot of real estate investors? mean, how much of your business do you think is real estate?

Brittany Winner (14:20.788)
Probably about 60%.

John Harcar (14:22.701)
Oh wow, okay. Why do you think it’s higher than a lot of the other stuff?

Brittany Winner (14:24.626)
This room?

I’m sorry, did say that again?

John Harcar (14:29.409)
So why do you think you’re having more people with real estate than maybe some other things?

Brittany Winner (14:35.206)
in all honesty because I went to a conference about three years back that had about 125 real estate investors in there, grew relationships with them, helped them build corporate credit, and then it just became word of mouth.

John Harcar (14:44.439)
Got it.

That’s awesome. That’s a great. That’s the best business. Best people word of mouth. If there if we have people on here that are listening and they want to build their credit, what’s the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Brittany Winner (14:51.476)
Excellent.

John Harcar (15:01.217)
How do they do that?

Brittany Winner (15:03.284)
is 508-380-4771 and that’s my personal cell.

John Harcar (15:09.015)
Perfect. And then I think I have, I have your email here, bwinner at TJcorporatecredit.com. Okay. And I have your LinkedIn here as well. So we’ll put all that stuff in the show notes. Guys, reach out, man. Get your business credit better. You know, it’ll help you in the long run. I promise you that. It is, it is in every good business owner at least enjoys or takes advantage of a conversation.

Brittany Winner (15:15.038)
Correct.

Brittany Winner (15:27.422)
We’re at the conference meeting, that’s for sure.

John Harcar (15:35.531)
So Brittany, thank you so much for your time, all the information guys. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did and I’ll see you on the next one. Cheers.