WHAT is a credit rating? Is it really necessary? How will getting rated help a small enterprise like mine? What are the ways for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to earn a positive credit rating?
A credit rating is an evaluation of the creditworthiness of an individual or an entity.
This information may include individual and corporate information, payment history, and a list of current and past credit records.
Credit rating can be a useful tool to help SMEs in their business operations.
It provides them with a basis for risk assessment when dealing with their potential clients and partners.
In addition, it also enables financiers and suppliers to conduct an objective assessment of an SME's creditworthiness, which can help determine the credit line to be offered.
The strength of the credit rating can also have an impact on the payment terms that vendors grant and interest rates that banks charge for business loans.
Financially weak companies should assess their corporate performance through their own credit rating, identify areas of weaknesses and work on these areas to obtain a positive rating.
In addition, SMEs can also upgrade their financial management skills and work on improving their cash flow management capabilities to improve their credit standing.
Intellectual property management programmes
Are there any assistance programmes to help me develop intellectual property management?
The Intellectual Property Management (IPM) for SMEs programme, jointly managed by Spring Singapore and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos), is an initiative to help SMEs manage the entire life cycle of their intellectual property, including its creation, ownership, protection and commercial exploitation.
It will help you to implement an IPM system as part of a supporting infrastructure for the development of new products, processes, ideas and business models.
You can get funding help for the following:
An IPM diagnostic programme conducted by legal and business experts using Ipos' proprietary SCOPE IP™ methodology. SCOPE IP™ helps businesses evaluate if their overall IP deployment strategy and IPM systems effectively support their business models.
Projects to help companies improve their in-house IPM capabilities.
Those interested in the programme can contact EnterpriseOne at 6898-1800 or e-mail enterpriseone@spring.gov.sg
Answers are provided by EnterpriseOne. For more information, go to www.business.gov.sg
