When you’re establishing yourself as a small business owner, there are dozens of administrative tasks begging for your attention. As a result, it’s easy to overlook some significant but less obvious steps, like getting yourself a 411 business listing.

Here’s everything you need to know about 411 listings, including how they work, why they matter, and the steps you should take to set one up for your business.

What Is a 411 Business Listing?

When consumers need a product or service nowadays, they tend to search for options online. As a result, many businesses focus on attracting potential customers through a company website or pages on sites like Google My Business and Yelp.

Before the proliferation of the world wide web, 411 business directories in the yellow pages and the phone book fulfilled a similar function. A person could call 411 to reach a free directory assistance service and contact businesses that might help them.

If your company had a listing in a local, regional, or national business directory, callers in that area could conveniently find all the information they’d need to track you down. That included your company’s name, phone number, address, and email. 

While national directory assistance calls aren’t as prevalent as they used to be, 411 business directories exist online now too, and a would-be customer can visit sites like 411.com to find that same information.

How Does a 411 Business Listing Help With Building Business Credit?

411 business listings help customers contact you, but they also help demonstrate your company’s legitimacy. Even if the former function is somewhat less prevalent in modern times, the latter is still readily applicable.

Most notably, lenders often check whether your company has a 411 business listing as one of the initial steps in their underwriting process. Suppliers and vendors may also want to confirm that you have one before offering you net-30 or net-60 terms.

If you don’t meet that requirement, they may disqualify your application before even beginning to consider your creditworthiness. As a result, having a 411 directory listing is critical if you hope to build business credit.

Without one, you may struggle to qualify for business credit accounts or vendor tradelines. If you can’t get any form of financing, it’ll be impossible for you to demonstrate responsibility and improve your scores.

How Do I Get a 411 Business Listing?

Now that we’ve established how 411 business listings work and why they’re significant, let’s look at the best way to get one for your company.

Get a Business Phone Number

Before you can set up a 411 business listing, you’ll need to set up a phone number for your business. There are several options to choose from, and we’ll take a look at each of them.

First, you can set up a dedicated business landline for your company. If you have a business office or store, that may be the best option. Your local phone company should add you to 411 directories automatically.

If it doesn’t make sense to get a landline for your small business because you don’t have a dedicated office or a store, you can also use a cell phone line or a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for your business number.

It used to be impossible to add these to 411 directories, but it’s no problem nowadays. However, you have to take some extra steps, which we’ll cover in the subsequent sections.

Keep in mind that whether you choose to use a landline, mobile phone, or VoIP for your 411 listings, it’s best to keep your personal and business phone numbers separate.

You probably don’t want prospective customers and telemarketing calls popping up on the same line as your friends and family.

Request a 411 Business Listing

If it doesn’t make sense to set up a landline for your business and you have to use a cell phone number or VoIP instead, you’ll need to register your number with a listing service to get it into a 411 directory.

Fortunately, there are many different providers available. Some options include List Yourself, Telzio, and Local Listings. To create a listing, you’ll have to submit identification and contact information for your business to one of them.

That generally includes your phone number, business name, business category, address, and email.

Validate Your Phone Number

Once you’ve set up your business phone number and requested a 411 listing through a service provider, you’ll also need to prove that the number is legitimate and you’re the owner.

To do so, the service provider will typically give you a phone call or send a text message to the number provided and complete the validation process.

How Much Does a 411 Listing Cost?

Unfortunately, there’s no definitive answer to the question of how much a 411 listing costs. There are local, regional, and national directories, and the cost to get a business listing in one or several of them may vary.

In addition, the price you pay depends on which service you use to obtain the listing. That said, it should be a negligible expense. In fact, some options like List Yourself are free. Even if you do have to pay a little for your listing, it’s tax-deductible.

As a result, there’s little reason not to get a 411 listing, especially since they’re so important for building business credit scores. So don’t wait, and set up your 411 listings today!

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