A D&B spin-off aims to move beyond credit reports and help small businesses track their reputations online

January 13, 2011- The Dun & Bradstreet brand has been synonymous with credit reports for most of its 159-year history. To business owners like Marilyn Landis, though, the name also means hard-sell pitches for information few businesses need. Her Pittsburgh financial consulting firm, Basic Business Concepts, got a call from D&B in December with a warning that another business had requested the company's credit file. The caller suggested that Landis' business might look risky to vendors if she didn't pay to update her credit report with revised financial data. "What it's doing is scaring small businesses," says Landis, the former chair of the National Small Business Assn. Read more