Four Ways That a Business Credit Card Makes Running Your Business Easier
By: Lucy Zemljic on May 22, 2014You’ve put in the long hours and the hard work, and now your small business is off the ground. It's all worth it though, because you can finally call yourself a proud business owner. The last thing you need after all of that is to be stuck sorting piles of receipts and bills when tax time rolls around. Enter the small business credit card.
This powerful piece of plastic can make your life (and job) so much easier. A small business credit card will help streamline your finances, separate your personal and business spending, and make bookkeeping a whole lot easier. If you use it wisely, a small business card is a great tool that can help your business thrive. Here are four ways that a small business card can make running a small business easier.
They Keep Your Personal and Your Business Expenses Separate
Using a business credit card to pay for your small businesses expenses will save you a lot of hassle down the road. You might be wondering, “why bother? What’s so bad about using my personal card?” Well, if you’re going to be buying staplers and printer ink with the same card that you use to buy socks and groceries, things might get messy down the line. Separating your personal expenses from your business expenses will make life a whole lot easier when tax time rolls around – you’ll be able to file taxes for your business just by taking a look at a copy of your credit card statements for the year. When April 15th comes around, you don’t want to be stuck figuring out which purchases were made for your office and which ones were made for your living room.
They Build your Credit
If you use your business credit card wisely, eventually your credit score will reflect it. All of that good financial decision making will pay off when your credit score goes up, opening new doors of possibility. Once your credit score is good enough, you’ll be able to apply for a small business loan, and get the money you need to help you make those expansions and improvements you’ve been planning for your company.
They Reward You for Your Spending
Do you just love racking up travel points on your personal card? Get a special delight out of receiving cash back from your credit card spending every month? If you like getting rewarded for the everyday spending you do with your personal card, you’ll love the kind of rewards you can get with a small business rewards card. Most small business owners probably spend significantly more money on their business cards than on their personal cards – running a successful small business can get very pricey. Many business credit cards take this into account, and offer you greater levels of points and cash back rewards. Although great rewards shouldn’t be the first thing you should look for in a business card, it’s the frosting on top of the credit card cake.
You Can Give Them to Your Entire Team
Not sure if Bob from accounting is dipping into company funds to feed his antiquing addiction? A business credit card allows you to have multiple cardholders, so you can have one card for yourself, and one for every member of your team. This makes it easy to keep track of who’s spending money, and what they’re spending it on. You can monitor your company expenditures this way, and identify any changes in regular expenses over time. The employee cards include both the company, and individual employee name, so there’s no confusion when it comes time to review expenses.
Our Pick: The American Express® Business Gold Rewards Card
Here at LowestRates.ca, we really like what the American Express® Business Gold Rewards Card has to offer you and your small business. If you spend $5,000 on your card within the first 3 months of Cardmembership, you’ll get a whopping 25,000 Welcome Points – that’s enough for a round-trip flight to almost any destination in North America! When it comes to everyday rewards, the AmEx Business Gold Rewards Card will get you 1 reward point for every dollar in eligible purchases, plus an extra point for every dollar in purchases made with your pick of select Canadian merchants. Keep track of expenses and prepare your taxes with ease by going online and checking out your card’s paperless Expense Management Reports. Plus, you’ll get 55 interest free days on your balance, so you can maximize cash flow for your small business.