Starting a business is a dream for which an owner plans and prepares. Market research is done to ensure there is a market for the product or service and that it is an area of need for potential customers. You check out a location for a storefront or office and plan all the different ways you’ll be able to promote your business.
What is a Business Credit Card?
A business credit card is much like a personal credit card. A business credit card extends the credit available to the business. When financing is tight, the business credit card can be used to pay bills and buy supplies to keep the business afloat.
Costs
Everything seems to be coming together until you start adding up the costs for starting the business and for keeping it going for a year until there is a regular income stream coming in. There may be costs for licenses or other government requirements, costs for space, internet access, equipment, supplies and employees.
Business Planning
A business plan is a must for making sure an owner covers all the bases and doesn’t lose the dream due to poor planning. A business plan includes listing all sources of potential financing. These may include personal savings, taking out a mortgage on a home or other property and loans from the banks, friends or family. These are all fairly fixed amounts, but business expenses ebb and flow.
Not a Personal Credit Card
Business credit cards often offer different terms than a personal credit card. They also have the larger credit limits required to efficiently run a business. Of course, like a personal credit card, anything spent has to be paid back.
Use Judiciously
Credit cards are loans and owners need to take care to use a business credit card account wisely. Paying back any funds spent needs to be part of the overall business plan. Like personal credit cards, there is the temptation to consider the credit free money and overuse the card. This can undermine the solid financial basis of the company. However, there are good reasons to use a business credit card.
Accounting
Accounting can become a nightmare for the small business owner, especially when supplies and products are purchased with different accounts. Keeping receipts together can get frustrating and putting everything together difficult for an owner who already has way too much to do just keeping the business running.
If, however, everything is purchased on a business credit card account, the business will have all expenses listed in one place. The owner can quickly check when something was purchased, where it was purchased and for how much. This proof is invaluable should the government call into question, at tax time, whether something was purchased and whether one or more purchases qualifies as a deductible expense. A business credit card also keeps tabs on the purchases of employees.
Perks
Business credit cards, depending upon the card, offer a variety of perks that assist the business owner from discounts on supplies to free flying miles.
Author’s Bio: The articles of Ethan Grunt have been proving very useful for the customers who look forward to get information on business credit cards. He suggests them to visit Businesscreditcards.com for further information.