Business is booming and the economy in the USA is strong. But that’s the big picture. Individually, many businesses - especially small businesses - are forever struggling to compete with the big corporations. Small-business owners have to cut their costs wherever they can just to stay afloat.

Fortunately, many credit card companies offer what’s known as vendor savings programs, or rewards programs. This is where a business credit card company helps people who own small businesses to save money on purchases related to business. As a business owner, you can apply for these credit cards to earn rewards like cash back and travel expenses, thus allowing you to focus your financial attention on other aspects of your business.

Most credit card companies’ new credit card offers have some kind of program to help out small-business owners. The American Express OPEN Small Business Network, to name one, offers as much as 5 percent cash back on all purchases. When you figure that a small-business owner could spend $10,000 or more in a year, 5 percent cash back is nothing to sneeze at! Furthermore, a lot of these banks will apply your cash back to your business accounts such as phone bills and rent. Imagine: You use your credit card during the year, and then your credit card company pays your electric bill for you!

In the area of debit cards, MasterCard has a cash rewards program on its Debit MasterCard BusinessCard, available to small-business owners. It has all sorts of benefits for businesspeople, such as cash back and other incentives. MasterCard also has services wherein they’ll assist you in creating direct-mail packages and performing other promotional tasks for your business. Furthermore, the MasterCard plan offers discounts at several providers of business materials, including Office Depot, The New York Times, and IBM.

As you compare credit card offers targeted toward small-business owners, consider what your goals and needs are. “Small business” can be anything from two employees to 50. That’s a wide range, and those businesses’ needs could be vastly different from one another. Find a good credit card offer that matches your particular situation with your particular business. Compare online credit card offers, making a checklist of the perks you need the most — cash back, rewards, airmiles, etc. — and find the card that’s right for you.

Once you’re using your business credit card regularly and earning rewards with it, you might consider using those rewards as incentives for your own employees. You could organize a sales contest, with the winner earning the free airmiles you’ve racked up, or the cash back you earn over the course of, say, six months. Nothing motivates employees like a contest with real prizes at the end of it! Morale will be higher, and your business will be more productive. Plus, you’ll be the boss everyone loves — a worthy goal in and of itself!

Credit Card Tips and Strategies

Now that you’ve seen some of the things being offered by credit card companies for small-business owners, how can you determine what’s best for your particular situation? Below are a few tips to think about before you apply online or by mail for a card:

• Compare credit card offers from Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Look to see who has low rates, no annual fees, and other perks. In many cases, credit cards are associated with particular restaurants and hotels, giving you discounts with certain merchants. Look for any possible rewards you can find.
• How are you going to use the card? Perhaps you and your employees must travel a lot for meetings with clients and vendors. In that case, you might look for good credit card offers involving travel benefits and airmiles. Those savings can be significant in the long run!
• Speaking of which, look at the credit cards affiliated with particular airlines. It might be wise to have one, but compare credit card offers to see whether you can redeem your airmiles anywhere, or whether they must be with the issuing airline. The CitiBusiness Premier Pass card, for example, lets you redeem your miles on any airline you choose.
• Entertaining clients a lot? Look for a card with discounts at local restaurants and so forth.
• Business-related companies like Staples, Office Depot, UPS, and FedEx/Kinkos sometimes pair up with credit card companies to offer small businesses discounts. In some cases, these businesses offer credit cards of their own that provide discounts on business materials.
• Just as with your personal credit cards, strive to pay off your balance every month, to avoid nasty interest charges. It’s not just your personal finances at stake here; it’s the financial health of your business, with employees and their families depending on you. You need to use your credit cards wisely, and take advantage of all the rewards they have to offer.

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