The first three years of a business? life are the most crucial. During this time, the business owner will need to carefully budget business expenses and realistically project income. This forces the owner to give the important numbers a good, hard think. It is important to develop a picture of the monthly cash flow, particularly in the first year. This ensures that you know where your money is going and that you are keeping tabs on every aspect of the business.
The Small Business Administration says that many businesses fail because of undercapitalization ? that is, not recognizing how much you really need to start the business and / or not having the means to access the capital. This is where business credit cards can help. Business credit cards are a common funding option for small businesses. So good, in fact, that there is a general observation that small business owners often overuse their business credit cards during their first years of business. And, if they do not yet have small business credit cards, they normally end up overloading their personal credit cards.
Small business owners understandably heavily rely on business credit cards to help them over those rough periods when the bank balances are low. Unfortunately, in using the business credit cards, some of the small business owners defer paying off the balance for too long and often suffer the penalties of charges in late fees and interest as a result.
The first thing to remember when it comes to using business credit cards is that you should reserve the use of business credit cards for short-term spending only. Business credit cards will allow your business to start building a credit history. If you pay off a large portion of your business credit card balance each month, or even the whole balance when you can afford it, this favorable credit behavior will enable you to build a solid credit reputation under the business name, which will make cheaper commercial loans accessible sooner. That kind of payment behavior also helps you avoid the dangers of falling behind on your business credit card bill.
Remember you already have a budget worked out. Use the monthly statements for your business credit cards to note down your expenses and to track your cash flow status. The business credit card companies already classify your charges, so it should be much easier to do. You can even download your business credit card transaction history from the websites of the business credit card companies. This should speed up your expense reconciliations and give you the time to focus on making your business grow.
Learn to use the discounts offered by business credit cards for business expenditures. Using business credit cards for certain purchases can entitle you to as much as 5 percent discounts. This feature in business credit cards can actually help you save and will go far towards balancing your budget.
When imagining an Internet fraudster it is easy to picture either a spotty teenage, computer savvy and with too much time on his hands, or a sinister shadowy figure lurking behind rows of cascading algorithms, like someone from the Matrix films. As the Internet largely involves anonymous people interacting it is quite difficult for criminologists to build up a single criminal profile; if you search the Internet for 'profiles of credit card criminals' this ambiguity quickly becomes apparent. Although both these stereotypes exist, credit card fraud has become big business and is now more likely to be undertaken by highly sophisticated criminal gangs. These figures do need to be put into perspective though and should be compared to the huge increase in online card use. Since 2000 online card use has risen by 871%. It is estimated that more than 30 million people now shop online. Back in 2005 the average person spent ?165 online; nowadays this figure is substantially greater. It is estimated that in 2009 more than 15% of all of the UK's shopping will be done over the Internet. It would seem that the rise in crime is proportionate to the amount of money now spent online shopping. Experts state that there is no need to be overly paranoid about Internet card use, as the majority of card details are still stolen in the real world and then used online. Because of this it is clearly vital that you protect your card details when using your card across a counter. It is also vitally important to dispose of any receipts carefully along with any literature from your bank that may contain your card details. All a criminal needs to get hold of is your name, card number and security code, on the back of the card, to make a purchase. A recent TV show demonstrated how a trained criminal could memorize a 16-digit card number in seconds. Although all credit cards are at risk you will perhaps want to protect your business credit cards most of all. This is mainly because of the large amounts of credit a criminal could potentially steal. As this is the case you may well ask, what is my card company doing to protect my card? You will be pleased to know that there are a number of monitoring, security and legal promises now common to most card providers. These include: anti-fraud teams monitoring accounts for unusual spending; online password authentication requirements; and promises of fraud protection if your details do get stolen. The methods that criminals use to get hold of your business credit card details are varied. Still the most common method is to memorise your card number whilst you are making a purchase offline, across the counter. This demonstrates that it is important to be mindful of where your card is at all times and who is nearby. A form of healthy paranoia seems to be the order of the day. Another less common method, although just as rife, is the phishing method. This is where a bogus, but official looking, email asks for your credit card details perhaps on a similarly bogus yet official looking website. These methods of collecting card details are difficult for the financial companies to stop directly and are down to the individual card user. Financial companies do however seek to educate the public on these types of activities. Business credit cards details are perhaps the most sought after because they generally have higher credit limits than personal credit cards. The most important thing to remember is to protect your details offline and never enter your details at the request of an email. Financial experts recommend that you approach your card provider and fully understand what anti-fraud services they are providing. If you think that you have been 'duped' then you should always call your card provider immediately.
Both Creditwisdom & Warren James are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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