Today I want to talk to you about using your credit card as a business tool. Now most people they think of a credit card as a line of credit and they use it only to buy something and then pay it off at the end of the month. They buy clothes, they buy groceries, whatever.
In business, especially if you run a boot camp, get monthly dues or you get paid every month on a personal training package using a credit card can benefit you. I want to have stabilization in my business. Therefore I like using my credit card. You can use a regular Visa, MasterCard or you can use an American Express.
Now American Express has a charge card but they also have a revolving credit card. If you use the American Express charge card correctly, they give you a triple reward points. On other credit cards you can get a dollar for every dollar; A point for every dollar and then sometimes there’s secret points that we get.
Pay the Bills on Credit Cards
Use your credit card to pay for all your stuff. Yes, all of it. Do you have a gas bill? Like house gas, you know… Gas and Electric pay those with your credit card. You can also pay your cable bill, your water bill, your trash, and your HOA dues. You have to pay for trash and all those things any way, right? So why not use your credit card?
I use my credit card actually to pay for all this because I can pay online. So, you know, if you have a 2,000, a 3,000, a 5,000-dollar limit you can usually pay all your bills on one card. What’s nice about that is if you have a boot camp business or if you’re collecting money on a monthly basis and not a weekly basis, you get all your bills paid. You never have a late fee. You never have to worry. They take it out and on a certain day. Then when you get your money from your customers, you pay and you pay the whole thing in full instead of having to worry about on the 12th, on the 18th, on the 15th. This is due, that’s due and you’re going around like a fucking chicken with your head cut off.
Anything that you can pay online with your credit card, I recommend that you use that credit card. Now, the really cool thing about that is that if you use a credit card that has rewards points, then you’re basically getting free money – you’re going to pay the bill anyway. You have to pay that bill so why not pay it with something that’s going to give you something back? You might as well.
Take Advantage of Free Stuff
One of my friends Mike Mahler – if you don’t know him then that’s a shame. He’s like the greatest guy in the world. We had a conversation and he told me one day,” I haven’t paid for a movie in 8 years”. He uses his American Express card and pays for everything with it. You know business and then a personal one too. Never paid for a movie in 8 years.
A lot of times you get rental cars for free, you get travel stuff for free. You have to still pay those bills, so why not use your credit card to pay those bills and then pay the bill when you have the money… you now have peace of mind.
Let the Cards Work for You
Don’t run up your credit cards. Use them for what they were intended: to be a tool and to be useful to you. You don’t have to be a slave to this anymore. Let it work for you. Allow it to work for you. As long as you pay it off every month, you get all your bills paid and then when the money comes in you pay it all off, you don’t pay any interest. You don’t pay any fees. The banks hate you. They hate you for it, but you know what… it doesn’t matter. Screw them. They’re making too much money anyway.
So I want you to be able to use your credit card as a business tool, as a personal business tool. Pay all your bills online so you never have to worry about it. On a certain day you know you’ve got to pay that bill. If you get paid every second of the month, from all your boot camp people or maybe on the 5th of the month you have all the money in. You can usually call your credit card company and tell them that you’re going to pay the credit card bill on the 6th of every month. It’s that easy. They want to do business with you. They want you to have your credit card because they believe they’re going to make money from you. You can totally screw with them. You don’t have to give them all these fees. It’s your money, so keep it.
As long as there’s money going in and money coming out, everybody’s happy. Especially Visa-MasterCard, because Visa-MasterCard takes a little baby percentage of every transaction that you do. So they don’t care what you do with it or if you have a balance or not. They get their money. So do yourself a favor and start practicing and getting in the habit of using your credit card as a business tool.
… and remember… the least you can do is live up to your potential.