Business Credit Cards Teach Discipline

Business Credit Cards Teach Discipline

How to run a business is a subject that should be taught at school, especially as the government expects the small business man and woman to lead the country out of our current economic difficulties. However many of us who want to go it alone don’t have the basic financial skills necessary and this is something that effects our personal finances as well. Starting my own business was nerve racking, as I’m sure it is for everyone who ventures down that road. It’s not enough to have a great idea and provide the best service possible to your customers, you also have to get your head around the financial management of the organisation and above all get on top of the thorny matter of cash flow.

For me at least this was not easy. If I’m honest, prior to setting up on my own, I had been very lax, even careless in keeping track of my finances. I was lucky enough to always be in work and as far as I was concerned, as long as the monthly salary kept coming in I was happy to let matters take care of themselves. You find out very quickly that in your own business this attitude simply will not wash. However developing the discipline to monitor your finances properly can be tough, at least it was for me. Business credit cards were both a help and a problem. They allowed me to separate my business expenditure from my personal expenditure, or they should have done in theory. However I found that working from home often caused confusion because unthinkingly I used the business credit card to pay for personal items such as food and kitchen essentials etc. Naturally this caused confusion in my accounts. Learning to use my business credit card properly not only helped with the accounts but also helped me develop the organizational mind set you need to be your own boss.

I think that managing the money is often the biggest problem for people opening new businesses especially if they come, as I did from a non-business background. To often we are focused on what we want the business to be and how we will achieve that outcome and not on the day to day management of the money which is the thing that will realise our aims.