Once upon a time, credit card companies weren't particularly interested in small businesses, preferring to focus their attentions on courting larger organisations. But times have changed and the lenders have realised that, with the enormous boom in small businesses, there is a niche in the market waiting to be filled. Nowadays there is an absolutely huge range of credit cards and deals designed to entice entrepreneurs into becoming clients.

Cash-back cards are now commonplace; American Express, for example, have unveiled their SimplyCash Business Card, offering cash-back on certain expenses that small businesses commonly incur such as fuel, office supplies and telecom charges. LloydsTSB has a credit card designed specifically for small businesses, offering a facility that sets individual credit limits for each employee issued with a card. Most of these facilities are designed to minimise the potential for overstepping the credit mark and incurring unnecessary penalties - helping the entrepreneur to manage cash-flow to maximum effect.

The key to a 'wisely managed small business credit card' is summed up in the third point. Regardless of how much credit you decide you need, once that has been agreed it is prudent to stay within the parameters of that agreement. Often it is thoughtlessness and careless spending that incurs penalties that can easily be avoided.

As an example, I compared the standard against the gold business credit card of a major UK issuer. In the perks department, the standard card gives you the ability to view your transactions and statements online, access to management reports online, travel accident cover, insurance for cardholder misuse, purchase protection, deals with commercial organisations, Chip and PIN and other security features. The gold version had all of these plus enhanced deals, extended warranties on purchases, travel cover and travel insurance. Both cards would incur the same late payment, returned payment and exceeded limit fee, have the same annual interest rate for retail transactions and cash withdrawals and offer a 56 day interest-free credit period. They differed mainly when it came to things like APR and the limit for cash withdrawal. Standard offered a lower interest rate, where gold allowed a higher maximum daily withdrawal limit.

So, you can see that even within the same credit card company, different credit cards offer different schemes for different customers; the trick is to do your homework in advance and have an idea about the facilities that you would like to see on your small business credit card. Of course, this is just an example, but investigating the various denominations of credit cards available in other companies will yield similar results. Most of the big banks have deals available for small, mid-range and corporate-sized businesses, with reward schemes pertinent to their needs.

All financial institutions want your custom and are fiercely competitive for it. There are new products and deals surfacing every day that are designed to make the running of a small business easier and more effective; they want to help you succeed. But it is wise to look upon a small business credit card as a privilege, rather than as something that you automatically receive as part of being a small business owner. Remember, there are those that are refused credit in the outset and there will be those who will be refused it in the future as the result of misuse; using the card as a direct substitute for cash, not managing their funds effectively and not paying off their business credit in time or at all. Credit card companies want your custom and are there to help you - as long the custom you have to offer is responsible.