How the Business Platinum Card Can Help Scale Your Business

Scaling any business comes with a litany of challenges — frequent travel to new business sites, expanding and retaining your workforce and paying for costly tools and materials needed to keep things running smoothly.

When you need enhanced spending power to fuel your business growth, the Business Platinum Card® from American Express can help you address those challenges and earn travel rewards in the process. When looking toward growth, having the right business credit card can empower you and your employees when growing gets tough.

What are the obstacles to growing a small business

Guiding your business in a new direction — like adding a new product (or service), taking on bigger clientele or expanding locations, means you’ll encounter an obstacle or two. Having the resources to handle obstacles efficiently could make the difference between success and failure.

Just under half (49.2 percent) of small businesses formed between 1994 and 2021 made it to five years, according to a 2024 data compilation from the U.S. Small Business Administration. A common factor in business failures is a lack of working capital to keep daily operations flowing. When you’re scaling and expanding, your need for working capital grows too because you’re facing the following challenges:

• Scaling your technology and systems alongside your business
• Expanding your production capability with better equipment
• Hiring and retaining quality staff
• Purchasing essential materials
• Traveling between locations as needed

Although longer-term solutions like business loans could help solve some of your larger funding needs, you’ll need a more fluid financing solution that’s designed to handle day-to-day expenses and help you maintain a healthy cash flow.

Grow business connections and retain employees with travel benefits

When you’re scaling the reach of your business, it’s important for your partners, clients and employees to stay connected no matter the distance. Fostering collaboration and enabling face-to-face interactions can help you stay competitive in the market.

For many businesses, the need for in-person collaboration at meetings and events grows even more important as many employees continue to work in a remote and hybrid work environment. And travel benefits are where the American Express Business Platinum Card shines.

Key card benefits

The Business Platinum offers benefits that can elevate the work travel experience by offering a variety of travel-related statement credits and benefits, such as:

• Use Pay with Points for first or business class flights on any airline and economy flights on your selected airline to book with American Express Travel and you can get 35 percent points back, up to 1 million points back per calendar year.
• Receive up to $200 in statement credits for airline incidentals such as baggage fees with a pre-selected airline.
• Receive a statement credit of up to $120 for your application fees every four years for Global Entry or every 4.5 years for TSA PreCheck®.
• Frequent travelers can benefit from a statement credit of up to $199 per year for CLEAR® Plus membership.
• Enjoy elite hotel status with Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors, while also getting a $50 statement credit with Hilton quarterly.
• Take advantage of Amex’s Global Lounge Collection and Fine Hotels + Resorts Program.
• Swipe around the globe with no foreign transaction fees.

Even canceled and delayed trips don’t have to be a headache. Amex offers delay, cancellation and interruption insurance for eligible trips. Your business can also earn Membership Rewards, which can be transferred to multiple airline and hotel programs.

Adding American Express Business Platinum cards for your employees to your account can give you an edge in retaining your traveling rockstars for an additional fee. While many employers are hoping to hold on to top talent by offering competitive salaries and better employee benefits, you can earn more points and share some of the premium travel perks you love with your employees when you make them authorized users on Business Platinum.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to pay another annual membership fee of $350 for each additional Business Platinum card. Business Expense Cards under the Amex Business Platinum are free to add, but don’t have access to benefits. Offering travel perks can become an advantage of the job, making travel easier for employees on the go. This has the potential to energize your employees to foster face-to-face interactions and put their best foot forward with colleagues and clients.

Leverage business services with Amex

Leveraging partnerships for your business to provide the best service possible is key to supporting business growth. Expanding and scaling a business can include upgrading equipment, adding new software, hiring the best talent possible and finding new ways to automate your tasks — all while keeping costs in mind.

Key card benefits:

Unlock over $1,000 in annual statement credits for select business services (enrollment required), including:

• Up to $400 in statement credits (up to $200 semi-annually) with Dell Technologies
• Up to $120 in statement credits for wireless telephone services (up to $10 monthly)
• Up to $150 in statement credits for select business subscription purchases with Adobe
• Up to $360 in statement credits (up to $90 quarterly) for Indeed for recruiting and hiring needs
• Statement credits for wireless phone services

Manage inflation prices

It’s no secret that prices for everything from travel to labor to raw materials have risen. Managing an increase in expenditures while avoiding — or minimizing — the impact on your customers is an essential and delicate balancing act for a growing business.

Supply chain and lingering inflation woes don’t have to put your growth on hold. The Business Platinum Card allows you to get value back for every eligible dollar you spend, meaning that rising costs can give you the opportunity to subsidize other expenditures in your budget with card rewards.

The American Express Business Platinum Card earns Membership Rewards, which can be redeemed for statement credits, travel and hotel bookings, gift cards, charitable donations and more. You can use these rewards to cover business expenses at retailers, cover travel costs or reward your employees with trips and gift cards, saving you money and rewarding your hardest workers.

While all eligible purchases with your Business Platinum Card can earn you at least one point per dollar spent, you’ll earn 1.5X points for up to $2 million in purchases per calendar year on electronics, software, cloud service providers, shipping, construction materials, hardware supplies and any purchase of $5,000 or more. You’ll also earn 5X points on flights and prepaid hotels booked on AmexTravel.com

After you apply and are approved, make sure you spend enough to earn your welcome bonus earning you thousands of points to allow you to save and redeem your rewards straight away.

Business Platinum: A card to grow with

American Express has been considered one of the best companies and card providers for businesses — and for good reason. With exclusive travel perks, competitive bonuses and flexible payment options, it might just be the card that gives your business the launchpad it needs to start its growth journey.

The bottom line

Running and growing a business isn’t easy, but it can definitely be rewarding. While any number of top small business credit cards could offer you the cash flow and perks you need to achieve your business goals, the American Express Business Platinum Card offers a unique slate of benefits and perks that can unlock opportunities to connect with and reward employees while reinvesting in your business.