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Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card

Earn 10,000 Starpoints with your first purchase - that's good for up to 3 free nights!
Earn 1 Starpoint for virtually every dollar you spend on the Card and double Starpoints at participating Starwood hotels and resorts
Redeem at over 825 participating Starwood hotels and resorts worldwide with no blackout dates. Starwood hotels include Sheraton®, Westin®, W Hotels®, St. Regis®, Luxury Collection®, Le Meridien®, and Four Points by Sheraton®.
Transfer to over 30 frequent flyer programs, most on a one-to-one basis.
Save on business purchases at companies like FedEx® and Hertz®
Winner of 2006 Freddie Awards: Voted Best Travel Rewards Credit Card by frequent travelers.

ADDITIONAL STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST BUSINESS CREDIT CARD BENEFITS
Turn Starpoints into miles with over 30 frequent flyer programs3
Complimentary enrollment in the Starwood Preferred Guest program
Fee-free Additional Cards for employees — earn Starpoints on the business purchases they make4

OPEN FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS
OPENSM the small business team at American Express is all about small business. It provides you the resources to help you run your business, including:
Financing
Get unlimited fee-free Additional Cards, 2.9% APR for purchases in the first six months, and pay no annual fee.

Savings
Save at AT&T, FedEx, Hertz®, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM® and more by using your Business Card and see the savings on your statement. No coupons or codes are needed and the savings are in addition to other discounts your business may already receive.5

Online management
Manage your account with Summary of Accounts and track charges with Expense Management Reports.

Community
Chat, pose questions, get insights from other small business owners, and attract new business.

Advice
Ask an expert a question, use an online tool, and read articles by other business owners.
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DID YOU KNOW?

	For those of you not familiar with that term, it's simply an outfit that "gets paid" to promote a particular company's prospects to people. I'm torn a bit as to what I think about these places. On one hand, let's say you have a great little company, but no one's heard of you. You trade on the pink sheets and can't seem to get your stock price over a buck, despite making good profits and growing your business each year. What can you do? Well, you can go to a promoter, pay him a fee and he'll go out and "spread the word" about your company, hopefully opening a bunch of eyes to your possibilities. That sounds relatively harmless right? Well, yes and no. If done properly it is harmless. But some promo houses take it a bit too far, hyping the company with facts that simply aren't true, and making it sound much better than it is. So, what happens is that the average "Joe" gets an email telling him about the hottest new gizmo on the planet, telling him how the company is going to take over from MicroSoft, and that he's got to buy it now, a few days ahead of some "important news" that's about to hit. So, Average Joe buys XYZ and calls his friends. They buy XYZ. Soon the stock is moving higher and all is well. But then the promo house itself, which may have gotten 100K shares, starts selling into that move. In a matter of days, XYZZ is lower than it was. That my friends is a classic pump and dump. If you get a piece from one of those promo houses and the info sounds interesting, do some research. If after poking around the company you find that "hey, this does have some merit" then by all means make a decision as to whether you want to invest in it. But don't take any of the "hype" you see at fair value.Make sure you prove each and every point the Promo house has indicated. I've found some good companies after reading promo hype, but I've found a lot more that weren't worth a second look. Do your homework.

What are the best ways to make money?

If you answered, “a job”, then you have been brainwashed like most Americans into believe that working for a company is the best way to make money. It is absolutely NOT one of the best ways to make money. Why not?

Most jobs have the following problems:

1. The time trap. You are trading your time for money. Even if you are a salaried employee, you are accepting a salary for a set number of hours that you will work each week. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Most companies want you to work the most amount of time for the least money and you want to work the least amount of time for the most money. The job game is a lose-lose game.

2. No passive income. If you stop working for any period of time, you stop receiving paychecks. Your money doesn’t work for you.

3. No intellectual capital. If you are an employee, your company owns your intellectual capital. It’s like your company owns your brain. You cannot sell or share your ideas and earn money.

4. No control. You have no control over your work life and therefore your life. You cannot choose where you work, when you work, or who you work with. Most companies require a lot of “face time”. Even if you could get your work done in 4 hours each day, you usually need to spend 8-10 hours onsite to prove that you are a “loyal employee”. You have no control over most of the decisions that are being made at your company. Bad decisions made by others could put your company out of business and then you get “downsized” or “rightsized” or simply laid-off.

5. No leverage. Entertainers and professional athletes make lots and lots of money because they have leverage. Millions of people watch them. They can make one movie or play one game a week and make buckets of money because they are reaching a huge audience with a few hours of their time. In a job, your efforts reach a limited audience. You cannot give a speech to your department and record it and then turn it into a teleclass that you sell over and over again on your website. You have no leverage.

So, what are some better ways to make money without going to a job?

1. Start a business. Yes, lots of businesses fail. But small businesses are the engine of growth in this country. It took Bill Gates 10 years to become a billionaire with Microsoft. It took Michael Dell 5 years to become a billionaire with Dell. What you need is a solid plan and then the courage to execute the plan and the discipline to market your products or services consistently. There has never been a better time to get rich by starting a company. What are your goals? When do you want to achieve those goals?

If you want to start a business quickly and don’t have the necessary business fundamentals or want a pre-designed, proven system, then look into joining a network marketing company. If you can find a product you love, a company with a proven marketing system and a management with integrity, you can develop a great passive income stream.

Do your own research and see if it makes sense for you to start your company from ground zero or join a network marketing company. There are lots of good network marketing companies to choose from. (There are also lots that aren’t such good bets.)

2. Real Estate. Isn’t this risky? There are no risky real estate investments, only risky investors. You can minimize risk through education and experience.

Don’t you need money to get into real estate investing? For most commercial real estate deals, yes. But you can succeed with no-money down investing in the residential arena. In fact, it may be better to start out investing with no money of your own because you will only do great deals. You will not waste any of your money chasing marginal deals.

Land is in limited supply, especially near the oceans. Land will almost always increase in value. There may be some small “corrections” in the short term, but if you invest in the right areas, chances are they will appreciate. Plus, you can learn to make money in up and down markets.

3. Investing in other companies. Many people put their money in a mutual fund or index fun and are happy with 5-10% appreciation each year. But, there are other ways to invest. Investigate individual stocks. What products and services do you love so much that you tell other people about them? Remember, you make a profit when you buy not when you sell. It is impossible to know what the future holds. Do your homework. Find stocks that are bargains today.

4. Selling your intellectual capital. Another good way to make money is to develop products and services around your ideas. These could include books, tapes and CDs, workshops, videos, etc. This is a great way to create passive income streams.

My purpose here is not to give you a roadmap for becoming a CEO or a successful investor but to open your mind to the possibilities. There are so many great opportunities. If you are staying in a job that you hate because you think it is the best way to make money, then, think again.