Why Business Spending is the New Mining

🎧 Always Turn Left: Stop Digging Dirt | Unlock 5-20% Returns on Business Spending

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Businesses already run a mine. The only difference is that the ore doesn’t come out of the ground - it comes out of their credit card statements. Every dollar spent on payroll platforms, advertising, materials, fuel, or SaaS subscriptions is a shovel in the earth. The problem is that most owners are digging without realizing there’s gold underneath their feet.

If you’re treating credit card rewards as a perk or a side bonus, you’re missing the point. Points are not play money. They are a parallel currency system. When optimized, this system pays out at rates that dwarf cashback, and it can be worth entire trips, incentive programs, or months of travel budgets. The mistake most businesses make is mining the wrong way: they run the trucks, burn the fuel, and never look at what’s piling up in the cart.

This article is about the earn side of the equation. Before we get to burning, turning, or churning, businesses need to understand that earning is where the system starts. It’s not the boring part. It’s the foundation.

The Misleading 1-2% Myth

For years, banks and financial blogs have sold the story of the “safe, reliable 2% cashback card.” The pitch is simple: flat, predictable, easy. What they don’t tell you is that 2% is a cap. It’s the ceiling, not the floor.

A business that spends $1,000,000 a year gets $20,000 back on a 2% card. Sounds decent. But that same spend, optimized through points and miles, can generate between $50,000 and $200,000 in usable travel value. That’s a 5–20% effective return.

Why the spread? Because “earning” points is not one-dimensional. It’s not just the base earn rate printed on the back of a card. It’s the combination of:

• Category multipliers (3× on travel, 4× on dining, 5× on advertising, etc.)
• Transfer partnerships that unlock higher redemption values later
• Pooling and structuring spend across team members
• Strategic card mix to avoid leaving unbonused categories on the table

Flat cashback is easy, yes. But it’s also lazy. And in business, lazy math costs real money.

Multipliers in Action

Let’s look at the numbers. A business spending $500,000 annually on a mix of advertising, SaaS, travel, and dining can hit an average effective earn rate of 3.4× points per dollar with a smart card stack. That means 1.7 million points a year.

Now take a larger consulting business with $3 million in spend. By leaning into targeted categories (say, heavy ad spend paired with premium travel multipliers), that business can hit an average of 6×. That’s 18 million points annually.

Earning isn’t about chasing one giant bonus. It’s about designing your spend pipeline so that no dollar is wasted. Think of it like energy efficiency. Some companies leak electricity through bad insulation; others run airtight systems where every watt counts. Points are no different.

Case Study: A Small Business That Thought 2% Was Enough

A two-person plumbing company in Ohio spent about $500,000 annually. They used a flat cashback card, happy to earn $10,000 in rebates. After restructuring into a points-first strategy with a blended earn rate of 3.4×, they ended the year with roughly 1.7 million points.

Redemptions at 1.2 cents each would have matched their old $20,000 cashback baseline. But when redeemed smartly for business-class flights, hotel stays, and incentive travel, they extracted $68,000 of value. That’s the difference between treating rewards like pocket change and treating them like a reserve fund.

Case Study: A Larger Business That Built a Multiplier Machine

A consulting firm with $3 million in annual expenses ran everything through a single corporate card. Their average earn rate was just over 1.5×. They had about 4.5 million points a year - decent, but nowhere near their potential.

By restructuring into a mix of advertising-heavy multipliers (5×), premium travel earn (3×), and baseline categories (2×), they pushed their average to 6×. Suddenly they were generating 18 million points annually.

At 1.5 cents per point, that’s $270,000 in travel - enough to cover annual international client meetings, executive retreats, and incentive trips. The firm redirected their cash travel budget back into hiring. Points funded the flights. The business funded the growth.

The Framework: Calculating True Earn Rate

Businesses need a simple framework to cut through the fog. Here’s how to calculate your True Earn Rate:

1. List all annual expenses paid by card. Include advertising, travel, dining, SaaS, contractors, supplies.
2. Assign categories to each spend line. Which expenses qualify for bonuses?
3. Map current card mix. What’s the earn rate per category?
4. Multiply and total. Add up the annual points.
5. Divide total points by annual spend. This gives your blended earn rate (e.g., 3.4×).

If that number is below 3×, you’re leaving serious value on the table. For small and medium size businesses, the difference between 2× and 3.4× is often six figures in lost rewards.

Why Points Beat Cashback on the Earn Side

Cashback is simple. But simplicity is expensive. The key advantage of points is optionality. When you earn in flexible currencies (Chase, Amex, Capital One, Citi, Bilt), you’re not locked in. You’re holding an asset that can be converted in different directions - toward high-value redemptions later.

Points are the only currency that appreciates when held smartly. Cashback is fixed the moment it posts. Points, in the right ecosystem, are leverage.

The Risk of Wasted Ore

Every year, businesses mine billions of points and then let them rot. Some expire. Some get redeemed at 0.6 cents for gift cards. Some sit idle until a devaluation cuts their value in half. This is like a miner pulling gold from the ground and tossing it back into the dirt.

Earning is not just about maximizing inflow. It’s also about securing and protecting what you’ve mined. That means pooling points where possible, setting redemption alerts, and having a burn plan before balances balloon too high.

The Earn vs. Spend Illusion

Many businesses believe they don’t spend enough to make points matter. The reality: even a $250,000 annual spend can yield game-changing results if optimized. At 3.5× average, that’s 875,000 points. Enough for:

• Four round-trip business class tickets to Europe.
• A Presidents Club trip funded entirely by points.
• Ten economy trips for sales staff to cover multiple regions.

The illusion is thinking points are only for the “big spenders.” In reality, small and medium size businesses often see the highest percentage gains, because their spend is concentrated in bonus-rich categories like advertising, travel, and dining.

Why This Matters Beyond Travel

Earning well doesn’t just fund better trips. It unlocks competitive advantage. Businesses that optimize earn rates reduce their cash travel budgets. That free cash can be redirected into marketing, hiring, or equipment.

The business across the street is still bragging about their 2% cashback card while yours is flying to Tokyo in lie-flat seats for client meetings at a tenth of the cash cost. That’s not a perk. That’s a moat.

Final Thoughts: Digging With Purpose

Every dollar your business spends is a shovel. You’re digging anyway—paying for ads, SaaS, supplies, fuel. The question is whether you’re pulling rocks or pulling ore.

The myth of “simple 2% cashback” is the oldest trick in the book. The reality is that businesses who design their earn strategies correctly can hit 5–15% real returns. That’s not a perk. That’s profit margin.

If you’re earning under 3× on average, you’re not mining. You’re just moving dirt.