Jake Kern | Points & Miles for Small Biz

Just booked a trip to Europe in business class for my family of 4 thanks to credit card points earned on inventory spend for my resale business. Here’s the breakdown: 60k points x 4 people=240k points needed $46k inventory spend this year on 2x card=92k points earned Welcome bonuses from 2 new cards=175k points earned 4 lie flat seats across the Atlantic and 27k points leftover for the next trip.

I pay $500 a month for a storage unit for my resale inventory. That earns me 2,000 Amex points a month. That's 24,000 points a year. That's enough for a round trip Delta flight booked through Virgin Atlantic, a flight that regularly costs $500+ in cash. My storage unit pays for a month of itself every year.

Every eBay sale this year made me about $7. Every Facebook Marketplace sale made me about $70. For 2027, do I go all in on Marketplace or source more profitable eBay inventory?

I spend $7 per week on boosted ads. One single table rental more than pays for my entire lead gen strategy. I've never had a customer rent just a single table.

Want to fly lie flat to Europe for a ski trip this winter? Spend $15k to $20k on the right credit card and you'll have enough points. That's hard to hit with personal spending. But if you own a business, you may be spending that every month. Inventory, ads, software, payroll fees. Your business can pay for the seat.

Everyone asks "how much junk is in those pallets?" 
This year: 22 of 744 items (3%) were junk, damaged or incomplete. 
The real risk isn't junk. It's buying with emotion instead math.

Points and miles can feel like a part time job. People take optimization to the extreme on both earning and redeeming. You don't need to do all that. Just refuse to waste the spend you're already making. That's 90% of the value with 10% of the effort.

Facebook keeps deleting my marketplace listing of this walker. Can’t sell medical equipment on the platform. These sell for $150+ retail but Facebook is blocking someone who needs it from seeing my $50 listing.

Running the dishwasher every night, not just when it is full, will change your life.

I pay to advertise my table and chair rental business on Facebook Marketplace. The listing photo is a stack of folding tables on a cart. Nothing fancy. No staged setup. Still brings in bookings. Action > perfection.

If you’re wondering, the 10 credit card line up was Amex Hilton aspire x 2 Amex Hilton surpass x 6 Amex business platinum x 2

Great time to get into the table/chair rental business. $350 gets you 2 tables and 12 chairs, perfect for family gatherings and holiday parties. 2 rental per weekend earns your investment back in 1 month. You’ll be earning straight profit before Christmas.

This year alone, ~$50,000 of inventory spend for my resale business earned ~125,000 points from normal card multipliers. Timing new business cards right before big inventory buys added another 550,000 points on that exact same spend. Over 5x the points without spending an extra dollar. Trips already on the books from those points: - Costa Rica - Switzerland - Charleston SC beach trip - Park City ski trip Still sitting on plenty of points to keep booking epic trips.

Charged $827.27 to my room over a 2 night stay. Credits from 10 credit cards completely erased all of the charges. Banks will literally pay for you to have incredible, luxury experiences. Never gets old.

$125 for making one phone call. Workout bench bought on liquidation showed up missing parts. Easy move would be to call it breakage and junk it. Instead I asked the manufacturer if I could pay for the replacement part. They asked for my address. No receipt, no proof of purchase. No credit card. Few days later a brand new unit shows up at my door. Sold on Facebook Marketplace for $125 right after listing. Being a better problem solver will make you rich.

It took 31 rentals and $2,000+ in revenue before my first broken gear in my table and chair rental business. Messaged the renter to work something out, but not holding my breath. Since I’ve recouped my original investment, I have the margin is there to just buy a new table. Simple business, simple profit.

Love flying Delta and have Chase/Amex points? You need to know about Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Fixed 11k points for most US domestic Delta flights vs dynamically priced SkyMiles rates, often 20k+ miles, on the same routes. Chase and Amex both transfer straight to Virgin. Don’t worry, you still get your Delta perks when booking with Virgin if you have status.

How close was I to a iPhone battery fire?

Dungeness, soft shell, king

Was I too harsh to my agent?