The Credit Card Mistake That Trapped Me In Business Debt

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]I can tell you the day I went into debt.

[00:00:03]I started my business like I said I was 21, green behind the ears, had no clue what I was doing, and I'm in the beauty industry.

[00:00:10]And my very first credit card was a MasterCard. And that MasterCard had a $500 limit on it. This is in the early 2000s, okay? That credit card was designed for business purchases, you know, for big ticket items, but the idea was to pay it off at the end of every month, never have a balance on it. And I did that so well the first year and a half business. And I can remember, I don't know what it was, I think I was going for like a class, I wanted to go to a class, something like that. And I said, "Well, let me put it on the card.

[00:00:40]Let me charge it." And then when the bill came, there was something else that I wanted to do and I said, "Well, let me just pay the minimum balance this month only. And then I'll catch up the next month and pay everything off." It's like the moment I made that decision, snowball situations and things just started happening and it seemed like I just could not catch up and make the full payment. Understand, I'm new in business, my clientele wasn't that big at the time. So, and you know, being in the beauty industry, you know, income fluctuates a lot. So, I just started making minimum payments and I could not catch up.