This CEO used a cash-back credit card to earn more than $130,000 on business expenses

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Christina Stembel is not pictured.

• CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, Christina Stembel, had never held a credit card when she started her flower company, but decided to try a cash-back card when she started her business.
• By using the Capital One Spark Cash for Business and earning 2% back on all her purchases, she's yielded huge earnings that she's re-invested back into her business.
• This is a great example of how cash-back credit cards can add up to huge value, not just for individuals but for businesses as well.

For Farmgirl Flowers CEO Christina Stembel, cash-back credit cards haven't always been a part of everyday life. But, after starting her business, she found them to be a game-changer.

As she told CNBC's Anna Hecht, putting the millions of dollars she spends on her business each year on a cash-back credit card yielded her some big returns, and allowed her to turn business expenses into cash.

But before starting her business, she'd never had a credit card. "I had to get my first credit cards in my husband's name," Stembel told CNBC. She opened a Capital One Spark Cash for Business, which earns 2% on all purchases, and started using it for her expenses.

And she's gotten big returns: $133,000 in cash back last year alone. Stembel says that she uses the money to get through lean times, re-invest in her business, and, as Fortune's Jen Wieczner reports, to pay herself.

While many think about cash-back credit cards as good options for personal use, Stembel has proved that they're quite useful for businesses, too. After all, the routine, the large purchases a company the size of Farmgirl Flowers makes can churn out some impressive rewards. For businesses, that's valuable capital to re-invest.

And, for first-time credit card users like Stembel once was, the simplicity of a cash-back card is another benefit. Cards that offer rewards in the form of airline miles or points can ultimately get you great value, but they usually require jumping through more hoops, like transferring points to travel partners and learning the sweet spots in different loyalty programs' award charts. For example, the Capital One Spark Miles for Business earns 2 miles per dollar on every purchase instead of 2% cash back, and you can transfer those miles to airline partners like Air France-KLM.

Stembel told CNBC that her San Francisco-based company is looking at $32 million in revenue for 2019, and she's had the same Capital One rewards card since she started the company in 2010. Stembel's smart credit card usage has helped to grow her company and proves that cash back can be king for small business owners.

Click here to learn more about the best cash-back credit cards of 2019 »

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