How Antonelli’s Cheese Shop offers employee health benefits
Learn how Spark Cash Plus is helping fuel Antonelli’s mission by helping them provide healthcare benefits to their employees.
Health care insurance and benefits can be a financial hurdle for small businesses across the U.S. Antonelli’s cheese shop, located in the heart of Austin, Texas, uses the cash back it earns on its Capital One Spark Cash Plus business card to offset the costs of providing health care benefits for its employees, which in turn helps fuel its mission to “Do Good. Eat Good.”
Who are the Antonellis?
The Antonellis’ favorite thing to hear when a newcomer walks into their shop is, “Oh, it stinks.” It’s like a badge of honor for this couple and their staff at Antonelli’s Cheese Shop. And it’s especially meaningful when you consider their journey.
On their honeymoon over 10 years ago, John and Kendall Antonelli started reflecting on all the things that make life fulfilling. John realized that his career as a CPA was missing something: purpose. So the cheese aficionado decided right then to follow his passion and create a career with purpose.
After two years of intensive research, cheese boot camps and interning with cheesemongers to gain real-world experience, the couple opened their store. “What started as a dream on our honeymoon resulted in the opportunity to grow together and journey together through a cut-to-order cheese shop,” said Kendall.
A mission to “Do Good. Eat Good.”
“Do Good. Eat Good.” These are simple words but mean a lot. For the Antonellis, doing good starts with the producers. “We don’t have a job if we don’t have the makers, and they make their goods in a way that’s not only sustainable but regenerative for the earth, they treat their animals humanely, their teams ethically, and most importantly make a delicious product,” said Kendall. “And then when people come in and spend their hard-earned dollars with us, we hope, in turn, do all the same for our community, for our team.”
On top of that, the Antonellis reinvest in their community with a charitable cheese cause each month. “Every year we partner with 12 nonprofits, which are our charitable cheese causes of the month, to donate a portion of proceeds to them,” said Kendall. “We actively participate in a lot of boards and encourage our teams, too. And we support our communities in a lot of other ways. But that is all part of our ‘Do Good. Eat Good.’ cycle and mission.”
Part of their business mission involves giving back to their team, so it’s important for the Antonellis to provide health benefits for their employees. That’s where Capital One’s Spark Cash Plus card — with its unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase and no preset spending limit — comes in.
How Spark Cash Plus helps the Antonellis provide health benefits for their employees
The challenge of offering health care benefits for small business employees
Unfortunately, it’s harder than ever for small businesses to offer standard group health care insurance. Economic conditions, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, have been hard on small businesses across the globe. The rising costs of health care premiums have become harder to afford. Small businesses generally have fewer employees than large corporations do, which results in less diverse risk pools, making them harder to insure. Ultimately, this results in higher health care insurance costs for family-owned businesses like Antonelli’s.
For the Antonellis, it’s important to use a business card that helps them maximize their cash back rewards for their business. Capital One’s Spark Cash Plus business card allows them to do just that with its unlimited 2% cash back and no preset spending limit. “Having unlimited 2% cash back and no preset limit, that combination is allowing us to grow when we need it,” said Kendall. “It’s adapting to what we need, and it’s money back for us that helps fuel our mission to ‘Do Good. Eat Good.’”
The unlimited 2% cash back earned with Spark Cash Plus allows the Antonellis to invest in their business and support the people who make it possible for them to open every day — their employees — by providing them health care benefits.
Offset costs using cash back rewards from your business card
Since providing health insurance for employees can be such a financial hurdle for small businesses, it’s important for business owners to think about ways to offset those costs. The Antonellis’ strategy of reinvesting the cash back they earn from their business card to provide health care benefits is a great way to do so.
Reinvest in your business and do good by your employees with unlimited 2% back on every purchase and no preset spending limit with Spark Cash Plus by Capital One.