SteemCommerce - Calling all business owners on steemit - Will you take steem as payment in your business?
I was listening on Saturday to the panel discussion organised by witness @aggroed on MSP Waves radio.
I can't recall whether it was @lukestokes, @timcliff or @blocktrades, but one of these top witnesses made the point that for steem to gain value it needs to have more outlets and more uses.
In short we need businesses to start accepting steem as payment for goods and services.
Of the crypto-currencies the default that businesses accept, if any, is bitcoin.
In business terms bitcoin is not ideal - it is volatile, it has increasinly high fees and its blockchain is slow.
Steem scores better on all these points.
Witness @LukeStokes touches on these issues in his recent post :
I explored the limited range of commercial outlets where steem is already taken as payment in this recent post :
Few businesses as yet accept steem as payment because they perceive there is little demand.
There is limited demand for steem in part because few businesses take payments in steem.
Progress might come organically in time. But that timescale might be too slow to give steem the stimulus it needs right now to kick it into the big time.
In such Catch 22 scenarios what might be needed is a poke in the commercial eye with a sharp stick.
That stick might lie within our our ranks.
Amongst the 40,000 or so steemians on regular active duty I wonder how many business owners, or even 'business influencers', there are.
Maybe 1000, perhaps 2000.
What would happen if all of those businesses around the world started advertising that they are now accepting steem as payment for their goods and services?
In the short term little would change. Most businesses would find few customers wanting to pay in steem.
That is where a beautiful synergy amongst the steemit community would need to emerge.
If the business owners are willing to take the step to accept steem, then the wider community, as potential customers, should seek out and support those businesses by doing business (in steem) with them.
There would be some hurdles to be overcome. More development in steem based payment apps might be needed but if the market demand grows then the devs will surely follow.
In accounting and regulatory terms it would still be uncharted territory in most countries. I have yet to talk with my accountant about this but I am guessing steem payments would be treated in the same way as our euro payments. They are entered into our accounting records with the pound sterling equivalent value at the point of conversion by our bank.
If a business decides to maintain the incoming funds in a separate steem account and then to make purchases with steem funds that might complicate the accounting a little. None of these issues though are insurmountable.
This post is just a small opening speech in a much larger dialogue that needs to be played out on this topic.
Right here, right now I am opening the declarations of intent.
As a business owner I am willing for my company to take steem as full payment for our web development services.
Are there any other business owners out there willing to join me?
To join me in the vanguard of the SteemCommerce movement.
You might also be interested in some of my other posts :
A Dollar A Day : crikey, an 1100% increase in a month - is my maths right?
I Believe in Steem - Five things I can do to help steemit grow
[FICTION CONTEST] Christmas Day in 2050 - write a diary entry - 20 SBD to be won
SteemRadio - schedule of all the steemit radio shows - what, when, where
Improving Retention on steemit - Exploring ideas for a Mentoring System
Steemit coming alive in Wales - meetup planning underway - 100% growth target...
Where in the world can I spend my steem? Real World Outlets that accept Steem / SBD
We've made it - 6 months self sufficient in vegetables - what target for next year?
Homesteaders & Preppers on steemit - smashing through the 250 mark - v10 [22 Nov '17]
SteemTowns - connecting the virtual with the reality - would it be possible?
[steem accepted here graphic by @pennsif // bitcoin accepted here graphic - bitcoin.wiki ]
STEEM's speed and zero fees give it a big advantage over credit cards and most other cryptos so in my opinion it would be one of the best ones to use in commerce
I agree.
We just launched on Steemit this week! We are an eCommerce business that has sold over 500 000 products through Amazon and Groupon and are excited to join Steemit!
We couldnt agreee more that Steemit needs more busniness to join in! As such we came up with a concept in #shop which can be explained in our post: Introducing the #shop to Steemit! A Way To Onboard Millions! Click Here to read!
We would love to hear feedback from the Steemit community as there are so many bright minds on the platform. If you have any ideas/thoughts or even criticisms please let us know! We are looking forward to building a relationship with this awesome Steemit community and can't wait to hear back from you guys:-)!
If you are interested more in who we are see out offical about us post here
I was just having a similar conversation with phelimint - and the answer is yes! I accept STEEM for purchase of my book Cost Benefit Jr. on Peerhub (it's a homeschool economics curriculum) and am looking for some new venues/markets to sell my book for STEEM! Will be checking out your and Luke's posts on this...
That's excellent. Do you have a direct link for anyone wanting to purchase your book?
Well.... sort of. But my Peerhub profile says my one book offered has been sold. And I can't seem to figure out how to tell Peerhub I have more copies to sell. However, I'm about to launch a contest for 5 free copies, so I'd recommend waiting for that rather than purchasing right now anyway.
👍
I own a motorcycle repair shop. Blue Collar Bike Werks. Most of my advertising is word of mouth but I do have a decent social media presence.
My "product" is mostly service work. Labor and some parts that I do not want to ship. (I do have tshirts that I could ship.)
Most of my customers (bikers) have zero knowledge of crypto currencies and of those that do all they know is bitcoin.
I use the Square reader in my shop and for that convenience I pay 2.75% Which sucks.
I would absolutely accept STEEM if anyone even knew what it was. And have toyed with the idea of accepting bitcoin. The fees right now are too high. I was thinking of putting in a Litecoin ATM in my office. My small town in Texas isn't hip to crypto currency yet. If they are aware of it at all its hostility toward the "bitcoin bubble"
But as a business owner a blockchain solution like STEEM is very attractive with the almost instantaneous transfer and the ZERO fees. In the states crypto is treated like capital gains. So there would be some accounting adjustments. But the benefits would outweigh any drawbacks that I can foresee.
Great post and this idea needs to be developed further.
That is good stuff. Would you be willing to take payment in steem for your repair work?
To a point yes absolutely. Unfortunately I still need fiat to operate. But STEEM is way less volatile than bitcoin and the zero transaction fees and instant send are huge pluses.
Wow man, Great minds think alike I post about the same thing here yesterday and Phelimint.com has also made a commitment to accept steem for Silver, check it out and spread the word. I do really like we need a place to list all these stores and services that are accepting steem.
https://steemit.com/steem/@phelimint/calling-all-e-commerce-store-owners-and-entrepreneurs-to-start-accepting-steem
I'm sure they will accept Steem for purchases, but who in their right mind want to part with his/her precious Steem?
It’s difficult to figure out pricing with an unstable currency. Would the price be negotiated based on fiat value at time of transfer? I think SBD was supposed to solve that problem until it shot up 10 fold. If SBD were actually pegged to the dollar, it would make it really easy to accept as payment.
For now, I am doing $1 = SBD 1
Once we figure out a new way I will adapt. In the meantime, anyone willing to pay for my work in SBD gets a sale :)
I would love to accept Steem, but my business is service oriented in the forest industry with clients like weyerhaeuser. They ain't gonna do it.
Thank you for Using #promo-steem tag, Promote steemit by inviting your friends and your family!
sure, we’ll accept Steem at Paleo Treats. :)