Many big companies have begun to accept cryptocurrency payments instead of traditional currency. It is a risk, of course, but there is also a great reward in doing so. If your business is in a more secure position financially, then accepting bitcoin or other cryptocurrency payments for orders can be a smart way to invest in your company itself. You must absolutely be in a position to lose it all, however. If the value of that cryptocurrency drops to 0, your business still needs to be able to weather through. If you can do that, then you are in a smart position to start accepting crypto as payment.
Know How to Get Cash When You Need It
Before you start accepting crypto as payment, you need to know that your business can comfortably support itself if crypto were to crash. There is no point and no need to put all of your eggs into this one basket – and you don’t need to, either. Think of this step as just building several contingency factors in a just-in-case scenario. That way, you can handle any issues, challenges, or changes and still come out on top.
This applies to every business, even businesses you may traditionally see as having a small profit margin, like the catering business or freight business. In fact, this tip is imperative for those businesses that are only paid after the job is done. Chasing after invoices can cut down a lot of time, and some clients are not going to be helpful. Knowing ways to get those invoices paid to keep the cash coming in is going to help a lot when it comes to supporting your business through thick and thin.
With freight companies, you have an obvious solution in freight factoring. In this solution, you sell the invoice to a factoring company, which pays you upfront and immediately. They get their money back and then some by then getting your client to pay their invoice to them.
These kinds of solutions can help improve the cash flow situation of your business and can be seen as an essential last resort.
How to Balance Payment Types
Thankfully, for the time being, not many people are going to be interested in paying you with cryptocurrency. Therefore you can see it as a bonus, rather than something you are going to have to carefully manage for the time being. In the future, however, when paying with cryptocurrency becomes widespread, and cryptocurrencies as a whole are more widely accepted, you are going to want to invest in strategies to balance the payment types.
The best way to do this is to cash out cryptocurrencies as you need. In the beginning, it may be prudent to hold on to the cryptocurrencies that you have been paid with, but in the future, you will need to cash out in order to balance your cash flow and to reinvest in your company in meaningful ways.
How to Accept Cryptocurrency Payments
There are several systems you are going to have to set up in order to start accepting cryptocurrency payments. The first is to have your own cryptocurrency wallet so that you can have a location for cryptocurrency payments to be deposited into.
The second step is to install the right payment processes.
This differs depending on how the cryptocurrency payment is made. It can be done both online and in person. The methods you will need to use in order to start accepting those payments will differ.
1. How to Accept Cryptocurrency Payments Online
Online you will need to use specially designed payment methods. For Bitcoin, which is currently the most popular and valuable cryptocurrency option, you will need to use Bitcoin Cash (BCH). You will need to use a BCH payment gateway and include it on your website.
This is similar to adding a new credit card or another payment method and isn’t difficult to do. Where it does differ from other options is that it automatically calculates BCH cost from your price. This will always be a different number since the market changes so rapidly.
The other difference is that, instead of logging in to PayPal or using a credit card, your customers will then be shown a QR code that has been crafted by the payment gateway. The customer will then need to scan that QR code with their cryptocurrency wallet app to pay.
Payments via BCH are much, much faster than traditional options, so you should see the payment go through soon.
2. How to Accept Cryptocurrency Payments In-Store
Though it is slightly different, the overall method of accepting BCH or other cryptocurrency payments isn’t all that different from eCommerce. Your customer will still be paying using their BCH wallet, and a QR code is still the tool that will facilitate the transaction. The difference is that you will need a point-of-sale app and a method of delivery (like a tablet). If you already use a phone or tablet to facilitate card payments, this is an easy solution to add.
Like the eCommerce option, this app will calculate the checkout price into bitcoin or whichever cryptocurrency you accept and then generate a QR code to facilitate the transaction.
Like online, the transaction will be fast, so you should receive a confirmation within just a few seconds.
Should You Keep it as Cryptocurrency or Transfer it to Cash?
You have the option to either keep the BCH as BCH or to convert it into whichever currency you want. Just remember that if you do want to cash it out to your business account that it typically takes around one working day to show up in your bank account from your crypto wallet.
Remember to Market the Option
More people are buying into cryptocurrency, but that doesn’t mean that those people know it’s an option with you. You need to advertise that they can make payments via this option, and ideally, try to get a lot of eyes on you. Cryptocurrency will gain traction and value when more businesses start to accept them as a payment option, so it is in your best interest to make cryptocurrency payments a common choice.
