SteemCommerce - Calling all business owners on steemit

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 :

@lukestokes/why-am-i-such-a-fan-of-dpos-blockchains-like-steem-and-bitshares

I explored the limited range of commercial outlets where steem is already taken as payment in this recent post :

@pennsif/where-in-the-world-can-i-spend-my-steem-real-world-outlets-that-accept-steem-sbd

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 :

[steem accepted here graphic by @pennsif // bitcoin accepted here graphic - bitcoin.wiki ]

SteemCommerce - Calling all business owners on steemit - Will you take steem as payment in your business?