It’s Wednesday morning in Chicago, day 5 of our road trip and round the world journey. While we knew there was a lot to do on this trip, it’s surprisingly tiring. There is a lot of driving, planning, and changing plans. So far, though, we’re on schedule.
We’ve met up with bitcoiners in Denver, Kansas City, and now Chicago. We’re excited to meet up with more in Pittsburgh, New York, and then off to Stockholm, Berlin, and Singapore.
We’ve been so caught up in the trip that I haven’t posted something I promised I would; the pamphlet we put together for merchants considering bitcoin.
The trifold pamphlet is very simple. With the text of the pamphlet, we didn’t go in to deep detail about bitcoin. We’ve found that becoming highly technical will lose many more merchants than it will help. This is just a first contact, very basic intro. This is something you can leave in their hand, with your contact info written on the back.
Here is a sequence that may help you bring a business around to accepting bitcoin. Use and modify as you see fit.
1. Find merchants that you think are in a good position to begin accepting bitcoin (see our blog post about which merchants are likely candidates). Be brief, and leave this pamphlet.
2. Return within a few days (no longer than a week) and discuss the possibility of bringing a “bitmob”, or a larger group of people all paying in bitcoin. If they’re open to the idea, send them setup instructions for a payment processor, like Bitpay or Coinbase. Approval for these merchant accounts can take a few days, so make sure they understand and apply for an account at least a week before your prospective bitmob. If they’re still concerned, you may want to consider putting cash down on the spot (maybe $100) to put their fears to rest. Call it a down payment on the upcoming group dinner, and they can take it out of the bill when you call come for the bitmob.
3. Find out when they’ve been approved for the merchant account. There are still a couple things they need to do to finalize the account, like connecting it to a regular bank account. Run a trial purchase to make sure everything is up and running. You’ll be their first bitcoin customer!
4. On a pre-designated night, when you, the merchant, and local bitcoiners have all agreed, show up with your local bitcoin meetup and have a great time! This is a fantastic activity to help spread bitcoin and enjoy yourselves all at once.
If you feel like your merchant will need more time through all this, introduce them to paper wallets or real coin bitcoins, like casascius coins. “They’re like gift cards“, you can say. Leaving something in their hands, even a paper wallet worth 5 satoshi, will help them become more comfortable with bitcoin.
As I finish writing this, it’s Wednesday afternoon, on the road from Chicago to Pittsburgh. We’re only a few days into our round the world trip, but it’s already feeling like a whilrwind. It’s coming together, thanks to the support along the way from the bitcoiners we encounter. Thanks everyone. Wish us (continued) luck.
-Austin