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By now, you’ve probably heard about how popular cryptocurrency payments are these days. Thanks to the financial benefits that come with digital assets, everyone from mom-and-pop stores to multinationals is starting to accept cryptocurrency for goods and services from their customers. 

And why not? Cryptos can appreciate in value, are faster to send and receive (especially across borders), offer you a high level of privacy, and much more. If you’re a business that is looking to begin taking payments from customers in crypto, you might want to know where to start. Not to worry, the following steps can help:

Do Some Preliminary Market Research
While it might be exciting to jump head-first into the crypto space, you should take a moment to do some research before you get started. First, look into crypto regulations in your region. Crypto is legally banned in some places and you don’t want to put your business in trouble with the law. 

Also, look into what accepting cryptocurrency will mean in terms of taxes and accounting. How much will it also cost to set up infrastructure to accept cryptocurrency? How much money in crypto do you expect to make when you begin? Ideally, you should speak to your finance team to decide if accepting crypto payments is financially feasible and beneficial for you. 

Consider Your Platform
One of the things you need to do before you can accept crypto is to have the necessary platforms and infrastructure. If you are a physical business, you will need to create a crypto wallet and integrate it with your POS systems. That way, customers can pay in crypto with ease.

If you are an online business, you’ll need to set up your backend to accept crypto payments. Platforms like Shopify already offer support to enable crypto payments but you will have to confirm with your eCommerce solutions provider. Either way, you will need to make sure that you have the systems in place to accept these tokens.

Consider Your Tokens
The phrase ‘accepting cryptocurrency’ is rather vague considering the fact that there are tens of thousands of cryptos in the market at any given time. Because there are so many, not all of them will be suitable for your business and you need to figure out which ones are. 

A good idea would be to follow crypto market news and see the trajectory of each token. Is the price of Solana going up? Is Dogecoin in a decline? Doing this will help you know which tokens are the most worthwhile to hold and which you might want to steer clear of.

Seek Out the Professionals
Businesses deciding to accept cryptocurrency is not as novel as it used to be. This means that there are resources in place to make the transition easier. For example, there are tax firms and experts who specialize in crypto and these can help you stay compliant. 

There are backend developers that can optimize your business website to accept crypto. There are tools that can automatically convert your crypto balances to fiat and vice versa. Any business that is serious about accepting crypto should seek out these experts for every aspect of their crypto journey. This will save you a lot of time and effort.

Consider the Risks
Like any other business move, there are some potential risks to consider before you begin accepting cryptocurrency. First, there is volatility. Unlike fiat currencies, cryptos see their values often rise and fall dramatically and you need to make sure you can handle this. If there is a market crash and some of your stock loses value, can your business survive until a recovery? 

Another risk is token storage. Crypto is decentralized and transactions completed on a blockchain cannot be reversed. This means that you’ll need to have the best token storage possible to avoid loss or theft. All these risks need to be weighed before you move forward. 

Create Awareness
If your business successfully accepts crypto, you’ll need to drive awareness among new and existing customers. Send out newsletters letting people know that they can pay in crypto. Make sure this change is announced on your social media feeds and prominently posted on your website.

You could even opt to run a promotional program to get people paying in crypto. Also, don’t forget to have your business listed in directories of merchants that accept crypto. All these will drive awareness which will, in turn, bring more crypto-based purchases to your business. 

Conclusion
Accepting crypto payments for your business’s goods and services can be very profitable but often intimidating to get started with. The above steps should help you get started and determine what such a move will cost in terms of time, money, and effort. It will also give you a clearer idea of how you want to accept crypto, the cryptos you want to accept, and how you will manage the backend logistics of it.