The turn of the decade has been difficult for everyone, no doubt about it — but it’s been particularly difficult for entrepreneurs. As stock markets fell worldwide, so did opportunities for new and barely established start-ups to bring their ideas to market.
The stock market and business activity may be picking up, but who knows how long that could last? Who knows the full extent COVID will have on the world’s economy?
If you’re an entrepreneur, does that mean you may be out of luck?
No. It means you need to dig deeper and get creative with how you approach almost every aspect of an entrepreneur.
If you know nothing or very little about cryptocurrencies, be sure to visit Cryptomaniaks and their wide selection of educational material.
In this article, we’ll consider three ways that cryptocurrencies could help you be the best entrepreneur you can be in 2020 and beyond.
Funding with Cryptocurrencies
One of the most necessary things an entrepreneur needs to bring their idea to market is funding. Money makes the world go ‘round, they say…and for entrepreneurs, it’s doubly so. Even if you’re bootstrapping your startup and living off ramen…you still need funding eventually.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been helping entrepreneurs gain funding since 2012. An article from Entrepreneur magazine puts it succinctly by saying:
“Cryptocurrency has disrupted the way early stage companies raise capital. With initial coin offerings, startups around the world can raise money quickly and cheaply from a wide pool of global investors. The valuation of a company is almost immediately reflected by the market, a process that has traditionally been challenging for early stage businesses. Shares are issued as tokens and tradable almost immediately, bringing large amounts of liquidity to the company.”
This is an avenue to consider. Instead of raising funds from angel investors, venture funds, or others who will require shares of your company and may try to steer your company, you can raise funds directly from people, hopefully even your target audience.
There are a few drawbacks, as there are with any funding method.
The biggest is that ICO and other cryptocurrency offers are currently treated with a skeptical eye in 2020. The recent Bitcoin bubble in 2017 cast a bad light on projects raising money through cryptocurrencies because so many projects fell through or never intended to use the funds for development.
Therefore if you want to use cryptocurrencies for funding in 2020, be sure you have a solid idea, team, project, and ideally already an MVP and traction. That way, you can show investors that you are truly serious about your project.
Developing on Blockchain
Another way entrepreneurs can use cryptocurrencies in 2020 is by developing on a blockchain. An article from INC states:
“The blockchain offers powerful infrastructure for companies to run their technology and create entirely new business models in a trusted way without a centralized authority. Blockchain technology is already revolutionizing the way startups create value. The Ethereum platform allows companies to build unstoppable blockchain applications quickly and for free. Blockchain technology is a cost-efficient way of building decentralized applications that can scale to a global population.”
The article mentions Ethereum. That’s a great place to start. The developers who created the Ethereum blockchain have even set up an Ethereum Foundation. This foundation provides monetary help to promising projects building on Ethereum and entrepreneurs who are trying to make Ethereum better for everyone.
Traditional Business That Accepts Cryptocurrency
As an entrepreneur, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel or create some revolutionary new project that leverages blockchain. Plenty of the most significant ideas may have been done already.
Instead, you could focus on bringing a traditional business model into the future by helping them accept cryptocurrencies.
Online casinos, shops, digital services, they could all benefit from accepting cryptocurrencies as payments. Think of it like traditional businesses needing websites back in the 1990’s — soon more and more companies will need cryptocurrency acceptance in their payment systems.
If these ideas inspire you, and you haven’t yet experienced cryptocurrencies, then the best thing would be to start by purchasing a small amount of Bitcoin.
You don’t need to invest your life savings. In fact, you shouldn’t, but if you purchase a small amount, you’ll be motivated to learn how to store cryptocurrencies properly, transfer them, and other basics that should only be learned by transacting cryptocurrencies.
So get out there and stretch those entrepreneurial legs!
