Bitcoin Forum

I work for a company that manufactures industrial lasers in southeastern USA. I tried telling my boss about the benefits of Bitcoins and some of its problems. One obvious problem is the volatile and unstable price.
After I explained the problems, he's not very into the idea.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Lazer,

I actually know quite a bit about industrial lasers.  If you could find a payment system that allowed him to accept bitcoins, but without any volatility risk of holding bitcoins, do you think that would fly?  Meaning if he could accept bitcoins and end up with dollars in his bank account?

Check out our site, we can help

https://bit-pay.com

Good morning Mr. Boss. I was thinking about something last night. Remember when we were just a flashlight company and some young whipper-snapper came to your office to sell you on the idea of lasers? I distinctly remember you saying that there's probably only room enough in the whole world for a dozen or so lasers. Boy, I still recall the day you were proven wrong on that one, but look where we are now--the second largest laser manufacturer in America. At first, you only accepted cash or checks for our lasers. Then you accepted bank transfers, and finally credit cards. Now you list on eBay and accept PayPal. Hell, the other day you traded a laser for that SUV for your wife. Last year, the company picnic was paid for by one of our best clients, albeit in trade for a discounted laser. Now, it's not like we're going to get swamped with orders all because the company starts accepting Bitcoin, but the few small orders we do get will surely offer the office personal the ability to purchase great coffee from BitBrew and you buying alpaca socks to be given away as gifts. It's you son's 18th birthday next week, isn't it? Perhaps you'll buy him a computer with bitcoins before sending his happy ass off to college. All I'm asking is that you give it a shot. It won't hurt. If you happen to encounter a major lost, take it out of my check. You know I'm good for it. The best thing that could happen is that you'll be the first major manufacturing company to accept Bitcoin as a payment option. Once Bitcoin becomes mainstream, Acme Laser will be will ahead of the learning curve. As an added bonus, you'll be able to speak at the next Bitcoin convention, where I'm sure they'll let you set up a merchant table free of charge.

Thank you for your valuable time. I need to get to work now for I haven't clocked in yet. I felt it important to express this to you, once again, but on my time--not yours.

Sincerely,

Lazer.

Either use the above example as a guideline, or email the link to this post. Either way, I think it'll work.

~Bruno~

@Phinnaeus Gage: lmao, lol :D


Read your link. So upon receipt of Bitcoins Bit-Pay converts them into a dollar amount and sends cash funds via Direct Deposit to a bank. And there is a 1% fee for this service.
I don't see why a third party is needed when company could just go through an exchange like tradehill or gox directly.

Yeah, and depositing funds into an exchange account is not really a merchant service.  For example, it does not tell you:

- who just paid me?
- what did they pay me for?
- did they pay the correct amount?
- can I automatically act upon this order?

And the person needs to wait about an hour for the confirmation, then login and sell the bitcoins, and do a transfer.  What business owner wants to deal with all that?

Also what is the typical turnaround time to get money from an exchange into your bank account?  Bit-Pay sends the funds the next business day.  

If the business attempts a "do-it-yourself" approach I can guarantee they will be frustrated and just give up.  Our system is as easy as accepting credit cards, and the business gets a daily direct deposit like from their credit card sales.  Bit-Pay makes it work just like American Express, Mastercard, etc, so its very easy for any business to accept bitcoins without much hassle.

Are you really charging 1% for all this, or did you conveniently forget to correct the OP on this point?

Are you expecting them to do it for free?

1% sounds really reasonable, its still 2% lower than paypal and CC's.

We spent $10,000 on a booth at CES to promote Bitcoin to 150,000 people.  So no, we aren't doing this for free right now :)

 :o time for my yearly eye-test.

Lazer, what kind of work do you do for the company? i imagine it might make a difference if you were in say, the I.T. department as opposed to a more physical job.

i work in I.T. and want my boss to accept bitcoins, but i'll probably code up something for his sites *before* even discussing it, so i can just say "look what i did, you now accept bitcoins :P"

Are these by chance the same kind of lasers that are used in optical transceivers?
850NM to 1610NM wavelength?
If so, I suspect I can get you a lot of new business from vendors who will be willing to pay in Bitcoin.

Have you told your boss the IRS cannot know how much bitcoins he receives?

I suggest you keep your business out of Bitcoins for now.  Bitcoin's current strengths are in small transactions, international trade, and donations.  If you're selling an expensive industrial product, practically no one you're doing business with will be interested in Bitcoin.  What killer benefit would it have for anyone involved?

It's time may come for your market too, but not yet.

Probably true. Not that having an extra means of payment would be of any harm, though.

Besides receiving bitcoins, business may also pay employees with bitcoins. Particularly those business who can benefit from hiring offshore. Employees - specially those not on the same jurisdiction of the employer - also benefit from receiving bitcoins, as, for tax purposes, it is almost like being paid in cash. And even if they are on the same jurisdiction and can't avoid the taxman, maybe bitcoin would still be interesting for some employees, as well as save bank fees for the employer.

I'll buy one if your boss accept Bitcoins.

I like lasers, especially the ones that pop balloons and shit.

If he accepts Bitcoin, Ill buy one as well.

Yeah, those things are awesome.  I think OP said "industrial lasers" though, so I am not sure.

"Industrial" probably means large CO2 lasers and such.

I went to a place that does laser engraving on granite, and they had a large laser room in the back corner of the shop with several lasers of various types. The actual engraving machines were in the main floor of the shop, and the laser energy was beamed around the shop on a system of mirrors. Pretty cool shit. It didn't look all sci-fi as people would expect, since they were using mainly CO2 lasers which have an invisible beam.

That sounds really cool.  The combination of being able to cut through granite and invisible is unnerving though.

Hahaha, I know right? I think they have some kind of beam running parallel that kills the laser if it is crossed. And, it is up high in the roof where you can't just reach up and touch it.

Also, the final focusing opticals are on the machines themselves, so the energy in the air is not focused and therefore is a little less dangerous.

I think he was referring to the fact that bit-pay appear to be charging 3% for all of those service (according to the wiki (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bit-pay#Fees)). 

bit-pay.com mentions: "Processing fees as low as 0.99%", but I couldn't find what they charge for direct deposit in dollars.

They charge 0.99% for direct deposits to your wallet using their API and such, and 2.99% for converting to USD and depositing that to your bank.

That is correct.

All of our options are listed here on our site, with the costs and limits involved.  

https://bit-pay.com/accountingHelp.html (https://bit-pay.com/accountingHelp.html)

I should add that there is no faster way to convert bitcoins to dollars in your bank account than using Bit-Pay.  We beat all of the exchanges by several days time.  Even with our Deposit Card, you can send bitcoins to yourself and we will send a direct deposit to your bank account the next day.

My Deposit Card came with Nissan keys.  When I want to sell bitcoins, I can just scan and send them to my card, and dollars will be sent to my bank account the next day.  No dwolla, no waiting!

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g296/tonygal/mykeyring-sm.jpg

Appreciate all the replies!


thanks, I'll mention this


our accountant is not a magician, he cant make a large piece of equipment disappear off the books, unfortunately lol  ;)

What can you buy with bitcoins?  You can buy fuckin' lasers and shit... the future, man...

A few things that haven't been explicitly said yet:

1) How about you tell your boss he can pay you in bitcoins?

2) Let him know that there are tons of websites promoting businesses that accept bitcoins.  This would instantly get you a ton of free advertising.  I'm not sure how much that helps, but it's still something.

The bitcoin community is very supportive.

The standard reasons for why a merchant should accept bitcoin is that bitcoin has cheaper fees as well as no charge backs.  This helps the merchant keep their revenue rather than having to split it with the credit card companies that make your margins smaller.

Quite honestly, I do not believe that Bitcoins are ready for corporations that have accountants and accounting software. As much as I support any business using Bitcoins.

Likely your boss accepts checks for payment which costs no money. I doubt there are credit card purchases at that level.

If he is accepting credit cards for any part of his business, then bit-pay is certainly a viable option.

If there are large purchases over long distances (wire transfer, etc) then Bitcoin is a viable alternative.

If your boss has ever had to deal with a chargeback then he may be interested in Bitcoin as a solution for that.

I think the accountants could handle it.  It would be the same has holding a foreign subsidiary in Canadian dollars.

I've dealt with it regarding pension plans (I'm a retirement actuary), and I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to deal with the other currency.

Indeed, accounting isn't that big of an issue. All legit businesses must pay taxes in fiat currency so Bitcoin at this stage is only relevant as a meta-currency. Prices are established in fiat and then converted based on the exchange rate.

There are potential software issues of course but nothing that can't be overcome.

ill take a stab at it here too... assuming i can afford em id probably buy one to.

I think he said Industrial lasers, which means big massive ones that are expensive. Not pointer pens lol.

http://www.engravingmachinesite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/industrial-laser-cutting.jpg
;D

Sorry, I didn't pay attention to the "industrial" adjective.
Well, even though you can't make them disappear, you could theoretically declare them at a lower value. But I suppose that would need the buyer to do the same (not always an option), as well as it might prohibit you from reimbursing full VAT on the raw materials, if you're subjected to VAT.

Fucking taxes...