As every entrepreneur knows, eventually you need some cash!  Whether it be for capital expenses, inventory, working capital or just to get through tough times, knowing where to get money can be important.  As an Amazon seller, understanding the power of replenishing inventory is also really important.

About a 18 months ago I stumbled on Bitbond.  It seemed pretty intriguing – using crowd-funded Bitcoin to finance loans. Similarly to places like Kabbage, you can connect your online business information like your Amazon store, Shopify, Paypal, etc. to build your “rating” for loans.  I was a bit confused about it at first but soon realized that it generally has little to do with Bitcoin, other than it uses Bitcoin as the currency to easily supply loans globally.  All investors in this “crowd-funding” finance business use Bitcoin to invest in individual loans, but typically the loans are taken out in your local currency.  So, for example, when I took out a small loan over the course of 6 weeks to build a reputation with the group, I was given a certain amount of Bitcoin that I transferred to my bank account (in the US that meant transferring to a Bitcoin wallet and then transferring to bank, but in Europe you can have the money paid out directly into a SEPA bank).  Six weeks later I paid a single payment (that’s the only possible 6 week loan payment term) in US dollars plus interest I had agreed upon.  So Bitcoin fluctuations were not at play when calculating payments.  That said, if you get paid in Bitcoin, you can leave it in your wallet – but if Bitcoin drops before your payout, you could lose money, and then your loan isn’t doing you a lot of good!

After my first loan, I took another small 6 month loan, again to build up my reputation with the investors.  And for my third loan I was living in Europe, so I got another 6 month loan, this time in Euro, and for a bit more cash. (I’ve found that 12 month loans are difficult to get investors for – so sticking with lower payout periods and just increasing the amount of money borrowed is more likely to be funded.)

Bitbond says they have small business loans for “as little as 7.7%”, but I’ve not seen that.  However, if you are an Amazon seller like I am, even a 25% loan over 6 months (for example a $1000 loan with total payments equaling $1125)  is pretty sweet.  On my last 6 month loan, I rolled my inventory 4 times with a 78% ROI.  Even a simple 25% ROI rolled more than once will mean you’re ahead of the game.

If you’re not getting at least 50% ROI on your Amazon inventory, we should talk!  Come check out this video for more info!

Let me know if you decide to try out Bitbond!