Here’s the basic concept: You work with business owners. Business owners, by nature, are busy. Busy people forget all about holidays, even holidays that celebrate their wives, their children, or their parents and extended family. They forget that Halloween is around the corner, and probably only remember Christmas because they are in retail and it makes a huge difference to their bottom line.

Most barter exchanges limit their holiday offerings and promotions to a couple of basic holidays: Christmas and Valentine’s Day (maybe). A resourceful barter exchange owner will take the time to promote all interesting holidays. Some that I would recommend putting packages together for include Spring Break, St Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, the 4th of July, Memorial Day (think vacation or stay-cation ideas), Halloween, Thanksgiving, and obviously Christmas.

Most business owners check either email, text messages, voice mail messages, or one of their social networking accounts on a daily basis.

A simple email or text listing a dozen or so options for your client to purchase for an upcoming holiday can do a multitude of things for your business. Your member feels like they are getting their money’s worth, that you are doing a good job, and most likely you’ll experience an increase in volume and make more money. Why? Because you did what they don’t have time or the desire to do: figure out what to do for the holiday.

For example, for mother’s day you could promote the traditional items like flowers, spa certificates, massage, and jewelry. An enterprising barter exchange owner would go farther. After a little time thinking, you could create a secondary list, a list of things that mother’s would want but maybe not think about like a family portrait session that could be given as a gift certificate. Maybe the mother in your client’s life would want to get some remodeling done and you happen to have a new painting company. Perhaps you have a new bed and breakfast that could be promoted, or a cabin rental, so that your client’s mother could have a night off.

By reaching deep in to the list of clients you have and promoting even the most vague of holiday-related things for the upcoming holiday, you show your clients how resourceful you are, how much you are thinking about them, and how good your service is.

This is paramount in the barter industry. How much service you render to clients will be THE indicator of your income. If you are showing great service, you’ll make good money. Service in the barter industry means opening new doors to new ideas and promoting your clients internally and externally. It means making clients aware of things they have never thought about, and providing them with new and exciting ways to spend their barter. Holidays are a great time to communicate those ideas.

Part of the training I provide for barter exchanges includes learning to think this way. Thinking around the box for barter exchange owners is one of the best ways to create new opportunities. If you are interested in learning more about how our training can help you maximize your exposure and volume, please contact us at 801-618-4901.

In the mean time, get out your calendar, look at the upcoming holidays, and jot down some notes about what you can and will package and promote.

There are new community currencies being created daily. Some groups are choosing paper money as their medium of exchange. Others are having silver coins minted that are then used inside the community for purposes of exchange. In a more innovative move, some are turning to time banks, which value one hour of whatever work you perform as the medium of exchange. All of them have problems, all have drawbacks, and all of them miss the mark in some way.

Starting with paper community currencies…most of the community currencies I have read about are being created as a complimentary currency to the national currency. Most of them are limited to communities, which isn’t terrible in itself, but they also are requiring an exchange of national dollars to acquire the community dollars.

Coined currencies have the same problem. You have to give up your national dollars in exchange for a coined currency. The proponents of this system want a return to the gold standard, assuming, falsely, that the value of gold has always been solid, is very solid, and will always be solid. Ditto for silver. The problem I see is this…in the middle of a famine, who will care about gold and silver? If the survivalists are right and the apocalypse is around the corner, then food and water will hold their value and increase much more than gold and silver.

There is another problem with coined currencies: they are based on scarcity. There is never enough coinage to go around, so economics becomes an endless chasing of precious metals. The same could apply with any commodity that a community used as its currency.

It also seems there isn’t a great concensus on how to get community dollars out in to a community without resorting to a straight currency conversion for the national currency. Let me ask you this…if you owned a business, would you pay cash to buy a community dollar, even if it was slightly discounted (as many of them are)? I wouldn’t.

Then there is the barter system. In its classic sense it is a quid pro quo system. I give you my eggs, you give me your milk. This part of barter has been done to death in the last couple of years.

Move on to barter exchanges. They are closer to the real solution, in my opinion. Barter exchanges don’t require you to turn in your cash dollars for barter dollars. Instead, they become issuers of credit and managers of a currency. You own a business, you belong to a barter exchange, chances are you have a credit line that you can use for your business. Once the line is used, you can start marketing yourself to other participating businesses and off it goes. In theory, it remains a zero balance economy, with exactly the same amout of credit issued as outstanding barter dollars to be used. Barter exchanges do run for a cash profit, and thus a small downside is that you pay a cash transaction fee for every transaction you participate in, generally. That drains your national dollars a bit, as does the drain on your inventory, but considerably less than working inside community dollars.

Now, to incorporate value in to the conversation….the American dollar is backed by the U.S. Treasury, which declares that all loans made to the government will be repaid from tax dollars, and the Federal Reserve, which regulates the amount of currency in circulation. In other words, the American dollar is backed solely by the social agreement that we have in the world that the government has authority to tax our work, and pay its debts. And we all agree that it is the medium of exchange of preference.

Community currencies are backed by the same principle, the social agreement, as are barter dollars. The call for a return to an objective standard of currency is based on scarsity, because there is never enough of any one commodity to go around. Our current system of fiat currency backed by a social agreement is more efficient, and more effective at promoting growth than any other system available to us.

I’ve been coaching a number of individuals for the last six months, and I keep tabs on the barter industry through the BarterNewsWeekly.com website, which I own and manage, and two related themes have floated to the surface of the industry chatter and experience. Both are subsets of one major idea: the barter industry isn’t great at making suggestions.

First, from the prospect of technology, most internet barter websites to a TERRIBLE job of suggesting things for you to try to barter for. I’ve done half a dozen video reviews of internet barter websites in the last four days. ONE of them actually had the cahones to suggest that I might want something. They all do a decent job of getting me to sign up, providing a place for me to place an ad for the things I want to trade away, but then are sorely lacking in the area of suggesting or even letting me search for things I want to get. Come on! Make a global search work! There’s got to be a programmer out there that understands that actually posting something you want to trade is only the first step, and arguably the easiest step, of a barter transaction?! I’m very frustrated by the lack of attention given to the suggestion part of the equation.

The only site to provide me with any suggestions as to what I might want is neighborgoods.net, who showed me a list of things in my geographic area that are available to borrow. It’s not even a true barter site, but it is miles ahead of the barter-internet sites in this one area. Miles ahead…

That brings me to my second point. A lot of people in the traditional barter exchange world think that a broker’s job is to ask one question, and then provide the answers. The question they ask is, “What can I get for you?” It’s a good question to ask. It’s a good starting point. It also makes for a really low performing exchange.

Asking what I can get for you is only the first step. It’s the job of any exchange owner to fill in the blanks for their clients, and I mean filling in the blanks that their clients don’t even know exist.

There’s something I have been saying for years, but apparently I need to say it louder>>>BARTER FEELS FREE <<< It’s not free, but it feels free. Barter costs you time and money, but it feels free. That’s why a good barter broker will take time to make suggestions to their clients, over and over and over again. Clients are more willing to try new things on barter, because it feels free. Even if the client never asked for those suggestions.

I remember one of the first experiences I had with barter. I was working for a business development company who owned a barter exchange that I later managed for them. They had set up a Friday relax/steam blow off afternoon and had invited three or four massage therapists to show up and give the staff a massage. I had never had a professional massage before, but that day I received, free of charge but on the bill of my employer, a massage. Our company didn’t pay cash for that, but got it all done on trade. And since that day I have been hooked. In fact, it’s been almost three weeks now and I should go get one…but I digress.

It is the duty and responsibility of a good broker to provide ideas and suggestions to clients daily. With technology being what it is and the ability to communicate with members in so many different ways with so little effort, there is no excuse for a barter exchange not to be, at very least, emailing its members.

The two things the industry needs to learn? How to make suggestions via software and via direct contact. It’s time for the barter world to step up its communication. Get to it guys! And if you are stuck and don’t know how to make technology work for your exchange, give me a call and I will help you update and create your suggestion systems.

Now is the perfect time to start and run your own barter exchange… let me explain why.

1. Lines of Credit – What does this have to do with a barter exchange? To the bold barter exchange owner, his business of barter can assist businesses and individuals in ways banks and the community can’t, namely in giving interest free lines of credit. When is the last time you borrowed money from a bank that was willing to give you a permanent 0% interest rate on a credit line? Businesses still need financing for expansion, just like in boom times, but right now banks aren’t lending much and if they were, you’d still need amazing credit, an 800 FICO score, and referrals from the governor and your local senator to get a loan. In a barter exchange, you get to decide who does and does not qualify for a loan, and you get to see the improvement in business and celebrate along side a new loyal customer.
2. Take advantage of the down market – Sites like Craigslist and U-Exchange have seen a huge upswing in the number of postings in their barter sections. If you are the one to start a barter trade exchange, you are going to be entering a very undeveloped market. Doing direct trades on sites like Craigslist and U-Exchange are difficult. Using a barter exchange is easy. All businesses want to conquer new markets. With your help as their barter broker, you’ll guide them to make new sales and make purchases that will help them succeed.
3. Take advantage of the current interest in barter – Like I said before, cash is tight. Thousands of businesses are turning to any other system besides cash to be able to continue to do business. Your barter exchange, if you start one, can be a vehicle to attract the businesses that are looking for somewhere to barter, and there are thousands of them.
4. Take advantage of an under developed industry – Currently there are less than 500 barter exchanges in operation in the United States. Those exchanges are only doing business with less than 1% of the businesses in the US, combined. Clearly this is a growth industry. Your local area may have an exchange in it already, but they are probably only doing business with a couple of hundred businesses in the area, at most, so there is always room for more barter exchanges.

If you want more information about how you can start your own barter exchange, click the link at the top and get our free program.

Small business owners struggle to provide benefits for their employees. Especially in a down cycle, like that which we find ourselves in now, are notorious times of pulling back on benefits and extra spending. Employees are finding themselves with less coverage at a more expensive rate, possibly becoming disgruntled and possibly leading to higher turnover inside the business.

Our tip? Build an alternative health care package from members in your exchange and offer it as a benefit package to your clients, to give to their employees.

One way this could work, that we have done in the past, is to buy in to inventory certificates from dentists, chiropractors, massage therapists, energy healers, acupuncturists, and family doctors in rates that would cover a normal visit. Then we packaged those certificates in to what we recommended for a year of use by one person and sold them to our members for their employees.

Another way it could work is to sell blocks of certain services to your members – $2000 of dentistry here, $500 of massage there, that they can offer back to their employees.

What is your take? We’d love some commentary or some of your experience with this.

I’ve often wondered how much more volume an exchange could do if every broker, trade director, and sales person acted as a consultant and not a sales person. For me, it was a natural progression from understanding and being able to sell barter to being a consultant. It seems it is not such a natural progression for a lot of people. Today’s tip is based on this idea: if you know what you have, and you anticipate what they could use, you can consult with just about anyone, make a connection, and a new transaction for your exchange. It takes some creativity and some courage, but the formula is easy.

When meeting with a prospective customer or a member of your exchange, take stock of what you know about that industry. What do they usually consume? What are the more successful companies in that industry doing to succeed? What are some things that would give them a boost, that you have available?

Then, when you arrive on location, be very observant. How clean is the parking lot? How is the landscaping? How is the signage? Are their carpets dirty? Build a mental list of things that you can suggest to them when you get in the appointment. You want all of your suggestions to be based on things that you can get them through your barter exchange.

Next, in the meeting, ask pointed questions relating to their business. If they do business over the internet, and you have a company that trades search engine optimization, ask them if they have someone doing their search engine optimization, and be ready to give more information about the company you have that they can trade with. If you can, generate some examples of work they have done, and then hook up the deal. Repeat this step with anything you can suggest.

What we need to remember as exchange owners is that our job is to make suggestions. Suggest everything that comes to your mind that could help. They may say no to the majority of your suggestions, but they aren’t rejecting you, they are just saying no. And for every suggestion they say yes to, its another transaction you can add to your books.

Barter creates possibilities. When the constraints of cash slip off, people are willing to try and to do many things they normally would not do. Everyone in business is primarily concerned with one thing, making money. The bottom line and the cost of things that can be viewed as frivolous are high when they come with a cash label, but when the barter label is applied, its easier to do new things and to try what you wouldn’t consider otherwise.

One of my favorite suggestions to make when I owned an exchange was an alternative health care package. All employers want to provide benefits to their employees, but they come at a premium. In response to that specific problem, I put together an alternative health care package, which consisted of gift certificates for massage, chiropractic, acupuncture, and dentistry. I sold them in a package and suggested to my members that they could reduce their benefits cost by adding this “preventative” package to their benefits. Employers loved, employees appreciated the extra availability, and I believe those businesses had a stronger and more profitable relationship with their employees over time.

So, what is your favorite suggestion? What kinds of problems have you been able to solve through barter? How do you approach consulting your members?

The nugget at the end of the article I read was this:

Hutchinson calls for countries to raise interest rates to counter the tide toward further investment in commodity assets. But he fails to ask a simple question: What if the owners of the commodity assets also think the same – why do they want the fiat currencies in exchange for their commodity assets?

If the situation were to develop to that point, we would have witnessed the end of the fiat-currency era and a move toward a new international monetary system based on barter trade.

What Hutchinson failed to notice is that barter has been a long time piece of the monetary system. Consider that when companies want things from each other, but their governments are at odds, they barter.

What it means for the barter industry is another large scale feet-in group entering the barter arena. What are all of those commodity owners going to do with the commodities if the price they want fails to appear? Barter.

Have fun barter industry! More players are coming your way.

NO brokers.

Brokers are the lifeblood of the barter industry.

The truth is this: business owners are less concerned about barter than everything else they are dealing with. I try to get my clients to understand that the success of a barter exchange depends entirely in the broker’s ability to get motivated and stay more motivated than their members. Business owners are busy. Business owners, especially right now, are very concerned about the bottom line of their Profit and Loss Statements, not about what trade transactions are available to them.

All Business Barter failed for a reason: no brokers

Once they understand how it works, the first question most people ask is, ‘what can I buy?’ Debbie Lombardi of Bristol, Conn.-based Barter Business Unlimited (BBU), says the answer really depends on what you want, and your timeframe.“Ultimately,” she continued, “it comes down to your network and the expertise of your trade broker.”

Like a good travel agent, trade brokers play a constant game of matchmaker. They help members promote what they have to sell and help them spend their trade dollars by locating items on clients’ wish lists.The range of what can be bought is quite impressive.

Jeffrey Cohen of ImageWorksLLC, a Web and e-commerce design company in Vernon, Conn. uses his trade-dollar currency for clients, networking, and keeping his employees happy. “I do seven business meals a week between clients and other business associates. We’ve had company events catered as well.”

On the entertainment side, vacations, hotel rooms, banquets, catering, music, and sporting events are always popular.

Van Houten of Advanced Air Quality, a commercial air duct and kitchen exhaust cleaning firm in Springfield, offered how he used barter exchange to curb costs. “One special celebration back in October would have cost $7,000 if I had to pay cash, but I just used trade dollars instead.”

In my ten years, I have seen over and over that the health of an exchange is dependent on the broker. If you have a good broker, you’ll have a great time with a trade exchange. If you have a bad broker, you’ll get frustated, you’ll get mad, and then you’ll get nothing.

I used to compete with two ITEX franchises locally, one of them with an outstanding reputation and one of them with a shaky reputation. People asked me, quite frequently, what I thought of my competition. I tried to not say much about the ITEX office with a bad reputation, but I praised the work of the ITEX office that had a great reputation.

Again, the truth is that your broker will make or break your experience with a barter exchange. The parent company doesn’t matter as much, the software they use doesn’t matter much, what does matter is your broker.

Today I ran across an article that nicely articulates what I have talked about for ten years: using barter as a source of employee bonuses and perks.

I used to put together packages of dentistry, massage, chiropractic, and certificates to family doctors and sell them to small businesses as a way to add to their health benefits. We spent a considerable amount of time getting items for clients that were specific to their employee’s desires and wants. You can do the same thing.

Robbie Riggs of CarSmart in Mesa offers his employees “barter bonuses.”

“It helps keep employees happy when you are able to do things through barter that you wouldn’t be able to do with cash,” said Riggs.

Riggs is a member of the Arizona Trade Exchange, along with 400 other businesses.

Members offer up their services or goods and get the value in trade credits that can then be spent at any of the other participating member stores.

Each year Riggs, takes his employees to ATE’s Annual Holiday Fair, where employees can use their trade credits to get toys, sporting goods, household décor, entertainment items, jewelry, musical instruments, furniture and small appliances.

President Rob Miller said it is becoming a popular money saving option for Christmas shopping.

“If you can pay for 80 percent of your Christmas just because you had some excess time, then that is a win win for everyone,” Miller said.

Eighty percent isn’t an exaggeration at all. Eighty percent of Christmas is easy. Barter, this holiday season more than all the others, will be a huge way for business to help their employees finance the happy smiles their children have on Christmas morning. If you own an exchange, it’s time to get to work and get your holiday show put together. If you own a business, it’s time to start putting together your barter resources so you can help your employees get what they want, and you’ll keep them and keep them happy.

I found this video in my daily search for new barter/trade related news. Check this out…a landscaping company who puts up a video with the intention of creating more business through a YouTube video about how they barter. I think this is a great example of taking the crappy economy in to your own control and making something happen with barter.