1. Barter Guide - Link to BBC

Do you as a business owner have the capacity to generate more sales revenue than your business is currently generating?   Consider bartering your goods or services through an organized barter exchange.  You will want to understand the following Q&A's regarding the basic aspects of bartering through an organized exchange.  Come visit this 4-minute Online YouTube video or better yet schedule your personal trade tour.

Who Comprises a Barter Exchange?

Its Members are primarily business owners who buy and sell their goods and services to one another. Occasionally an individual trader may come into the exchange with a car, boat etc. to barter.

What Is a Barter Exchange?

It is essentially functions as a bank with each Member having an account connecting a network of Buyers and Sellers locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. This network keeps account of all its Members debits and credits so that each Member can easily transact business with any other Member.  However, unlike a bank, a barter network keeps track of trade dollars (formal "I.O.U.'s" of Goods and Services pledged to the network) instead of cash dollars.

When Do Transactions Take Place?

Just like any other transaction, barter trades occur in the marketplace everyday at all hours - just like cash transactions.

Where Do Transactions Take Place?

As noted in the first question of "Who Comprises a Barter Exchange," both Buying and Selling merchants are primarily the parties in a barter exchange transaction - except for the individual who has an occasional item of value that can be exchanged for something(s) of equal value.  The point is the PLACE is primarily a B2B community.

How Do Transactions Take Place?

Actually Members carry a debit card identifying them as Buyers in the network to our Sellers (Marketing.)  Then with those debits, Sellers are able to "deposit" trade credit equal to a US dollar decreasing the need for cash expenditures (Banking.)

21st Century Bartering Works! (check out the Barter Guys and Gals Podcasts)

Why (The Most Important Question) Does It Work?

It's like riding a bike.  

Follow this simple but effective analogy.  Do you remember riding or teaching someone how to first ride a bicycle?  What had to happen in order for that first time rider to take flight and ride that bicycle?  He or she had to believe that when they pedaled those two pedals - they were going to move!

Similarly, there are two aspects of a bartering network that make the network and its "riders" move.  One is MARKETING and the other is BANKING.  On the marketing side, bartering will bring you new customers.  On the banking side, it can help finance your expenditures.  REMEMBER THIS ANALOGY. 

Imagine increasing your revenues by as much as 7-10% (Marketing) and decreasing your cash expenditures (Banking) by an equal amount.  Added together, you are now looking at a 14-20% overall increase that directly affects your bottom line!  Like a cash debit card, Members transact business with other Members.  The difference is: a cash debit card offers 0% discount versus a barter debit card offers purchasing power through the overall effect of the network - enabling 30-90% discounts!  How?  When Members utilize their account with a barter network, the net effect (Marketing and Banking - above) enables them to make purchases at what it costs them to generate a retail dollar.  In other words, Members buy goods and services at their costs of good/service sold noting that some Members because of their profit margins enjoy buying goods and services as little as 10-70 cents on a dollar.  That is profitable!