You are taking valuable time out of your schedule to read this and I’m thinking you are here because you were intrigue by the title of this post. You want to know how you can have an edge over your competition. The first to adoption of any concept has a huge advantage. As a business owner, you want to be the first. If you implement this tool into your repertoire, you will have an edge that others don’t.

I don’t care what anyone says, it’s HARD to own a business. Owning a business is not for the faint of heart! Emiright?? 🙂 There’s always something that comes up. Gary Vee, entrepreneur extraordinaire and social media guru, says that you literally have to be willing to get up every morning and be ok with getting constantly punched in the face. The competition itself is often what throws the most punches, not to mention just operating your business day to day.

Speaking of competition – I’m just going to get right to it. You are taking valuable time out of your schedule to read this. You want to know how you can have an edge over your competition. As I said, the first to adoption of any concept has a huge advantage. As a business owner, you want to be the first. If you implement this tool into your repertoire, you will have an edge that others don’t. When someone is getting a quote for a job from you as well as the guy down the street, he will pick you just because of this. Even if your price isn’t the lowest, you will still win. If you own a restaurant or a hotel or a golf course and you offer this, people will drive past other establishments just to buy from you. You will drive business to your door that would never have come to you before, just because of this. What is it?

Barter. Barter allows you to take your waste – your downtime and excess inventory – and turn it into things that you need or want. This is much better than having to pay out of your bank account! And because of BarterPay It Forward, you can instantly become a superhero when you choose to turn some of that ‘waste’ into giving! Local charities will be grateful to you for your generosity and you don’t have to cough up your hard-earned money to make a difference! So, you will sometimes save significant amounts of money in your business and personal life, and it will make you a do-gooder and world changer if you want it to! It’s a win-win for everyone.

Speaking of BarterPay It Forward; it’s an incredible movement. We hope you watch the videos on the home page because they’re absolutely worth your time and they explain the whole thing in further detail.

So, here are action steps you can take to get what you need and guarantee an edge over your competition:

Go to www.barterpay.ca and become a member. You will be assigned a personal broker, a concierge of sorts, to look after you and get you what you need. He or she will start sending you brand new business you’ve never had before and then turn around and help you spend the credit from that new business on things you need or want.

Now enjoy having the edge!

There’s more. Everyone wants to be a superhero…I’m assuming! Who wouldn’t?!

Here are action steps to becoming a superhero:

If you own a business, go click here to get more information.
If you know someone who owns a business, tell them they need to click here too!
If you are involved with a charity, click here to learn more.
If you know a charity who needs help go tell them to click here too!

Now enjoy your new superhero status!

THIS IS IMPORTANT: spread the word, share this website on social media, subscribe to the Youtube channel where all our videos are and share the videos. You don’t want to miss BarterPay It Forward, the SHOW! It’s awesome! You can see step by step how the whole incredible process works and who is impacted.

Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/BarterPayItForward

WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?

The more people know about this insane movement the better for everyone! Help us change the way giving happens across Canada!

Debbi Porter, BarterPay Chief Storyteller 🙂

Clients always wonder how they can turn Barter Credits back to into cash. Did you know there’s not just one, or two, but five ways you can do that?  How cool is that?!  Here they are:

1) Advertise your business using Barter Credits and drive more Canadian dollar business through your door.

2) Find expenditures you have to make in the business that you can use Barter Credits for. (e.g. renovations, printing)

But if you need actual cash from your Barter Credits….

3) You can use the services of a Realtor or mortgage broker through BarterPay. Whatever they make in profit from the bank or from the seller of the home, they will use to buy Barter Credits back from you at 1:1 ratio.

4) Buy something for a friend, family member, colleague, parent, child, etc… Have them pay you back in cash. Example: your son had a flood in his basement and wants new carpet. Barter for it instead! He (or SGI) can reimburse you in cash later.

5) Buy items to cash out. If you see an item that you think you could sell to the cash world (watch, speakers, phone, etc…), you can buy it with Barter Credits and re-sell. Any loss in value would be tax deductible. And, as long as you are getting enough money to cover all of your hard costs, it’s way better than saying NO to new business if you have the capacity to take it on!

And the bottom line is BARTER IS GREAT THAN ZERO!  We can all agree that getting value for an item you have or services you offer is way better than getting nothing!  If you have any inventory that has been sitting for a while, it’s better to take Barter Credits than to have it sitting there providing no value at all.  If you are a service business, we all know that once a time slot expires, you can’t get it back.  It’s gone forever.  So if you have any downtime at all, it makes sense to plug some new customers into your calendar here and there and then you have Barter Credits that never expire!

We all need cash to run our businesses. Unfortunately, many small to midsize businesses go through periods where cash flow is tight. Sometimes it is just a seasonal dip, an unexpected expense, or a customer delaying payment on a large invoice. Other times it is more systemic to the business you are in, and a larger change needs to occur in order for you to advance. In either case, barter can help you find your way!

If you are having difficulty getting past some payables, keep reading…

HOW TO CLEAR DEBT USING BARTER

1) Contact your Barter Coach (a coach is assigned to every business who is a member of BarterPay – your own concierge of sorts) and chat about your situation. Next, determine who will be making the first approach to the creditor. Note that calling the creditor first gives you the opportunity to present a possible solution and make it clear that you are trying to act in good faith. In the case where the BarterPay representative is calling first, you should still contact the supplier to vouch that BarterPay is speaking to them on your behalf.

2) The vendor would be signed on as a member of BarterPay if not already a member.

3) Barter Credits you currently have would be paid against the debt (fees due prior to transfer).

4) Additional business would be sent to you to settle the remainder of the debt (within a short period of time).

5) The remaining debt would be settled in Barter Credits (fees due prior to transfer).

The creditors may request or you might suggest a premium of 10-20% be paid to convert existing cash debt to Barter Credits. (e.g. to convert a $10,000 loan to trade they want an additional T$1,000). Alternatively, some creditors are only willing to discuss a Barter Credit payment as long as a % is paid in CDN dollars. (e.g. settlement is $2,000 and T$8,000 with the $2,000 due immediately).

It is a good idea to discuss this ahead of time with your barter coach and decide if you want to offer an incentive to convert the debt. You would have to look at your cost of goods sold and the positive effect of getting the debt cleared. It may not be necessary at all. The creditor might be content with being paid the original debt full trade. However, offering the incentive may help move everyone along.

Additional benefits of clearing up past debt in barter:

1. You no longer avoid phone calls, because you are at a loss as to how to clear debit.  (We all know this is a thing that people do!)

2. You’re able to continue using your preferred supplier – often times business owners in a bind will stop using the supplier they really want because of debt.

There are many ways business owners can use barter to launch a business, build a business, move excess inventory, fill in downtime etc.  For more information contact your local BarterPay Office and Barter Coach.

One of the ways that barter can be used is to compensate your employees.  5 main levels of compensation that can be considered are:

1)      Gift Certificates / Gift Baskets:  Ideal for small one off bonuses, gifts, or irregular bonuses up to $200 at a time.  Also, good for in-house draws and customer giveaways.

2)      Group Activity / Events: Great idea to schedule group activities through BarterPay – especially a good idea for restaurants or other customer service oriented businesses because happy staff means a better experience for your customers.

3)      Single Direct Purchase: If for a particular employee (incl. yourself),wish to acquire a particular “larger” item (e.g. build a deck on their house) where it is going to be a one off type purchase, the purchase should be made direct from your main account – with accounting / payroll allocating the purchase accordingly.

4)      Affiliate Account: On-going trade pay, or larger bonuses (where  it won’t be spent on a particular item(s)).  See Note A below.

5)      Health Benefit Account: An affiliate account in the corporation’s name where you have an agreement with your employees (or a subset of only key employees) to pay for any health services they need –as they are available on trade. (e.g. glasses, fitness massage, dental, chiropractic etc.)  It should be clear that this is not an insurance program.  We have had employers offer to cover any where from 25 – 100% of the cost on trade.  On-going relationships can be established with specific service providers in your area.

NOTE: Affiliate Accounts

An affiliate account is a sub-account of the main corporate account.  No sales may be made by an affiliate account unless they are to the main corporate account.  If an individual who is an affiliate sees the benefit of sales on a broader scale they must establish their own main account.

Fees are charged on the transfer of BP to the affiliate account, however no fees are charged on the BP when spent by the affiliate (i.e. the affiliate is a non-fee paying account).  Please note: Affiliates do not receive a paper statement.  Account activity can be viewed and printed by accessing the BarterPay website.

It is best to limit the number of affiliates to key employees; and only those whom you feel will truly grasp the barter concept.  Other employees are more easily compensated through gift certificates.

Barter has been around forever.  From kids on the playground, to farmers, to business owners, at some point everyone has bartered or traded something.  For the most part, it’s pretty straight forward. You have something someone else wants, they have something you want. Done deal. But it’s not always so simple. 

You own a restaurant and you want new carpet, but the carpet store doesn’t want a couple thousand dollars in gift certificates to your establishment.

What to do?

That’s where we come in. 

Since 1996, BarterPay has been connecting over 3000 Canadian business owners and helping them save money by trading goods and services for the things they need. With your BarterPay Card, you can purchase a variety of goods and services, either in your own backyard or from across the country.  

Here’s how it works. 

A client calls me looking to have brochures printed. At this time, our region doesn’t have a printer on barter and the clients in Hamilton, London, Kitchener, and Cambridge are swamped. I could see if someone in Ottawa or Barrie could do the job, but the point of BarterPay is to support local businesses as much as possible. Our sales staff will approach a local printer to see if they would like to gain new business that they didn’t have to really work to get. We’re bringing the contract to them. Once we share the ins and outs of how BarterPay works, we either bring them on board, or move on to the next printer. Once we have a printer on board, we connect the two clients and the job is done. The client gets their brochures printed and the printer now has Barter Credits to get what they need.  

How is that different than the cash market? Our system is a full cycle. We bring you new business, we help you use the trade dollars you earned, and then we bring you more business. In the cash market there is no guarantee that the person you purchase from is going to come back and do business with you. With BarterPay, the printer in the above example may not ever purchase from the client that ordered the brochures, but we will always send business to them both. And you control how much business you take on.

BarterPay is not to interfere with cash business but to fill in the blanks. So if you are a business owner, looking at a warehouse of inventory that you need moved, a theatre with empty seats, an advertiser with blank space, a hair dresser with empty appointments, etc. etc. Why not give BarterPay a try? 

In the last 9 months, we have brokered over $10 million dollars in deals for clients across the country.  You might be surprised at what you can trade for! Don’t spend your hard earned money just yet, call us and see if you can #tradeforit 

If you own a business, you need to see this!!!

(First person story on how one of our clients maximized barter in one average day.)

This morning I rolled out of bed at 6 AM for what I was planning to have a busy and active day.   Step one throw on some workout clothes and head out to the gym (membership paid for via BarterPay).  After a gruelling 45 minute workout, I showered and got dressed in my clothes that I bought at a one day sale held by a BarterPay member (yes, including my underwear).  Drove over to a great little breakfast place that accepts the TRADEcard to meet with a prospective client.  Chose the healthy greek yoghurt with fruit and a slice of whole wheat toast, watch my prospect devour a hungry man’s breakfast… honestly a little jealous but didn’t want my workout to be for nothing.   Great thing is that meeting sealed the deal and now instead of being a prospect that company is now my client.  Called my wife to celebrate a little, she let me know that she was off to the dentist (yep, another Barterpay member) with the kids and then would be dropping them off at the awesome sports day camp we had booked for them (on trade).  The kids love going to that camp and if it weren’t for my broker, we never would have known about it.

As great as I was feeling after my workout and successful business meeting, I realized my hair was getting a touch shaggy – so I stopped by the barber (yep – traded for that too) and got a trim – brought him a coffee I got using the TRADEcard from a sweet mom and pop coffee shop nearby (great people, great coffee).   The barber also happens to be one of my customers that I got through Barterpay, so we were able to chat about his next marketing campaign.

Finally rolled into the office around 10AM, looked at the sign I got on trade on my way into the office.  Our receptionist thanked me for the wonderful anniversary dinner she had with her husband, using the TRADEgifts that I had given her as a thank you the week before.  Poked my head into our small boardroom and had a quick conversation with the bookkeeper that comes in once a week (on trade) to help keep our accounting and invoicing up to date.  That used to be something I had on my plate, but once I met with BarterPay about 5 years ago now, I realized I needed to focus more on growth of my business and find ways to use trade to take tasks that I don’t need to be doing off my plate.   I used to wear all the hats in our business now I share the hats.  Another example (although thankfully not something that came up this day), is that I used to be the go to person in the office if something went wrong with the computers or phones – now we have a specialist in both areas who my team just knows to call when their is an issue.  And last year our server died, before Barterpay came into my life this would have been a disaster because we weren’t backing it up regularly, but one of the other BarterPay members offers an automated backup service, so the computer guys just came in and restored all of our data.  What was I doing when that was happening?  I signed up one of our largest accounts, whereas before I would have spent my time figuring out how to get the server up and running and trying to recover lost data.  Even if I wasn’t bartering for these services it would have been more profitable for me to use them, but with barter it became enough of a no brainer that I was able to pull the trigger without giving it a second thought.

Lunch – and a client meeting at a restaurant that accepts the TRADEcard.  It is great for me to be able to treat my prospects and clients, now that my business has really taken off I wouldn’t sweat it even if it cost me cash, but 5 years ago I would be looking at my client ordering a nice glass of wine and wonder if they were worth it (and if my credit card would cover it).  Having my trade account (and keeping it fully loaded with TRADEdollars) gave me confidence to lavish my clients and staff the way I wanted to.

The afternoon was back in the office making a series of phone calls (one of which was to my broker to see about getting some printing lined up).  That afternoon we had the mobile mechanic available on trade come in and do tune ups and oil changes on all our vehicles.  Selfishly, by saving my employees personal time they put in a greater effort during the day.  I also cover off gym memberships, up to T$500 in chiropractic/physio care and the tune ups and oil changes for my staff.  (Yes, CRA it all goes through as a taxable benefit…)  Our teams general health has been better since I started doing this.   The new business my broker sends me allows me to do this.  We also have a christmas party, and a summer get together where our staff are able to bring out their families and have bouncy castles for the kids.   I like to believe our low turnover is only because I am great to work for and that my management style engenders loyalty.  However, while I know that is definitely part of it, the additional financial compensation and camraderie that is built by the things I offer that I have bartered for also help.  My team as a result also has better attitude with clients when the clients are making unreasonable requests and are able to handle the smaller things that used to annoy them.  I found it very beneficial to treat my BarterPay clients exactly the same way I do my other clients, my staff and I don’t put them off because it is barter.   Barter and specifically BarterPay helped me and the relationships that I have built with those clients have led to referrals to other clients who don’t understand barter and as a result are ‘cash’ clients to me.

At the end of the (office) day, with my freshly tuned vehicle, I drove to the family restaurant that takes the TRADEcard to meet up with my wife and kids.  After dinner we went bowling using TRADEgifts.

Finally we took the kids home and put them to bed in their matching beds (the frames and night tables purchased via trade).

Sitting on the couch to watch TV (didn’t get it via barter – but through bartering other costs, I saved enough to buy the one I wanted), I drank a couple of beers my brother-in-law had made using the self brew place that I had sent him to on trade.  Then I called it a night and went to bed.

I have often been asked the question “When is the best time to join a barter exchange?”  My answer is, “The best time to join a barter exchange is any time that you have excess capacity, whether you have extra inventory sitting on your shelves or downtime if you run a service business.”

In thinking about it more, I think the real answer is, “Whenever you first learn about BarterPay…that is the best time to join.” 🙂

Even if, technically, it isn’t the optimal time in your business cycle, joining BarterPay is just putting a tool in your tool belt. There will be times where you use it more and other times less based on a wide variety of factors. The only time that it isn’t worth joining is if you are already on the path to bankruptcy.

Even if you are planning on selling your business, your business is worth more if you leverage barter to increase revenue and offset expenses, so in turn increasing profit. Also, there are business consultants, and accountants who will accept barter to help you get your business into the best position possible for sale. At the very least, why not turn idle time or excess capacity into a better sale price?

But I started writing this Blog based on the opposite end of the business lifecycle asking the question, ‘Is my business too new to barter?’, so let’s take a look at that.

WHAT ARE THE REASONS NEW BUSINESS OWNERS DO NOT FEEL READY TO BARTER?

1. They are confident that their business will be successful and they will have no problem getting customers.
2. They have earmarked all the funds they planned on investing in their business and the $495 activation fee is just too much right now, and they do not feel they can afford the cash cost of goods to service the barter customers.
3. They are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of tasks they have it setting up their business, hiring staff or running the business on a shoestring budget.
4. If it is their first business launch, they are just figuring out how to run a business and don’t want to take brain space figuring out a concept that is foreign to them.

WHY SHOULD THEY LOOK PAST THESE REASONS AND INCORPORATE BARTER INTO THEIR BUSINESS PLAN SOONER RATHER THAN LATER?

1. They will receive immediate business from customers who are business owners. Not only is this revenue to the business, these are great connections to make for both gaining referrals but also for learning from successful business owners on what they did to become successful.
2. They can literally immediate offset expenses that nobody wants to pay for when launching a business.  For example, advertising, renovations, merch,  signs and printing. The list goes on and one.  They also have personal expenditures they can use barter for instead, which frees up cash to put into the business. (To learn more about using personal spending check out the blog we did on Personal Spending and Barter.
3. Not only can business owners offset costs that they would have incurred in Canadian dollars, they can also invest in getting additional services for their business to help guide them or just to simply relieve from tasks they are doing themselves that they really don’t want to do.  Like maybe basic bookkeeping, or managing the website…or social media.  There are many tasks small business owners wish they didn’t have to do themselves.  Here’s some more examples:

• Accountant to make sure your books are setup for success.
• Bookkeeper to take care of bookkeeping and payroll.
• Business coach to guide and encourage you.
• Social media consultant.
• Copywriter of material for the web.
• A proper well designed website vs low cost do-it-yourself version
• Legal services to make sure your contracts and other documents are properly drafted.
• Cleaning services
• Computer technicians

You may also want to check out the blog about Start-Ups!  There are endless ways new businesses can barter because they literally need everything!  Did you know you can get Barter Loans too?  Wow, we didn’t even get into that here!  There is an entire section on the our website about how to get loans on barter and they’re interest free, which is incredible!  Check it out!

John Porter, Founder and CEO of BarterPay, shows all the empty rooms out there during the peak season in July in Niagara Falls, a huge tourist attraction. Imagine all the empty rooms in the off season?!! Why is he doing that? Because there’s a solution to the empty room problem. What can hotels do instead??  Watch and see!

John Porter, Founder & CEO, BarterPay Inc, demonstrates how to use the BarterPayPOS App to process a sale. Now partnered with Restaurants Canada!

Important! This is also for small businesses!  Price vs Cost is an important concept to know for any business, as it helps business owners understand how they are saving money when they barter.  If you own a larger business or run a larger organization with multiple departments, this video is for you!  It explains why larger business often struggle to incorporate barter into their business! Once you have watched this video – don’t miss part 2 for the solution.  If you have any other questions after viewing this video, please contact your local BarterPay office.

Personal purchases work two ways:

1) the owner doesn’t care if his personal income goes up.

In this case, the business earns Barter Credits and then the owner uses the Barter Credits personally.  The owner would then have to claim the Barter Credits as personal income through his shareholder account, dividends or just general wages etc.  This would be considered taxable personal income.

2) the owner doesn’t want to increase personal income.

In this case, the business earns Barter Credits and then the owner uses the Barter Credits personally. But, instead of the owner adding the use of the Barter Credits to personal income, the owner pays back the company an equal amount in personal CDN dollars.

Why is this beneficial?  Well, lets say the owner of the cleaning company was going to be buying $3000 worth of flowers for their upcoming wedding. Without this creative trading maneuver, the owner would be paying $3000 in after-tax CDN dollars to the flower shop and the deal ends there. It’s not like the flower shop is obligated to spend $3000 CDN back with the cleaning company…once the cash is gone, it’s gone. And what’s even worse? The flower shop may even have your competitor cleaning their shop.

Instead, it makes a lot more sense for the owner of the cleaning company to let BarterPay send them $3000 worth of NEW barter business.  Then, they spend the Barter Credits on flowers for the wedding. Finally, the owner of the cleaning company takes the same $3000 CDN (that it was about to give the flower shop) and writes a cheque back to their own company thereby negating any personal gain.

In each scenario, the owner is still down $3k in personal after tax CDN dollars. But, In scenario 1, the cash is sitting in the flower shop’s bank account and no new sales were generated for the cleaning company.

Conversely, in scenario 2, the cash is sitting in the owners cleaning company and at the same time they received $3000 in new business from the BarterPay network!!!

Such an easy thing to do.  Takes a mental shift, but hey, it’s worth it!

Follow Freddy and Sam as they figure out how to make money and save money while owning their own hotels. Guess who chooses to be smart and by doing so, comes out ahead? Freddy or Sam?

A rather large number of business owners and managers tend to sabotage their own bartering experience. As a result, they lose out on an amazing chance to make more money and get what they want.  So here’s the Top 10 Ways to Ruin Your Barter Experience (and sabotage your own business.!):

If you want to ruin it for yourself….

10) Don’t communicate with your Barter Coach.
Good exchanges (like BarterPay) assign a Barter Coach to each member. Those coaches help connect the member with things that they need, which is amazing, because it enables you to go about your everyday business while having a real person go to work for you. Unfortunately, some members are terrible at returning their coach’s calls and emails. This makes it virtually impossible to help them. If the member is very busy, at the very least it helps to message your coach, even if it’s a short text OR, if you have a spouse or staff that can handle purchase and sales requests from the coach directly, that is probably the best way to get things done.  After all, the coach is part of your sales team who could potentially save you thousands of dollars per year in your business!  That’s worth a text or much more!

9) Don’t team up or work with your coach.
Some people ‘challenge’ the coach to make barter work and then sabotage it by not working with them.  In order for a coach to work effectively you have to let them in on purchases you’re making both in the business and personally, and what is generally going on in the business. Help them help you! The way some business owners treat their coach would be akin to asking someone to do your taxes but refusing them access to any of your books and records.  🙂

8) Tell other members you can’t spend your Barter Credits even when you can. (yes, people actually do this!)
Some members will complain to others that they can’t spend their Barter Credits even though they have a loan outstanding from purchases they’ve already made! Their thought must be that “if I complain, this supplier will take pity on me and accept more barter in the deal” (or sell me more product than I initially requested on barter). In fact, this can sour a seller on doing barter at all (especially if they are new to barter and don’t have their own experience). It makes it hard to connect that member to other members to make purchases because of the possible negative impact the complainer will have on the other members.

7) Don’t make quick buying decisions.
Some opportunities are very short notice on something with finite availability. If a member cannot make a quick decision, they will miss out on these opportunities.

6) Don’t follow through on a purchase you plan to make.
Some members will give their coach a few requests, the broker will find what they want and the buyer will not even contact the seller. This is frustrating for the seller who is waiting for their call and the coach who went through the effort of setting it up. The coach may have even done the seller a special favour to get the buyer the opportunity. Failure to follow through discourages the coach from working as hard on future requests for obvious reasons! 🙂

5) Don’t follow up on sales we send your way.
Some selling members will be given contact information to go and quote work for another member, and they’ll procrastinate in following up or change the pricing or waffle on whether they’ll accept barter after confirming with the coach. Often times this means that they lose the business and create a negative referral from the other member. It also makes the coach reluctant to send them future barter opportunities.

4) Provide poor service.
Even in the ‘regular’ world, some businesses don’t provide good customer experience. We try to filter out people like this, but some of these businesses will sneak through the gate. Also, some businesses will only behave this way when they are in a cash crunch, and when they joined everything was going well. While some members will think “I got bad service because I was paying in barter”, most realize that the business would have provided poor service regardless of the form of payment.

3) Do not grasp the concept of ‘Two Worlds’.
Here is what Two Worlds Concept means: (this is the Rainbow Unicorn World that doesn’t exist but everyone wishes it did! ha ha)

i) THE CASH WORLD – is difficult (costly and takes time) to come up with brand new business from customers you’ve never done business with before, but very easy to spend the cash once you have it. I don’t know about you but I can spend it in minutes!

ii) THE BARTER WORLD – is easier for the business owner to get brand new business from customers they’ve never done business with before (because BarterPay does most of the work for you), but a little more work to spend the Barter Credits once you have them. They are easier to get, a bit hard to spend. If you wanted them to be extremely easy to spend, then you would be asking to live in the Rainbow Unicorn World….

iii) THE RAINBOW UNICORN WORLD – doesn’t exist. What?! No way!  🙂 I get it. How awesome would it be to live in a world where money is easy to get AND easy to spend? If barter was easy to get and easy to spend it would overtake the cash world and make it completely disappear. So this world doesn’t exist. It’s the world where fluffy cotton candy clouds exist and I believe it’s where the Care Bears live. Possibly My Little Pony.

Some clients also fixate on one purchase request, (‘I want a computer and nothing else!!’) and won’t move on with any other requests even if what they want is not available and there are a myriad of other products and services they could buy.

2) Refuse to accept Price vs Cost.
BarterPay polices the pricing of products and services in their systems to make sure pricing stays fair. Most exchanges operate at the retail to retail level, so pricing may not be the lowest discounted price, but it is also not price gouging. Smart members know what the cost in their Barter Credits is and are able to make purchasing decisions using that cost. For example, say a retailer’s cost of goods is $0.50 / T$1… and they have two quotes for painting, one all cash for $5000 and one all trade for T$7000. If the retailer is focused on price – they will go for the all cash option. But that is not good math. If they understand cost (and good math), they will proceed with the all trade option. Assuming they are otherwise happy with either painter and price/cost is the deciding factor, the retailer that bartered saved $1500 even though they spent T$2000 more. Why? Remember that $1 for them only costs them $0.50, so the T$7000 only costs them $3500 hard cash. I don’t know about you but I’d rather spend $3500 than $5000! Knowing the math is crucial for making smart decisions.

1) Don’t pay fees on time.
BarterPay only charges fees when they have actually provided service. Nobody likes not being paid for work done. How long would you expect your staff to work for you, if you stopped paying them? 😉

So, if you can avoid these 10 behaviours, you will not only be a great person to work with but you will have an amazing experience with BarterPay and most importantly you will make more money in your business. And who wants to sabotage their own business, right?

Are you Freddy or Sam? Find out in this video explaining the difference between two restaurant owners.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT BARTER

We often come across small business owners without much bartering experience. Perhaps they have bartered on a one-to-one basis before, but not in a network setting.  These business owners often have an unrealistic expectation of how a barter network works, and more importantly, how it will benefit them!  There are many misconceptions about the barter industry, but the most common one we hear is people who think they can trade for free!

NEW TO THE BARTERING SYSTEM

For example, we will become introduced to a painter who has been operating a successful painting business for the past 5 years. He is currently expanding his business to new areas, and desperately needs new print marketing material in the way of brochures and business cards.  BarterPay connects with the business owner and explains how we can help him fulfill this request by tapping into the extensive BarterPay network. With no previous barter network experience, he unfairly expects to trade his painting services for the brochures he needs, yet get his supplies, gasoline, materials and labour paid for in cash!

He does not want to pay the printer in cash for the paper, ink and labour to produce his brochures, but expects cash to be paid for his expenses. This is not fair to the printer, nor does it create a lasting barter relationship between the 2 business owners.  The nature of trading is that you get what you give.  The more you trade and in higher quantities, the more you get back, and at higher percentages of trade. It just always seems to happen that way.

THE NATURE OF TRADE – YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE

Every small business has a cash cost to barter, which is called the “Incremental Cost of Goods Sold”. This does not include overhead, leases, salaries, etc., but rather only the extra cash costs associated with taking on a new job. This makes it so that everyone has some skin in the game.  To learn more about trading using Canada’s barter system, visit our frequently asked questions section.

As the owner of BarterPay Simcoe County, I’m a pretty big barter advocate.  This isn’t something new for me – I’ve been trading my whole life!  Hot wheels in the driveway, school lunches (I was a master at swinging trades to get those Chocolate Wagon Wheels that Mom would never buy us), hockey cards.  You name it, I probably traded it as a kid!

Those sort of direct trades were easy.  I usually had more carrots and celery than I wanted.  My friend Dave wasn’t too fond of Wagon Wheels (my favourite!) and, once I threw in a Dutch Apple Pop Tart, the deal was done!

Unfortunately for business owners, modern trade is rarely that simple.  Perhaps you’re a Registered Massage Therapist looking to print up some flyers.  There’s an amazing Printer across the street, but she’s not interested in making a trade for your work.  End of story and time to pay cash, right?  Wrong, because that’s where BarterPay comes in.

How BarterPay Works

In my previous blog post, I discussed how barter can benefit your business.  Today, I’d like to tell you a little more about how a bartering network like BarterPay works.

This definition from WhatIs.com is kind of wordy, but gets the point across:

“Because barter is based on reciprocity, it requires a mutual coincidence of wants between traders. This requirement complicates barter, but in a sufficiently large system, traders can be found to supply most wants. “

At BarterPay, we provide that “sufficiently large system” for businesses throughout Canada. BarterPay is an extensive network of thousands of businesses, where all kinds of products and services are traded multi-directionally.   Our clients have the flexibility to use their Barter Credits they have earned to purchase what they want or need from thousands of businesses within the BarterPay network (Each Barter Credit is equal to one CDN dollar.) BarterPay provides the platform where trades come together for our clients, much like a clearinghouse does for stocks, or a commercial bank does for cheques. Just like a brokerage firm, BarterPay receives a commission on each purchase transaction.

Trade works.  At BarterPay, we see how barter benefits our members every single day.  Not convinced?  Let’s have a coffee and talk.  My treat – I know a great place nearby that accepts trade – no Wagon Wheels on the menu though!

One of the challenges for any start-up business is finding customers.  Joining BarterPay gives you an immediate sales channel. Once you become a member of BarterPay and start accepting the currency of the exchange, Barter Credits, other BarterPay members will become your customers.

Barter Credits can be converted into other products & services such as advertising to attract cash paying customers. This allows you to conserve precious operating cash by leveraging your products and services rather than using your cash profits or additional debt.

For those businesses and individuals considering barter/trade as a technique for maximizing profits, the experts at BarterPay suggest the following tips:

• Think Trade First before making any purchase for your business.This is especially critical for start-ups, when you are establishing relationships with new vendors, some of which you may be able to pay via Barter Credits. Some items you may need are office equipment, advertising, printing, professional services, renovations and the like.
• Use barter/trade to maximize sales by selling unused or unsold inventory at full prices. This can include: filling empty hotel rooms and restaurant seats; creating new sales channels from a new group of barter buyers with available trade credits to purchase from you at full prices; and providing professional skills or services to maximize billable time and reduce downtime.
• Train your vendors to use barter to your own advantage. When suppliers approach you for business, try to make barter one of the contingencies of making your deal.
• Buy on trade, resell for cash. Barterers frequently have the opportunity to acquire goods or services on trade, which can be resold to their cash customers.

Financing a new business in this economy is challenging. Contact BarterPay for assistance with your start-up.

Kim Groff, Regional Owner, BarterPay Saskatoon

There are lots of factors to consider when deciding whether or not to expand into a new location or focus on existing locations. Once they decide to move forward with a launch into a new area, most business owners know that they can’t simply say, “Here I am!” and expect consumers to flock to their business.

There are definitely businesses where awareness in other markets is already strong and people already travel to the current locations from the new area. However, for most businesses this is not the case. This would be especially true for service based businesses where their customers rarely go to their location.

So how do you generate that initial traffic or even test market the interest in the other city, market area or location?

1. Ask existing contacts and consumers who buy from you if they know people that they can refer to your business in the new market. You can run inside sales campaigns and referral programs specifically targeting growth into the new market.
2. Use barter. Contact your BarterPay broker and get connected with the office in the area you are expanding to. Not only will you get access to potential customers in the new market, you will also be able to trade for costs such as advertising, as well as meals and accommodation for yourself and your launch team.  One of the powerful ways to use barter is to buy things you need without dipping into your existing cash flow.  Then it’s easier on your pocket book to launch into a new venture, and way less stressful!  Also, a HUGE, (can I say HUUUGE?) bonus to using barter to launch into a new market is that you will have access to barter coaches who are walking, breathing, real life sales reps who will already have access to business owners all over Canada and have the ability to put your business in front of thousands of other business owners and CEOs to make all the major decisions!  Many people have no idea that these services even exist, yet they can completely transform how you do business if you let them go to work for you!
3. Advertise through social media as well as traditional advertising streams.

Whether you are expanding an existing business into a new market or opening a brand new business – learning how to leverage the best local barter exchange in the area can allow you to rapidly gain a foothold in the market.

As Canada’s only national exchange with local offices across the country, BarterPay is poised to come along side you in your launch strategy.

In this Part 1 of a 2-part blog series we will look at expanding an existing business to a new market.

Before expanding to a new market (either as an owned or franchised location), you should first consider whether or not you have figured out all the nuances of your business and whether you are ready to expand.  Expanding too early, or at the wrong point in time in the business life cycle, can be detrimental.  If you do not have the necessary infrastructure of people, finances and communication, you can stretch yourself too thin and possibly disrupt the success you are experiencing in current markets.

Are there changes you should make before opening additional markets?   For example, you may want to make sure your staff and management team at your existing locations are on solid ground, and the systems you have in place run well.  This is important when you want replicate anything in a new city or country.

You will also need to assess whether or not there are differences in the competitive landscape, economic diversity/strength and supply chain in the new market that could create major roadblocks to success if the strategy is not well thought out. (e.g. Target Canada did a poor job in pre-launch strategy and were an epic failure…if nothing else because they didn’t call BarterPay first ) 🙂

Once you have determined that you are ready to forge ahead into the new market consider the following areas that you could use a barter exchange to leap frog where you would be otherwise:

1) New customers – Since you are launching into a new market, every customer is new to you.   We have a ready network of customers who would consider purchasing from you if available on trade.  The Barter Coaches in the market will work hard to inform all of the local members of your presence and get them to try your products/services.  They are your built in sales team! Once you are ready to open you could soft launch to the BarterPay members as first customers, who can provide you feedback prior to your hard launch date.

2) Local service providers – BarterPay has a list of great small to medium size businesses that would love to work with you in all the markets we are in across Canada.  We can source these services in most markets:

• Office / Commercial cleaners.
• Human resource consulting / Key staff hiring
• Social Media / PR Services
• Water Cooler Service
• Bookkeeping
• Computer Services / Telephone Services
• Printing
• Construction / Renovations
• Real Estate Agents and sometimes actual space for rent (if you haven’t already lined up a location)
• Other

3) Advertising – not only can we provide advertising to BarterPay members.  Each market has a variety of options to allow you to advertise to potential local customers.

• Radio
• Local TV
• Newpaper
• Magazines
• Flyers
• Billboards
• Websites

4) Launch Event – you can obtain most if not all of the following through barter to have a great launch event at your new location:

• Catering
• Entertaiment
• Bouncy Castles
• Sound & Lighting
• Extra portable toilets
• Photographers

As you can see there are lots of different ways to use Barter Credits to advance yourself in the new market, allow us to come along side you to ease the transition.  There may also be areas in your existing market that barter vendors can reduce time consuming tasks your team is performing, so that they can focus on helping your expansion efforts.

How to record larger amounts that require cash and barter blends on your accounting software. If you have any questions after watching this video please contact your local BarterPay office.

A step by step on how to pay bills to your vendors through BarterPay. A general explanation of the billing process. If you have any questions after watching this video please contact your local BarterPay office.

This is an explanation of how to work your BarterPay account into your business if you have various departments. If you have any questions after watching this video, please contact your local BarterPay office.

As the barter system gets bigger and bigger and sales potentials become higher for each business, the question of personal spending and affiliate accounts get brought up more often. Lets chat about exactly how this works.