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Many business owner trade services in lieu of spending cash, also known as bartering. Very often this is not an equitable transaction, poor records are kept, and in the end it can damage relationships.  I have bartered the old fashioned way in the past, and I had some bad experiences myself. I usually felt that I gave more than I received, and it would be interesting to see if the other party felt the same way.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. I learned that there was a better was to barter and that was by using a professional business barter network  (a.k.a. trade exchange.)  Using a trade exchange allowed me to bill for my services and collect money in my trade account and then spend it with any other vendor that I wanted. Now, I did not have to try to keep track of everything myself or have those difficult conversations. Best of all, working through the barter network has truly helped to grow my business by connecting me to a whole new network of businesses; most of whom know other people who pay cash. Imagine that? Doing business through a barter network can lead to new cash business!

Here are some additional benefits of bartering through a professional barter network:

1. Education. Many people fail in the world of barter because they simply don’t learn how to use it effectively.

2. Tracking. Every month, I get a statement telling me what I have earned and what I have spent.

3. New Business Resources. Through my barter network, I have developed several new business relationships where I can leverage my trade dollars to reduce cash expenses.

4. More Business. If you have any un-billable time, unfilled restaurant seats, or unsold event tickets, you can benefit from turning that into trade revenue.

The bottom line is doing business on trade works, and it works well. In fact, many Fortune 500 companies trade services as a normal business practice. If it works for them, why wouldn’t it work for you?

Whether you own a local pizza restaurant or a small business accounting firm, I am 100% confident that your business can benefit from joining a barter network. If you have any questions or want a referral to a trade network that serves your area, please contact me.

There are many keys to doing business successfully, and one of them is the different ways you are able to accept payments from clients.  Perhaps its obvious that if you can take more forms of payment, you can do more business. What may not seem obvious is all of the ways that you can take payment and how to get started. I will list several and give some tips, as well as pros and cons, for each.

Cash. It’s been said that “cash is king” but it’s not always easy to get cash from someone, especially if they don’t live in your state or if you want to do business online. On the plus side, if you can get it, you most likely won’t have any problems redeeming it.

Checks. While checks seem to be a great way to take payment, they are not timely and not 100% reliable. Case in point, I am waiting for a check that someone told me they sent last Wednesday from about 15 miles away. My suspicion is that I am not being told the whole truth, and my prayer is that it shows up at all. With the advent of technology, taking checks by phone or electronically might be an option as well.

Credit Cards. There is no reason as at all that a business owner should not be able to take credit cards. There are at least two options that will allow any business owner to accept credit cards. One is PayPal, which isn’t optimal but it gets the job done and the second is Square which is nice if you are in an environment where you see customers and can swipe their cards. Square allows you to take payment using your smartphone, which is nice and if you don’t have the customers card, you can do a manual entry, but it will cost you a little more in fees. That aside, it’s not that difficult to get a traditional merchant services account. In fact, if you want a referral to the company I use and recommend (First Data), just send me your info using my contact form and I will have my rep contact you.

Barter. Talking about barter elicits many different responses based on your experience with barter or trade transactions you have done in the past.  I know because when I first met by trade broker (who is now a close friend and professional colleague), I had thoughts of those unbalanced barter deals and other barter deals gone bad. Regardless of your experience, barter is a good thing. You can choose to believe it or not. In fact, I am going to do a series on the benefits of accepting barter  as a form of currency to help business owners understand how they might be missing out. One of the companies I own generated 27% of it’s business through the barter network that I am a part of, and the best part is that it included lots of cash paying customers. Stay tuned for that series, especially if you are a skeptic. I know I was, and not I am a believer and one of the biggest advocates of doing business on barter.

I hope that this is helpful to someone and perhaps you can earn some more business simply by taking credit cards if you weren’t or joining a barter network if you are not in one. If you have any questions about barter networks, feel free to contact me and I will share what I know. Also, please subscribe to my blog or Facebook Page to make sure you get all of the follow up posts in the barter series.