About Barter

Barter offers businesses a way to increase sales, conserve cash, support the local economy, enhance productivity, reduce excess inventory, reduce seasonality and bring you new customers. You sell your goods and services at your regular price and receive barter dollar credits, which then can be used to purchase goods and services you want or need without paying cash, improving your cash flow.

Another important point to remember is that you sell at regular prices and you buy at wholesale! If you provide something for sale at $100 and your cost for that item is $40 and you pay a typical 15 percent fee to buy something on barter with barter dollars, then your real cost to get that $100 item is $55 (your actual cost plus the barter fee). It is not a surprise to know that most of the Fortune 500 companies barter millions of dollars every year to get things they want or need.

Why Businesses Use Trade

·         To Increase Sales
Growth-oriented businesses are prime candidates to trade their goods and services as members in a barter exchange. Companies interested in increasing their revenue, keeping their workers engaged in productive work, and/or looking to rid themselves of idle inventory or under-performing assets often find that joining a barter exchange helps them accomplish all of these goals.

·         To Conserve Cash
In addition to generating new sales, barter also enables an organization to conserve cash. Trade credits can be used to purchase equipment, supplies, inventory as well as a wide range of business and personal services without the use of cash. With barter, companies can buy what they need at the carrying cost of their inventory, thereby reducing the cash outlay for needed items.

·         To Support the Local Economy
Many business owners like the idea of supporting other businesses in their local community. By joining their local exchange, businesses support each other by buying and selling from each other using trade credits.

·         To Enhance Productivity
Barter helps companies put inventory, equipment and employees to good use, creating new revenue that would not have been available otherwise. That new revenue can be used to finance the purchase of new equipment, raw materials or services to support the business. Essentially, a company’s less productive assets are exchanged for more valuable products or services through the help of a barter exchange.

·         To Reduce Non-Performing Assets
Businesses with obsolete inventory frequently find that bartering the assets yields a much better value than liquidating it for pennies on the dollar. Instead, the company can sell the inventory to a barter member for trade credits close to the carrying cost or book value and then apply those credits to other business expenses, such as marketing, entertainment, travel or raw material purchases. Exchanging an unwanted asset for something else of value helps recover a significant amount of incremental revenue that might otherwise have been lost.

·         To Reduce Seasonality
During months when business is typically slower, due to a company’s product or service mix, companies can still strengthen their overall financial position by accepting trade credits.

·         To Establish New Business Relationships
In addition to the impact trading can have, participation in a barter exchange significantly enhances a company’s network of contacts. Businesses develop new professional relationships through the buying and selling that occurs among trade members. Those new relationships often lead to additional cash business as well.