| Barter (or trade) is a powerful tool that
represents a solution for companies with available inventory
or services. By accepting payment in trade dollars instead of
cash, a business maximizes their efficiency by increasing inventory
turnover or billable hours. Using the trade dollars earned, that
company can purchase goods or services they want — without paying cash.
A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry
According to the International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA)
estimates just in the U.S., over 470,000 companies actively
participate in barter for a total of over $12 billion in annual
sales. Over 65% of the corporations listed in the New York
Stock Exchange are presently using barter to reduce surplus
inventory and bolster sales and to ensure that production facilities
run at near capacity. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates
that 20% to 25% of world trade is now barter, and corporate
barter is now a $20 billion industry. Barter continues to carve
out an important place in the U.S. and
world economy.
HOW DOES BARTER WORK WITH A TRADE EXCHANGE?
A BarterPays! broker works with you to bring your company new
sales and increased market share, to move available inventory
and to minimize cash outlay for everyday business expenses. Members
of the BarterPays! barter exchange use barter dollars, instead
of cash, to handle their transactions. BarterPays! provides you
with an alternate distribution network. You can charge retail
value for goods and services in trade dollars, instead of selling
them for reduced rates in cash or having them go unsold. A barter
exchange acts as a third-party record keeper, providing clients
with monthly statements that reflect all trade purchases and
sales and show the current trade-dollar balance.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF TRADING?
1. Barter generates new customers, allowing
you to expand your market and maintain your cash-paying customers.
This is incremental business — customers who bypass competing
businesses to do business with you.
2. Barter conserves cash and increases
profits. Barter creates
new customers because buyers are motivated to pay with their
products or services and save cash. In other words: If you had
to purchase a copier for $1000, what would you rather do? Write
a check or pay with an equal amount of your product/service at
its normal selling price to a new customer? Most businesses prefer
to trade and conserve cash.
3. Barter moves excess inventory:
• Retailers: Retailers must keep their inventory moving. Each
season customers shop for the most current merchandise. BarterPays!
will bring you buyers to move excess inventory, eliminating the
advertising costs and heavy discounting otherwise needed to accomplish
this.
• Manufacturers/Wholesalers: We can coordinate the selling
of your surplus inventory, while helping you obtain the best possible
prices for your products. We negotiate for you to receive either
the going price in the marketplace or at least your full normal
selling price to distributors. This allows you to maintain your
current pricing integrity as well as upgrading your return on investment.
4. Increase productivity by filling downtime and unused capacity:
• Service business: Increase billable hours! If you are not
at 100% capacity twelve months a year and can handle new customers,
we can help you fill your idle time with new business opportunities.
And now you will have trade
dollars to purchase what you need.
• Hotels: Suppose you have ten vacant rooms at $100 a night
and you spend $1000 annually on carpet cleaning. Barter provides
a way for you to buy this service, fill your rooms (at your cost
on the rooms) and maintain your cash.
• Manufacturers: If you are currently operating
at 90% capacity, going to 93% changes very little in the cost of
production. Wouldn’t
it make sense to take on a new barter customer to cover the cost
of next year’s product catalog?
5. Networking expands your customer base.
Barter customers will bring you all of the cash referrals that
your present clients bring. You will gain new cash paying customers
too — as long as you give your barter customers the same
great services and pricing as you offer everyone else.
HOW DO WE MARKET YOUR BUSINESS?
1. Our brokers (your barter liaisons) phone member businesses
that regularly purchase your products or services and facilitate
an introduction. Our brokers become part of your sales force.
2. We distribute yo ur flyers and brochures through our direct
mail program to member businesses free of charge.
3. We send daily emails where we sell your products and promote
your services.
4. We place your specials on our weekly BarterFax. This is a
great way to move inventory quickly or fill a vacant seat at
an event.
5. We provide a free listing in our membership directory.
6. We produce holiday shopping expositions (“The Barter
Mall”) for member businesses where they can promote and
display what their company has to offer.
7. We host informal gatherings where members network.
8. We provide regional and national exposure to businesses looking
to expand
their horizons. We do this through our reciprocal trading relationships
with
barter exchanges nationwide.
Would you like more information on BarterPays!?
Click here to request
information. |
