Bartering – It’s Like Free Stuff For Your Business! Sort Of

I love to barter. There is no easier way to put it. When I first discovered that I had my own form of currency, something that most people wanted, I said, "I need to harness this. How do I exchange this currency for the popular green kind that pays my bills?" After a bit of trial and error and throwing real money away on bartering organizations, I discovered that if I tried hard enough and was inventive, the green stuff comes.

My wife Karen and I own a spa in the Tacoma area. She is a Licensed Massage Practitioner and I do Cosmetic Teeth Whitening. Both of us are in service businesses. This equates (for us) to 95% labor and 5% parts. We barter literally three to five times per week. Whether it is directly business related (new wood flooring in our office, legal services), advertising (our logo'd shirts and the 15 foot sign in front of our office), or for fun (Seahawks tickets), we have bartered practically everything imaginable.

But now the most important part, how to turn this into real money. Here's a great example: Our housekeeper. She comes once a week to our home in University Place. Now anyone who knows me knows I would never pay for one, (that's why I have kids). Every week, we give her a $65 gift certificate to our spa in exchange for her services. Now she could use these all herself which she has every right to do. But we planted the idea in her head to instead use these as a form of advertising. Now she puts in all her advertisements, "New Customers: Get your house cleaned by me and get a free hour long massage from Sand Dollar Spa & Massage". She just turned her barter of housecleaning into more customers for her. Now when each of these people come in for their sugar scrubs or seaweed wraps, they'll get addicted to Karen's magical hands and come back with their credit cards for the rest of their lives. Plus they'll find out about our other services, tell all their friends, buy gift certificates, etc, etc.

There are only two downsides to trading like crazy. Your time is one, which can easily be fit between paying customers. You also still have to pay taxes to the IRS on bartering, which is a small price to pay.

Now where do you find all of these people to trade with? Well if you are reading this on some sort of business networking site (which you are), there's your first clue. The internet and yellow pages are great places to find hungry businesses and individuals eager to trade. Often you just have to explain the benefits. A light bulb goes on above their head and you have just created a synergistic relationship which will make you more money with very little to no cash out of pocket.

So with cash flow problems on the rise for small businesses, what is the worst that could happen if you try out bartering, the most ancient form of currency? Well, at the very least you'll get your kid's room professionally cleaned.

By the way, I need some roofing work done, who needs their teeth whitened?