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More than Just Money: Barter |
by:
Donald Lee |
By definition, barter iswhen parties swap services or resources. But in business terms, it’sexchange that ends usually with everyonewinner. All parties involved in bartering hold onto their cold hard cash and don’t losecent. There’s no worries about getting ripped off asbuyer or seller, so it’sexchange that’s high on trust, low on tension. And finally,government doesn’t get its hands on any ofproceeds. Bartering is suchgreat system, it’s no wonder it’s been around nearly forever.
Historians and archeologists reckon that bartering ishuman business practice forages. It goes back as far as written history, and perhaps even further into mankind’s (and womankind’s) history of business practices.
Between humans,actual business practice of money came long before money was invented. In written history, as far back as nine,zerozerozero BC, shepherds used cattle asmeans of exchange—from sheep to cows, camels to goats. Then when farmers came along duringcourse ofnext couple thousands of years, grains and plants becamehot commodity inworld of bartering.
Bartering may have dissipated overyears, but it by no means went away. That’samazing thing about bartering. It still is, to this day,ideal method of business exchange for some business folk, including companies with millions in assets. But it’s especially helpful for small businesses looking to getleg up on their competition.
Listen to people talking in today’s business world, and you’ll hear stories such asprogrammer who helped to codeinteractive Web page forstartup graphic-design company, in exchange forlogo design for his own startup surf-board design shop. Then there’sstory ofnew Internet advertising firm rolling outad campaign forrestaurant. Later that year,restaurant hosted“free” party and dinner for that ad firm’s clients.
Examples in today’s business world abound for bartering. The reason is that bartering still has many advantages to it in this modern business world.
For instance, for companies that are just starting to build up their assets, bartering isopportunity to save their hard-earned cash. Even established companies lovechance to keep their money inbank. With bartering,company can get what it needs, while providingservice thatother company needs.
And because there is no money passed between pockets,taxman does not even need to know about it. That saves you, and your accountant,trouble of figuring out one more piece of business income or expense.
Lastly, deals involving money may whip upold Scrooge mentality—a combination of greed and mistrust. With money deals, you may always be left wondering if you gotshort end ofstick. Not so with bartering. With bartering, you get exactly what you need. And in return, you givefair share of goods or services.
There’s no need to beScrooge here. Instead,whole transaction is one of trust and understanding. Generally speaking, bartering for goods and services feels more worthwhile than paying money, whether you’re bartering fordinner party for your clients, Internet advertising space, or whatever it is that you and your bartering partner agree to. Perhaps it’s because you can actually feelvalue of your own goods and services. Or it may be just because you don’t have to open your wallet.
Aboutauthor:
Donald Lee ispublic relations manager for Buysellcommunity.com Buysellcommunity provides free classified listing services. Buy, Sell, and trade (barter): auto, computers, household items, real estate, pets and much more. For localized classifieds, please visit
http://www.buysellcommunity.com
Free Buy & Sell Classifieds
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