Archive for January, 2010
Businesses of all sizes are scrutinizing expenses and cutting costs where they can.
Some costs of doing business — advertising, ordering inventory and construction — can’t be eliminated entirely.
That has led the Iberian Pig and others to a centuries-old idea they say helps in any economy: bartering.
Among them is Blue MedSpa, a four-year-old company that offers traditional spa services, such as facials, massages, liposuction and tattoo removal.
“Right now, it’s tough economic times,” said Scott Cooper, Blue MedSpa’s chief operating officer.
Like the Iberian Pig, the spa barters its offerings through the services exchange firm Tradebank International for things it needs, such as advertising. The advertiser is “paid” with credits that they can use to purchase services of another member firm in Tradebank’s network….
Bud Kottman, the owner of Slumberland Furniture, recently threw a customer appreciation breakfast, complete with pastries, coffee, and a waiter to serve it all. And he didn’t pay a cent for any of it. Instead, he spent “trade dollars,” currency he earned by bartering couches, mattresses, and other pieces of furniture.
With cash at a premium these days, more businesses are doing what Kottman does and bartering goods and services to other business owners. It can be done informally — two companies making an evenly valued trade — or in a more formal “exchange” by which companies earn barter trade credits that they can bank and use with any vendor participating in the exchange network.
Kottman has been bartering for more than a dozen years. In June he joined Tradebank International, a barter exchange, as a way to expand his barter network further than the friends and business partners he knows face-to-face. Since then he’s bartered furniture for advertising, new tires and oil changes for the company’s vehicles, employee incentives, a security system, and hotel rooms….