Partnering,
Bartering and Trading Remember when you were a kid and money was that mysterious, magical thing you
rarely possessed? You had to find other ways
to conduct business like, Wanna trade
lunches?" . . . or, "if you let me ride your bike, I'll give you three cookies, and you can even have the chocolate chip
ones. " Then you grew up, and trading was part of the past, replaced by the
hard-earned currency you probably still don't have as much of as you want. Well, barter and trade is still alive in business
too. Maybe you've invented this great new gizmo, and
you think the Internet would be a great marketplace. But
you also wonder if that gizmo will be lost among the millions of other gizmos. Perhaps you have a line of giftware at a great
price. The Internet might be the place to sell it, but you would prefer to share the
expense of a Web site. Or you have a large
line of products that you want to put on the Internet, but you don't want to be bothered
with the marketing. Wouldn't it be great to
have someone else do the marketing who has a vested interest in seeing that this line of
products outsells its competitors on the Web? Each
of these scenarios has a solution in Internet Partnering or Bartering. Like the Internet, the growth of commercial
barter has exploded around the country. Last
year, the concept of using barter dollars for business expenses led to an $8 billion
annual market. And that includes only the amount of barter dollars tracked from more than
400 trade exchanges in the United States. The
largest of these exchanges, ITEX, has a locally active barter group. What kind of expenses
can you barter? Begin with basics such as
accounting, legal services, printing, advertising and, of course, Internet Web sites. Then get creative. How
about luxury accommodations in Hawaii. fishing in Canada's number one trophy trout lake,
or, on a more practical note, barter for building materials and services, a dentist or
doctor's services, lawn care and party supplies. For
this kind of bartering, you don't even have to do the digging and scratching yourself. You have a broker who will help you make the deals
or even make them for you. Straight trades are a little more difficult, but
once you get the hang of it, you just decide what you want out of the deal, make direct
eye contact and go for it. All they can do is
say no. Believe it or not, there's a lot of
this activity going on, especially if you have goods or services that are universally
needed. The key to a trade is in the offering. You
already know what you want. just make sure what you're offering is of equal value and of
interest to the other company. Trying to dump
something you can't sell only earns you a bad name. An entirely new concept in building Internet
sites was developed by TheMoneysavers.com. In exchange for building a state-of-the-art Web
site with all the whistles and bells, including shopping cart systems with credit card
payments and extensive online advertising, they receive a percentage of the profits
generated from the site. "Partnering" on an Internet site makes a lot of sense.
The products may be yours, but a "partner" who receives a percentage on the
sales of those products, instead of an initial payment for services, has a much greater
interest in your ongoing success. Your only
responsibility is in supplying the products to the customer. The marketing headaches
belong to the partner. There really isn't anything wrong with any of these concepts. Getting your products before as many potential customers as possible is the idea. So, whether you use cash or another method of barter, the bottom line is still the same – a system that works for you.
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