Boost Your Capital with a Trade Exchange!

When was the last time you flipped open a newspaper or turned on the news and were not inundated with stories about financial problems? From major stock market scares and mortgage woes to local bankruptcies money is tight and everyone is feeling it. But here is some good news you might not have heard about. There is a partial solution to help your company... Trade.

Trade or barter was around long before money. And it worked great in a simple society... If you were a farmer and had grain to spare you could trade it for something you needed, like cloth to make clothing. But as our needs increased, trade became more complicated. That same farmer might want to upgrade from a back breaking hoe to a nice plow but the local smithy has all the grain he needs. What can the farmer do?

This was a problem and money was the solution, easy as 1, 2, 3. Farmer sells grain. Farmer gets cash. Farmer buys plow.

Money might make the world go around but it's not always as plentiful as we'd like. This is especially true for those who provide goods and services that can in any way be considered a luxury while consumers limit spending on anything but the bare essentials.

This is where trade comes in. And with it, a trade exchange. A trade exchange is a central resource that provides membership to businesses who want to exchange goods or services for other goods or services. The manager of the trade exchange keeps track of trade dollars in the accounts, publicizes what's available and even helps broker the trading process when needed.

In short, a trade exchange makes it possible for one business to provide goods or services to another and banks the trade dollars for use on whatever available goods or services the business owner wants, now or later. You use your trade dollars for whatever you want. It's that simple.

Trade is a great medium, especially when money is tight. I've only been involved with it for about a year but here are just a few advantages I've witnessed first hand:

1) Improved Cash Flow. Imagine never paying accounting or legal fees out of pocket again? Or how about office cleaning or catered lunches? The less you spend out of pocket, the more you have in reserve for when you do need it.

2) Free Business Exposure. The minute I signed up in my local trade group, my small marketing company was put in front of hundreds of other area businesses I never would have reached.

3) Inventory Reduction. This one is best described with a story. One of my friends on the trade network had about $4,500 worth of high end cosmetics on hand. The company decided to rebrand and repackage to update their image. This could have been a disaster, leaving her with an obsolete product as far as boutique owners are concerned, so she traded it all in less than a week. And at full value!

4) Expanded Customer Base. Trade opens a whole new world where someone who might not have the cash to buy what you're offering certainly has the trade value.

5) Word of Mouth Advertising. Once you get your foot in any door with a bartered item you might be surprised to see just how quickly that client tells a friend about your goods or service. You might even have to take cash (oh no!)

6) Improved Customer Loyalty. Being part of a barter or trade network greatly improves your chances of getting repeat business with someone you might have never had a chance to work with before. Once they know you, there is no reason for them to even consider paying your competitor to do what you do.

Of course trade is not the "end all, be all solution." You still need to make money. A good barter exchange or trade exchange can expand your market share, offset your expenses and improve your bottom line.

If you would like to benefit from any of these things, it's worth looking through your local Yellow Pages or a stop at Google. Good luck!