Thursday, March 23, 2006

Bartering: Good/Bad?

Barter is the simplest form of commerce and in some cases it can be just as profitable as CASH.  Here is a way I have used barter (there are businesses out there that do this as their business, so contacting one of them might be an option also).

 

I had a friend that needed my counsel on improving his business image; he was a start up and was self funded so there was no budget to do anything until he got a cash flow going.   His business was to build web-sites for large corporations.  And that was the extent of the technical portion of his business I understood.  He wanted to build a web-site for me in exchange of me helping him learn how to play with the big boys.

 

I didn’t need a web-site at the time, but I took him up on the offer since I did know someone who did.  I asked what the exchange rate would be for his service of building a site.  We agreed upon the amount and I started to work.

 

I picked up the phone and told my friend that I had a way for him to get into a web-site and laid on him a cash deal that was an amount a little above the exchange value my new client had agreed upon.

 

 I provided the consulting service to my client and ask my client to provide my friend with a web-site.  He did, my friend paid me in CASH. (And yes, for you CPA’s and TAX Lawyers out there, I did report it.)  The result was that my client did get out on the golf course with one of the IT manages for a firm he was targeting.

 

So, in this case bartering worked for me and for him.

 

But most of the time it doesn’t, so cash works for me also… I am sure others have their experiences to share on Bartering, good or bad.  

 

 

Scot Duke

President

Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC.

scot.duke@innovativebusinessgolf.com

www.innovativebusinessgolf.com

 

‘My Blog’ http://businessgolf.blogspot.com

 

Author of: ‘How To Play Business Golf’, From The Boardroom To The Fairways…

The best investment you can make for your business…

http://www.innovativebusinessgolf.com/business_golf/cb_order.html

 

 

 

1 comment:

Carol said...

Hi Duke,
I just found your blog and enjoyed reading several of your posts... especially the one about the "munchkin" trying to close a deal starting at the first tee box! Anyway, I am a realtor and have gotten a lot of business through networking on the golf course. My approach is to build a relationship and be sure they know what business I am in. It takes patience, but it works for me! Although I have other blogs, today I started a golf blog for the purpose of logging one full season of golf game-by-game, course-to-course. Should be fun. Good luck with your blog and I will check back once in a while. My golf blog is at:
www.CarolsGolfSeason.blogspot.com