Are there any tax advantages to bartering? 

How will my business profit from barter?
Barter produces new business – allowing you to expand your market and maintain your cash-paying customers. Barter conserves cash. For example, if you owned a hotel that had ten vacant rooms at $100/night and you need a new copy machine priced at $1,000. Barter provides a way in which you can buy your copier, fill your rooms (at your cost on the rooms) and maintain your cash. The same is true for filling empty tables for a restaurant, moving inventory for retailers and manufacturers or increasing billable hours for service business. Barter provides a competitive edge. Barter clients are new clients that bypass competing businesses to do business at your establishment while you are maintaining your existing cash clients.

How does Barter work with a trade exchange?
A trade exchange eliminates the restrictions of one-on-one trading where each business must want what the other has to offer. A Trade Network, Inc. Trade Consultant works with you to bring your company new sales, increased market share and to minimize cash outlay for everyday business expenses. Clients of an exchange use trade dollars, instead of cash, to handle their transactions. 

An exchange acts as a third party record keeper, providing monthly statements to clients, which reflects all trade purchases, sales, and a current trade dollar balance.

What companies are involved in barter?
Globally, over 470,000 businesses are involved in Barter. It is estimated that 65% of Fortune 500 companies engage in barter to one degree or another.

What does it cost to get started?
There is a one-time membership investment to establish your business account. Transaction cover accounting, marketing, promotions and member services.

What if everyone wants my products and services and I can’t find enough to buy? 
Every member business is assigned a Trade Consultant in our office. They do a complete spending analysis with you on your current purchasing as well as projections for your business in the future. You can spend your trade in many of the same ways you spend your cash. If your products or services are in high demand, we are happy to call you first and tell you who is looking to purchase from you and what their needs are. This way you can decide if you can handle more business and know ahead of time what the job entails.

What if I need to make a purchase before I’ve earned trade dollars in the system?
Just like a bank, we encourage businesses to apply for a barter line of credit. If you qualify, you can begin purchasing immediately.

How should I price my products and services?
Prices quoted to barter clients are the same as prices quoted to cash paying customers. Business owners are educated shoppers. Barter is simply a mode of payment – just like a credit card or cash. 

How can I barter outside of my own city?
Trade exchanges participate in worldwide reciprocal trade relationships with other exchanges offering a multitude of additional barter opportunities. We fulfill our members’ travel requests via our vast Global Network. We also help businesses looking to open new markets by using the distribution channels available nationwide. In turn, we receive products from across the Nation that are made available to our local membership. 

The BANC (Nationwide Clearing House for Trade Exchanges) 
http://www.nate.org 

This association represents over 100,000 businesses and an estimated 1 billion dollars in trade. They offer members annual conventions and a trade broker certification program, maintain an ethics review process, and keep members informed of governmental actions and policies that have impact on our industry. Most importantly, they give barter exchanges the opportunity to market their members’ products to barter companies across the Nation. 

Much of the content in this section has been graciously provided to us by Debbie at Barter Business Unlimited, Newington, CT. Thanks to BBU for their permission to share ideas.