Barter for Startups

Start-up businesses can conserve precious operating cash by making purchases with their products rather than their profits, thus freeing up cash and bringing in new sources of business through the drawing power of the exchanges. When business owners "buy" products or services first by using trade dollars, they are essentially able to make purchases with interest-free credit lines.

Another key benefit to the entrepreneur is his or her ability to purchase such services as advertising on a barter basis and attract cash-paying customers. Additionally, joining a barter exchange - either offline or online - has the immediate and important effect of creating a new sales channel for a member business: once a business becomes part of a private "economy" using a proprietary barter currency, other businesses who may never have bought and sold from one another now are incentivized to do business with fellow exchange members, thus creating new sales channels.

For those businesses and individuals considering barter as a technique for maximizing profits, the experts suggest some of the following tips:

Think barter before making any purchase for your business. This is especially critical for start-ups, when you may well be able to finance the cost of office furniture, phone systems, advertising, and the like by using trade dollars now that you won't have to replace until later, once your business is off and running.

Use barter to maximize sales by selling unused or unsold inventory at full prices. This can include: filling empty hotel rooms and airline seats; creating new sales channels by a new group of barter buyers with available trade credits to purchase from you at full prices; and providing professional skills or services to maximize billable time and reduce downtime.

Train your vendors to use barter to your own advantage. When suppliers approach you for business, try to make barter one of the contingencies of making your deal.

Buy on trade, resell for cash. Barterers frequently have the opportunity to acquire goods on trade, which can be resold to cash customers. Graphic designers, for instance, can buy typesetting or color separations on trade and bill the cost of these expenses directly to their cash-paying clients.

Financing a start-up in this economy is challenging. Before buying anything for your start-up, consider barter for things like office furniture, phone systems, and advertising, conserving precious operating cash. Call eXmerce at (403) 215-9220 for assistance with your start-up.

Which Businesses Take Advantage of Barter?

Most are small and mid-sized businesses with empty chairs and a perishable product. We’re talking about the window washer with no jobs on the schedule or the baseball team with extra seats. How many restaurants have empty tables on Mondays? They’re discounting heavily, using Groupon, when we can drive business to them at full retail price.

One of the most popular businesses we have are dentists. Our members can use them to offer their employees dental benefits, which typically employees don’t get unless they work for a big employer. In fact, a lot of our members use barter as a health-benefit backup program so they can give their employees dental, optical, and chiropractic care.

Find out more about extended health benefits package by contacting eXmerce at 403-215-9220.

Powerful Tip To Improve Sales

Here’s a proven tip that won’t cost much but your time, yet could be just the ticket to improve your sales. The personal touch can bring dramatic results, as evidenced by the Stash Tea Company, which began sending a personal note to people who requested a catalog.

The program was based on their feeling that if a person sent a request, they deserved a special answer. Thus, all catalogs were accompanied by a personal letter. The company reported that this has boosted their sales a substantial 20%, dramatically affecting their bottom-line profits. In today’s often impersonal world, this is a simple but powerful idea.

Call eXmerce at (403) 215-9220 and improve your sales by using barter!

What Are Trade Dollars?

It's a virtual trade currency we use through the eXmerce community. A member pays a one-time set up fee of $299 plus a monthly $25 fee to open an eXmerce account and the member starts with a zero trade balance. Each member is assigned a trade broker and it is the responsibility of the trade broker to get to know the business and help the new member start earning trade dollars by selling their products and services to other members of the network. For instance, a hotel might say - the month of February is a slower time for them, so they'd like to drive traffic and earn trade dollars through the eXmerce network. When one of the member's through the eXmerce network checks into the hotel, they pay for their stay with Trade Dollars. The hotel owner then puts those Trade Dollars into his advertising budget or uses them later for anything else found through the eXmerce community.

If you have further questions about barter and how it works, please contact us at (403) 215-9220 or e-mail info@exmerce.com

Services Costs Keep Increasing ... Another Reason For Using Trade

Many stories about deflationary prices have appeared in our nation’s newspapers and TV outlets. All of which leads a person to believe that everything is dropping in price. Not so.

Although big-ticketed manufactured items are dropping a bit, what’s really more important for the entrepreneurial business owner is the cost of services used on a regular basis. And those prices are not dropping, they are increasing.

Luckily, many of these services are available through your trade exchange, where purchasing them on trade — at your barter cost — makes excellent sense in today’s tight economy.

Bottom-line: Focus your barter purchases on the increasingly costly services to get the most “bang” for your trade dollar!

Find out how eXmerce can help you save cash for your business! Please call us at (403) 215-9220.

Barter Can Build And Strengthen Your Business

Barter is a cashless medium where an exchange of goods and services of equal value between participating parties takes place. Today, barter is a world-wide 8 billion dollar a year industry. Nowadays, with federal and provincial government regulations in place, the barter industry is carefully managed and overseen by third party barter exchanges. In return for providing services that includes the tracking and recording of each individual transaction, and then providing members with an itemized monthly account statement, an exchange charges a nominal cash fee.

While many appreciate the chance to purchase goods and services ranging from everything from soup to nuts, there are endless items and services guaranteed to appeal to virtually every taste and desire. The list is practically endless, but some of the more popular ones are accounting and legal services, office supplies, vacations, clothing, restaurants, IT, antiques, cosmetics, and advertising among numerous others. However, as extensive as this line up is, the benefits of barter extend far beyond discounts as members are offered sales and marketing opportunities designed to build their business through the acquisition of new customers and clients.

Barter is a phenomenon which continues to gain momentum, as more and more business owners recognize that it is a cost effective tool and inexpensive way to grow and strengthen their business. This is a widening trend which is sure to continue well into the foreseeable future.

eXmerce can help you to build and strengthen your business! To find out more, please contact us at (403) 215-9220 or email info@exmerce.com.

Bartering Gift Certificates

Gift certificates are a wonderful trading vehicle for you because not only are they light-weight, small and easily transported, but their value varies widely.

Of U.S. shoppers, 74% buy at least one gift card or gift certificate annually. In effect, few things are more popular, especially during the holidays, than a gift certificate.

Because gift certificates, after all, are one type of currency whose value will fluctuate depending on the holders acquisition cost, and mindset. There are opportunities galore for the informed and aware trader. In the U.S. alone the use of gift certificates and gift cards is a $55-billion-a-year industry.

Through the eXmerce Trade Exchange, you can order directly from your Trade Broker the gift certificates. eXmerce issues gift certificates in $10, $25, $50 and $100 denominations. To order your gift certificates, please call us at (403) 215-9220.

Happy trading!