Business Opportunities Weblog

June 17, 2008 by Rich Whittle | 3 Comments

Entrepreneur.com:

Let’s face it: 2007 wasn’t the best time to start a new business in Miami Beach. The real estate market had already crashed, and spiraling gas prices would soon dent the vital tourism industry.

So when Cleveland Cook, 40, found the need to hire an accountant for Can I Have Your Attention, his new advertising and branding agency, what he really wanted to know was, “Can I have a deal?”

Fortunately he found Claudia Peralta, a former corporate accountant who was just starting her own accounting practice around the same time. The two worked out an arrangement: Peralta would do all of Cook’s number-crunching in return for a logo, website, postcards and “Everything else she needed to kick-start her business.”

Now approaching $100,000 in sales, Can I Have Your Attention is establishing a reputation and a client base despite the slow economy. But the company still has to keep expenses down, so cashless trades with other professionals make sense.

“Especially in this economy, barter helps out because it keeps your overhead low,” Cook says. “At the end of the month, the money you save goes right to the bottom line.”

He’s not the only one who thinks so. As the cash economy cools, the cashless economy is heating up. These days, more entrepreneurs are experimenting with barter. Direct barter, however, requires serendipity. Both parties must be looking for just the right product or service at just the right time–and both must be willing to trade, rather than sell.

Barter for Starters

• Barter News is the bible of the industry. Back copies are available online at BarterNews.com.
• To try direct barter, check your local edition of Craigslist.org.
• There are hundreds of state and local barter exchanges. For a clickable map, visit the National Association of Trade Exchanges.
• Looking for a national exchange? International Monetary Systems and Itex Payment Systems are two of the largest. Others are listed at Barter News, but focus on local support, rather than sheer membership size or volume of trades.

For tax purposes, the IRS considers barter transactions the same as sales. Commercial barter exchanges track members’ transactions and report them annually on a Form 1099-B.

Photo by Corbis.

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Tags: Advice, Barter, Small Biz