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Learn5: My experience with Alternate currencies in the name of Bartering
I am a member of two Barter trading houses. Bartercard and Barterzone . Whilst I am a participant I am not an enthusiastic advocate of these alternate systems of trading. Their prime benefit is to provide a closed marketing avenue for your products or services. Hence it is a loyalty scheme much the same as standard credit cards are. We don't think of credit cards in this way because of the universality of acceptance of credit cards it has lost much of it's impact of being part of an elite club that only trades with acceptors of a particular card. Barter systems are becoming much the same as they grow bigger only they are more expensive. Credit cards take 3-5% out of the system of trading where as Bartercard takes 12%.
Unless you have margins that can accommodate such an expense you are well advised to stay clear. If you do manage such margins you must look at the exclusivity of the closed network. You must be getting incremental business, business you wouldn't have got unless you part of the barter system. i.e. Don't swap cash you would have got anyway for barter dollars. There is no tax incentive to trade using Barter dollars.
You have to change mindset to use a Barter system. The world gets flipped around. It is easier to make a sale but harder to find a place to spend your income. This leads to innovative systems of trying to swap Barter Dollars for general currency which can be fun if you have time.
The real advantages come for owner operators such as myself where I provide a service with no cash cost to me. i.e. I didn't have to buy anything with general cash currency to provide the service. Quite easy it the Computer Services industry. This is incremental business. Generally the client wouldn't have come to me first if I hadn't been a part of the Barter system they are a member of. As long as I am not overly busy this is money for jam. Then, being an owner operator I can spend those barter dollars in motels, restaurants and bars having it regarded as part of my personal income. This is much harder to account for when in a multi-shareholder company or a partnership.
Philosophically I have a bit of a problem with Barter, and other closed network systems. If you think of money as being a mechanism by which you can receive what you want then it sounds like a good idea. Keeps out the competition and makes sales easier. However, if you think about money as a mechanism easing the process of giving then any system that restricts your ability to give is counter productive. Closed network trading systems restrict who you can give to.
Unless you have margins that can accommodate such an expense you are well advised to stay clear. If you do manage such margins you must look at the exclusivity of the closed network. You must be getting incremental business, business you wouldn't have got unless you part of the barter system. i.e. Don't swap cash you would have got anyway for barter dollars. There is no tax incentive to trade using Barter dollars.
You have to change mindset to use a Barter system. The world gets flipped around. It is easier to make a sale but harder to find a place to spend your income. This leads to innovative systems of trying to swap Barter Dollars for general currency which can be fun if you have time.
The real advantages come for owner operators such as myself where I provide a service with no cash cost to me. i.e. I didn't have to buy anything with general cash currency to provide the service. Quite easy it the Computer Services industry. This is incremental business. Generally the client wouldn't have come to me first if I hadn't been a part of the Barter system they are a member of. As long as I am not overly busy this is money for jam. Then, being an owner operator I can spend those barter dollars in motels, restaurants and bars having it regarded as part of my personal income. This is much harder to account for when in a multi-shareholder company or a partnership.
Philosophically I have a bit of a problem with Barter, and other closed network systems. If you think of money as being a mechanism by which you can receive what you want then it sounds like a good idea. Keeps out the competition and makes sales easier. However, if you think about money as a mechanism easing the process of giving then any system that restricts your ability to give is counter productive. Closed network trading systems restrict who you can give to.
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Comment by Michele Baron on April 8, 2010 at 5:56am
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I have never bartered through an e-system; when I barter a skill or an item, it is trade-for-trade. How is the 12% calculated--and how is it rendered? PayPal? Kind of takes the fun out of bartering, maybe? Good post though--guess I live too simply.
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Comment by Greg Stevenson on April 8, 2010 at 7:32pm
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6% of every thing you sell goes to the Bartercard System and is paid in your normal currency. (If they had faith in their system they would charge that commission in Barter Dollars) The same applies to everything you buy.
The system is much the same as Pay-Pal in that it is an electronic register of inwards and outwards transactions. The difference is I don't think you can load up a balance into the account using your normal currency using a credit card or bank transfer.
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