Money is Tight and Getting New Clients is Tough...Businesses Are Leaner Than Ever

I am a huge barter fan, especially Florida Barter. In this tough economy, it's one, if not THE best way to promote your business and get new clients. Money is tight, and businesses are leaner than ever.  So I joined Florida Barter a few years ago and it's been the best strategy I could have invested in.  Barter is a method of exchange by which goods or services are exchanged without using a medium of exchange, such as money.

If we consider why any of us began our businesses, it varies and is a personal decision for most of us. It could be that when you decided to go into business you had some very personal reasons too. Not only did you have personal reasons, but you also had a dream. In your mind and heart, you saw not where your business was starting but where your business would be. You quickly realized that in order to fulfill your dream you needed to grow your business and the way to do this was to attract clients.  

If you are like me, you begin by putting together a business plan, a marketing plan and a budget. You quickly realized that the old saying “It takes money to make money” had some truth. Well that is not entirely true when it comes to barter. By using my trade capital I made money and attracted new cash clients without spending cash that at the time, I didn't have. 

Why does your business exist? Well it exists to provide a product or service for a profit. In order to provide that product or service you need clients and the best way to reach those clients is thru advertising (letting them know you exist) and the best way to pay for advertising is with trade.   At Florida Barter they provide us, as members, access to TONS of various advertising opportunities, which can be taken advantage of all on trade.

Reaching the new clients that every business wants and need and do it on trade it’s a great proposition. This way you can change the old saying from “it takes money to make money” to “it only took trade to make money."

The other piece was providing good customer service and fair pricing is an important part of being a Florida Barter member. Good customer service is the lifeline of any business. You can advertise your business through radio, newspaper and television, but unless you can get some of those customers back, your business won’t be profitable for long. 

A satisfied Florida Barter customers will recommend your company to friends, families and affiliates who will then be a new cash paying customers. These new cash paying customers may not have been referred to you if you were not part of Florida Barter or if you did not provide good customer service and offer fair pricing at 100% trade. Remember Florida Barter members bypass your competitors and seek you out because they also want the advantages.    

The golden rule of fair barter pricing is that you must put a barter price on your good or service that is equivalent to its cash value. In other words, if you are bartering your services as a web designer and you are asking twice as much as other web designers in the profession, that would clearly be overvaluing and over inflating your service. The safest and easiest thing to do is to set a price in your mind for that which you want to barter, and then figure out what a reasonable and fair barter price would be that is equivalent to the cash value. This works the same in the retail world you must sell your product to a Florida Barter member for the same price as you would a cash customer. If you are offering a sale or have coupons circulating you can offer these discounts but are not required to honor them. But again the normal every day cash price is what Florida Barter members need to be offered for 100 percent trade.           

Always remember that what you are offering for barter is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it, barter-wise. As with all things, the market will let you know what it will bear.           

I love Florida Barter and I look for services that I use everyday.  Right now, I am looking for a housekeeper, weekly....for four hours a week.  So if you are in Tampa and need steady work, CONTACT ME!!!  :)  

Ginger Rockey-Johnson

Spice Girl of Tampa Bay, Inc