Bartering groups

[Steve]

Have you ever heard of such bartering groups or know or anyone involved in them? What do you think of the concept? Cash may be king, but barter is smarter - Organized bartering allows a business or individual to "bank" trade credits to use whenever they like on goods and services offered by other members in the organization. No cash is involved; rather, trade credits are used for purchases in this cashless commerce. Here's a simple bartering example. A lawn care business might decide to provide a small portion of lawn services per month on trade, thus accumulating trade credits equal to the retail value of those services. So even though it may cost just $50 to cut a lawn, he would receive trade credits equal to the normal retail value of the service ** what he would ordinarily charge for the same work performed for a cash paying customer. Over the course of a few months, the lawn care business accumulates several hundred dollars in trade credits, which are "banked" and used to "purchase" goods and/or services from other members of the network. And in a healthy exchange network with lots of members, the possibilities are countless. Business cards, Web site development, resort lodging, jewelry, plumbing services, artwork and just about anything else you can think of are probably available and can be located through a member directory, or through a trade broker.

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Lawn care business tips

I think that it's a definetly creative idea, but could back fire big time. What happens when someone gets like $1000 worth of credits, and then decides to use them at one time. But that $1,000 pay out may be too much for the other business to handle

[Steve]

Good points. I haven't seen this implemented properly on a large scale yet.