Let’s barter everyone!  Become a self-employed individual in this difficult economy with little or no investment.  You are instantly faced with clients that need your services but are unable to pay you.  So, in your eagerness to begin doing what you really love, the temptation to reduce your price or give away is irresistible and sometimes dangerous.  The danger of giving away your service is that it ends up lowering the value of what you offer in the mind of the receiver.

As an alternative to this, use the barter system which requires no money.  The advantage of creating barter is that you instantly gain experience.  Create momentum around your new business and the more clients you have, the better you will do.  Be aware of where and who you barter with as you could be taken for granted.
The art of bartering is a commercial transaction.  Yes, it is business, not a playground.  You have all of the responsibilities and privileges attached to it.  The clients provide you with goods and services without the cash.  Your part is the supplier of these items or services and set a “fair price” in goods or services that are of equal value to the other.
 
Is the item or service you receive worth it?  Does it save you effort, time and money?  I mean, if you are someone that would regularly pay for a massage, and a client wants to barter their massage therapy, then it is a fantastic deal!  That’s when you say lets barter!

     Professionals at bartering services are banking at something they learned a skill to do!  We have seen them in our front yard for a yard sale or at swap meets and local flea markets.  If you have the opportunity to see a person who makes their living at trade, it is like magic.  You can learn so much from them by standing by for an afternoon and watching how they interact with their “clients” and how they get the bottom line that is best for them.  This keeps their talent for finding the hidden treasures exiting!

However, it is not necessary to follow someone around at a local flea market to learn the bartering skill.  You don’t have to leave your home if you have children!  When you have children, you end up bartering every day, multiple times a day.  For instance, have you said in the past “if you do your homework, then you can watch an hour of TV”.  What about, “if you eat your dinner, I will give you dessert”.  To us parents, it is a privilege that they get to do “x,y,z” but to the child, it is the bartering game they like to be a part of.

Family connections and social networking explode repeatedly with avenues to barter our goods or service to mutually benefit in our daily lives.  One common form of barter is the trade of watching children.  You watch your friend’s kids for 2 hours, 1 day a week.  In turn, you attend the gym she works at for free on all of the other days.  Bartering services can have numerous benefits on your life.

Barter websites?  What?  Who knew they existed?  Over the past 100 years, bartering has been a way of life during a downturn of an economy.  Now, with the internet as mainstream it has been an amazing portal of not only information but services.  Yes, services…even for free!  There are dozens of sites that exist for exchanges and amazingly enough, there is always a service you can provide for something you need.  Parents have done it for decades; exchanging baby clothes, toys and food.  Does anyone remember Swap TV?  It was on every Saturday morning in Europe in the 80’s and it showcased the barter system even between children…you know, my yoda for your baseball card.

Using your search engine, dozens of bartering websites come up.  Some are totally free and some require a membership, while others you earn points and a few you pay per post.  The idea of the bartering sites is to live a greener life.  Eliminating potential waste in a landfill is more appealing to most than putting that item out by the curb.  On any given Sunday I have seen entertainment centers, TV’s, furniture, tables, microwaves, refrigerators as well!  There are so many bartering sites, it is easy to be as specific as you wish!  Specific barter sites exist to gear your wants to e-commerce, garden seeds, business to business, vacation homes, real estate and cars!  Local schools are getting involved in this upswing of bartering too!  Where schools used to hold seasonal clothing sales, they are now having an enormous swap meet.  Any item from clothes, shoes, household items, furniture, appliances are there!

Just like all of the blog site options, social networking sites and shopping sites out there, quite a few options exist for the barterer.  Check out sites and read their requirements, tax liabilities and any membership fees.  Sites exist for just person to person services, goods for goods and even vacation home for vacation home.  Be aware!  Bartering is free on most occasions…well it should be all of the time however, there are many sites out there that require a membership fee to list what you would like to barter.   This may prove useful to a small business owner that is looking to save on the bottom line or even a larger corporation to join forces in such a way that does not compete with one another.  So---do a search and check out the barter websites today!