Trade Secrects

For Roshan Searcy, bartering is just in her blood.

“My mother is Iranian. She used to take me to garage sales as a small child and tell me about the markets in Tehran and how to barter for what you want,” she says. Since starting Fort Myers–based White Crossroads Web Designs a year ago, she has swapped her Web design skills for everything from accounting services to auto repair to floral arrangements she uses to acknowledge customer referrals. And she’s helping other businesses trade through a new group she formed called Bartering in Motion.

“What I tell other businesses is to start with your vendors; who do you buy stuff from and would they barter?” says Searcy. “Don’t barter for fun; do it to help grow your business.”

Rebecca Scoville, a licensed massage therapist who runs Beyond Therapy in Fort Myers, has traded her stress-reducing treatments with Searcy and a number of other local businesses. “It’s really easy to barter my services; everybody wants a massage, especially right now, but people can’t afford them,” she says. “I think I’d be doing it no matter what, but I think that with the state of the economy, I’m doing it more often than I probably would.”

The economy is driving lots of businesses to explore bartering, says Tom McDowell, who recently retired after 15 years as executive director of the Ohio-based National Association of Trade Exchanges (NATE). “Businesses still have inventory; they still have capacity,” he says. “What they don’t have are customers. And bartering provides those businesses with new customers.”

For the past two and a half years, NATE has seen an increase in the number of businesses joining barter companies or trade exchanges, which bring firms together to swap products and services, typically based on a dollar value the organization applies to those goods and services. “The biggest advantage is that you don’t have to find someone who has what you need and needs what you have like you do in a direct trade,” says McDowell.

Joining a trade exchange can also help at tax time. “Bartering activity is still going to be taxable,” says Carrie Kerekes, an assistant professor of economics at Florida Gulf Coast University. “You still have an exchange of goods or services rendered, and you will be accountable for the tax on that.”

Web sites for organizations like NATE (www.nate.org) can help companies find local trade exchanges. The Bartering in Motion site (www.barteringinmotion.com) also provides businesses with information and tips on everything from taxes to contracts.

Although there are plenty of bartering opportunities out there these days, it’s important that businesses avoid getting too caught up in making trades. “We recommend that businesses not exceed 5 percent of their gross sales in bartering,” says McDowell. “They still need cash to pay their employees and taxes and things they can’t barter for.”
But whether they join an exchange or strike out on their own, companies can still find plenty of reasons to swap.

“It’s a great way to grow your customer base and meet new people,” says Searcy, who expects to conduct monthly bartering events. “I like to focus on local bartering and build relationships with bartering. Every new customer is a source of future growth.”