BN was talking with David Wallach recently and our conversation veered to the term reciprocal trade. Wallach says our industry has never properly identified itself, and he offers the following content to better describe our industry's services.  

Wallach Offers Definition Of Barter Industry

By David Wallach

Ancient barter was man’s first form of commerce and consisted of the one-to-one direct exchange of goods and services. Advances in technology have greatly expanded and enhanced the scope of barter far beyond this limited one-to-one model.

In 2007, International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA) member companies using the “Modern Trade and Barter” process, made it possible for over 400,000 companies worldwide to utilize their excess business capacities and underperforming assets, to earn an estimated $10 billion dollars in previously lost and wasted revenues.

In terms of income, excess business capacity represents the difference between actual cash revenues received, and the cash revenues and profits that would be realized, if a business operated at 100% of its capacity. 

Most businesses are operating at less than 100% of their potential business capacity.

IRTA member companies can help your business realize lost revenues and make additional profits by making use of your excess business capacity. Consult the worldwide membership directory listing on this web site or an IRTA member company located in your geographical area.

Businesses that choose to participate in modern trade and barter will become a client of an IRTA member company. As clients when they sell their goods and services to other clients in the system they earn trade credits which are deposited into their accounts. They then have the ability to purchase goods and services from other member clients utilizing trade credit in their accounts.

IRTA member companies play a vital role as they provide organization, system management, record keeping, maintenance of transaction record and broker services to each member client.

All IRTA members companies adhere to a strict IRTA Code of Ethics. Businesses that utilize modern trade and barter can be assured that their trade credits are earned and spent within a network that is committed to a high standard of business by meeting requirements that prove the strength and sustainability of their exchange networks.

It is important to note that there are other forms of modern trade and barter. Some of these include complementary (or local) currency organizations, LETS (Local Exchange Trading Systems) and many other forms of alternative monetary systems to help local and regional economies.

Bartercard New Service Moves Toward Total Business Solution

Australia’s largest barter trade exchange—Bartercard Australia—has added a new service that should excite its 23,000 members nationwide. The new Members Plus Money program is a strategic partnership with Wilson National, a leading Australian wholesale finance specialist (www.wilsonnational.com.au). It will enable members an opportunity to secure needed financing cash for equipment rental, home loans, commercial loans, leasing, and personal loans.

This initiative is the latest in a series of member benefits introduced since the Australian management buy-out of Bartercard Australia in August 2007, when the new owners pledged to take the organization in a new direction.

The leading product of Members Plus Money is Express Rental Plus, according to the company. Andrew Barter, Bartercard Australia’s National Development Manager, asserted, “Express Rental Plus gives our members access to A$35,000 cash so they can purchase business equipment such as computers, furniture or specialized machinery. It is the perfect addition to our members accounts.”

Bartercard Australia was bought from Bartercard International in a management buy-out in August 2007. It is now 99.5% Australian owned, with almost three-quarters of its share base in the hands of Managing Director Trevor Dietz, Chairman Murray d’Almeida, and Executive Director of Sales/Marketing and co-founder Brian Hall. The remainder is held by an Australian private equity consortium.

For more information visit www.bartercard.com.au/membersplus.

The Definition Of An “A” Customer...Cash Or Barter

By Bob Meyer

It’s not unusual for 70 to 80 percent of a firm’s cash business to come from 10 to 20 percent of its customers—often referred to as “A” customers. Yet don’t confuse your “A” customers as being only cash customers.

What is an “A” customer for your firm? Each business needs to develop a specific profile of its best and most profitable customer. High volume is a major ranking criterion. But be prepared to downgrade the slow-paying big spender who consistently demands extra discounts and services.

Take another look at your customer base. How many A’s can you identify? Where are your potential A’s? What strategies can be developed to keep them coming to you? And what can you be doing to secure additional candidates?

This is more than a time-management exercise. It involves rethinking your overall strategic plan. A firm must keep asking itself which category of clients is most important for both short-term and long-term survival.

An ideal “A” customer is one who makes the most significant contributions to your bottomline. This is where your barter customers contribute heavily because their trade business is incremental business…extra business that can be the most profitable.

It’s often the frosting-on-the-cake, so to speak. Sometimes this customer receives a lower level of service because he or she is not demanding, and the business is considered “only trade.” Yet, when properly analyzed, their business may place them up there in the “A” category, because they contribute heavily to your bottomline profits.

A good marketing plan always looks forward. In addition to examining the direction your industry is taking, ask yourself, “What am I doing to incorporate the world’s fastest growing way-of-doing-business into my organization’s plans?”

A solid marketing plan identifies growth opportunities, as well as innovative techniques. Barter is a marketing, purchasing, and financing tool that offers you enormous profit opportunities. Your decisions should be driven by such present and future opportunities.

So bring your employees (or team members) together and see how close they can come to designing the perfect “A” customer. Write down all the criteria that is important to your company’s future.

IRTA’s Euro Chapter Marks 10th Year Anniversary

The IRTA European Chapter will be celebrating its 10th year anniversary this September at IRTA’s 29th Annual International Convention at the Westgate River Ranch Resort outside Orlando, Florida, from September 22 to 25, 2008.

IRTA Hall of Fame member Paul Suplizio founded IRTA’s European Chapter when he recognized the growth of barter and trade in the European market. Since the European Chapter’s inception, member barter exchanges have included representatives from Belgium, England, Scotland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and Turkey.

“The European Chapter continues to grow and plays an important role in IRTA,” confirmed Executive Director Ron Whitney. “We just had a terrific Euro Conference in Poland where we created a whole new slate of exciting initiatives, and voted in a new group of Euro officers.” The new European officer’s slate is Richard Logie (president), Rob Van Hilten (vice president), Dariusz Brzozowiec (treasurer), and Reiner Husemann (secretary). 

For more information on IRTA go to www.irta.com, or call Ron Whitney at 757-393-2292.

IMS Unveils Proprietary Barter Commerce Management Software

International Monetary Systems (OTCBB: INLM), a worldwide leader in business-to-business barter services, reported the roll-out of its proprietary barter commerce management software, Trade Network Tracking System (TNT), will begin in June.

The TNT System lies at the heart of IMS’s day-to-day operations; handling the processing of real-time trade dollar transactions, managing client information and transaction histories, internal reporting, business intelligence, and customer relationship management.

This new platform enables IMS to rapidly implement new features, improve usability, take advantage of database, internet, and e-mail connectivity, and facilitate tighter integration with the firm’s web site. It also benefits from the core functionality and established best practices of the company’s previous system, TradeWorks, for which IMS purchased the source code in 2007.

Nathan Alpert, IMS chief software architect, stressed, “The impact of this progression cannot be (over)stated. The TNT System will completely revolutionize the core of IMS’ operations. It will drastically improve efficiency and reduce overhead by streamlining or completely automating time-consuming tasks. Our brokers will be able to manage significantly more accounts, efficiently connect buyers with sellers, and capitalize on new trade opportunities found by the trade analysis and data mining capabilities of the software.

“TNT also opens the door to barter transactions eventually being processed in real-time through P.O.S. swipe-card technology, consistent with our mission to make barter easy to use and bring its advantage to many more businesses. We want to make barter transactions as easy as using your Visa card, combined with the marketing intelligence of Google.”

Don Mardak, IMS CEO, added, “The TNT System will not only provide our members and our team with all the advantages of today’s technology, it also positions IMS to capitalize on the constantly evolving technology of tomorrow. This evolution is indicative of IMS’ role within the barter industry to lead in the sound management of a secondary economy based on the products and services of our member businesses.

“Our strong investment in this proprietary technology and in-house technical staff puts us in a truly unique position, allowing us to build the most advanced and customized barter platform in the industry, without our operations being molded by the limitations of the off-the-shelf software that many of our competitors use.”

For more information see www.imsbarter.com.

The Key To Profits During A Recession Is Preparation

The following are eight ways to keep profits up in an uncertain economy.

1) Take a good hard look at what’s in your product line. Some hold their own more than others and prosper in a recessive environment. Determine what degree of emphasis each product should receive.

2) Some of your products might benefit from creative repositioning. The reasons they sell during difficult times might be different from why they sell during prosperous times. You might get a benefit by emphasizing different aspects of the product.

3) Channel your marketing resources. During difficult times it might make sense to put more resources toward your established clientele than recruiting new prospects. They’re already customers, part of the family. A dollar spent on an established customer might deliver more than a dollar spend on recruiting a new customer.

4) keep in mind that your business costs have fixed and variable components. Manage your variable costs as closely as possible.

5) Think of strategies to accomplish a reduction in markdowns, but be careful not to hurt your customer service level.

6) Provide more stimuli for purchasing by assuming a more aggressive posture on incentives to create increased sales.

7) Conserve capital investment. Do not be aggressive in your inventory buying plans. Be more restrictive in additions to staff and building expansion.

8) Zero in on the services of your trade exchange to maximize cash flow.

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