Written by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews

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Bentley Commerce Sponsoring Stock Talk LIVE

International Broadcasting Corporation (OTCBB:IBCS) announced that it has signed a new sponsor—Bentley Commerce Corporation—for its radio show, Stock Talk LIVE. The interactive business talk show focuses exclusively on micro-cap stocks, and airs every stock market day from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST.

Interactivity, interesting guests, and significant short-term trading opportunities are featured in each edition of the show. Interviews, commercials, and news updates about Bentley Commerce Corporation (OTCBB:BLYC) will also air on the show. For more information on International Broadcasting Corporation go to www.ibcradio.com.

Just published...BarterNews issue #64, get your copy now! Orders will be shipped within two business days of publication. Click on Order Form.

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Awareness Is Everything. . .

At the recent global conference in Davos Switzerland the prevailing belief among the world’s movers and shakers was that global awareness is needed before change can occur.

In the barter industry two publicly-traded companies are doing their share to spread awareness. Although they’re spreading the word about their company’s services, readers of their press releases and listeners to their interviews learn about barter.

The two companies I’m referring to are International Monetary Systems (OTCBB:INLM) and Bentley Commerce (OTCBB:BLYC). Don Mardak, CEO of IMS, was interviewed by two major business web sites, www.ceocast.com and www.smallcapvoice.com.

Bruce Kamm, CEO of Bentley, was interviewed on www.ibcradio.com where he discussed his company’s services as well as solutions for the worldwide barter industry. To hear the interview, go to www.ibcradio.com/CMN.htm.

Incidentally, last week we noted that Mardak’s IMS reported doing $37 million in trade volume for 2004. However, IMS only reports on one side of the trade transaction, not both sides like other large exchanges. Therefore when comparing IMS’s trade volume with, say, BarterCard or ITEX (which report both sides of the transaction) its 2004 figure would be $74 million.

“What we have here is a failure to communicate!”

Years ago, one of the most visible people in the barter industry said the #1 reason why the industry wasn’t farther along in its development was due to a “failure to communicate” by those in the business.

This realization was the genesis of The Competitive Edge newsletter, now into its 18th year of publication. Trade exchange owners who use this powerful marketing and promotional tool are never guilty of “failing to communicate.”

As the owner of a trade exchange you must stay in front of your clients. Informing, educating, and inspiring them, because your clients’ bartering is a relatively small percentage of their overall business. So if you don’t keep their interest and enthusiasm for trade at a high level, you lose.

Your primary aim, like all other businesses, is to get your clients coming back for more. Every extraordinary business (and every trade exchange owner who wants to be extraordinary) knows that the customer you have, is a lot less expensive to sell than the customer you don’t yet have!

Want to take your exchange to a higher level? Use The Competitive Edge newsletter in your operation—it “sells” the many benefits of working through your trade exchange like nothing else!

To learn more about The Competitive Edge newsletter and how it can help build your trade exchange, click here.

A look back...two exchanges show barter’s versatility.

Barter Relied Upon To Move Massive $100 Billion Inventory Of Properties

It’s hard to imagine today, but back in 1991 the S&L banks in the U.S. were in great trouble and had to be bailed out by Congress. Lewis Seidman, chairman of the Resolution Trust Corp. (RTC), was the man selected to solve the problem. It was his responsibility to dispose of the bad loans, flawed junk bonds, and the myriad real estate assets that made the S&L crisis the most expensive financial debacle in our nation’s history.

In issue #24 we reported on how RTC used barter as the financing technique to entice the nation’s top eligible investors to get involved. It was done through cash-flow financing, which enabled the investors to trade on their expertise and credibility rather than upfront cash investments.

Seidman moved 80% of the $100 billion hard-to-sell commercial real estate and loans by trading large portfolios of assets; in exchange accepting a share of the earnings (the cash-flow generated) from the office rents, hotel revenues, and loan collections.

“It’s in effect a partnership...it puts us (the government) at risk for longer. We’d prefer to get cash and walk away from the properties,” Seidman explained, “but the market isn’t there to do that.” In short, he admitted that a barter-type arrangement was the strategy necessary to move the assets that the government had been unable to move (sell) in the conventional manner.

Get New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!

You can obtain useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available back-issue of BarterNews.

From the same 1991 back issue....

Film Production Company Exchanged Advertising Credits For Equity

Icon International, a New York barter finance company, is providing MovieAmerica Corp., an Atlanta-based film production firm, with credits to buy advertising for use in promoting its movies. The initial trade credits were purchased with shares in MovieAmerica.

“This agreement allows MovieAmerica to purchase advertising time and space now controlled by Icon at rates far below what it would cost if the purchase was made directly,” stated Lance Lundberg, president of Icon. “Icon, in turn, will hold a significant position in an innovative film production company which it purchased through barter finance.”

Steven D. Brown, president of MovieAmerica, embraced the unique exchange, saying, “Our agreement will allow for the purchase of substantial amounts of advertising without the use of cash, freeing thousands of dollars that ordinarily would have been spent on advertising. This type of innovative financing will make it possible for independent film makers to remain profitable.”

Every barter company in the world is listed on our web site, click through to our Global List of Barter Companies.

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Here & There...

• Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett says he’s happy that Procter & Gamble is acquiring Gillette...it was back in 1989 when Buffett met with Gillette’s CEO and persuaded the executive to sell him a stake in the business. (Gillette was reeling at the time, being circled by corporate raiders.)

  Buffett invested $600 million in convertible preferred Gillette shares, or what would have been about 10% of the company then. That stake now is valued at more than $5.1 billion.

• The proposed merger has undoubedly pleased others as well. Although Gillette spent approximately $480 million on ads in the U.S. last year, P&G’s massive world-wide advertising expenditures surpassed $4 billion! A significant shift in how advertising dollars will be spread among the ad industry behemoths is likely to take place.

• Reality TV czar Mark Burnett is busy on another reality show with Martha Stewart. The prolific producer pursued Stewart last fall and structured a lucrative trade enabling him to gain a stake in long-term revenue streams. Burnett secured the right to buy 2.5 million Martha Stewart Living shares at $12.59 each. On February 2, the stock was $32.93...having nearly tripled on speculation that the company would rebound once Stewart put her legal woes behind her.

• Have you signed up to receive a summary via e-mail of the Tuesday Report every week? If not, go to the top of this issue (right hand corner) and sign up!

• Google’s incredible jump in earnings (4th quarter profits improved 700%!) took the analysts by surprise...and the company isn’t resting on its laurels. Google is embracing barter as a tool to reward top workers by distributing big baskets of restricted stock to employees who develop promising technology. Google recently awarded a total of $12 million in stock to two different development teams.

• New Jersey-based Vonage sits atop the $3 billion-per-year voice-over-internet phone business, although there are more than 400 smaller VOIP outfits chasing Vonage. The head of Vonage is 34-year-old Jeffrey Citron, a very accomplished entrepreneur who launched the company in 2001...putting up $70 million of his own money

  Before most of his friends were out of college, he had earned his first $1 million as a trader. At 25 he launched Island ECN, an electronic trading system for brokers, that later sold for $500 million. By his 27th birthday, he’d turned his fledgling online stock brokerage, Datek, into the nation’s fourth-largest. Ameritrade snapped it up in 2003 for $1.3 billion.

• Two real estate developers in Toronto are racing to bring high-rise opulence to Canada’s largest city. Harry Stinson, a prominent condo developer in Toronto, is building the 81-story Sapphire Tower that will be down the street from the 70-story Trump International Hotel & Tower.

  Donald Trump has teamed up with Talon International Development, a Canadian investment company, which holds a controlling interest in the $402 million Trump project. It’s believed that Trump bartered the use of his name for a minority stake in the project, as he has done several times in the past.

• Marketing with a flair... Procter & Gamble’s idea of putting trivia questions on Pringle’s potato chips contributed to a 14% jump in market share!

• The United Nations World Tourism Organization has organized a conference that will focus on how to lure travelers back to southern Asia’s tsunami-ravaged coasts. Corporate sponsors and governments at the meeting have agreed to provide assistance.

• Millionaires ages 54 and under will use real estate, in addition to other means, to fund their retirement...more than double the number of retirees who are currently relying upon this asset.