March 8, 2005
Written
by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews
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Moving
Forward...You Gotta Believe
By
Ron Whitney, NATE Board Member
Seven years
ago I shared a “satellite” office with an attorney friend
of mine who got to know the barter business pretty well—he
had no choice, he could overhear every conversation I had for over
a year!
His take on
the barter business was probably accurate, when he said, “Like
most businesses, barter has its problems, but it provides an important
service to most all types of businesses, so it has value.”
Indeed, as barter
company owners or employees we all know what the day to day problems
of the business are: limited goods and services, untimely service,
impatient or belligerent members, late pays/no pays, TIN issues,
etc.
But we also
get to see the amazing positive things barter does for so many businesses.
And NATE is a valuable vehicle that can help all exchanges experience
more of those amazing success stories. So as NATE enters its 21st
year, it’s imperative that it looks to its past with a sense
of pride, its present with a sense of purpose, and its future with
an open mind.
One’s
belief in their business is not without risk, or as Charles W. Eliot
said, “All business proceeds on beliefs, or judgments of probabilities,
and not on certainties.”
We as entrepreneurs
in the barter business know this all too well—we deal with
risks all the time. NATE too operates in an uncertain environment
that presents risks of its own.
Currently, the
barter industry is under the most intense level of IRS scrutiny
since 1982 when TEFRA (Tax Equity Fiscal Responsibility Act) was
passed.
The recent proliferation
of association sponsored currencies raises questions as to what
the core purposes of barter associations really are, going forward.
And the issue
of whether two associations are in the best interest of the barter
industry as a whole, continues to be seriously debated.
These are the
compelling issues of the day that will shape the future of the commercial
barter industry. There is no question in my mind that NATE can rise
to the occasion and be a powerful voice for reason and good judgment
so as to assure a bright future for barter.
NATE needs to
step up, because in the final analysis barter truly is an industry
that has value, it really is an important business tool for businesses,
and despite the risks, is well worth believing in.
“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.
ITEX
Shows Continued Success
ITEX Corporation
(OTCBB:ITEX) has announced results for their second fiscal quarter
of 2005, ending January 31, 2005.
According to
Steven White, Chairman and CEO, “Results for the second quarter
reflect our successful efforts to generate positive cash flow and
net income of $279,000, even after investing $124,000 in the broker
network infrastructure, incentives, and development of our online
initiatives.”
Revenue for
the quarter was $2,703,000 versus $2,708,000 in the prior year,
increasing 5% over the most recent quarter ending October 31, 2005.
And net operational income for the quarter was $234,000, versus
$227,000 in the prior year.
SG&A (selling,
general and administrative costs) for the quarter increased to $669,000
from $542,000 in the prior year. The increase is attributed largely
to investments which included $84,000 in costs for Internet application
improvements and hardware upgrades, and $40,000 for broker incentives
and support.
Assets increased
to $3,609,000 from $2,923,000 at the fiscal year ending July 31,
2004. Liabilities were $520,000 compared to $1,821,000 in the prior
year. The company has no long-term debt.
For more information
the quarterly report on Form 10-QSB can be found at www.sec.gov.
Get
New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!
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News
Study Says Customer Relationships Worsening
The Strativity
Group of Parsippany (NJ) in cooperation with CustomerSat in Mountain
View (CA) issued a 2004 annual survey showing that companies continue
to take their customers for granted, and that the relationship between
companies and customers is worsening.
The survey of
212 senior executives worldwide found:
- 59% claim
they do not deserve customer loyalty, up from 45% in 2003.
- 83% do not
know the average annual customer value.
- 89% do not
know the cost of a customer complaint.
- 90% did
not know the cost of total resolution, while 62% percent did not
know the annual customer retention rate.
- 65% agree
that their executives do not meet frequently with customers, up
from 54% in 2003.
- 31% affirm
that they have the tools and authority to service customers, down
from 37% in 2003.
- 57% agree
that their company does not conduct a true dialogue with customers,
up from 55% in 2003.
- 54% agree
that the role of the customer is not well defined, down from 60%
in 2003.
These results
indicate a major vote of no confidence by executives, an inability
to move from intention to execution, and an overall failure to deliver
successful customer strategies,” said Lior Arussy, Strativity
Group founder.
Despite attention
from academia and the media on the value of existing customers and
the cost inherent in obtaining new customers, Arussy noted that
companies are ignorant regarding the costs and revenues associated
with their customer relationships.
“Companies
continue to pay a great deal of lip service to their customers and
customer strategies, yet very few of them can demonstrate long-term
success in forming strong, sustainable, and profitable relationships
with customers,” he divulged.
Executives from
the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa submitted surveys. Participating
companies represented a wide range of sizes.
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New
Proposal By Ex-Treasury Secretary Could Make Every American A Millionaire
At Age 65
Paul O’Neill,
President George W. Bush’s first Treasury secretary and a
former CEO of aluminum giant Alcoa, proposes having the government
endow an investment savings account for every American at birth.
O’Neill’s
plan: Upon each child’s birth, the government opens an investment
savings account in his or her name and puts $2,000 into it. Every
year afterward until the child turns 18 the government puts another
$2,000 into the account. The money then would be left to grow at
a compounded rate until the individual reaches the retirement age
of 65.
Assuming a 6
percent continuously compounding rate of return over 65 years, money
in the account would exceed $1 million. There’d be no lump-sum
payment; the money would instead be put into a 20-year annuity paying
about $82,000 a year.
Assuming 4 million
births annually, O’Neill estimates it would cost about $144
billion to fund accounts for each year’s babies for 18 years.
After 65 years,
this would eliminate any need for Social Security since all American
would retire rich!
Every
barter company in the world is listed on our web site,
click through to our Global List
of Barter Companies.
Here
& There...
- Advertising
spending for the full year 2004 rose 6.3% over 2003, according
to figures released by Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Robust growth was
seen in syndicated television, network TV, and local magazines.
- Another new
advertising venue: Blaza Media (Water Mill, NY) is putting four-color
ads on betting receipts issued at racetracks and betting parlors
across the country. The ticket is 2-1/2” x 3” with
the wager printed on one side and the ad printed on the other.
- Sherman Oaks
(CA)-based CLS Worldwide Services was launched in 1981 with a
single car. This year the company had nearly 120 limos working
into the wee hours, shuttling stars and their entourages to the
Oscars and the parties that followed that Sunday night. The day
after the Oscars they announced a union with Norwood (NJ)-based
Empire International. The two companies will create the second-largest
fleet of chauffeured rental vehicles in the country.
(CLS has 520 stretch
limos, sedans, SUVs, shuttle buses and motor coaches. Empire
has 438 vehicles. The total of 958 vehicles ranks the combined
company second in size behind Washington-based Carey Worldwide
Chauffeured Services, which owns 1,123 vehicles.)
-
A deal between two
little-known California technology companies is the first step,
some experts say, in what could be the next big thing on the
Web: search engines that let you find movies and TV episodes—and
then buy or rent them. The barter tie-up (no money is changing
hands) is aimed at additional exposure for Santa Monica-based
Movielink and Blinkx, a San Francisco-based start-up.
Movielink is a downloading
service owned by five major studios. Blinkx is a search engine
that uses speech-recognition and other technologies to make
a searchable index of trailers for the movie service’s
nearly 1,000 titles.
-
Continued growth
in auctions: In 2004, $48 billion in real estate was sold at
auction. That’s an increase from $42.3 billion in 2003
and $37.6 billion in 2002, according to the National Auctioneers
Association.
-
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hand corner) and sign up!
-
Viacom’s Infinity
Broadcasting plans to start streaming the programming of a dozen
of its radio stations over the Internet starting March 14. The
move is intended in part as a response to the increased competition
radio broadcasters face from other media, including satellite
radio. Internet radio attracts 19 million U.S. listeners each
week, according to Arbitron, almost five times as many as satellite
radio. (In 2001 Internet radio attracted 11 million listeners
a week.)
-
Small U.S. corporations
and international companies that trade shares in the U.S. will
get a one-year reprieve from a Sarbanes-Oxley rule (the internal
controls rule, known as section 404) intended to improve controls
over financial reporting. The delay will give small companies
and foreign firms until July 15, 2006 to comply with the rule.
The smallest companies, those with less than $100 million in
revenue, are expected to spend about $550,000 to comply.
-
Australian wines
are now outselling French wines in the U.S. America’s
consumption of wine keeps rising, although still behind France
and Italy. The U.S. is expected to become the world’s
biggest wine consumer in terms of both volume and value by 2008.
-
New flights to China
are being introduced by U.S. carriers, nearly doubling the number
of flights on U.S. airlines to the region and potentially leading
to lower fares. China is becoming an increasingly important
destination for U.S. business and leisure travelers. In 2003,
over one million American visitors entered the country for business
and tourism, the China National Tourism Office reports.
-
Sales of second homes
surged 16% in 2004 to 2.82 million, with many of those buyers
speculating on the real-estate market, per new surveys by the
National Association of Realtors, a trade group that represents
real-estate brokers. The study showed that 23% of all homes
purchased in 2004 were second homes bought for investment.
- Optimism
among U.S. chief financial officers (CFOs) fell to the lowest
level in nearly four years, according to a recent survey conducted
by Duke University and CFO Magazine. The survey said the confidence
reading was the lowest since the survey began tracking optimism
3-1/2 years ago. The 293 U.S. finance chiefs who took the survey
said their top concerns were health-care costs, intense competition,
and rising interest rates.
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