Hundreds of valuable articles, techniques, and strategies are found in the following various barter categories:

�  Entrepreneur�s Corner,

�  Travel,

�  Media,

�  Trade Exchange,

�  Corporate Barter,

�  Offset & Countertrade,

�  Secondary Capital,

�  Real Estate,

�  Community Barter, and

�  Restaurant & Entertainment

(The Barter Categories are found on the horizontal bar at the top � 3^rd button from right.)

As an entrepreneur your affairs may not have made headlines, but that doesn�t mean that you don�t have to be any less zealous in your pursuit of continuing management excellence. The fact is, management excellence should never be viewed as the exclusive domain of large corporations. All businesses can be the beneficiary of solid management and planning. With this in mind, consider these strategies.

In most companies, budgets get built year by year, with owners and managers asking themselves, �How much should I add to the budget this year? Or (if the forecast is gloomy), �Should I subtract that 5% or 10%?� A more effective approach is called zero-based budgeting. It is markedly different in that it requires you to start the budget at zero, and justify every expense for inclusion in the present budget.

This way, instead of building on pockets of inefficiency, waste can be identified and rooted out annually. Many firms are surprised at how much deadwood they are carrying...thus draining the bottomline.

It is difficult to eliminate positions or people who have been with your company for years. But as a business owner, you must make these decisions based on performance and relevance � rather than on sentimental reasons alone.

Remember, when you�re trying to downsize your business the overall productivity improves, thereby helping to ensure long-term viability. More productivity at a reduced cost translates into improvements in your competitiveness and profit margin.

Another engine for increased growth and productivity is barter. Used in a systematic, organized, and prudent manner the purchase of needed goods and services at your barter (variable) cost-of-doing-business will result in incremental sales that are dramatically profitable.

An important consideration to remember is this: regardless of how astute your management efforts are, you are always faced with three possible alternatives in your forecasting efforts.

1)    You are right on � you hit your forecasts.

2)    You are overly optimistic and over-produce.

3)    You are too conservative and under-produce.

In two out of the three cases you�re off the mark, and it will cost you. If you�re astute enough to realize that barter is a safety valve, you can utilize it to compensate for any forecasting errors, which is why smart management will include barter in their planning regimen.

Is Your Trade Exchange Missing Out On Valuable New Business?

If your barter company�s listing on BarterNews.com isn�t current, you are definitely missing out on new business. The web site BarterNews.com receives heavy traffic � with over 150,000 page-views every month. Entrepreneurs and corporate executives check the thousands of articles, the weekly �Tuesday Report,� and the �Contacts Section� of our site. They use the latter to find barter companies with which to do business.

Is your barter company�s listing up-to-date?

To keep your listing current is very easy. See the links below to (A) update any changes to your company�s listing, such as new location, phone number, web site or other information, and (B) if your company has not been listed.

Here�s how to get on board:

To make changes to your listing click here.

For new listings click here.

If you�ve ever thought about taking that bucket list journey to Augusta, Georgia, to check out the golf spectacle of the year, you had better start saving. Next week marks the first major championship of the year and it isn�t just the most exciting week of the golf season, but the most expensive event to attend for just one day.

The Masters is the most expensive ticket in all of sports, according to a report by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, topping out at $4,486 if you want to see all four days of tournament action. A one-day pass can run anywhere from $1,215 to $1,786, depending on the day. Even a practice round during Masters week can cost you up to $1,118 (as the AJC points out, that�s as much as a four day pass to the PGA Championship).

The good news about how expensive it is to hit up the Masters is that once you�re inside the ropes, and past the Augusta gate, your wallet lightens tremendously (as long as you avoid the merchandise tent, which you probably won�t do). Beers cost just $3 (and you get to keep the cup, which has the Masters logo and the year on it) and the famous pimento cheese sandwiches are only $1.50.

By comparison a ticket to the Super Bowl costs just $1,210. But if you want the hottest ticket in all of sports, you will start planning a trip to the Masters.

More than 12 million Americans are jobless and 40% of these individuals have been out of work for more than six months. The U.S. economy overall may be improving but many Americans still cannot find a job. This trend will only continue in the foreseeable future says James Altucher, managing director of Formula Capital, an asset management firm. The author and venture capitalist says that the U.S. is moving toward an �employee-less society.�

He asserts that businesses used the 2008 financial crisis as an excuse to get rid of �dead-wood,� and the firing trend hasn�t stopped. Companies no longer show loyalty to employees. They�re more interested in increasing profits and revenue � which means letting go of expensive staff employees (due to health care benefits, 401k contributions) and replacing them with cheaper temp employees. Altucher says this situation is happening in every sector of the economy. And he should know, as he sits on the board of a publicly traded temp-hiring firm.

The changing employment climate has made Altucher an advocate of employees quitting their jobs. He lists ten reasons why workers should give their two-week notice:

�  The middle class is dead

�  You�ve been replaced

�  Corporations don�t like you

�  Money is not happiness

�  Count right now how many people can make a major decision that can ruin your life

�  Is your job satisfying your needs?

�  Your retirement plan is

�  Excuses

�  It�s OK to take baby steps

�  Abundance will never come from your job

Of course, packing up your cubicle and leaving a steady paycheck is a lot easier said than done. Even if an employee waits to be fired to collect unemployment benefits, the weekly sum will be much less than one�s current take home pay.

So Altucher offers a compromise: stay at your job but become an �entre-employee.� By this he means building connections and networking with employees in other divisions, or even starting another business on the side.

�Look for alternative sources of income,� he advises. �Learn your employer�s connections and expand your services, because you can�t relax anymore. You have to stay ahead of the economy.�

Altucher says the techniques he preaches work � he has applied them to his own career with success.