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Welcome to the largest
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the world. All 64 issues of BarterNews now available in
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http://www.barternews-ezine.com.
Sino Fibre Completes Strategic Private Placement To Establish
Chinese Barter Exchange
Sino Fibre
Communications (OTCBB:SFBE), an internet services provider in China,
announced that it has completed a private placement of 1,671,416
units at a price of $0.31 per unit for gross proceeds of
approximately $518,140, each unit consisting of one share of common
stock of Sino Fibre and one share purchase warrant.
The proceeds of
the unit offering will be used to complete Sino Fibre�s joint
venture with CASME as previously announced.
The joint
venture with CASME is to establish an official Chinese
government-sanctioned barter exchange platform to process business
to business (B-to-B) transactions among the 4.5 million medium and
small private business enterprises currently under the membership of
CASME and with the international barter exchange floor.
Sino Fibre is
to invest $6 million (subject to financing) to own 85% and will
manage the joint venture company business, CASME is to bring in
Chinese central government sanction, assistance and support, as well
as its business members and will own the remaining 15% of the joint
venture.
According to
Mr. Gao Guang Yu, the president of China Business Online Co. (Sino
Fibre�s joint venture company with CASME), �By leveraging the strong
government support and having the 4.5 million business members in
our initial customer pool, Sino Fibre aims to build out the barter
exchange platform and become one of the top B-to-B and barter
business provider in China and in the world.�
Daniel Mckinney,
CEO of Sino Fibre, said, �This is an amazing historical opportunity
for us to partner directly with the Chinese government in developing
and maximizing the potential of their internal trading and commerce,
as well as to the rest of the world. To give our shareholders a
point of reference of the value we are creating, Alibaba (internet
services provider) raised $1.5 billion in their November 2007 IPO,
and has 27 million (C-to-C and B-to-C) registered members
worldwide.�
For more
information about Sino Fibre Communications go to
www.sinofibre.com.
Money-Making Reports Available From BarterNews
ITEX Applauds Midwest Business Exchange Contributions
ITEX
Corporation (OTCBB:ITEX) has recognized Midwest Business Exchange (MBE),
based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for its impressive contributions to
the ITEX membership trading community during the last fifteen years.
�Midwest
Business Exchange and owner, Jerry Howell, deserve special
recognition for being a stellar reciprocal trading partner with ITEX
for the last 15 years,� said Steven White, chairman/CEO of ITEX.
�With more than $3 million in total transaction volume, MBE is our
most active reciprocal partner. MBE�s top spot may get tougher to
maintain after our announcement last week that Green Apple Barter
has set a goal to provide $2 million in products and services into
the trading community.�
Jerry Howell,
founder/president of MBE stated: �In a little over two years,
Midwest Business Exchange and ITEX have completed over one million
dollars of transactions, coming and going. There�s one thing we
value more than the ITEX dollar, however. That is our relationship
with the many, fine ITEX brokers.�
Howell noted,
�The retail landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade.
Big box stores, national chains, and the internet have damaged local
retailers and their margins have diminished. That�s why exchanges
must strive to discover niches, specialties and forge partnerships
that were not necessary a decade ago. Working with charities is one
way we do this.
�Another such
effort is the subsidiary, National Voice Exchange. NVE is remarkably
similar to a trade exchange, but the members are radio stations and
the currency is a voice credit. This allows stations with a limited
number of voice talents to access over a hundred.
�Can we match
the goal set by Green Apple? We certainly will make every effort not
to MATCH the goal by our colleagues in Pittsburgh but to TOP it! We
might even start a challenge; us folks in the Midwest are sensitive
to bragging rights. Bring it on Mr. Krane!� he concluded.
�I have known
Jerry for close to 20 years,� White reflected, �and appreciate his
strong business ethics, loyalty to his client, and great sense of
humor. We have a high level of trust and mutual respect for each
other based upon years of sound, straight forward business
transactions. As we refine our reciprocal partners to just a very
select group, I am pleased to count MBE as a cornerstone.�
For more information visit
www.itex.com.
Barter Companies Help Maintain 100% Occupancy On Your Billboards
By Frank Rolfe
Editor�s
note: Frank Rolfe started his billboard empire from his coffee
table, as a fresh graduate from Stanford University. It began as a
resume builder for graduate school applications, and ended with a
sale to a public company 14 years later.
Using unique
strategies he developed from desperate competition with much larger
adversaries, Rolfe eventually owned more billboard units than any
private individual in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. He has authored the
book Big Bucks from Big
Signs, available at
www.outdoorbillboard.com.
Is 100%
occupancy on billboards a realistic expectation, or an impossible
fantasy? Using the methods I am going to describe, you will find
that 100% occupancy is a fully attainable goal, and a minimum
performance benchmark for the future.
I developed
these techniques from trial and error on hundreds of billboards I
rented over more than a decade. Once you have learned the technique,
you can rapidly put the systems in place on every billboard in your
inventory.
The key to
maintaining 100% occupancy on a billboard is to have multiple layers
of advertisers in place for the billboard space.
The first layer
is the regular, retail advertiser. This is your bread and butter,
and there is no substitute for this advertiser. This is the one that
pays the bills and makes the budgets work. However, try as hard as
you will, this layer will always have some degree of vacancy.
Every time the
advertiser does not renew, there will normally be some lag time
before you can find a replacement. That being said, you should
normally start re-leasing a billboard sixty days before it becomes
vacant, if the existing advertiser will give you that much lead time
in the form of notice of non-renewal. Start pushing the advertiser
to renew at least 60 days before lease expiration.
The second
layer is an advertiser who would like that advertising space, but
does not want to pay the retail rate. He is happy to get some time
on the sign at a reduced rate, even if it is only for a few months
in between the retail advertiser. You will find this advertiser as a
byproduct of looking for the retail advertiser. This person will
tell you that they really like to sign, but cannot afford the price.
So we ask them if they would like to be on the sign now and then for
a cheap price.
Often the price
is only 50% of the retail rate. You print this ad on a sheet of
vinyl, and have it at the ready to put up the minute the retail
advertiser has expired. You send them a letter the day their ad goes
up, and a letter the day it comes down, and bill them for the period
at an already agreed to daily rate. Even at 50% of retail price,
this advertiser offers needed cash-flow to pay the ground rent when
otherwise the sign would sit vacant.
The third layer
is an advertiser that wants generic coverage throughout your
inventory. Its role is to make up for a missing second layer
advertiser. It might be a radio station, or someone selling
something like Mary Kay. They just want to reach raw traffic,
regardless of where it is. This layer should also pay about 50% of
the retail price, or slightly lower than that. Just like the second
layer, you should document the start and end date in writing, and
bill them a per day rate.
In some cases,
you might have to take trade or barter credits instead of cash for
this tier advertiser, often through a barter exchange firm. A barter
exchange works like an intermediary for the advertiser and billboard
company, with the advertiser paying in goods or services that he
produces, and receiving trade �credits� for those items. You should
call some barter exchanges (AKA trade exchanges) to learn which
advertisers are already members in the exchange.
Sometimes you
will want to add a fourth layer, which would be public service
messages and the like. Normally, this tier of advertiser will not
pay cash, but will give you the possibility of a tax write-off (talk
to your CPA). Potential advertisers from this group include
non-profit agencies, such as the American Heart Association.
Using this
layering method, you should never again have a vacancy in your
inventory. In addition, you should never have a sign that is not at
least cash flowing. Banish vacancy and loss of income from your
budgets using this system, and you will be miles ahead of the
competition, especially when the recession hits.
One footnote to
this article: I received a call from my banker during the savings
and loan crisis of the late 1980s. The bank examiners were
questioning my financial statements and occupancy reports, since I
was showing 100% occupancy, which they believed was impossible.
Convinced that
I was cheating, to audit me, they asked me to drive them by all my
signs right then. We drove for about eight hours straight, by
hundreds of billboard faces, and not one was blank. They were
extremely disappointed that they had wasted a day looking at
billboards, and were unable to catch me in any type of fraud. If
only they had managed their bank as well as I was managing my
signs�they failed a few months later and were taken over by the
FDIC.
Gas Prices & Love Of Automobiles Affecting Our Lives
Rising gas
prices are already taking a toll on Americans� discretionary
spending�all the way up to influencing purchasing a new
house�according to new marketing research from Kelley Blue Book.
Gas prices are
already affecting vehicle sales in every segment, and traditional
sport utility vehicles have been especially hard hit according to
Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book. He says
other industries will feel the pinch as consumers cut out life�s
little luxuries like clothes, eating out and entertainment, just so
they can pay the fuel bills.
According to
the Kelley survey, 65% of consumers in 2008 were spending less on
non-essential retail items because of higher gas prices, compared
with 42% six months before in October 2007. Some 53% said they were
eating out less often, compared with 38% in October. Also 48% said
they were purchasing fewer entertainment media items, compared with
33% six months prior.
The decline
isn�t limited to small purchases, either. Ten percent said they
would delay the purchase of a new home, compared with 5% in October
2007. Just 15% said they would carpool or find alternative
transportation, compared with 10% in October 2007.
The percentage
of consumers who said they would not change any spending habits
declined over the six months to 22% in April 2008 from 43% in
October. This really indicates how deeply the auto industry is
ingrained in our lives...instead of cutting back on driving,
Americans are cutting back on other things instead.
Hotel
General Managers
Work With Audio/Visual
Vendor On Barter
Collect cash, as usual, from the guest accounts staying at
your facility that require the use of professional AV
services. And rather than shouldering your ongoing employee
costs, or your current vendor�s cash agreement for AV
services, here�s a much better alternative:
Work with a proven national vendor (a sterling 25-year track
record) who will provide all of the AV services for your
hotel on a 100% TRADE BASIS! (Payment to be in the form of
trade dollars.)
Your hotel�s annual AV billings must be a minimum of
$200,000, and this offer is available only in the
continental United States.
For a confidential introduction contact Bob Meyer via
e-mail:
bmeyer@barternews.com.
Attention Trade Exchange Owners:
If your member hotel(s) have a minimum of 10,000 sq. feet of
meeting space and annual billings of at least $200,000 for
AV services this is a great opportunity to earn substantial
cash service fees on the hundreds of thousands of trade
dollars your hotel member will be paying the vendor. Contact
Bob Meyer at the above e-mail. |
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The Growth and Use of Secondary Capital (New Money) Creates
Unprecedented Wealth In Today�s New Age Of Possibility
There are
many forms of secondary capital�which can be defined as any
financial instrument that measures and communicates value in a
common language. Would you like to see and learn more about the many
forms of secondary capital?
We have 70
free, informative and inspiring, articles for you in our �Secondary
Capital Section.� Check it out...
www.barternews.com/secondary_capital.htm.
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