Written by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews

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“IMS/Continental Trade Acquiring Reno Exchange

Two weeks ago, in our April 19 Tuesday Report, we noted International Monetary Systems 12th acquisition of Eagle Barter Exchange of Chattanooga.

IMS (OTCBB:INLM), parent company of Continental Trade Exchange, has just concluded another purchase—the assets and client base of United Trade Network’s office in Reno. The facility serves more than 350 clients in the Reno and Lake Tahoe markets.

CEO Don Mardak noted, “Adding the UTN Reno operation enhances our presence in the western area of the United States, which is a great travel destination for our Northern California clients. Our company’s total membership roster now exceeds 7,300 clients, representing more than 10,000 cardholders.”

IMS Provides Projected Figures

Because of recent acquisitions and present negotiations, International Monetary Systems is offering guidance on its projected results for calendar 2005.

The company expects to increase its volume of barter transactions (one side only) from $37 million in 2004, to $48 million in 2005. This level of trade volume should result in gross revenue of approximately $6 million in 2005, an increase of 28% over the 2004 total of $4.7 million. A comparable increase in profitability is also expected.

“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.

Bentley Commerce Moves Into Australia

Bentley Commerce Corporation (OTCBB:BLYC) has established a joint venture with Platinum Traders in Queensland. The Australian company will nationally promote and market Bentley’s trade exchange management system and Global Trade Marketplace. (Bentley’s network of exchanges now are located in the United States, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, Colombia and South Africa.)

Daryl Loane, Platinum Traders’ Managing Director, disclosed, “We selected Bentley Commerce for its superior technology, as well as their access to a large and growing international trade marketplace. We anticipate that over the next three years we will rapidly expand across Australia, adding about 40 additional local offices and thousands of new members to our group.”

For more information go to: www.bentleycommerce.com.

Get New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!

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

Living In Global Society Worldwide Conversation Planned

A coalition of public radio stations, networks, and independent producers plan on airing special coverage on America’s place in an increasingly interconnected world.

The week of special coverage, titled “Think Global,” will air the week of May 16. More than 200 stations have signed up to produce and/or broadcast the programs. Contact your local public radio station for more information about what will be airing in your market, or see www.thinkglobal2005.org.

Editor’s Note: Thomas L. Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times and author of the new book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, says global supply chains are very important because they’re incredible flatteners—they take fat out of the system at every joint. Plus companies and countries that establish global supply-chain relationships will not fight against each other, as long as they’re both part of the chain.

Further evidence of globalization was seen on the April 24 edition of CBS’ 60 Minutes which reported on hospitals in Thailand and India that are providing major medical services to people from around the world. Surgeries are performed (many times by physicians trained in American medical schools) at 10% of what one would pay in the U.S. (A mega-major hospital in Thailand assisted 350,000 international patients in 2004!)

Now available ...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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Money Manager Says America Under-Indebted

Kenneth L. Fisher, a Woodside (CA)-based money manager, says it’s time to be bullish because America is not overindebted. He believes the country could profitably take on more loans from abroad and invest the money in productive assets...because in his estimation we’re underindebted.

Debt worriers are always wrong, he argues, in that they focus on a moral philosophy espousing that debt is bad and more debt is worse. Consequently they don’t like to see the U.S. importing capital from abroad, but what they fail to consider is the uses to which that capital is put.

“If you can borrow at 6% to build a factory that will yield a return of 12%, you should borrow,” Fisher contends. What is the right debt level for society to carry? The answer, according to him, is that level where our marginal borrowing costs approach our marginal return on assets. (The same formula that a corporation would use.)

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

Here & There...

• Last week’s article about IRTA’s designation of Bartercard as the first official certified trade exchange was for Bartercard UK specifically, not all Bartercard offices. We did not note this distinction in our article.

• Global mergers in 2004 topped $2 trillion, up from $1.3 trillion for all of 2003. Companies are paying premiums of 28% above share prices of targeted companies, to get them to agree to deals, compared with 22% in 2003.

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