October 12,
2004 Written
by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews
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IRTA
Convention Attendees Call For Standardization & Transparency
Ninety-eight
registered attendees plus four last minute arrivals gathered for
the International
Reciprocal Trade Association’s 25th Annual Convention in tropical
Cancun, Mexico, from September 30 to October 2.
The convention
was held at the post-card picturesque Barcelo Maya Beach Resort
through the efforts of Jack Lopata, CEO of Tradex (Trade Exchange
de Mexico).
The convention
was capped off by the nostalgic banquet program—a twenty-five
year walk through IRTA’s history that included pictures as
well as shared past stories and insights by pioneers of the industry.
It was capably led off by Art Goehring, who, along with IRTA’s
first executive director Paul Suplizio, authored IRTA’s Regulation
1 nearly 25 years ago.
But the real
story coming out of the 25th convention was the desire and embracement
of a new direction by the attendees. It came about after a full
day of considerable effort and thought, through a series of round
table discussions facilitated by professional coach Shandel Slaten,
and concluded with a list of 15 objectives.
The members
of the industry’s oldest trade association then aggregately
narrowed their focus to the top three most important items—standardization,
unity of the barter industry, and marketing/branding.
The first item—standardization—is
expected to be implemented immediately. By following the twenty-five
year old blueprint known as Regulation 1, it will basically require
trade exchanges to provide IRTA with a balance sheet profile...wherein
they recognize and report their exchange’s deficit. If the
figures are out of synch, the association will provide guidelines
to resolve the discrepancy over a period of time.
In the coming
issue of BarterNews we will have expanded coverage of the
convention, as well as a reprint of the two page IRS-IRTA Partnership
Outreach proclamation.
Get
New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!
You can obtain
useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available back-issue
of BarterNews.
ITEX
Management Reaches Turnaround Goal With Impressive Performance
In February
of 2003, Steven White and Alan Zimmelman joined the ITEX Board of
Directors. Four months later White and Zimmelman took over the day-to-day
management of the company. Their goal was to reduce overall costs
of managing the broker network and create bottomline cash profits
from the company’s existing revenue stream.
The recent announced
results for their fiscal year ending July 31, 2004, are most impressive,
and reinforce their focused efforts in meeting their objectives
as stated when they began a little over a year ago.
Steven White,
Chairman and CEO, reports that ITEX (OTCBB:ITEX) will continue to
invest in both upgrading the technology and infrastructure of the
broker network and in creating new programs to stimulate revenue
growth.
Income from
operations was $1,031,000 or 6-cents per share, compared to a loss
of $642,000 or a loss of 4-cents per share for the prior fiscal
year. Total income, including one-time gains and gains from corporate-owned
office sales, was $2,539,000 for the prior fiscal year. This was
in part a result of the divestiture of corporate-owned offices.
Selling, general
and administrative costs (SG&A) decreased 42% to $2,044,000,
from $3,539,000 for the prior fiscal year. (In part a result of
divestiture of corporate-owned offices.)
Current liabilities
decreased 70% to 4696,000 from $2,310,000 for the prior fiscal year.
Revenues decreased 3% to $10,283,000 from $10,595,000 for the prior
fiscal year.
According to
White, “ITEX eliminated all outstanding stock options, expensed
equity-based compensation, and paid off all long-term debt. We believe
we have a solid, scaleable business model in place, and are now
focusing our efforts on growing revenue while maintaining cash flow
and profits.”
For additional
information contact Alan Zimmelman at alan@itex.com.
The ITEX annual report can read on Form 10-KSB, found at www.sec.gov.
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Exchange Owners...
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Steeve
Croteau Moving Forward With Ivondi
One of the early
movers with the VC community in forming BarterNet, now known as
Intagio, was Steeve Croteau. He is no longer in the barter business,
but still infatuated with barter in his present position as president
(and founder) of Ivondi, a direct distribution channel for travel.
Most recently,
in a move to consolidate the most rapidly growing sector of the
hospitality industry, his company has acquired all the assets of
USBestHotels.com, in a cash and stock transaction. USBest works
with over 7,000 hotels, enabling hoteliers to deal directly with
clients, both online and off-line, rather than with third parties.
Ivondi has signed
a number of hotels and hotel chain clients in North America and
Europe with their cross-promotional approach. “The hotels
have been quick to embrace Ivondi,” Croteau pointed out, “because
they realize that current commission-levels paid to resellers are
unsustainable in terms of forecast online growth.” (Online
growth predicted to increase from the current 10% of all travel
sold, to 26% by 2006.)
Ivondi will
begin a soft launch by year end, followed by an aggressive media
campaign in early 2005. The Tuesday Report will keep you
updated on their progress.
BarterNews
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Barter
Fairs & Holiday Expo's. . .
October:
2nd Annual BXI San Diego Fall Trade Fair. Saturday, October 23 at
Party Pals, 10427 Roselle Street, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For directions
call (619) 472-2929.
November:
BXI Ventura-Santa Barbara & BXI West Valley have scheduled their
Holiday Trade Fair on Sunday, November 7 at the Oxnard Courtyard
by Marriott, 600 East Esplanade Drive, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For
more information call (805) 376-9466 or (818) 758-2929.
American Commerce
Exchange (ACX) will hold their Annual Trade Fair on Sunday, November
7 at the Glendale Community Center, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more
information call (323) 259-2340
BXI Inland Valley
Fair will take place Sunday, November 14 at the Elks Lodge in West
Covina, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call (909) 592-7727.
BXI Northern
California/Nevada’s Holiday Trade Fair will be held on Sunday,
November 21 at the Clarion Hotel at the San Jose Airport, 12 noon
to 5 p.m. For more information e-mail ron@bxinorcal.com
or phone (650) 592-2929.
December:
The oldest and largest BXI fair is the Orange County Holiday Fair
at the Costa Mesa Orange County Fairgrounds in Bldg. 10 (same location
for 24 years). Scheduled for Sunday, December 5 from 10 a.m. to
4 p.m. For more information call (714) 847-5477.
Trade Atlanta,
Premier Barter, and Barter For Less are cooperatively staging a
Holiday Festival on Tuesday, December 7 in Gwinnett, Georgia, from
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information call (678) 793-9463.
TradeAmericanCard
2004 Barter & Business Expo on Sunday, December 12 at The Grove
of Anaheim, 2200 E. Katella Avenue, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. For more
information call (714) 532-1610.
(Barter
companies: Send your holiday trade fair information to: bmeyer@barternews.com.)
Every
barter company in the world is listed on our web site,
click through to our Global List of Barter
Companies.
Here
& There...
- Continental
Trade Exchange, a subsidiary of IMS, has an educated brokerage
staff. Don Mardak, CEO of International Monetary Systems, proudly
announced, “We now have 15 CTBs (certified trade brokers)
and one MTB (master trade broker) on our staff, more than any
other independent trade exchange in America.” Founded in
1989, IMS (OTCBB:INLM) serves more than 7,000 customers in 25
U.S. markets.
- Kingdom Ventures
Inc., a Christian media and products company, will acquire an
initial $2.5 million in media through an agreement with eDaddywarbucks
(a Sacramento-based company headed by Norman Alvis) for a national
advertising campaign. The arrangement is expected to expand Kingdom
Ventures’ (OTCBB:KDMV) exposure in the large Christian marketplace.
- 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!
- Last year
an IRS-run program had volunteers from around the country prepare
850,000 federal tax returns for low-income folks. The U.S. Treasury
Department’s inspector general for tax administration assigned
undercover-agents posing as the poor to have 35 returns prepared
by volunteers. Their findings? Not a single return was done correctly!
- Barterfarm,
an online automated marketplace, has changed its name to Matchbin.
CEO Joshua Higginbotham explained, “We do the work and save
users time by facilitating the match (of haves and wants) for
them.” Matchbin has recently completed a Series A round
of funding. For more information: www.matchbin.com.
- If you've
missed any of our weekly Tuesday Reports the past five
years we have an archive of issues for you at the bottom of this
week's letter...check it out!
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