November 14,
2006
Written
by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews
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From the desk of Bob
Meyer...11/14/06
Former Trade Exchange Owner Ray Bastarache
Scores Again...Turning $50,000 Into $5.2 Million
Our cover story of BarterNews Issue #20, published in
1989, was about Ray Bastarache, the young, ambitious, and
extremely focused 28-year-old founder of BarterNetwork Inc.
(BNI).
My visit to Milford (CT), where I spent three days with
Bastarache, was a most noteworthy one. For the first time, I
became aware of how the second generation of exchange
owners...the younger ones...were different than their
predecessors.
It was Bastarache who first suggested that his generation
would be the ones to truly tap the potential and riches of
the commercial barter industry.
And it was a decade later that Bastarache did so, selling
his company to the first of the dot-com venture capital
firms?BarterTrust.com. (The sale was announced at the IRTA
convention in Vancouver, Canada, and reported on in Issue
#51.)
In that sale Bastarache, unlike his peers, again showed
wisdom beyond his years, when he chose to take all cash,
rather than the promise of a greater return in stock and
options. (Which in retrospect was the right move, as
BarterTrust ultimately filed bankruptcy.)
Never satisfied, he was involved in other business ventures
while running BNI. Among his most profitable moves was the
purchase of a large Milford downtown office building in
1992. He picked it up from the FDIC in a foreclosure sale,
for $50,100.00.
I vividly remember our phone conversation after the deal was
completed, when he ecstatically explained that he had
negotiated to lease some of the spaces in the underground
parking garage back to the city, which would cover most of
the amortization of the building?s loan he had just
finalized. Quite an accomplishment for a young man in his
thirties!
Bastarache quickly took action, making necessary
improvements and turning the vacant shell into commercial
offices. He then moved BNI into the building and leased out
the remaining space. Much of the improvements were done on
trade.
Last week Bastarache, who now lives in Massachusetts, sold
the Harbor Towers Building at 1 New Haven Avenue for
$5,225,000...100 times the amount he paid for it.
Active International Appoints Thomas Ruderman
Forty-eight-year-old Thomas W. Ruderman has been appointed
chief human resources officer of Active International, a
corporate barter and global marketing company.
Ruderman?s experience is impressive. His 20 years of human
resources experience include more than 15 years with General
Electric Company and most recently as senior vice president
of HR with Citigroup?s credit card business. Prior to that
he was vice president of HR for CIGNA Health Services.
Author/Speaker Uses & Promotes Barter (ITEX)
On His Web Site
In his new book, ?MORE Business Lessons For Entrepreneurs:
Volume 2,? Mark Csordos continues to deal with the mental
and emotional aspects of starting and running a business.
The book is a sequel to ?Business Lessons For Entrepreneurs:
35 Things I Learned Before The Age Of Thirty.?
In his most recent book, Csordos has a chapter on the use of
barter. On his web site,
www.markcsordos.com, he actively promotes his use of
ITEX and sells his books and other programs on trade.
The Internet Pales In Comparison To The
Innernet
What is the most complex network yet developed? If you
guessed the world wide web, guess again.
The human brain, with its electrochemical matrix of over one
hundred billion neurons, makes the internet look like a
fancy spider?s web. Within the brain, each neuron is linked
to about 50,000 other neurons...making a total of one
hundred trillion connections.
The Future Is Bright For Boomers Becoming
Entrepreneurs
According to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, adults
ages 55 to 64 have been the group most likely to start a new
business in the past decade. Older entrepreneurs often tap
their 401(k) or home equity for working capital, but,
surprisingly, banks are interested in later-life
entrepreneurs.
Why? They have networks and experience, and their kids are
out of the house. Indeed, strong networks are what separate
thriving retiree entrepreneurs from all the rest. In short,
boomers who learned how to win friends and influence people
have a bright future.
Some Manufacturing Leaving China For
Less-Expensive Locations
The lowest-end production is starting to migrate away from
China to areas that can offer even less-expensive conditions
than China. Southeast Asian nations such as Malaysia and
Indonesia, as well as Vietnam, have become the new hot spot
for manufacturing.
In a way, China has become a victim of its own success.
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, a group that has collectively
been a bigger investor in China than either the U.S. or the
European Union, decreased total investment 6.5% in
2005...but in the first half of 2006 plunged 31%.
Home Builders Actions Showed Good Insight
As the housing market recedes, the recent reports on
builders who used options when buying land, to reduce their
exposure to the growing uncertainties of the real estate
market, reflected their wisdom.
According to a report by Credit Suisse, builders have
reduced their exposure by using more options on land, so
they can walk away from deals. The report says that at the
end of last year, 46% of such options contracts were
utilized in 2005, 42% in 2004 and 12% in earlier years.
All back issues of
"From the Desk...? can be accessed by
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See you next week. . .) |
Don?t Take Entrepreneurs? Accomplishments For Granted
Johan Norberg,
author of In Defense of Global Capitalism says we all tend to take
today?s accomplishments and opportunities for granted, whereas our
ancestors could not have imagined what we all now have.
In the last
100 years more wealth has been created than in the previous 100,000
years, and it is not because we work more. It?s new ideas that have
made it possible for us to work smarter and find easier ways to
satisfy our needs and demands.
Who should we
thank? According to Norberg it?s the innovators and entrepreneurs.
Those who venture into uncharted territory and open up new
routes...people who find new markets, create new products, organize
work in new ways, design new technology of new medicines.
Although these
problem-solvers who search out inefficiencies constantly
revolutionizing our economy have made it possible for average people
to live longer and healthier lives, with more access to technology
than the kings had in previous generations, they just don?t get the
credit.
Radical
improvement by entrepreneurs have never gotten the acclaim deserved.
If such improvements had been accomplished by political leaders and
central planning, it would have been celebrated as humanity?s
greatest achievement.
But that?s not
how entrepreneurs have been perceived for all of their achievements.
Luckily for us, the creative ability of the entrepreneur will
continue and all of us will be the beneficiaries.
New Business Model For Private
Aviation
Fractional jet companies, like Warren Buffett?s NetJets (they
lost $80 million last year), may have major competition from a new
business model in the form of Blue Star Jets. Blue Star owns no
aircraft and needn?t worry about costs like pilot training and
maintenance.
The firm is a broker between people who want to charter a plane
or helicopter, and the owners or managers of some 4,000 aircraft.
They are already profitable, with sales of over $100 million and the
exclusive brokership for Donald Trump?s online travel agency.
Co-founders and owners of Blue Star, Todd Rome and Richard
Sitomer (both 37), pay salespeople on commission with top earners
reportedly making more than $1 million a year. They spend as much as
a million a month in marketing, buying ads in luxury magazines,
spending $200,000 to host an annual society event at Rome?s Hampton
estate, and developing partnerships with Canyon Ranch Spas.
New
Service Could Provide An Assist For Private Jet Flights
If
you know where to look, you will find deep discounts on typical
private-jet rates by hooking up with empty seats on flights that are
booked for one-way trips. (Most available flights have either just
delivered a customer or are en route to pick up a customer.)
A search engine titled Empty Legs is offered by
OneSky Jets, a private jet company, at
www.onesky.com.
Of the nearly 2,700 private jets flown every day, an estimated 40%
fly empty legs, according to OneSky.
Here?s an example of what you could
expect. A typical charter for eight passengers from Seattle to Las
Vegas might cost $20,000, a recent flight on empty Legs went for
just over $6,000. A one-way first-class ticket for the same route
runs close to $400.
Online Travel Giant Expedia, Launches Loyalty Program For Travel
Bookings
Expedia has
announced that it will work with one of the biggest names in credit
cards to persuade customers to spend more money with them.
The huge
online travel giant is launching its first loyalty program but
instead of inventing its own points for people to collect, it will
give them ?ThankYou? points, a currency that 10 million Citigroup
customers already accumulate.
Expedia?s move
is seen as an example of how online travel services are seeking to
increase customer loyalty, in a young industry where customers are
fickle and eager to try the latest new booking tool.
The link-up with Expedia marks the first time that a large outside
partner has offered Citigroup?s points as its own de facto loyalty
program.
Hotel
General Managers
Here?s
The Easiest $100,000 You?ll Ever
Bring To The Bottomline!
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
hotel rooms and/or 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.
(Please type in AV Services On Trade in the subject
line of your e-mail.)
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.
Trade Exchange Owners... Build Rapport & Empathy With Your Client Base!!
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