You Have A Choice—Grow Or Go!

Grow or go—that’s the immutable law of biology and it applies to movements and companies, as well as to organisms. Stripped of all the rhetoric, five-year plans, financing schemes and grandiose marketing ideas, your task as a business owner is a lot more basic.

Your organization must grow or go. And critical to your growth is a positive cash flow because cash is the life blood of your business. This is especially true in your formative years when your business is rapidly expanding, because neither sales nor profits pay the company bills.

(Although many business owners operate under the misconception that if they can guide their company to a profitable position they will “have it made.”)

There was a time, not so long ago, when barter was seen as an old, primitive way of conducting business. No more. Today it’s used by companies of every size in our highly competitive marketplace. Worldwide it moves almost a trillion (yes trillion) dollars a year in goods and services. It’s been erroneously labeled “the world’s number one growth industry”—having seen increases every year for decades. But it’s not really an industry per se, it’s a business tool.

Are you aware of its full potential? Do you know the variable cost of your incremental or “barter” business? Are you using barter in your business?

What separates the men from the boys in the business world is management. And the greatest difference in management is not in brains, but in the ability to see what really matters.

Push comes to shove when your daily on-going expenses are higher than planned, and your sales (more accurately your collectibles) are less than anticipated. Therefore, cash flow really matters! The question is: how can your company most efficiently build-up its cash flow? Those in the know understand that it’s directly tied to where the money is spent.

Every time you can substitute a cash buy through barter you’re building your cash flow, because a “saved” dollar goes directly to your bottom line. Whereas a new sales dollar must flow through many “filters” or “costs” (like rent, insurance, utilities, salaries, telephone, taxes, cost of goods sold, advertising expenses) before a few pennies of that dollar finally make it to the bottom line.

One of the easiest and most efficient ways to grow your business is by bartering. Make it a goal to learn as much as you can about this proven business tool.