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Media-Active Advertorial Marketing
An Advertorial (ad.vur.TOH.ree.ul) is an Advertisement that is Written
and Presented in the Style of an Editorial or Journalistic Report.
Barter & Trade — There's Something for Everyone...
"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."
— George Bernard Shaw
The Beauty of Barter
by Gordie Hayduk, Formerly of Pressed-for-Time Quick Printing
When you hear the word barter, you may conjure up images of ancient primitive societies where the only means of exchanging goods and services was through direct trade. But now, barter represents an interesting business opportunity for business owners in a stagnant economy.
services without using money exclusively; e.g., it can be paid for
by a mixture of both barter and cash.
The most basic form of barter is when you make a direct trade of goods or services with another party. But today, there's a more sophisticated way to do it that greatly expands your options: Join a locals-only barter group and turn your excess inventory into other things that you can use or plan to use.
Right about now you might be thinking, "Barter might be OK for some people, but I want cold, hard cash for my valuable things/time."
Not a problem. With the right attitude and strategy, you can turn a barter exchange into direct 'cash' flow. Let me give you a real-life example from my own experience.
My wife and I owned a small quick printing business, that included typesetting, graphic design and product photography. These are all labor-intensive efforts except some of the printing itself — so we were able to trade found-time to produce printing from others' camera-ready artwork. There was always more demand than supply, so many traded wholesale for retail to move up in the printing queue. Everybody was pleased and received what they wanted unless the threshold reserve placed printing services "on hold" temporarily. Usually the queue would clear in short order, because commercial business always came first, of course. The kids needed food, clothing and books.
Here's Some Examples of Products & Services...
• Advertising Design Services
• Accounting & Legal Services
• Computer & Web Design
• Copying & Printing Services
• Doctors & Dentists
• Hair Styling & Nail Design
• Handyman & Lawn Services
• Original Art & Sculpture
• Restaurants & Groceries
• Travel Tickets & Eco-Tourism
• Vintners & Beverages
Barter and/or Trades can take different forms: one-on-one, three-way, and cash exchange. One-on-one would be, as you'd expect, trading printing services (or marketing services) for services rendered (labor) or a retail product. Three-way would be when barterer one wants a service but barterer two doesn't want to trade, so barterer three gets involved, and an appropriate transaction occurs. Cash exchange can take place when a barterer needs some cash, so they manage a part cash/trade exchange.
Fast forward to today and Media-Active Advertorial Marketing (MAAM) — it's not the same as a quick printing business, because it requires real time to produce quality Advertorials. Time is limited. Yet many businesses still want to trade. So, if one-on-one or three-way bartering is applicable, MAMS is willing to work at it on the basis of a queue system and/or threshold reserve. Part barter and part cash can also work on special occasions.
Back in the printing company days, a friend told me about an organization he belonged to. It was a group of businesspeople who exchanged goods and services with "barter dollars." He gave me a sample of the kinds of businesses that belonged and I was amazed to see how many and varied they were. We tried this local barter organization with national connections.
We made some important discoveries about the difference between bartering locally and bartering locally through a club — in this case Itex. We amassed a huge amount of "barter dollars" and traded for lots of nifty things we didn't have access to before. They required a monthly fee to maintain an account, and as I recall fees for every little thing we did. Professional barterers seemed to scam the system by grabbing all the desirable items early, leaving the locals with second-best. Gradually we soured about the method, stopped offering printing and quit, but the national headquarters kept charging our account monthly anyway, until 'thousands' were 'spent' without getting anything. Soon the account turned negative and we owed them — years later we supposedly owed them 200 gazillion trade dollars, our first-born child, and an all expenses paid vacation around the world for all the corporate officers.
Now, local bartering or direct exchanges — on a dollar-for-dollar basis — is our real interest. We don't want confusing trade dollars or recurring accounting and other charges. Just keeping it simple is a good guideline. Bartering should never leave one party with believing they've received less value in an exchange of products or services.
If you're interested in bartering or exchanging products or services for Media-Active Advertorial Marketing services or collateral amenities, just inquire within — call Gordie at 386-846-6789 and discuss it.
One Additional Note: The IRS treats earned and spent barter value like regular dollars, so make sure you include your barter transactions when you do your taxes. And, no, you can't pay your taxes with barter, unfortunately. Uncle Sugar doesn't know what he's missing!
Barter/Trades of Interest
Beer for Business Cards
THIS AIN'T NO fish story. We negotiated a beer for business card trade! The distributor wanted cards for all his employees, and of course we wanted beer (Bud Light Long Necks). So we traded value for value and everybody was happy. Then came the payoff on a hot Friday summer afternoon. The distributor ordered a "cold truck" to deliver our entire order to the back of the shop (Thank Goodness!). By the time all was said and done, the delivery nearly filled the small pressroom. We had to cease production and close early (This ain't no fish story!). It was a good weekend.
The distributor was thinking in WHOLESALE dollars and we were thinking in RETAIL dollars when the deal was struck months earlier. Needless to say, the distributor was happy and we were very happy. It was a good trade — imagine cases of COLD beer stacked to the ceiling everywhere in that pressroom on a hot Friday summer afternoon. Need I say more?
Original Dolphin Sculptures
for Full-Color Printing
DALE JOSEPH EVERS' sculpture is like no other. A sculptor who dives with Dolphins knows his subject very well — that is Dale from top to bottom! He wanted full-color printing, embossed folders and cards, stationery ... and would we like to trade at art brokers' prices? Artist Proofs? Well, yeah, duh. We still have all three pieces of sculpture from that trade — it is like no other. See what I mean?
For Sale: Dale Evers' "Dolphin Trio"
For Sale: Dale Evers' "La Haina"
For Sale: Dale Evers' "Rhyme or Reason"
