Comments on: Will Bartering For Chickens Come Back In Vogue?

By: Understanding the Client of the Future | Build A Solo Practice @ SPU

Understanding the Client of the Future | Build A Solo Practice @ SPU — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:35:57 +0000

[...] right. Thrift, do-it-yourself projects, self-improvement, faith and community. There’s a rise in the barter economy, where people are trading goods and skills instead of spending money. Sixty-four percent of [...]

By: Why Solos Can’t Afford ‘Business as Usual’ | Build A Solo Practice @ SPU

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:41:04 +0000

[...] As people may no longer have traditional currency to exchange for your services, look for major growth in barter as these potential clients still have their own skills to market for those services they need in [...]

By: KingofthePaupers

KingofthePaupers — Sat, 16 May 2009 14:18:57 +0000

>Will Bartering For Chickens Come Back in Vogue?

Jct: Chickens are a lousy numeraire to carry around. Better an IOU. Who needs the chickenshit in your pocket?

>I’ve gotten to seriously thinking about this. Will bartering for legal services come back or simply become more prevalent given economic times are going to get more and more challenging?

Jct: Of course, any services can be bartered. The question is what to use as the numeraire, chickens, gold, or an Hour of time?
When local currencies are pegged to the Time Standard of Money (how many dollars/hour child labor) Hours earned locally can be intertraded with other timebanks globally!
In 1999, I paid for 39/40 nights in Europe with an IOU for a night back in Canada worth 5 Hours.
U.N. Millennium Declaration UNILETS Resolution C6 to governments is for a time-based currency to restructure the global financial architecture.
See my kingofthepaupers youtube channel

By: Frank Ganz

Frank Ganz — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:03:17 +0000

My father has been bartering services since I can remember, and I plan to do it as well. I would definitely recommend joing a barter club or network for several reasons. First, being in a barter network will bring you barter business. Second, as Susan mentioned, you can build up “barter dollars” in your account to spend whenever you want. Many clubs now have account cards that you can carry around and present at participating members locations. Plus, you are not required to only trasact through the club, if you find someone who will straight barter with you, you are free to do so.

The downside is that barter clubs will charge you a percentage when you bill out barter services and again when you spend barter dollars. Fo example, lets say I barter out a Will through the club for $1000. The club would charge me say 7.5% when I bill the barter ($75). Then let’s say I find a dentist in the club (dentists LOVE to barter) and get a fancy laser whitening for $1000. The club will charge me another 7.5% when I spend my barter dollars. So at the end of the month my barter club invoice will have my monthly membership fee and the tansaction fees (75+75).

Members that offer services rather than products can get around this by artificially inflating their fees when they are bartering.

Two clubs that I have experience with are:
http://www.businessnetworkinc.com/
http://www.imsbarter.com/

By: Carolyn Elefant

Carolyn Elefant — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:52:43 +0000

Really funny that you posted this (actually not – just another one of those weird coincidences). Anyway, just yesterday, I was catching up with a solo colleague here in Maryland, the dad of one of my daughter’s friends. We were discussing plans for our girls for the summer and he shared that he’s sending his daughter to a terrific 2 week sleep away camp that he couldn’t otherwise afford, courtesy of his participation in http://www.bartersys.com, out of Kensington Maryland. What is neat about this service is that it allows for multi-directional trades, rather than just one on one exchanges (e.g., babysitting in exchange for a lease agreement). This guy prepared a complex lease for a Bartersystems member, which in turn gave him $5000 “barter bucks” to spend. As the previous commenter notes, this group is very legitimate and does issue 1099s, which after a certain point will diminish the value of the service traded (e.g., consider the tax on $40,000 worth of legal services provided at no cost!) The company will also help you locate services – so, if you want to barter in exchange for a personal trainer, it will help identify services in your area.

Initially, I thought that the economy and other financial issues had lead my colleague to BarterSystems, but apparently he has been using it for years – even financing the caterer, flowers and photographer for his wedding 10 years ago.

My colleague said that general legal services like wills, leases and small business matters tend to be most in demand. He also said that he limits his participation to $10,000 a year or less due to the tax consequences.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:23:31 +0000

Susan, the place I drive by on my way to work is called BarterPays. According to their webpage http://www.barterpays.com, you trade in FMV of the goods and services and pay taxes in cash at POS. They send you a 1099B so you can document deductible business expenses. They call it a marketing tool with no tax advantages. Interesting. I may try it.