Change and more of the same – the future looks bright for barter

June 15, 2009 by bobbagga · 2 Comments
Filed under: Barter Trends

The economy took a nosedive and suddenly barter is getting a lot of attention. What happened is that the downturn led many companies—small, medium and large—to discover barter for the first time. As a result, barter is growing faster than ever and receiving the media coverage to match.

In my opinion, though, the positive press and attention is overdue. I say this because I’ve long stated that barter is not only for the tough times. It’s a strategic tool that should be used during economic expansions and contractions. This is because preserving cash and moving excess inventory and capacity will always enable a business to grow faster and become more profitable, no matter what the prevailing economic conditions. Why wouldn’t a business want that arrow in its quiver in good times?

What I’m excited about is that once things turn around, I suspect the majority of companies that turned to barter to help their businesses grow during the downturn will continue to use it as a tool. Why would a company work to become more efficient and then allow itself to backslide? (I’m sure it happens, but it isn’t smart business.) The only difference today is that businesses are forced to be more efficient. Savvy companies have been using barter out of choice for decades.

At its base, barter is an efficiency tool, which is why so many companies are now discovering it—everyone’s working to become more efficient to weather the storm. People are discovering they can use barter to pay for a wide variety of products and services for which they are accustomed to writing checks, including advertising, capital expenditures, commodities and assets. They’re also realizing that using barter helps bring in new cash-paying customers.

When things turn around, none of these things will change.

- Bob