Barter Your Year-End Purchases

We’re coming up on the busiest shopping season of the year. The time of year when credit cards get maxed out and stress builds. But for the educated consumer, there’s no need to break the bank.

Here at Southern Barter Club, we’ve been busy gearing up for our SBC Expo where we’ll feature a variety of vendors who readily offer their products (and services) on barter, so you can keep your hard-earned cash. Yes, you can shop and you don’t need to spend any cash! So far, we have vendors lined up that will offer the following items and our selection of vendors is growing daily:
- Gift baskets
- Fine art
- Jewelry
- Handbags
- Window treatments
- Golf bags
- Home decor items
- Restaurant gift certificates
- Cakes
- Fresh meat
- Women's clothing

If you’re a Southern Barter Club member, you’re probably already putting together your shopping list for the event. If you’re not yet a member with access to barter dollars, you can either sign up at the expo. and purchase items on barter or you can use cash. We encourage everyone to use their barter dollars, but you can also use cash for all or part of your purchases if you prefer.

So join us on Saturday November 14, 2009 from 10am-3pm at the Hamilton Mill Golf Club, 1995 Hamilton Mill Pkwy, Dacula, GA 30019. Admission is free so bring the whole family!

Want to know more about using barter dollars rather than cash for everyday expenses? Contact us and we’d be happy to explain how it works.

How to Utilize Web Video as a Marketing Medium

With the explosion of sites like YouTube, you’ve probably seen a video or two online lately. You may have watched something educational, promotional or something that made you laugh. But have you considered utilizing online videos to attract new customers? Web video is here to stay and it reaps a large return on investment for those who use it wisely.

All businesses, both large and small can afford to produce a web video. Just because large corporations have big bucks to spend on glitzy ads on popular networks during primetime doesn’t mean you’re excluded from the picture if you’re a small business owner. Web video producers cater to all types of businesses – both large and small. If web video isn’t currently in your marketing budget, don’t worry! If you’re a member of a barter club such as SBC, you can use your trade dollars to produce a professional video without taking cash out of your budget. There’s nothing quite like converting your trade dollars in to cash paying customers!

How can you use web videos to effectively market your business?

Showcase your products and services to potential customers

• Services industry - Introduce yourself and/or your staff, explain to customers why your service is superior than your competition, have happy clients provide testimonials on how you’ve solved their problems, build a foundation where customers can feel comfortable with you and your service


• Retail industry: Showcase the quality and design of your products and highlight customer satisfaction with testimonials


• Restaurants: Give customers a behind the scenes tour of your restaurant and introduce your staff so they have a good feeling about the vibe of your restaurant


• Travel industry: What better way to get people to fall in love with your property than to give them a visual tour of your property and surrounding attractions?
  
  From small, local events to national, broadcast-quality ads, it can only help your business to add beautiful moving pictures that tell the world who you are and what you do.

Provide tips that cater to your customers

Show current and potential clients that you’re the expert in your field and keep them up to date. For example, if you’re an accountant, you could provide tips on tax deductions or how to keep paperwork organized. If you’re a Virtual Assistant, you could provide tips on new technology. If you’re a restaurant owner, you could have your chef perform a cooking demonstration.

There is so much you can do with web videos. If you’d like to have web video as part of your marketing repertoire, contact Eric and Lisa Rice, producers of 44 Films and they’ll point you in the right direction. Eric and Lisa are pros, having worked with large companies such as Coca-Cola, Aflac, Time Life and more. Past video users have included swing-set companies, health spas, car dealerships, city events, professional sports events, conferences, travel services, and educators – to name only a few. You can reach 44 Films by going to their website or by calling 770-789-9002.

Yes, You Can Use Your Barter Dollars for Real Estate!

What are your fellow Southern Barter Club members up to? How are they using their barter dollars? SBC member Mike Huebner loves bartering, so we sat down to get the scoop on how he uses barter and how he helps others put their barter dollars to good use.

Mike has been in the real estate business in the South for 31 years and is a 24-year bartering veteran. With around half a billion dollars worth of real estate under his belt at any given time, he’s the man to turn to when you’re in the market for personal or investment property.

Mike, how has barter helped your company over the years?
Barter has helped us pay for many expenses that we had been paying cash for – hotels, entertainment, meals, auto repair, printing, employee incentives and advertising.

I heard you did an ad campaign on barter. Can you tell me more about that?
We have been able to try many different types of advertising, including radio, direct mail, magazines, newspapers, cable TV and billboards enabling us to determine which type works best for us. Because of our involvement in barter, we were able to experiment using barter dollars instead of cash.

What type of real estate do you sell?
We sell home sites, homes and commercial properties in the Florida Panhandle near Pensacola, Destin and in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia. Our prices start in the 40s and go up to the 300s for our home sites on the water. Homes and cabins are 170’s and up and commercial properties are 125,000 and up.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that you accept barter dollars as down payments. How does that work?
We accept barter dollar down payments up to 20% down and occasionally more if possible. We can also finance some of the barter down payment if the customer doesn’t have all the necessary barter dollars at the time. Any opportunity that a barter member has to invest barter dollars in real estate growth areas for their future is a huge plus. I have many clients who have initially purchased a home site with a barter down payment then built a home on it, utilizing additional barter dollars, have put it in to our rental program and are receiving positive cash flow and are having their rentals pay their mortgage.

What a great use of barter dollars! If someone has plenty of barter dollars for the down payment, but doesn’t think the bank will finance the rest, are there options?
If someone has a barter dollar down payment, we have great bank financing currently as low as 3.5%. We also offer developer financing to our customers who would prefer to go that way.

With property prices so low, now’s a great time to invest. Why is property a good investment as opposed to other forms of investing?
Real estate has increased in value 80 of the last 84 years that records have been kept. Real estate in growth areas will always be a good place to invest with a very stable track record. Currently we are in a buyers market where many opportunities abound.

So there you have it. That is indeed a great way to put your trade dollars to good use! Thanks for sharing, Mike!

If you want to find out how you can put your barter dollars to work for a bright financial future, contact Mike Huebner at 440-821-8404.

How Well Do You Know Your Customers?

An even better question may be how well do you know your prospective customers? Fortune 500 companies pay a great deal of money to market research firms to answer that question. Understanding who their prospective customers are and what their market demographic looks like allows a company to adjust their business model to address exactly what their customers want. Wouldn’t it be great if you as a small business owner had the money to do the same?

Now you do. Membership in the Southern Barter Club allows you to gain access to market research and gives you a leg up on your competition. You’ll be able to put your barter dollars to good use by hiring a professional research firm.

You’ll find that the type of market research you choose to perform will depend largely on how much you are willing to spend. For instance, hiring a firm to convene and moderate a focus group may be more expensive than compiling a survey. You will have to determine the best balance between the depth of your research and your budget. Thankfully barter can give you access to options you may not have had available to you in the past.

Here are a just a few options open to you:

Focus Groups
A moderator will ask a scripted series of questions and monitor a discussion among groups of individuals that fit your selected profile. The discussion can be videotaped or monitored live from an observation room with one-way mirrors.

Surveys
These take the form of questionnaires online or by mail and interviews in person or on the phone. You can perform employee and customer service studies and learn first hand where you need to improve, be more competitive or where you need to branch out in order to meet the demands of your customers.

Personal Interviews
More in-depth than surveys, your demographic is asked a series of questions and the session is recorded for analysis.

Field Trials
You can place your new product in select stores and observe customer response and buying habits.

Observation
Have you ever walked through a mall and witnessed someone with a clipboard taking notes? It’s possible that they’re performing and observation technique. By observing consumers’ behavior, you can gain valuable feedback regarding your customer’s patterns and habits.

Mystery Shopping
Hotels, restaurants and retail stores benefit greatly by utilizing mystery shopping. You can improve the quality of your services and ensure customer retention by sending mystery shoppers to your business to measure customer satisfaction at specific locations.

Taste Tests
What do your customers really think about the taste of your products? A research firm will conduct taste tests in your behalf so that you can improve your product.

By gathering data from your customers and target market in the form of market research, you can take the guesswork out of how to fit the needs of your clients and you’ll be a step ahead of the competition!

For more information about how market research can benefit your company, contact Thomas Cheshire at Roundtable Support. To locate research firms that are available on barter, call SBC at 1.877.779.8803

Barter Your Vacation This Year

Memorial Day marks the first day of summer. The weather is warm, the kids are out of school and you're probably planning a vacation. Unfortunately, with the economic slowdown, a lot of people are considering scaling back on their summer vacation this year or perhaps even cancelling it altogether.

Here at SBC, we say - why pay for your summer vacation when you can barter it?

Provide your skills, services or trade inventory to other members in our exchange and earn valuable trade dollars which you can trade in for a great vacation.

What can you get this summer with your trade dollars?

Spend a week at the beach - You'll find an abundance of properties for rent in Orlando, Daytona, Panama Beach and other Florida resorts. Want to stay closer to home? Check out available properties in Hilton Head. Want to go further? How about an ocean front resort in Mexico, Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic? It's all in the SBC barter store!
Take a cruise - There are several cruise options available on trade.
Go to Europe - Rent a home in France, stay at a hotel in Germany or discover Poland.
Get in touch with nature - Visit the Andes Mountains in Ecuador or enjoy the beauty of a jungle resort in Belize.
Plan a long weekend - How about a cabin rental on Lake Hartwell? Or perhaps a stay at the Wyndam in Valdosta, a bed and breakfast in Knoxville, a stay in Ellijay with gorgeous views of NE Mountains or cozy up at an Inn in Nashville? Is a weekend in NYC more to your taste? With 196 hotel and condo. options currently available in several states, you're sure to find accommodations to suit you- yes all on trade!
Gather your friends and family for an afternoon of fun-filled activities - We checked the Barter Store to find out what we can do in Atlanta using your trade dollars. A private school will rent their 7 acre campus on trade for your event. Call Jumptastic for renting inflatables for the children. Custom Design Cakes can provide a cake, cookies or desserts. Cater your event by Rays Chicken Wings or Field House or you can swing by Mellow Mushroom and pick up some pizzas. If you want to don your own apron and tongs, head on over to Patton's where you'll find the finest quality meats on trade. You can even plan a spa party and have a mobile massage therapist come to your location! Call SBC for contact information on the these and other vendors.

With barter, your local and national choices are unlimited. So don't forgo your vacation this year, do it on trade and you may find that this year will be your best vacation ever!

Barter - A Safety Cushion for Unexpected Times

Here at SBC, we love to share the great experiences that our members have with barter. The following is a guest post by Rob Gates of Gates Marketing.

“I’ve been involved in barter for about 28 years now. Sometimes heavily, sometimes forgetting all about it for months at a time.

About three years ago I had the joy of meeting Satan's oldest daughter. She was the attorney representing my wife who had decided that she no longer desired the pleasure of my company and did a remarkable job of finding and freezing every bank account and credit card I had. The one and only thing she missed was my barter account.

Prior to that I had always used my barter funds for nifty self indulgences. Diving trips to the Caribbean, expensive dinners, jewelry for Christmas gifts, things like that. Suddenly I found myself in the rather awkward position of living on my barter. Amazingly enough it not only worked but it worked surprisingly well.

They found me a hotel to stay at, loaded me down with gift cards and coupons for food and laundry services and basically provided everything I needed to live in reasonable comfort for the thirty days it took to get a court hearing to be granted a small allowance to live on.

Once I got my allowance I was able to rent a small house in the ghetto. It would have been a miserable place to stay but once I bartered an electrician, plumber, exterminator and alarm company it was reasonably nice. After that I bartered for furniture and dishes and I was good to go.

Today my life has stabilized and I'm back to living well but I learned two very important things. The first is that you can barter anything; the second is who comes through when the chips are down and who doesn't. Key members of SBC were a part of the organization that came through for me when I needed them. Now that they've opened their own exchange I expect great things from them. Of course the fact that they found a motorcycle on barter for me about 10 minutes after they opened the doors probably has something to do with those expectations!”

If you’re in the market for exceptional mailing lists, mail assembly/processing and advertising design, contact Gates Marketing at 770-455-9662.

Use Barter to Get Your Home in Top Shape This Spring

Re-attach toilet holder? Check. Re-grout kitchen tiles? Check. Fix gap in back door? Check. Insulate water heater? Check. Yes, there are probably lots of things on your to do list this season. But what if you don’t have the time to do it yourself or you don’t have the money to pay someone else to do it?

Preventative maintenance on your home is a proactive way of saving yourself money in the long run. Barter is a way to get it all done in a way that is friendly to your wallet.

First, make a detailed list of all the work you need performed. For example, walk around the interior and exterior of your home and note down all the repairs that need to be made or preventative measures you need to take. Then, get specific. If you need to hire a painter, establish how many rooms you’d like painted, the size of the rooms, whether any repairs will need to be made, if there is wallpaper that needs to be removed, if you need the ceiling and trim to be painted, etc. Then, obtain detailed estimates from two local companies who are not affiliated with Southern Barter Club – companies that accept cash only. This will help you establish the current market rate of your project. Once you have written estimates in hand, log on to the Member Area at Southern Barter Club and peruse the Service List (if you’re not a member, you can join here). You can then contact a tradesperson directly to get an estimate (you might also find gift certificates in the Barter Store for the types of services you need).

Good to Know - If the service or item you need isn’t in the directory or barter store, you can add it to your “wanted items” list and SBC will send you an automated e-mail when the service or product becomes available. Also, don’t hesitate to call your broker and they’ll do their best to help you find what you need!

Be sure that you get detailed estimates in writing as most contractors perform labor on trade, but charge cash for materials. Know what amount is due in cash and what amount is due on trade and when payment is expected. For large projects, draw up a contract and have it signed by both parties.

Be sure that the tradesperson is qualified to provide the services they are bartering and that they have adequate experience. Bartering doesn’t mean cheap or unprofessional, so check references just like you would any other contractor. If the job requires liability insurance, be sure that the vendor provides the appropriate documentation.

The key to working successfully with a tradesperson on trade is to be flexible and realize that their availability increases during off-peak times. So take advantage of the cooler weather and get the work done now, before the weather heats up!

Free Barter Networking Event - 4/16/09

Join us for a free barter networking event on Thursday, 4/16/09 7:30pm at Get This! Gallery,662 11th Street, Atlanta, GA, 30318. Bring your business cards and marketing materials. Have a good time meeting and mingling with other business members. It's a great way to find new resources that you can utilize on trade, as opposed to paying with cash. We hope to see you there!

Create Your Own Bailout Package!

AIG, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, GM ... it seems everyone is getting some sort of bailout these days. Well, everyone except small-business owners. Big companies get big government bailouts, but small to mid-size businesses have to suffer through the economic crisis the old-fashioned way: creative expense management, creative marketing, a little spit and a whole lot of elbow grease.

Right now is also a great time to start thinking out of the proverbial box about your income. There are few options for diversifying your income, but one creative and effective way is bartering.

The practice of bartering has been around for centuries and is on the rise in this tough economy. It's one of the most innovative financial tools available to both corporations and small-business owners. Savvy companies are using barter to expand their cash flow and their ability to buy products, hire skilled labor and pay for advertising costs.

How does it work? It's so easy that you'll wonder why you hadn't thought of this earlier! The first step is to become a member of a bartering club, such as Southern Barter Club. Then, by means of online forums and networking, you open up your business to other club members. You charge the members your regular retail rate but instead of cash, they pay you in barter dollars that go into your barter bank account. Think of it as a currency. Here at Southern Barter Club, we use a system similar to a credit card. When a client pays you, they present their barter card and you receive their barter dollars. You can then look through an online directory full of members to purchase products or utilize the services of another member of the club and you pay for the service using the barter dollars that you have already earned. You can advertise, dine out, hire a tradesperson and much more--all without any cash exchanging hands!

The world of bartering not only enables you to acquire products and services without paying cash, it also opens up a world of customers that you would not have reached otherwise. Those barter customers then increase your visibility, which in turn brings more cash-paying clients to your business. It's a win/win for everyone involved!

Want to know more? Give us a call! We'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Be sure and visit our official SBC website at www.southernbarterclub.com.