November 26, 2024 • 25 mins
Ever thought about trading your way to business success? Tune in as I, Trader Stu, share my journey into the world of bartering and the creation of the Trading Post podcast. This episode sheds light on the essence of bartering in business and unravels why some entrepreneurs embrace or resist this ancient practice. Bartering isn't just trading goods; it's about building a community, supporting local businesses, and engaging the younger generation to keep this vibrant economy alive.
Learn how to leverage the power of barter networks for business growth, especially if you're navigating tight cash flow. These networks offer a unique opportunity where marketing costs are aligned with sales success, making it a win-win for everyone involved. I share real-world examples from the lawn care and tree trimming industries, illustrating how established trust and proximity can unlock new business opportunities. Additionally, discover how trading excess inventory or services can transform potential business liabilities into valuable assets. Whether you're a new entrepreneur or an established business looking to optimize resources, this episode is packed with insights that could revolutionize your approach to growth and sustainability.
“Whistles In The West” was written, recorded, and produced by Durracell, exclusively for use with Trader Stu’s platform, always rocking the cowboy hat. The track is protected under U.S. Copyright rights to use have been granted specifically to Trader Stu for content and promotional use related to his brand and media presence.
contact:
📧 durracellmusic@gmail.com
🌐 www.durracell.com
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Experience the Michigan Renaissance Festival, where history and fantasy collide!
The thoughts and views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and do not reflect the official policy or position of Metro Trading Association. Although the host is an employee of Metro Trading, this podcast is intended to educate entrepreneurs on the benefits of professional trading, regardless of their location. Additionally, the host reviews various pieces of camping gear due to the association of trade, barter, and prepping.
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Find all our important links—including our LinkedIn, MetroTrading.com, and Michigan Renaissance Festival info—at:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, welcome back to the fourth episode of the
Trading Post podcast.
I am Trader Stu, back in theold sauna studio today.
I wanted to make a quick littleobservation about something I
said two weeks ago, because it'sbeen two weeks since I recorded
a podcast and I made a littlejoke about how there's no way
that I'm going to not make it ornot fail about the three
(00:24):
podcast episode failure statthat I mentioned.
Basically, it says that podcast95, or 99% of all podcasts,
fail.
That hasn't that.
Haven't made three podcasts Ithink it was or not didn't make
it to four, essentially right.
So three and under fail.
(00:45):
And then here I am uh, struggledto get my fourth episode up
because of things that happenedat work and with the family and
whatever like that, right?
So, uh, now I'm going to tryand record out a little bit, uh,
further than just day by day.
My goal was to do a podcastevery Monday.
My goal was to do a podcastevery Monday, edit it and then
upload it by Tuesday.
(01:06):
And I'm finding out that in thebusiness world, when you have a
business not that I have thebusiness, but I am the sales and
marketing manager things comeup and you know, monday comes up
fast because by the time youedit it and post it and you know
that's not but another few moredays and then you got to do it
all over again.
So now I want to uh pre-recordout, as most people probably do,
(01:31):
and uh have it 30 to 90 daysout.
I was talking to anotherpodcaster who said that they've
heard it's not uncommon for themthe people that she was talking
to uh to record 30 days to even90 days out.
So I guess you could do anentire season, which would be
nice, and just record all season, like they do it, you know, for
(01:52):
sitcoms, and then be done.
And uh, I guess what does that?
Probably what's the season?
Three months or something likethat.
I guess it depends on yourpodcast, but I would say
probably 10 episodes or so wouldbe a good season.
That's what one per week foreight.
Now the 10 is only two and ahalf months, so I don't know.
I would probably do 12.
That'd be three months, 12episodes out.
(02:14):
That'd be nice At any rate.
Uh, season one of this podcastis all to explain the different
avenues of bartering.
Uh, the remaining seasons afterthis I want to go around and do
the mobile interviewing and toall the barter members on how
they utilize a barter and howit's helped them and why they're
still members.
As I said, I'm back in thesauna studio today because it's
(02:37):
just really hard to get in theoffice early and record these
before anyone gets there, beforethe phones ring.
I noticed that was kind of astruggle.
Plus, there's this crazy airsystem that is pretty loud and I
had to edit that white noiseessentially out.
So still dreaming about havingmy mobile studio.
That'd be sweet, like a Class Cor a trailer or something like
(02:59):
that.
That'd be nice.
Anyway, bartering for the oldbusiness and the new.
So a lot of our members havebeen with MTA since the 80s.
It's still going strong.
Actually they would give atestimonial any day about how
much joining a trade associationhas benefited their business
and in fact many of our membersare also members of one or more
(03:23):
I guess you could say of twoother barter groups so that they
can diversify their portfolioas much as possible.
It's hard to say competitors inthe area because a lot of us
don't have the same businesses,although some of our barter
groups in the area do have thesame business.
Like I just mentioned times twoor three the same business, you
(03:46):
know, like I just mentioned,times two or three, and so I
guess that would be a competitor.
But, um, you know, in the end,uh, business, businesses, they
do what they can to get as muchmoney as they can in the system,
in their uh, in their checkbook, so a lot we'll just do, uh,
sign up for two or threedifferent barter groups, which
is great, and um, it's aboutthat, you know, that I wanted to
(04:08):
get into today, because why isit that some businesses, like I
mentioned, they have two orthree different barter groups
that they're members of.
They get it right, they gettraded, they get barter, and
then some others don't.
They just don't see the whole,I guess, the concept it's hard
to talk to them about.
They just want cash only andthen they don't, I guess don't
understand about, you know,converting.
(04:28):
You know, like, convert tradeinto cash, but trade creates
cash, and I would kind of wantto talk a little bit more about
that today.
So the whole reason behind mecreating this podcast is to
educate as many people out thereI guess entrepreneurs, business
owners, you know same thingabout what seems to be our
underground society, becausewhen I talk to people.
(04:48):
Most of my job is explainingwhat trade and barter is first,
and then I can kind of get intoit on how it would work out for
them.
But the whole point of thepodcast is just I'm trying to
get the word out there abouttrade because it seems like a
lot of our members are, uh,mostly author I say mostly older
(05:09):
, but they're all you know, theold school and so I'm trying to
bring in some young bloodbecause we're going back to the
ways of you know, old schoolbusiness.
It seems like we've been burnedout with the thing and people
want to go back to that localbusiness feel and that's what we
(05:29):
do, that's what trade does.
It makes everyone kind of knoweach other.
So a couple of statistics that Ifound here.
I'm a bit of a numbers guy, soI couldn't help but look for
some of the stats on newbusinesses and on the fail
versus success rate.
I guess you could say so.
I'm just reading this from aGoogle search that I, you know,
(05:51):
typed in about the US CensusBureau, and this is actually
just an AI feedback that I'mkind of citing here.
There's a record-breaking in2023, a record-breaking 5 point.
I'm going to round up here to5.5 million, but it's 5,041,000,
.
You know blah, blah, blah, but5.5 million new businesses were
started in 23.
(06:12):
That's a record breaking hit, Iguess.
Maybe it's because people can'tfind jobs and so they're like I
have to start my own job hereIf I wanted to get many money.
Maybe that's what it is.
I don't know, because I was outthere for a little bit and it's
hard to find a job and I'veseen that on the Nextdoor app
that I'm on and Facebook andLinkedIn.
It's for some reason it's toughracket out there, although
(06:34):
there's a record number of jobopenings At any rate, record
breaking new businesses 2023.
The onset of the pandemic in2020 has driven a surge in new
business creation.
So I think that my assumptionis right in that they can't find
jobs, so they're going to starttheir own job.
So the number of new businessesis trending up.
(06:55):
On average, it starts at 4.7million businesses are started
every year, so this is actuallyquite a bit more.
It's almost a million.
So 800,000 more businesses werecreated in 23, as opposed to
the average of 4.7 versus 5.5million.
So, yeah, I guess that's a that.
I can see the record breaking anumber there and, according to
(07:18):
the U S bureau of laborstatistics, or the BLS, about
20% of new businesses fail inthe first year and the failure
rate increases over time.
So I think we all knew that.
You know it's, starting a smallbusiness is a high risk
endeavor and very interestingstats here as well.
The first year, 20% of newbusinesses fail, and then the
(07:41):
second year, 30% of newbusinesses fail.
The fifth year, half.
So 50% of all businesses fail.
By the 10th year the statschange a little bit.
The 10th year, 30% of newbusinesses remain, so remain,
not fail.
30% remain, and then the fifthyear, 25% of new businesses
remain.
So I did the math on this one.
(08:02):
It was like you know, minus 20,minus 30, minus 50.
I don't want to say plus 30,but kind of it's 30 remain and
then 25% remain, right?
So I did the math and if you do, starting just from a hundred,
minus 20%, minus 30%, minus 50%,and then take the remainder of
30 and 25, I came up with a 14.7businesses remain out of 100.
(08:27):
Yeah, I mean, when you do allthe numbers like that, I can see
.
I see it now, you know, butit's kind of confusing.
So here's why some of thebusinesses do fail and they're
including the lack of marketneed.
You know most.
There's an app I can I found inthe library.
It's called A to Z databasesand I took their online course
(08:49):
because I had some questionsabout it and they had a free
program where you can ask themquestions and do a online
training seminar, which wasfantastic because I was the only
one on this training modulethat they had training module
that they had and so I got theone-on-one training, basically,
and I got to ask all myquestions and not interrupt
(09:09):
anybody, so to speak.
So one of the modules in this Ato Z databases is to look for
business failures and I was like, why would you ever want to
know that?
Like what's the point offinding out what businesses are
failed or gone or went out ofbusiness?
I think it's how many went outof business.
Let me just find this realquick.
I'm going to go online herebecause I want to make sure I
say it right A to Z databases.
(09:31):
Let me just log in, all right,all right.
And then what we see here?
What does it say?
Oh, here we are.
So search it's closed businesses.
There's a tab for closedbusinesses.
Search by type of businessemployee size, sales, geography
and more.
So I was like, why would youwant to look for closed
businesses?
(09:51):
And they said, well, because ifyou're trying to open up a
pizza joint, you want to knowwhat other or I guess how many
other pizza joints in that areahave failed from.
In this case you can define adate range of last two months,
six months, last year.
Then it goes by years two years, three years, four years, five
years, six, seven and eightyears.
(10:12):
Ok, so you can say how manypizza places have failed in the
last five years, which is reallycool.
And you can do it by metro area, zip code, state, city.
Then you got the geography.
You can exclude certain areasthat you don't care about.
You can search by a keywordyour SIC code or NAICS code If
(10:33):
it was a home-based business,major industry or group keyword
business group, business name,headquarters and branch.
I don't really care about if itwas a headquarter, but I don't
know, maybe some would if it's,I guess, a very large, small
business, I don't know.
And then you can go by employeesize, annual revenue, which is
kind of cool If it waswomen-owned, public or private,
(10:58):
you can check box small businessindicator on here.
Annual expenditures the yearestablished.
If it was a Fortune 1000company, a non-profit County
population oh, that's cool.
You can say how many people arein that county Very neat, okay.
And then manufacturingindicators you can find out if
(11:18):
they are a manufacturer orsomething Like.
I used to work for a place thatbuilt salt spreaders, for
example.
Website name, square footageand number of PCs Very cool.
I like this, but anyway I wouldnever use it because I'm not in
that.
That doesn't help me at all.
Anyway, it's called A to Zdatabases.
Your library probably has asubscription to it and if you
(11:39):
have a library card, hey, now isthe time to use your library
card that you've been that youforgot about or wiping the dust
off of.
You're like I don't read booksanymore.
But you know, libraries providea lot of great resources that
people don't know about and fora lot of programs that people
are probably paying for butdon't need to because your tax
dollars are already doing it foryou.
(12:01):
So look into your local libraryfor cool things like that.
When I used to work at thecompany for metro trading
association uh, 10 years ago, Iactually used reference usa.
That was free through thelibrary back when I lived in
Genesee County the Genesee Iforgot what, it doesn't matter
the library name, I guess asubscription that they paid
(12:25):
Reference USA for, and I foundout that it's a quite expensive
program.
Their Reference USA is nolonger anymore and then they've
been bought out by a differentcompany and, anyway, a to Z
databases is basically ReferenceUSA.
All right, that's enough ofthat.
So what's the other reason whythey fail?
Uh, 35% of startups failbecause there's no demand for
their product or service.
(12:46):
So obviously you want to dosome backgrounds, home homework,
and see what's, uh, the need isfor that area.
And then, uh, this is aredundant thing that it's been
out for me.
Uh, setting up shop beforeidentifying a target audience.
So, again, same thing.
If there's no demand, there'sno target audience.
Same thing, right.
One way to prevent failure Setup a portion of your marketing
(13:10):
budget to bartering, dependingon what you can handle for the
fee.
It's suggested to stick between10% to 30% of your business
income for barter.
It suggested a stick between 10to 30% of your business income
for barter.
So, whatever your income is,try and have 10 to 30% of that
as your barter income.
This varies, of course, due tothe fact that some companies are
solopreneurs and they have moreflexibility than when you have
(13:32):
a bunch of employees.
When you have employees itchanges because of the variables
, that some employees are bonuswith trade dollars, prepaid
barter cards be prepaid bartercards and if the owner is savvy
with spending their trade.
So we do have a couple of uh,big clients, big members, in our
association that do tip outkind of or give christmas
(13:54):
bonuses or end of year bonus orwhatever you want to call it,
and they have prepaid bartercards for their employees that
they'll either give them rightbefore our trade show and then
they'll rent a limo and they'llcome up and we serve food and
drink and then they can havesome spending money at the trade
show to buy whatever they want,whatever their bonus, right, so
(14:15):
really nice perk.
Some others I know will justuse their trade dollars and go
to out to restaurants, taketheir family to restaurants or
you know, splurge on somethinglike that.
So it's kind of nice when youhave the employees and then you
teach them about barter and justtell them, like here's your you
know card with whatever 500bucks on it and you know, here's
(14:37):
your list of places you can goto and, uh, have fun.
So it's, it's nice, uh, nicelittle perk.
And obviously word of mouth,advertising and referrals are
the best for growth of a newbusiness.
So how do you get more of thatRight?
Uh, every bomber, every memberof a barter group is a business
owner of some sort, and when youjoin a barter group, other than
the initial membership fee, youdon't pay for anything.
(14:58):
Uh, the advertising that we dofor you, and we do, uh, seven
different ways of marketing, andI've kind of touched on that
before so I'm not going to goover it again.
Uh, but you don't pay for anyof that marketing until after
you make a sale.
So if your new lawn care companyand your trade group generates
an account for you and you'reable to stake a sign in the yard
for you, and you're able tostake a sign in the yard, for
(15:20):
example, if you're, you know,mowing lawn, put your sign out
front.
I know my neighborhood they doit and they infertilize and
they'll put signs in their yard.
Or even just if your trucks andtrailer in front of the house
and you're logoed out and theyhave, uh, I know when people in
my neighborhood get jobs donelike I had my trees trimmed at a
substantial discount because aneighbor down the way had a tree
cut down, but it didn't takeall day and they didn't have any
(15:42):
other jobs lined up.
And here they got a crew ofkind of I think it was like 10
to 15 guys that this guy hadworking for him doing this tree
trimming and cutting.
And, uh, he just door knockedme.
He was like hey, we're up theroad, we just finished a tree,
we're early, and uh, I'll cut,you know these, I'll trim these
trees down for you.
(16:03):
And I said, actually, you knowwhat, give me a quote for you
know this one, this one in thefront yard at a big maple, two
sycamore trees, a crab appletree, uh, and another, I think
it was this crab apple tree.
I ended up cutting the wholething down.
It was, um, drawing squirrelsonto my roof, so anyway, I cut
that down completely.
But he trimmed it and that wasincluded, um, and yeah, I think
(16:27):
it was 700 bucks.
You know which would have been,I think, 2500 if I would have.
You know, I already got thequote before and the guy quoted
me, I think, two or three grand.
This is a couple years ago, butbecause I was a special job,
you know he had to come out for.
You know I already got thequote before and the guy quoted
me, I think, two or three grand.
This is a couple of years ago.
But because I was a special job, you know he had to come out
for me.
But because this guy wasalready down the road, this had
a walk down the road to me.
(16:47):
You know he got extra money andit was great.
It worked out for both of us.
So you know, and it happens alot, people will door knock,
they'll get their lawn sprayed.
Or a big one in my area is pestcontrol.
There's a house, a couple ofdoors down.
Who gets their yard sprayed Ithink of spiders or earwigs a
couple of times a year.
(17:07):
And sure enough, you know,every time they're in the area
you got a door knocker.
He's like hey, we're down theroad or helping your neighbor
out spraying earwigs.
Do you have a problem?
And you know me, my wife, wedon't care that we have spiders
or earwigs and they're in theyard and not in the house, you
know whatever.
So we never bite on that one.
But the tree trimming we suredid.
(17:28):
At any rate, people buy frompeople they know, like and trust
, right.
And that goes for one tierfurther than that People who buy
from those people they know,like and trust and do business
with.
So if they know that neighborand you're taking care of their
landscaping needs or whatever,those neighbors know that
neighbor and you're taking careof their landscaping needs or
whatever, those neighbors knowthat neighbor, so if they're
doing business with you then youmust be kind of like all right,
(17:50):
so to speak.
I guess you assume they'vealready been vetted, because
that neighbor doesn't, you know,necessarily buy cheap stuff
maybe, or he's meticulous withhis yard, or you know he's picky
with landscaping and you're outthere doing it and I see that
landscaping and you're out theredoing it and I see that.
Well, if they only get nicethings, then I'm more apt to you
know bite, I guess.
If you're in my area, so ifyou're doing a yard across the
(18:12):
street from me is what I'mgetting at and you take that as
a trade job, now you gotpenetration into that
neighborhood.
If that's what your job is.
If you're, you know plumbing,landscaping, tree trimming,
whatever roofing, now you gotyou know landscaping, tree
trimming, whatever roofing, nowyou got.
You know easier access.
I don't say it's a referral,but it's more of a layup, I
guess, for you to get more jobsfor cash that you used trade for
(18:34):
.
You know to get in.
So that works for new and oldbusinesses too, you know.
All right.
A couple other things I wantedto bring up too, about why
businesses work for both new andold establishments is that the
cost savings allows you toobtain the goods and services
without spending cash beneficialfor new businesses with limited
cash flow and establishedbusinesses looking to reduce
(18:58):
expenses.
So keep that in mind as well,if you're new or old business,
and you can also trade excessinventory or unused services,
which would turn your resourcesinto valuable assets.
So that means managinginventory more efficiently and
reducing waste, which, if you'rean old business and you have a
lot in storage, let's just say,hey, great way to get rid of
(19:21):
that extra storage and make somemoney off of that.
One of the big things that Ilike about trade is that there's
the huge networkingopportunities, which is great
for new relationships betweenthe businesses.
Obviously, new businesses canbuild connections and gain the
credibility by partnering withestablished ones, so, while
(19:42):
established businesses candiscover new markets and
opportunities and I've beenexperiencing that as well.
When I go to networking eventsand I explain things in person
about how we work, it's kind oflike a wow moment goes off with
some of the business owners thatI talk to and they're like, wow
, that's great, yeah, let me trythat out, or let me talk to my
(20:03):
partner or whatever the case maybe.
But there's just something withtalking to somebody in person
and seeing a face behind youknow the business.
That just really does help withexpanding business and that has
not changed.
I don't care what anybody says.
With the COVID and the Zoom andall that stuff, the online
thing is just yeah, it's nice,it's convenient, maybe it's
(20:25):
great for establishedrelationships.
But I still think one-on-oneopportunities are.
You know, even though they'refar and few between anymore, it
seems like I still try and hitup every networking thing that I
can get my hands on because,one, it gets me out of the
office or the house and uh.
Two, I get to meet some people.
Three, I see new areas and youknow new businesses, whatever,
(20:48):
and uh and maybe go to new townsI've never been in either.
There's a lot of cool thingsthat you get a hold of if you
just get out and go do some ofthese things, and I use
Eventbrite.
Of course there's BNI, lbn,chamber of Commerce, a lot of
things in the one I'm in.
They do a lot of differentthings.
So, anyway, and then back tothis.
(21:08):
Back to, uh, this list I createdhere real quick.
Uh, you increase your sales,obviously, with trade.
Um, participating in barternetworks you reach new customers
who might not have beenaccessible through traditional
cash transactions and increasesthe lead.
Uh, increased sales andcustomer base expansion.
I am totally aware of that.
I know people will go out oftheir way to spend trade and do
(21:32):
business with people that are inthe association just because
they're part of our network, andwhether or not they have trade
to spend or not, it's all aboutpeople helping everybody out in
our group.
So you know, if you've got anew business and they're trying
to get into the market, the, youknow the penetration is kind of
tough with some of thesebusinesses that they're in
because there's a lot ofcompetition.
Our members will go out oftheir way and try and help them
(21:55):
out and spend their tradedollars with them.
One of the cool things that Ididn't think about until I was
making this list here is skilldevelopment.
Bartering can provideopportunities for businesses to
acquire services they might nothave afforded otherwise, such as
marketing and professionaltraining.
It helps in skill developmentand business growth.
(22:15):
Now, I've seen that too.
We do have some professionaltrainers in our group that I
know that a lot of businessowners might not spend the cash
on, but because they have thisextra trade maybe that they've
earned, they'll take thesecourses and pay for trade
dollars with it and learnsomething new, and I've never
heard a bad thing from it.
(22:36):
I mean, how can you go wrongreally?
And then, of course, like Imentioned in my last episode,
economic resilience.
So during economic downturns,bartering can be a lifeline and
I've seen that already too.
It allows businesses tocontinue operations and maintain
relationships without relyingsolely on cash transactions.
So overall, bartering is aflexible approach to helping a
(22:59):
business of all sizes thrive byleveraging their assets and
building strong community tiesand building strong community
ties.
So, yeah, just a quick list.
I made up there because I wasthinking of other things that I
could talk about and how the newand the old kind of thing kind
of popped up, and I like that.
It makes all makes sense.
Of course, a little help with aGoogle search with the
(23:21):
statistics and math.
But all in all, yeah, that's a.
That's pretty much it.
That wraps up this episode andthanks for listening, and I'll
see.
Hello, welcome back to the fourth episode of the
Trading Post podcast.
I am Trader Stu, back in theold sauna studio today.
I wanted to make a quick littleobservation about something I
said two weeks ago, because it'sbeen two weeks since I recorded
a podcast and I made a littlejoke about how there's no way
that I'm going to not make it ornot fail about the three
(00:24):
podcast episode failure statthat I mentioned.
Basically, it says that podcast95, or 99% of all podcasts,
fail.
That hasn't that.
Haven't made three podcasts Ithink it was or not didn't make
it to four, essentially right.
So three and under fail.
(00:45):
And then here I am uh, struggledto get my fourth episode up
because of things that happenedat work and with the family and
whatever like that, right?
So, uh, now I'm going to tryand record out a little bit, uh,
further than just day by day.
My goal was to do a podcastevery Monday.
My goal was to do a podcastevery Monday, edit it and then
upload it by Tuesday.
(01:06):
And I'm finding out that in thebusiness world, when you have a
business not that I have thebusiness, but I am the sales and
marketing manager things comeup and you know, monday comes up
fast because by the time youedit it and post it and you know
that's not but another few moredays and then you got to do it
all over again.
So now I want to uh pre-recordout, as most people probably do,
(01:31):
and uh have it 30 to 90 daysout.
I was talking to anotherpodcaster who said that they've
heard it's not uncommon for themthe people that she was talking
to uh to record 30 days to even90 days out.
So I guess you could do anentire season, which would be
nice, and just record all season, like they do it, you know, for
(01:52):
sitcoms, and then be done.
And uh, I guess what does that?
Probably what's the season?
Three months or something likethat.
I guess it depends on yourpodcast, but I would say
probably 10 episodes or so wouldbe a good season.
That's what one per week foreight.
Now the 10 is only two and ahalf months, so I don't know.
I would probably do 12.
That'd be three months, 12episodes out.
(02:14):
That'd be nice At any rate.
Uh, season one of this podcastis all to explain the different
avenues of bartering.
Uh, the remaining seasons afterthis I want to go around and do
the mobile interviewing and toall the barter members on how
they utilize a barter and howit's helped them and why they're
still members.
As I said, I'm back in thesauna studio today because it's
(02:37):
just really hard to get in theoffice early and record these
before anyone gets there, beforethe phones ring.
I noticed that was kind of astruggle.
Plus, there's this crazy airsystem that is pretty loud and I
had to edit that white noiseessentially out.
So still dreaming about havingmy mobile studio.
That'd be sweet, like a Class Cor a trailer or something like
(02:59):
that.
That'd be nice.
Anyway, bartering for the oldbusiness and the new.
So a lot of our members havebeen with MTA since the 80s.
It's still going strong.
Actually they would give atestimonial any day about how
much joining a trade associationhas benefited their business
and in fact many of our membersare also members of one or more
(03:23):
I guess you could say of twoother barter groups so that they
can diversify their portfolioas much as possible.
It's hard to say competitors inthe area because a lot of us
don't have the same businesses,although some of our barter
groups in the area do have thesame business.
Like I just mentioned times twoor three the same business, you
(03:46):
know, like I just mentioned,times two or three, and so I
guess that would be a competitor.
But, um, you know, in the end,uh, business, businesses, they
do what they can to get as muchmoney as they can in the system,
in their uh, in their checkbook, so a lot we'll just do, uh,
sign up for two or threedifferent barter groups, which
is great, and um, it's aboutthat, you know, that I wanted to
(04:08):
get into today, because why isit that some businesses, like I
mentioned, they have two orthree different barter groups
that they're members of.
They get it right, they gettraded, they get barter, and
then some others don't.
They just don't see the whole,I guess, the concept it's hard
to talk to them about.
They just want cash only andthen they don't, I guess don't
understand about, you know,converting.
(04:28):
You know, like, convert tradeinto cash, but trade creates
cash, and I would kind of wantto talk a little bit more about
that today.
So the whole reason behind mecreating this podcast is to
educate as many people out thereI guess entrepreneurs, business
owners, you know same thingabout what seems to be our
underground society, becausewhen I talk to people.
(04:48):
Most of my job is explainingwhat trade and barter is first,
and then I can kind of get intoit on how it would work out for
them.
But the whole point of thepodcast is just I'm trying to
get the word out there abouttrade because it seems like a
lot of our members are, uh,mostly author I say mostly older
(05:09):
, but they're all you know, theold school and so I'm trying to
bring in some young bloodbecause we're going back to the
ways of you know, old schoolbusiness.
It seems like we've been burnedout with the thing and people
want to go back to that localbusiness feel and that's what we
(05:29):
do, that's what trade does.
It makes everyone kind of knoweach other.
So a couple of statistics that Ifound here.
I'm a bit of a numbers guy, soI couldn't help but look for
some of the stats on newbusinesses and on the fail
versus success rate.
I guess you could say so.
I'm just reading this from aGoogle search that I, you know,
(05:51):
typed in about the US CensusBureau, and this is actually
just an AI feedback that I'mkind of citing here.
There's a record-breaking in2023, a record-breaking 5 point.
I'm going to round up here to5.5 million, but it's 5,041,000,
.
You know blah, blah, blah, but5.5 million new businesses were
started in 23.
(06:12):
That's a record breaking hit, Iguess.
Maybe it's because people can'tfind jobs and so they're like I
have to start my own job hereIf I wanted to get many money.
Maybe that's what it is.
I don't know, because I was outthere for a little bit and it's
hard to find a job and I'veseen that on the Nextdoor app
that I'm on and Facebook andLinkedIn.
It's for some reason it's toughracket out there, although
(06:34):
there's a record number of jobopenings At any rate, record
breaking new businesses 2023.
The onset of the pandemic in2020 has driven a surge in new
business creation.
So I think that my assumptionis right in that they can't find
jobs, so they're going to starttheir own job.
So the number of new businessesis trending up.
(06:55):
On average, it starts at 4.7million businesses are started
every year, so this is actuallyquite a bit more.
It's almost a million.
So 800,000 more businesses werecreated in 23, as opposed to
the average of 4.7 versus 5.5million.
So, yeah, I guess that's a that.
I can see the record breaking anumber there and, according to
(07:18):
the U S bureau of laborstatistics, or the BLS, about
20% of new businesses fail inthe first year and the failure
rate increases over time.
So I think we all knew that.
You know it's, starting a smallbusiness is a high risk
endeavor and very interestingstats here as well.
The first year, 20% of newbusinesses fail, and then the
(07:41):
second year, 30% of newbusinesses fail.
The fifth year, half.
So 50% of all businesses fail.
By the 10th year the statschange a little bit.
The 10th year, 30% of newbusinesses remain, so remain,
not fail.
30% remain, and then the fifthyear, 25% of new businesses
remain.
So I did the math on this one.
(08:02):
It was like you know, minus 20,minus 30, minus 50.
I don't want to say plus 30,but kind of it's 30 remain and
then 25% remain, right?
So I did the math and if you do, starting just from a hundred,
minus 20%, minus 30%, minus 50%,and then take the remainder of
30 and 25, I came up with a 14.7businesses remain out of 100.
(08:27):
Yeah, I mean, when you do allthe numbers like that, I can see
.
I see it now, you know, butit's kind of confusing.
So here's why some of thebusinesses do fail and they're
including the lack of marketneed.
You know most.
There's an app I can I found inthe library.
It's called A to Z databasesand I took their online course
(08:49):
because I had some questionsabout it and they had a free
program where you can ask themquestions and do a online
training seminar, which wasfantastic because I was the only
one on this training modulethat they had training module
that they had and so I got theone-on-one training, basically,
and I got to ask all myquestions and not interrupt
(09:09):
anybody, so to speak.
So one of the modules in this Ato Z databases is to look for
business failures and I was like, why would you ever want to
know that?
Like what's the point offinding out what businesses are
failed or gone or went out ofbusiness?
I think it's how many went outof business.
Let me just find this realquick.
I'm going to go online herebecause I want to make sure I
say it right A to Z databases.
(09:31):
Let me just log in, all right,all right.
And then what we see here?
What does it say?
Oh, here we are.
So search it's closed businesses.
There's a tab for closedbusinesses.
Search by type of businessemployee size, sales, geography
and more.
So I was like, why would youwant to look for closed
businesses?
(09:51):
And they said, well, because ifyou're trying to open up a
pizza joint, you want to knowwhat other or I guess how many
other pizza joints in that areahave failed from.
In this case you can define adate range of last two months,
six months, last year.
Then it goes by years two years, three years, four years, five
years, six, seven and eightyears.
(10:12):
Ok, so you can say how manypizza places have failed in the
last five years, which is reallycool.
And you can do it by metro area, zip code, state, city.
Then you got the geography.
You can exclude certain areasthat you don't care about.
You can search by a keywordyour SIC code or NAICS code If
(10:33):
it was a home-based business,major industry or group keyword
business group, business name,headquarters and branch.
I don't really care about if itwas a headquarter, but I don't
know, maybe some would if it's,I guess, a very large, small
business, I don't know.
And then you can go by employeesize, annual revenue, which is
kind of cool If it waswomen-owned, public or private,
(10:58):
you can check box small businessindicator on here.
Annual expenditures the yearestablished.
If it was a Fortune 1000company, a non-profit County
population oh, that's cool.
You can say how many people arein that county Very neat, okay.
And then manufacturingindicators you can find out if
(11:18):
they are a manufacturer orsomething Like.
I used to work for a place thatbuilt salt spreaders, for
example.
Website name, square footageand number of PCs Very cool.
I like this, but anyway I wouldnever use it because I'm not in
that.
That doesn't help me at all.
Anyway, it's called A to Zdatabases.
Your library probably has asubscription to it and if you
(11:39):
have a library card, hey, now isthe time to use your library
card that you've been that youforgot about or wiping the dust
off of.
You're like I don't read booksanymore.
But you know, libraries providea lot of great resources that
people don't know about and fora lot of programs that people
are probably paying for butdon't need to because your tax
dollars are already doing it foryou.
(12:01):
So look into your local libraryfor cool things like that.
When I used to work at thecompany for metro trading
association uh, 10 years ago, Iactually used reference usa.
That was free through thelibrary back when I lived in
Genesee County the Genesee Iforgot what, it doesn't matter
the library name, I guess asubscription that they paid
(12:25):
Reference USA for, and I foundout that it's a quite expensive
program.
Their Reference USA is nolonger anymore and then they've
been bought out by a differentcompany and, anyway, a to Z
databases is basically ReferenceUSA.
All right, that's enough ofthat.
So what's the other reason whythey fail?
Uh, 35% of startups failbecause there's no demand for
their product or service.
(12:46):
So obviously you want to dosome backgrounds, home homework,
and see what's, uh, the need isfor that area.
And then, uh, this is aredundant thing that it's been
out for me.
Uh, setting up shop beforeidentifying a target audience.
So, again, same thing.
If there's no demand, there'sno target audience.
Same thing, right.
One way to prevent failure Setup a portion of your marketing
(13:10):
budget to bartering, dependingon what you can handle for the
fee.
It's suggested to stick between10% to 30% of your business
income for barter.
It suggested a stick between 10to 30% of your business income
for barter.
So, whatever your income is,try and have 10 to 30% of that
as your barter income.
This varies, of course, due tothe fact that some companies are
solopreneurs and they have moreflexibility than when you have
(13:32):
a bunch of employees.
When you have employees itchanges because of the variables
, that some employees are bonuswith trade dollars, prepaid
barter cards be prepaid bartercards and if the owner is savvy
with spending their trade.
So we do have a couple of uh,big clients, big members, in our
association that do tip outkind of or give christmas
(13:54):
bonuses or end of year bonus orwhatever you want to call it,
and they have prepaid bartercards for their employees that
they'll either give them rightbefore our trade show and then
they'll rent a limo and they'llcome up and we serve food and
drink and then they can havesome spending money at the trade
show to buy whatever they want,whatever their bonus, right, so
(14:15):
really nice perk.
Some others I know will justuse their trade dollars and go
to out to restaurants, taketheir family to restaurants or
you know, splurge on somethinglike that.
So it's kind of nice when youhave the employees and then you
teach them about barter and justtell them, like here's your you
know card with whatever 500bucks on it and you know, here's
(14:37):
your list of places you can goto and, uh, have fun.
So it's, it's nice, uh, nicelittle perk.
And obviously word of mouth,advertising and referrals are
the best for growth of a newbusiness.
So how do you get more of thatRight?
Uh, every bomber, every memberof a barter group is a business
owner of some sort, and when youjoin a barter group, other than
the initial membership fee, youdon't pay for anything.
(14:58):
Uh, the advertising that we dofor you, and we do, uh, seven
different ways of marketing, andI've kind of touched on that
before so I'm not going to goover it again.
Uh, but you don't pay for anyof that marketing until after
you make a sale.
So if your new lawn care companyand your trade group generates
an account for you and you'reable to stake a sign in the yard
for you, and you're able tostake a sign in the yard, for
(15:20):
example, if you're, you know,mowing lawn, put your sign out
front.
I know my neighborhood they doit and they infertilize and
they'll put signs in their yard.
Or even just if your trucks andtrailer in front of the house
and you're logoed out and theyhave, uh, I know when people in
my neighborhood get jobs donelike I had my trees trimmed at a
substantial discount because aneighbor down the way had a tree
cut down, but it didn't takeall day and they didn't have any
(15:42):
other jobs lined up.
And here they got a crew ofkind of I think it was like 10
to 15 guys that this guy hadworking for him doing this tree
trimming and cutting.
And, uh, he just door knockedme.
He was like hey, we're up theroad, we just finished a tree,
we're early, and uh, I'll cut,you know these, I'll trim these
trees down for you.
(16:03):
And I said, actually, you knowwhat, give me a quote for you
know this one, this one in thefront yard at a big maple, two
sycamore trees, a crab appletree, uh, and another, I think
it was this crab apple tree.
I ended up cutting the wholething down.
It was, um, drawing squirrelsonto my roof, so anyway, I cut
that down completely.
But he trimmed it and that wasincluded, um, and yeah, I think
(16:27):
it was 700 bucks.
You know which would have been,I think, 2500 if I would have.
You know, I already got thequote before and the guy quoted
me, I think, two or three grand.
This is a couple years ago, butbecause I was a special job,
you know he had to come out for.
You know I already got thequote before and the guy quoted
me, I think, two or three grand.
This is a couple of years ago.
But because I was a special job, you know he had to come out
for me.
But because this guy wasalready down the road, this had
a walk down the road to me.
(16:47):
You know he got extra money andit was great.
It worked out for both of us.
So you know, and it happens alot, people will door knock,
they'll get their lawn sprayed.
Or a big one in my area is pestcontrol.
There's a house, a couple ofdoors down.
Who gets their yard sprayed Ithink of spiders or earwigs a
couple of times a year.
(17:07):
And sure enough, you know,every time they're in the area
you got a door knocker.
He's like hey, we're down theroad or helping your neighbor
out spraying earwigs.
Do you have a problem?
And you know me, my wife, wedon't care that we have spiders
or earwigs and they're in theyard and not in the house, you
know whatever.
So we never bite on that one.
But the tree trimming we suredid.
(17:28):
At any rate, people buy frompeople they know, like and trust
, right.
And that goes for one tierfurther than that People who buy
from those people they know,like and trust and do business
with.
So if they know that neighborand you're taking care of their
landscaping needs or whatever,those neighbors know that
neighbor and you're taking careof their landscaping needs or
whatever, those neighbors knowthat neighbor, so if they're
doing business with you then youmust be kind of like all right,
(17:50):
so to speak.
I guess you assume they'vealready been vetted, because
that neighbor doesn't, you know,necessarily buy cheap stuff
maybe, or he's meticulous withhis yard, or you know he's picky
with landscaping and you're outthere doing it and I see that
landscaping and you're out theredoing it and I see that.
Well, if they only get nicethings, then I'm more apt to you
know bite, I guess.
If you're in my area, so ifyou're doing a yard across the
(18:12):
street from me is what I'mgetting at and you take that as
a trade job, now you gotpenetration into that
neighborhood.
If that's what your job is.
If you're, you know plumbing,landscaping, tree trimming,
whatever roofing, now you gotyou know landscaping, tree
trimming, whatever roofing, nowyou got.
You know easier access.
I don't say it's a referral,but it's more of a layup, I
guess, for you to get more jobsfor cash that you used trade for
(18:34):
.
You know to get in.
So that works for new and oldbusinesses too, you know.
All right.
A couple other things I wantedto bring up too, about why
businesses work for both new andold establishments is that the
cost savings allows you toobtain the goods and services
without spending cash beneficialfor new businesses with limited
cash flow and establishedbusinesses looking to reduce
(18:58):
expenses.
So keep that in mind as well,if you're new or old business,
and you can also trade excessinventory or unused services,
which would turn your resourcesinto valuable assets.
So that means managinginventory more efficiently and
reducing waste, which, if you'rean old business and you have a
lot in storage, let's just say,hey, great way to get rid of
(19:21):
that extra storage and make somemoney off of that.
One of the big things that Ilike about trade is that there's
the huge networkingopportunities, which is great
for new relationships betweenthe businesses.
Obviously, new businesses canbuild connections and gain the
credibility by partnering withestablished ones, so, while
(19:42):
established businesses candiscover new markets and
opportunities and I've beenexperiencing that as well.
When I go to networking eventsand I explain things in person
about how we work, it's kind oflike a wow moment goes off with
some of the business owners thatI talk to and they're like, wow
, that's great, yeah, let me trythat out, or let me talk to my
(20:03):
partner or whatever the case maybe.
But there's just something withtalking to somebody in person
and seeing a face behind youknow the business.
That just really does help withexpanding business and that has
not changed.
I don't care what anybody says.
With the COVID and the Zoom andall that stuff, the online
thing is just yeah, it's nice,it's convenient, maybe it's
(20:25):
great for establishedrelationships.
But I still think one-on-oneopportunities are.
You know, even though they'refar and few between anymore, it
seems like I still try and hitup every networking thing that I
can get my hands on because,one, it gets me out of the
office or the house and uh.
Two, I get to meet some people.
Three, I see new areas and youknow new businesses, whatever,
(20:48):
and uh and maybe go to new townsI've never been in either.
There's a lot of cool thingsthat you get a hold of if you
just get out and go do some ofthese things, and I use
Eventbrite.
Of course there's BNI, lbn,chamber of Commerce, a lot of
things in the one I'm in.
They do a lot of differentthings.
So, anyway, and then back tothis.
(21:08):
Back to, uh, this list I createdhere real quick.
Uh, you increase your sales,obviously, with trade.
Um, participating in barternetworks you reach new customers
who might not have beenaccessible through traditional
cash transactions and increasesthe lead.
Uh, increased sales andcustomer base expansion.
I am totally aware of that.
I know people will go out oftheir way to spend trade and do
(21:32):
business with people that are inthe association just because
they're part of our network, andwhether or not they have trade
to spend or not, it's all aboutpeople helping everybody out in
our group.
So you know, if you've got anew business and they're trying
to get into the market, the, youknow the penetration is kind of
tough with some of thesebusinesses that they're in
because there's a lot ofcompetition.
Our members will go out oftheir way and try and help them
(21:55):
out and spend their tradedollars with them.
One of the cool things that Ididn't think about until I was
making this list here is skilldevelopment.
Bartering can provideopportunities for businesses to
acquire services they might nothave afforded otherwise, such as
marketing and professionaltraining.
It helps in skill developmentand business growth.
(22:15):
Now, I've seen that too.
We do have some professionaltrainers in our group that I
know that a lot of businessowners might not spend the cash
on, but because they have thisextra trade maybe that they've
earned, they'll take thesecourses and pay for trade
dollars with it and learnsomething new, and I've never
heard a bad thing from it.
(22:36):
I mean, how can you go wrongreally?
And then, of course, like Imentioned in my last episode,
economic resilience.
So during economic downturns,bartering can be a lifeline and
I've seen that already too.
It allows businesses tocontinue operations and maintain
relationships without relyingsolely on cash transactions.
So overall, bartering is aflexible approach to helping a
(22:59):
business of all sizes thrive byleveraging their assets and
building strong community tiesand building strong community
ties.
So, yeah, just a quick list.
I made up there because I wasthinking of other things that I
could talk about and how the newand the old kind of thing kind
of popped up, and I like that.
It makes all makes sense.
Of course, a little help with aGoogle search with the
(23:21):
statistics and math.
But all in all, yeah, that's a.
That's pretty much it.
That wraps up this episode andthanks for listening, and I'll
see.
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