Barter Companies Orangeville ON
519-743-3387
Kitchener, ON
519-883-6030
Kitchener, ON
905-455-5510
Brampton, ON
(905) 526-4700/(800) 263-2167
Hamilton, ON
519-747-8007
Kitchener, ON
519-571-7570
Kitchener, ON
905-528-6505
Hamilton, ON
905-570-8600
Hamilton, ON
519-742-9991
Kitchener, ON
(519) 942-9111
Orangeville, ON
Business by Trade - The Beauty of Barter
Michael Frenkel was sitting in the midtown Manhattan office of a non-profit he hoped to snare as his second client when they dropped the bomb: His PR skills were just what they needed, but … they had no money.
Out of the corner of his eye, Frenkel saw an unused space. He turned to the executive director and said, “You do have something I could really use:” Office space. To Frenkel, if you’re in PR you have to be in New York, in the thick of the action. But as a nascent startup in 1999, he couldn’t afford the cost of midtown real estate.
The non-profit agency gave him a chi-chi address to legitimately print on business cards, and in return Frenkel did their PR and marketing. It was a mutually beneficial swap, and it happens in business all the time, even when cash isn’t an issue.
A Modern Method for an Ancient Practice
“Tons of people barter,” says Krista Vardabash, executive director of the International Reciprocal Trade Association in Rochester, N.Y. IRTA is a commercial trade exchange that connects businesses looking to barter goods and services.
Commercial arrangements across the country involve as many as 450,000 mid-sized businesses, she says, with 10 percent growth over the past two years.
The World Trade Organization estimates that 15 percent of the $5.62 trillion made in international trade is conducted on a non-cash basis.
The way commercial exchanges work, a company signs up and pays a membership fee, a couple of hundred dollars or so.
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