The Bartering of goods and services is often only taken up during times of economic difficulty, with a focused goal of improving cash flow and saving money. Despite this relatively short-term goal, many go onto to incorporate bartering into their wider business and as part of their long-term strategy; and for many companies, this means a need to diversify their offering amongst different sectors. In this month article, we highlight some of the key points to bear in mind if you are looking to trade or barter across a range of different sectors and industries.
Identify the industries that would bring the most benefit to your business
When venturing into bartering in different industries, start with an online search. Say for example you are an automobile garage. Whilst digital marketing may not be something you considered worthwhile, looking into it with a digital agency could turn up some interesting and profitable results. Perhaps here a short optimisation of your web presence could be exchanged for the servicing of company vehicles or damages. This is but one example of two seemingly unrelated industries that could benefit from a barter agreement.
Work on product or service offerings that are needed across different sectors
Like in the previous example, digital marketing is a service that could be usual to many different companies across many different industries. The same may not be immediately true for a car mechanic. However, the auxiliary skills the mechanic develops from engine knowledge to car parts management could be developed into a service that could be marketed to other companies. This would be a prime example of a business developing its own internal competencies to create more bartering opportunities across different sectors.
Say for example you ran an SEO agency in Bristol, one potential route you could go down is offering your SEO services to Bristol-based companies who may be able to help you with accounting, logistics and a range of other services. This would help you grow your network of potential SEO clients in Bristol whilst also finding trusted long term suppliers.
Join a barter exchange to gain access to different sectors and businesses
When you have developed services that could be used by different business’s it is time to join an online barter exchange. This will give you a chance to test out your new services and analyse the offerings from competitors. Both marketing agencies and car mechanics services could easily be advertised on an online bartering platform.
Harness the diversity within your organization
Internal business diversity is great as it gives you access to different perspectives which could provide some key insight on a new offering you could develop for other industries. Both marketing agencies and mechanics could benefit from this. Of Couse, diversity does not just come in the form of, gender, ethnicity, and age. Diversity also means diversity in opinions, experience levels and culture.
Develop a good barter agreement contract to ensure your trading is productive
If your business chooses to barter across a range of different industries not only does it give you access to different services, it also gives you the chance to develop services in your company that you didn’t even know you were capable of providing. When you have identified a business within the new industry you want to trade with, make sure you develop a strong contra deal contract to maintain the integrity of the transaction.