How to trade items online
Contra-dealing and bartering can be exceptionally useful methods for a business to exploit goods or services they provide for profit. By operating outside of a cash economy, contra-dealing enables businesses to leverage the assets they already possess for further benefit, without making any impact on their cash flow. This is essential for small businesses especially, since cash flow is always at a premium.
How to trade and barter items online
With contra-dealing offering such a powerful tool for businesses to make a profit, more and more owners are finding ways to integrate barter into their business strategies. However, businesses that are used to working within the cash economy can find it difficult to start bartering instead. Here’s our quick step-by-step guide to trading items online.
What are you trading? Firstly, establish what it is you’re offering to trade. In barter trading you must be as specific as possible, so don’t provide an open-ended offer. Instead, explicitly describe how much of a service or product you’re offering. If you want to provide a range of options, create multiple listings – you can set up trade entries for single units as well as multiples.
What’s it worth? Contra-dealing is the trade of two items or services of equivalent values. You’ll need to specify the worth of your offer before listing it, so that potential partners can submit offers to you. This worth must be calculated on a realistic open-market value; you cannot deliberately over or under-value the product when offering it for a trade.
Create a listing. Now you’re ready to create a listing. Be as explicit and detailed as you can; your listing must accurately describe the product or service you’re offering so that potential partners know exactly what they can expect to receive. You should also list what you want to receive in exchange, so that traders know what will interest you.
Complete the deal. You’ll likely receive several offers from interested parties. Choose the one that best suits you, and arrange to complete the transaction.
Account for your trading. Once you find an appropriate offer and complete the deal, you need to account for it in your business records. For tax purposes this is treated as a sale and purchase – you’ve “sold” your products and “bought” goods of equivalent value.
Contra dealing for a profit
Contra-trading is an extremely useful tool, and can provide businesses with an invaluable way to maximise their profits. While it’s not an everyday solution, it’s an important method for business owners to gain the edge on their competition.