10 March 2015

Benefits Of International Barter Exchange To Small Businesses

By Leslie Ball


Despite being the oldest trading approach, it is still viable and applicable in today's business. A lot of business owners have engaged in international barter exchange to help their businesses grow and achieve their goal and objectives. Trading goods for goods or services have a lot of benefits not only to the business owners but also to a country's economy.

The swapping or exchange of goods or services works as the middle man who stand between its members who earn the barter credit when they provide goods or services. The members can use that credit from other business in exchange. It is also responsible for tracking the credits earned and used by the members and in return give a monthly fee as the value of the transactions.

Exchanging goods or services eases the need of foreign exchange since no such revenue is used in the entire transaction. This simultaneously reduces the demand and supply of hard currency. High interest rates on foreign debts and reduced export prospects due to recession have contributed to shortage of hard currency hence considering this form of trade as their way out.

The success of every business depends on the flow of customers who come in to purchase your products or get your services. Barter will help you generate new customers. Some of those customers may be willing to pay in cash or compensate with another service or commodity of your interest and the business continue to grow.

There are many misconceptions about bartering globally which still prevail in most people's mind. Some think it is only applicable to only the well up countries. But what matters is the potential of a country to produce a certain product which can be used as a commodity for trade.

Saving is a very important aspect which many businesses owners fail to understand. Barter exchanges enables you to keep large amounts of money on reserve. This will protect your business from going down or even liquidation. Many business owners undergo a lot of unnecessary costs in business travels. Using bartering has helped them in cutting down these costs associated with travels. This is brought about by the increasing numbers of accommodations facilities used in bartering process.

The business can be conducted solely online without necessarily considering the physical location of your partner. The main challenge is that you actually spend the trade dollars you accumulate. You are also require you to balance the cash work with trade work since you still require to pay taxes with your earnings.

Bartering is a very creative way to do business these days with a significantly little or no financial expense. It helps in reducing the possibility losing old stock and inventories. Before your stock loses value on the shelves, you can engage them in this trade for an exchange of other items that probably will be of importance to your business.

The other form of barter trade is the indirect offset. It does not involve the same trade transaction. It occurs when a foreign government is in need of an importer for a long term investment in the country's economy. Other forms of global bartering includes the switch trading. This is where at least three countries are involved in a trade. The third country buys what the second country needs from the first one in exchange of a product it require, finally the three benefit from the trade.




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