The main difference between ‘Kiwi’ dollars and ‘Trade’ dollars is this:

• ‘Kiwi’ dollars are easy to spend (you can take them anywhere) but more difficult to earn (you have to go out and hunt down customers, often at great expense).
• ‘Trade’ dollars are easy to earn (there will be immediate demand for your services in the exchange) but take a little more effort to spend (you need to go to specific suppliers and strike a few deals to reap the benefits).

          Invariably, the people who get the most benefit out of barter exchanges are those that look at their existing cash flows and replace their regular cash costs with barter equivalents. Barter exchanges will not perform magic for you; they will just give you the tools so that you can work this magic yourself! Besides this, however, it sometimes pays off to think ‘outside the square’ a bit as well. You are receiving credits through bartering that you wouldn’t have received otherwise, but you might as well make the most of them and maximize your cash profit!

          Consider the following ideas on how to get the most out of your trade dollars:

• Use barter to increase your existing customers loyalty (e.g. create a customer loyalty scheme such as a ‘regular users’ discount card).
• Create company branded pens, stationery, or other promotional products and send them or give them out to customers (so that your business is always ‘on their mind’).
• Use barter to replace your own personal costs (such as dining out, haircuts, clothing, etc) and reduce the amount of cash you draw out of your business commensurately – increasing company cash flow.
• Use barter dollars as rewards and bonuses for staff (ask your exchange to supply additional accounts for your staff, which most exchanges will do at no cost).
• Use barter to buy goods & services that you can sell to your customers for cash (i.e. a Web designer can buy web hosting and sell that as part of a Web Design package to their customers who are paying cash).
• Use barter for entertaining staff or clients (book a boat cruise, a night out, or any other kind of team-building exercise).
• Use barter for upskilling your staff (e.g. send them to a motivational seminar) and increase their productivity.
• Use barter as a way to invest (e.g. you can often pay the deposit on a house in trade dollars). Bear in mind that you can also request a ‘loan’ for such investments and that you will not pay any interest on the loan in a barter exchange (saving you tens of thousands over a cash loan for a mortgage).

          Above all, the secret to success is to balance your spending and keep finding new ways to use trade dollars. Bartering can be a lot of fun and you can get a lot of benefit out of it too… so what are you waiting for?