Local Trade Partners: Barter Builds a Stronger Community
Biz2Bz NWA August 2010
By Janie Pritchett-Clark
Barter isn’t new. Cows were traded for barley and beer way back when. This effective method of exchange of goods and services for other goods or services has had an ebb and flow
in our society for quite some time.
It’s not so surprising to see barter enjoying a rejuvenation. Historically, bartering replaces money as the method of exchange in times of economic crisis, when currency is unstable or cash is hard to come by.
What Eureka Pizza founder Rolf Wilkin and 231 other local businesses have discovered in recent months is that this exchange can help their businesses tap resources without using cash, enjoy benefits they might not have otherwise, and grow their business market share all at the same time.
And, in the process, strengthen their local economy.
Wilkin is the founder of Local Trade Partners, an organized, sophisticated membership bank of local, family-owned businesses. Like many of the members, Wilkin was already trading with businesses one-on-one. But like with other business owners who barter, he found there was inequity in some exchanges – one set of tires equals a whole lot of pizza. And maybe the guy selling tires doesn’t need all that pizza.
Unable to find an organized local trade exchange that met his standards, Wilkin formed his own. Local Trade Partners is a member of the International Reciprocal Trade Association and follows its Code of Ethics for Professional Trade Exchanges.
“Cash is king and trade is queen,” Wilkin says. “What I mean by that is we all want and need cash for our business first, but the next best thing is to trade, since we all have excess capacity. Trade can be almost as good as a cash sale.”
Banking your dollars
“Save your cash,” says Rich Creyer, the trade broker for LTP. “Every trade dollar you spend is a cash dollar saved.”
Creyer is the face most folks get to know as they become members and learn the ropes. The system is simple and savvy. Using trade checks – online, by mobile, or hand-written – services and goods are bought and sold. Businesses can buy everything from advertising to eye exams, meals to auto repair. And, of course, pizza. With more than 200 businesses on board, members can find just about anything they need.
No matter what is sold or bought, the exchange works on a dollar-for-dollar currency. If you earn $500 in trade, you can spend $500 in trade. Gratuities and taxes are calculated and paid in cash at purchase. A monthly banking statement keeps transactions easy to administrate on the business end. Members are promoted in the online directory and in weekly e-mails.
“The system gives you 24/7 access to your account, and is just as high-tech as your bank’s bill-payer system,” Creyer says.
The exchange is funded by a 5 percent cash transaction fee on trade buys and sells. Members use their credit cards to securely process those transactions as they occur. The one-time membership fee is $249.
Members applaud benefits
Bill Harder of Four Seasons Dry Cleaning joined the trade exchange at launch in December 2009. Harder says the exchange has helped him during the economic downturn by keeping a steady flow of clothes and loyal customers coming into his cleaners.
“Just being on the Local Trade Partners website and a part of the organization is a benefit,” says Harder, who has been in business here for 11 years. “I’m reaching out to 231 businesses that I probably didn’t reach before.”
Michelle Brockman, who owns Art Emporium with her husband, Rusty, estimates that 98 percent of their trade customers are brand new customers.
“These are people we would not have had as customers if not for the Trade Partners,” she says. “It has really been a great experience for bringing us new business.”
“I can save my cash for other things,” says solo-preneur Gay Crosby of Arkanpaws Pet Sitters. “Cash is sometimes hard to come by and you have to stretch it as far as you can,” she says. “Now I can trade my skills for things I need.”
Crosby appreciates that she can promote her business to an audience who might not know about her service otherwise. And they are willing to try it because the purchase has little risk.
“It has really helped us,” says Kent Atkins of The Grease Pig Lube & Tube. “It’s a very active trade group, and very diverse it what it offered.”
Maudie Schmitt owns Café Rue Orleans and Maudie’s Seafood Market in Fayetteville. She sees the partnership as exposure to a bigger world. Like Wilkin, Schmitt had previously traded one-on-one.
“This has opened up tons of opportunities,” she says about the trade exchange. “I am exposing my business to a lot more people, and I have a lot more things I can trade for.”
Schmitt also uses her trade dollars to share the love.
“At Christmas, I bought gift certificates for my employees,” she says. Spa days, massages, pedicures, and dinners at fine restaurants were the gifts she was able to give. “And no money out of my pocket.”
“The local trade dollar is not something you want to save,” Creyer says. “There’s no reason to hold onto it, bank it or hoard it. You want to use it before you use your federal currency. Use your trade dollars for all the things you don’t have to spend federal dollars on.”
Membership has it privileges
“Local Trade Partners gives member businesses an advantage over non-local businesses, big-box stores and big-box restaurants because members accept a type of payment – a local trade dollar – that non-local businesses cannot accept,” Creyer says.
His background is in economics, so to Creyer, the benefits are far-reaching. A fan of the 3/50 Project, a nationwide grassroots campaign that promotes spending locally, Creyer points out that when you lose money to other markets, it never comes back.
Last month, Local Trade Partners did $96,000 in trade and 100 percent of it was local, Creyer says. “The power of that dollar staying in and moving around in the local marketplace is a significant way to build wealth in a local economy.”
“I firmly believe in two things,” Schmitt says. “Trading locally for goods and services, and Rolf Wilkin.
“I have the utmost respect for him. He is a go-getter, a hard worker, and when he puts his mind to something, he gets it done.”
“Getting to know more members of the business community is been a huge plus for me,” Wilkin says. “I have been in business for 22 years in Northwest Arkansas, and I stay so busy that networking has been a challenge. With Local Trade Partners, you instantly have a network rooting for you to succeed. Our members are awesome.”
