Bartering—good business sense

by Jenn Hardy on Aug 03 at 12:00 am

So, maybe you didn’t go ahead and search for grant money before starting up your business. Or maybe you did, and you want to cleverly cut costs where possible.

Here is an old-fashioned, useful, sustainable and all-around brilliant solution: The barter.

You run a small construction company. You are slowly expanding and decided you want to get with the times and start a website. But you build walls, not websites, and hiring a designer is not in this year’s budget—especially on top of hosting costs, etc.

But a friend of a friend is a great web designer with a little time to spare. As it happens, the roof in her home office has been leaking. The perfect barter.

I recently met a woman named Samantha Youssef, who runs Studio Technique, an art school in Montreal. This incredibly talented woman has a lot on her plate. She teaches life drawing to employees of Montreal’s gaming and feature film companies. She also teaches basic to high-level drawing to regular people who are interested in improving their technique. On top of her daily classes (usually more than one a day), she also hosts a life drawing “drop-in” a couple times a week.

This has been a one-woman show since she started her business in January, 2010.

Once I realized the serious talent Sam has, I decided she was the person I needed to commission to create a logo for my business. She used to work as a character animator for Disney in Australia, and obviously only the best of the best get that opportunity.

I figured approaching her with the idea of bartering was worth a shot. Because I had zero money coming in from my Pork Pie Media business, and Sam is a very cool person, she was all about the barter.

In exchange for me running a couple life-drawing sessions for her, she developed the little logo for me that I have nicknamed “Gig Pig.” Great deal!

This “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” is a great way to cut down on business costs. Even when business is rolling and you do have the cash to spare, doesn’t it just make sense to trade services wherever possible?

Jenn Hardy is a Montreal-based freelance journalist, blogger, photographer and small business owner. She writes about everything from business and politics to arts and agriculture. She is on the executive of the Quebec Chapter of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, and her work has appeared in numerous major publications across the Canada. She would love to tweet with you @jennhardy.

• Tweet
• Share