BarterNews.com � World�s Largest Depository Of Barter Information

Hundreds of valuable articles, techniques, and strategies are found in the following various barter categories:

�  Entrepreneur�s Corner,

�  Travel,

�  Media,

�  Trade Exchange,

�  Corporate Barter,

�  Offset & Countertrade,

�  Secondary Capital,

�  Real Estate,

�  Community Barter, and

�  Restaurant & Entertainment

(The Barter Categories are found on the horizontal bar at the top � 3^rd button from right.)

Moving beyond the obvious is considered being creative. The following are two examples of such thinking.

#1) Collection from a firm facing bankruptcy.

The president of a distribution company turned to a trade exchange to collect a bad debt from a client, who not only owed him $35,000 but also was facing bankruptcy.

Instead of writing off the receivable, the president accepted as payment $35,000 worth of baseball cards. He then offered the cards to a trade exchange member owning a baseball card shop, in exchange for trade dollars.

With $20,000 trade dollars received, he turned around and bought concert tickets from another member, which he consequently sold for cash to his employees and some close friends.

#2) Second retail outlet opened.

The owner of a leather sportswear store turned to his trade exchange instead of his banker, when deciding to open a second retail outlet. To finance the $30,000 expansion costs in his credit-tight market, he bartered $25,000 in leather goods through the exchange and its members.

Is Your Trade Exchange Missing Out On Valuable New Business?

If your barter company�s listing on BarterNews.com isn�t current, you are definitely missing out on new business. The web site BarterNews.com receives heavy traffic � with over 150,000 page-views every month. Entrepreneurs and corporate executives check the thousands of articles, the weekly �Tuesday Report,� and the �Contacts Section� of our site. They use the latter to find barter companies with which to do business.

Is your barter company�s listing up-to-date?

To keep your listing current is very easy. See the links below to (A) update any changes to your company�s listing, such as new location, phone number, web site or other information, and (B) if your company has not been listed.

Here�s how to get on board:

To make changes to your listing click here.

For new listings click here.

Any time is a good time to look back over the past several months or more, to both review and analyze what you did right or what you missed out on. However, it�s also energizing as well as necessary to look into the future.

If you believe that markets and margins will be the same in five years as they are now, you are likely placing your company in jeopardy. Because no business or industry can escape the rapid change we see all around us.

So take a moment and consider the following questions:

• Which customers will you serve in the future?
• What channels will you use to reach those future customers?
• Who will your competitors be in the months and years ahead?
• What will be your future competitive advantage?
• What skills or capabilities will make you unique in the future?
• Where will your future margins come from?
• What will the new trends be in the future?

Although spotting future trends can be tricky, here are several suggestions to help you. Begin by reading classified advertising and observe which firms are hiring and what types of jobs are in short supply.

�  Where are the long lines? Back orders?

�  What are people reading? What are the best-selling books, magazines and newspapers?

�  Where are the shortages?

�  Follow the financial pages. Look for common stocks selling at higher than average price-earnings multiples.

�  What are the comic strips saying?

�  Where and what are the most popular seminars?

�  Who�s losing ... having going-out-of-business sales and filing bankruptcy?

�  Check vehicle registrations for types, prices, etc.

�  Study display advertising.

�  Watch crime statistics.

�  Look at mail-order catalogs.

�  Visit trade shows and read trade magazines. Visit shows outside your industry

�  Travel. Watch and listen.

You can add a dozen other indicators that are unique to your field. But you need to keep the blinders off, in order to stay in touch with the big picture.

A new book by author Tom Corley, a financial planner, is titled, Rich Habits: The Daily Habits Of Wealthy People. Corley spent five years observing 350 �rich� and �poor� people as to how they lived, worked and even their sleep habits.

He defined wealthy as earning at least $160,000 a year and holding $3.2 million in assets. Conversely, poor was income under $30,000 and holding less than $5,000 in assets.

Here are some of his findings:

#1  The rich took advantage of early morning business. Almost half (44%) woke up 3 hours before their 9-5 jobs and focused those hours on self-improvement by reading educational material, such as trade journals or industry blogs. And then they squeezed in some type of physical workout.

#2  At their offices the wealthy don�t waste time. They maintain a daily to-do list and check off 70% of their tasks each day. And most (70%) of them surveyed long-term goals as well.

#3  The rich take short working lunches where 55% network, wheeling and dealing between bites.

#4  They also count calories and limit their alcohol consumption. Wealthy people focus on being healthy people.

#5  Little or no gossiping is a trademark among wealthy people. Conversely, 79% of low-income people admit to gossiping, compared to just 6% of wealthy people.

#6  At the end of the day wealthy people reported activities such as networking, volunteering and socializing. While the majority of those struggling with their finances spent more than an hour on recreational internet surfing, and were twice as likely to hop on Facebook every day.