The barter dilemma... How to handle it correctly?

Max - First, I don't believe the merchant will have an issue. If so, you can negotiate it on an individual basis. What he paid for the TV is not what it is worth to him. If he paid $400 and can sell it for $400, that's the value. As a service provider you're in the same position.

Most countries have specific tax laws that deal with barter. You need to check what they are in Italy. It's not a donation if it's a true exchange for services. It's a business expense like any other but the currency is barter.

Hey Massimo - your retail price is $400 - his retail price is $400
- so his buy price is $300 - he has a shop, overheads etc.....
what did your site cost you .....oh a few dollars and your time ....
why don't you do a swap for something worth a few dollars - fair is fair right!

This is the main problem with barter and why the majority of deals don't happen in the first place. I try to go into deal acting as "friends". That way, you pick up tips, you give out tips, everyone wins. Just get involved with a deal and then you'll have experience ready for next time.

You should barter on retail price and not try to squeeze an extra $100 out of him because it only cost him $300 to buy the TV wholesale. What if he came to you and said that he only thought your website was worth $100 and that if you wanted the TV, you had to pay $300 extra for it? You would probably feel a little bit slighted and not want to do the deal.

My advice is to keep trades at retail value and worry about your own margin, not the person you are bartering with.

-Ben

No one's mentioned it, but usually bartering SERVICE for SERVICE is easier than trying to barter your service for their product.

I've had pretty good success doing it the first way...but if that's all you do, then its a very limited business model, imo.
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Bruce NewMedia

I dont mind bartering within reason but it rarely works out that I need what they have and I certainly cant feed my kids TVs.

Saying that, I have bartered for parts of my wedding.

Used to have this problem most with tenants want to barter their rent. Had a guy want to pay me with a "$10,000" chandelier once. I mean, what the heck am I going to do with a bunch of glass. The bank don't take crystal and my kids cant eat it, I told him.

Bartering is good. I belong to a barter exchange. Trade is usually done retail for retail. As an example in the barter exchange, if someone purchase my services it is at my normal prices. When I purchase something through the barter, I purchase at the normal prices.

Remember "Cash is King". Cash transactions are always better. Barter is great to work with surplus. If I am offering SEO services, and I could handle an extra client a week, it would be where barter would work well. Barter would be better than nothing.

A barter exchange works on the basis of a bank account. If you provide a service on barter, you get a credit on your account. When you spend it comes out of your barter account.

Another advantage to barter, is that if someone owes you money and they don't have it, you could accept a "Gift Certificate" from their business and sell it on the Barter exchange. This could be a win win situation for everyone.

I have also used barter for part of the translation. A great method is to build a website, have them pay on barter and then charge them the monthly fees in cash.

I hope this give you some great idea on using barter.

I had a client that owned a printing shop, i.e. he prints business cards, flyers, brochures, etc. He wanted SEO work done and wanted to trade a "Branding Package" and his services in exchange for mine. He was going to provide the whole shebang. Cards, flyers, sales material, and graphic design for a logo or whatever, something perfect for any startup or a business owner looking to reimage his current business.

At first, I thought no way. I don't need this kind of stuff, but then I realized that I could use this to my advantage. Here's what we ended up doing:

He packaged together his products and service and slapped a retail price on it. We decided that he would offer to me in exchange for my services, at his costs plus 10% so he made a little bit also. (That made it worth his while)

I got him to allow me to offer this package to someone else that could actually use it. The beauty is that I had this asset sitting there on an imaginary shelf, so I could use it down the road to then barter again for it's retail price with a different business for something that I really wanted or needed.

Moral of this story:

It's ALWAYS in your best interest to collect a check, however if you have a business owner that insists on bartering his stuff for your your stuff, and you don't want to lose out on a customer, then get in writing that he/she give you the rights to give away that package to someone else down the road. You then have a valuable product that another business could actually use. Simply trade that package to another business if they have something that you want and then everyone is happy.

Hello everybody, sorry for the delay but I'm taking massive actions in the Offline Arena
Ok, I see that the barter is a hot topic.. and I understand the different opinions.
One of the biggest error is to barter a service with something that's not so important..
If I trade a website worth 600$ with a new Iphone 5 that I dont really need.. I think I could be killed by my wyfe!
Thank you for the input
Massimo