First Local Business Website Design Sale using bartering...

So my landscaper and I are pretty cool. We're both small business owners so we talk about the trials and tribulations of this. In the past I've given him some generic business advice and words of wisdom. It's to the point where he shares personal things with me that he probably wouldn't tell other clients.

Today he wasn't suppose to cut the grass. But I changed my mind and called him to do so. As we were chit chatting. It dawned on me, he would be a perfect first client for my budding website design business. I basically just shot from the hip. I asked him if he had a website. (I knew he didn't because it's never on his invoices or business card.) He obviously said no. He said he tried Yellow Pages website program and I already knew it sucked and was over priced. So we talked about that.

Then I said nonchalantly. Would you like a free website? He said hell yea! I told him I would create the website for him and advertise it in exchange for doing my lawn for free.
So I'm going to whip something up soon and send it to him. Then I'm going to over deliver and provide him some additional tips on how to get business and will do some advertising on craigslist and other classified ads for him. I plan to also do some google place setup and optimization as well.

He charges $65 a week to cut my grass and will probably be doing it until October so that's around how much I would have charged for the website. Next summer when his site is going to expire I'll ask if he wants to continue. If I do my job right, he should!
It will also be a great case study to learn from.

Now I'm thinking of other people I can barter with to get some other free stuff done around my house. lol

Obviously I'll still be doing this for money. But it goes to show there are different ways to go about this business.