Own a Business? Your Unused Capacity Is Costing You Money.
Barter Can Turn It Into New Business, Useful Goods & Services, and Bottom-Line Value.
Every day, businesses allow valuable capacity to expire unused.
An empty restaurant table tonight. An unbooked hotel room. An open appointment tomorrow. An unused hour in a repair shop. Unsold advertising space. Excess inventory sitting on a shelf.
Once that opportunity passes, much of its potential value disappears with it.
But what if you could trade that unused capacity for something your business actually needs?
That's one of the most powerful benefits of barter.
Your Unused Capacity Is an Asset
Consider a restaurant with several empty tables on a Tuesday night.
The restaurant has already paid the rent. The lights are already on. The kitchen is staffed. Much of the overhead has already been incurred.
An empty table produces nothing.
But the restaurant could make $500 of dining certificates available for trade and exchange them for printing, advertising, window cleaning, professional services—or something else the business needs.
The restaurant hasn't simply "given away $500."
It has used the cost of providing those meals to acquire something with an agreed trade value of $500.
That's the fundamental leverage of business barter:
Trade at your cost. Receive at their cost.
Each business uses what it produces efficiently to acquire something another business produces efficiently.
Capture Value Before It Expires
This is especially powerful for businesses selling perishable capacity.
Restaurants have empty tables.
Hotels have empty rooms.
Mechanics have unbooked shop hours.
Salons have empty appointments.
Golf courses have unused tee times.
Fitness studios have unused class capacity.
Consultants have billable hours.
Printers have available production time.
Media companies have unsold advertising.
Once Tuesday night's restaurant table, Wednesday's hotel room, or today's advertising spot goes unused, you can never sell that exact capacity again.
Its revenue opportunity has expired.
Barter gives you another opportunity to capture value from it before it disappears.
Buy What You Need at Your Cost
Imagine your business needs $1,000 of advertising.
You could write a $1,000 check.
But suppose you can provide $1,000 of your own goods or services at an incremental cost of $250.
If the media company wants what you provide and both parties agree to the exchange, you could potentially acquire $1,000 of advertising by providing something that costs you $250 rather than spending $1,000 in cash.
That's the leverage of barter.
It doesn't eliminate your costs. Instead, it can allow you to use your own cost structure to acquire something your business would otherwise have to purchase with cash.
That preserves cash for the expenses you can't trade for.
Set a Monthly Barter Budget
You don't need to barter your entire business.
In fact, don't.
Decide in advance how much excess capacity you're comfortable making available each month.
A restaurant might offer:
Up to $500 in dining certificates per month.
A window cleaner:
Two exterior cleanings per month.
A hotel:
Four weekday room nights per month.
A consultant:
Five professional hours per month.
An auto detailer:
Three details per month.
Once you've reached your monthly barter budget, you're done.
Next month, make another allocation available.
This protects your regular cash business while turning a controlled amount of unused capacity into purchasing power for things your business wants and needs.
Use Partial Barter When You Have Hard Costs
Not every transaction needs to be 100% barter.
Consider an auto mechanic.
Suppose a $1,000 repair consists of:
$400 labor
$600 parts and supplies
The shop may have unused labor capacity, but it still has to purchase the parts.
So the shop could structure the transaction as:
$400 Barter + $600 Cash
The mechanic receives cash to cover the hard costs while trading the available labor capacity.
The same principle can work for contractors, printers, fabricators, caterers, installers, and many other businesses.
Think of your costs in two categories:
Soft Costs — capacity you can often barter economically, such as available labor, appointments, or otherwise unused capacity.
Hard Costs — expenses you must actually pay, such as parts, materials, and outside supplies.
Barter doesn't have to be all or nothing.
Structure the trade so it works for your business.
Turn Your Capacity Into Gift Certificates or Scrip
Businesses can also package future capacity into something that's easier to trade.
Instead of negotiating every service individually, issue a gift certificate, service certificate, voucher, or scrip representing what you're willing to provide.
For example:
$100 Dining Certificate
Redeemable at [Restaurant]
Or:
One Exterior Window Cleaning
Redeemable by appointment
Or:
$250 Automotive Labor Certificate
Labor only. Parts and supplies additional.
Now you've transformed available business capacity into a simple trade asset.
You can trade those certificates for advertising, printing, meals, professional services, maintenance, merchandise, travel—or gift certificates issued by other businesses.
And because you control how many certificates you issue, you also control your barter exposure.
Trade Business-to-Business
Imagine three businesses:
A restaurant wants advertising.
A radio station wants printing.
A printer wants restaurant dining.
Each business has something the others can use.
The restaurant can provide dining certificates.
The printer can provide printing.
The radio station can provide advertising.
Instead of everyone writing checks, barter can help connect one business's available capacity with another business's needs.
And trades don't always have to happen simultaneously. Gift certificates, scrip, and other transferable trade assets can create even more possibilities.
Turn Barter Into Employee Perks
What you acquire through barter doesn't necessarily have to be used directly by the business.
You could trade your excess capacity for:
Restaurant certificates.
Hotel stays.
Entertainment.
Fitness memberships.
Experiences.
Art.
Other gift certificates.
These can potentially become employee rewards, sales incentives, recognition gifts, promotional prizes, or other perks.
Instead of allowing unused capacity to expire, you've transformed it into something useful and desirable.
Advertising Is Made for Barter
Advertising has many of the same characteristics that make other forms of excess capacity ideal for barter.
An unsold radio spot, magazine placement, newsletter sponsorship, billboard rotation, or website advertisement can have substantial potential value.
But once that advertising opportunity passes, that particular inventory is gone forever.
A media company can trade some of its otherwise-unsold advertising for goods and services it needs.
Likewise, a restaurant, hotel, service company, retailer, or professional can use its own available capacity to acquire advertising rather than paying entirely in cash.
It's an exchange of one business's available capacity for another's.
Minnaar Money Creates Another Way to Trade
The Minnaar Trading Post also introduces businesses to another tradable asset:
Minnaar Money — Art You Can Trade.
Minnaar Money is original art created to be collected, gifted, saved, and traded.
A business can trade goods, services, gift certificates, advertising, or excess capacity for Minnaar Money.
Then it can:
Keep the artwork.
Display it.
Give it to an employee or customer.
Use it as a promotional prize.
Or trade it again.
Minnaar Money Gift Certificates provide another convenient way to give, receive, and trade Art You Can Trade.
That creates another potential trading asset—and another opportunity to turn excess business capacity into something that can continue moving through voluntary exchange.
The Minnaar Trading Post Helps Solve Barter's Biggest Problem
One of the biggest challenges with barter has always been finding the right person:
Someone who wants what you have and has something you want.
That's what MinnaarTradingPost.com is designed to help solve.
Businesses can post their goods, services, gift certificates, advertising, and trade offers FREE.
Your offer can receive local and national exposure, depending on what you're offering and where it can be delivered or redeemed.
You control:
What you offer.
How much you make available.
What you're seeking.
Whether you'll consider other offers.
And whether you accept any particular trade.
Every trade is voluntary.
You don't have to discount your cash business. You don't have to make unlimited inventory available. And you don't have to accept a trade that doesn't make sense.
You remain in control.
Start With a Simple Barter Plan
You don't need a complicated barter department to get started.
1. Identify what regularly goes unused.
Empty appointments? Excess inventory? Available labor? Unsold advertising? Unused capacity?
2. Determine what it really costs you to provide.
Your retail price and your incremental cost can be very different numbers.
3. Set a monthly barter budget.
Start with $250, $500, $1,000—or whatever makes sense for your business.
4. Protect your hard costs—but don't be afraid of full trade.
Use partial cash + barter when necessary to cover parts, materials, supplies, and other hard costs. But remember: the more you're willing to offer at full trade, the more trading opportunities you'll create. When practical, it may be better to offer full trade while controlling your exposure with a monthly barter budget. Barter customers may also spend beyond the trade amount, purchase additional goods or services with cash, refer new customers, and become regular cash-paying customers.
5. Consider issuing gift certificates or scrip.
Turn available capacity into something simple and convenient to trade.
6. Make a list of things you're already spending cash to buy.
Advertising? Printing? Cleaning? Professional services? Meals? Travel? Maintenance? Employee perks?
7. Post what you have on MinnaarTradingPost.com.
Then see what people are willing to offer.
Stop Letting Your Unused Capacity Expire
Every empty appointment, vacant table, unused service hour, unsold advertising placement, or excess piece of inventory represents value your business could potentially put to work.
Don't let it disappear. Trade it.
Turn unused capacity into advertising.
Turn excess inventory into services.
Turn an empty appointment into something your business needs.
Turn available labor into purchasing power.
Turn your goods and services into employee perks.
Trade certificates for certificates.
Trade for Minnaar Money.
Trade partly in cash and partly in barter.
Trade What You Have for What You Want.
Put Your Unused Capacity to Work Today
Post your goods, services, gift certificates, advertising, and other trade offers FREE on MinnaarTradingPost.com and start discovering what other individuals and businesses are willing to trade for them.
Start Trading →
Have unused capacity but aren't sure how to turn it into profitable opportunities?
Contact Steven Minnaar to schedule a private barter consultation.
We'll look at what your business has available, where value is currently going unused, what you're already spending cash to acquire, and how you might use barter, partial barter, gift certificates, scrip, Minnaar Money, and the Minnaar Trading Post to capture more value, preserve cash, and strengthen your bottom line.
Your unused capacity is already there. Put it to work.
Schedule a Private Consultation →
Minnaar Trading Post
Trade What You Have for What You Want.