Print Your Own Money
How Your Business Can Turn Gift Certificates Into Purchasing Power
What if your business could create its own purchasing power?
In a sense, it can.
If your business sells meals, hotel rooms, professional services, repairs, advertising, appointments, memberships, merchandise, or almost anything else of value, you can issue gift certificates representing those goods and services—and trade those certificates for things you want.
You aren't literally printing currency.
You're doing something potentially much more useful to your business:
You're turning what your business produces into a tradable asset.
Instead of always buying what you need with dollars, you can sometimes buy it with your own products, services, and available capacity.
And when you post those certificates on MinnaarTradingPost.com and accept Minnaar Money in trade, you can dramatically expand the number of possible trades available to you.
Your Business Already Has the Ability to Create Purchasing Power
Suppose you own a restaurant.
You could create:
$100 Dining Certificate
Redeemable at Your Restaurant
The face value is $100.
But providing $100 worth of food may cost your restaurant considerably less than $100 in incremental food, labor, and other costs—especially when you have tables that would otherwise go unused.
Now imagine another business is willing to give you $100 worth of something you need in exchange for that certificate.
You might trade it for:
Advertising.
Printing.
Window cleaning.
Accounting.
Auto repair.
Professional services.
Office supplies.
Hotel accommodations.
Entertainment.
Employee gifts.
Or another business's gift certificate.
You have effectively used something your business can produce at its cost to acquire something another business normally sells for $100.
That's the basic power of business barter.
Trade at your cost. Receive at their cost.
Create Your Own Trade Certificates
Almost any business can package what it provides into a simple certificate.
A restaurant might issue:
$100 Dining Certificate
A hotel:
One Weeknight Stay
A window cleaner:
One Exterior Window Cleaning
An auto repair shop:
$250 Automotive Labor Certificate
Labor only. Parts and supplies additional.
A consultant:
Two Hours of Consulting
A golf course:
Round of Golf for Two
A fitness studio:
One-Month Membership
A media company:
$500 Advertising Certificate
A retailer:
$100 Merchandise Certificate
Once you create the certificate, you've transformed your goods, services, inventory, or future capacity into something that is easier to trade.
In effect, you have created your own business scrip.
Why Gift Certificates Are So Powerful for Barter
Without a certificate, every barter transaction can require a new negotiation.
Someone asks what you offer.
You explain the service.
You determine the amount.
You negotiate the terms.
You schedule delivery.
A gift certificate simplifies the transaction.
Instead of saying:
"I'll provide you with some restaurant meals sometime in exchange for your advertising..."
you can say:
"I'll trade you five $100 dining certificates for $500 of advertising."
The certificate packages the value into a clear, understandable trade asset.
And because you determine how many certificates exist, you remain in control.
Set Your Own "Money Supply"
This is where the analogy to printing your own money becomes especially useful.
You decide how many certificates you're willing to issue.
A restaurant might decide:
Up to $500 in dining certificates per month.
A hotel:
Four weekday room certificates per month.
A consultant:
Five consulting-hour certificates per month.
A detailer:
Three auto-detail certificates per month.
A radio station:
$2,000 in available advertising certificates per month.
You don't have to offer unlimited barter.
You simply establish a monthly trade budget based on the amount of business you're comfortable providing through barter.
When you reach your limit, stop issuing certificates until the next month.
This protects your cash business while allowing you to convert a controlled amount of your products, services, inventory, and unused capacity into purchasing power.
The Secret Is Your Cost Structure
Imagine your business needs $1,000 worth of advertising.
Normally, you write a check for $1,000.
But suppose your business can provide $1,000 worth of its own goods or services at an incremental cost of $250.
If an advertising company is willing to accept your gift certificates, you may be able to acquire $1,000 worth of advertising by providing something that costs you $250 rather than spending $1,000 in cash.
You haven't acquired the advertising for free.
You still have costs.
But you've used your own cost structure instead of paying entirely in cash.
That can preserve cash for expenses you can't barter.
Put Your Empty Capacity to Work
This becomes even more powerful when the certificate represents capacity that might otherwise expire unused.
Restaurants have empty tables.
Hotels have vacant rooms.
Salons have unfilled appointments.
Mechanics have unbooked shop hours.
Golf courses have unused tee times.
Fitness studios have unused class capacity.
Consultants have available hours.
Printers have unused production capacity.
Media companies have unsold advertising.
Tonight's empty restaurant table can never be sold tomorrow.
Neither can yesterday's vacant hotel room or last week's unsold advertising spot.
Once that capacity disappears, its potential revenue disappears with it.
But before it expires, you can turn some of it into certificates and trade the value instead of losing it.
Protect Your Hard Costs
Not every certificate has to represent 100% barter.
Suppose an auto repair shop performs a $1,000 repair consisting of:
$400 labor
$600 parts
The labor may represent available shop capacity.
The parts require actual cash expenditure.
So the shop could structure the transaction as:
$400 Trade + $600 Cash
Or issue a certificate stating:
$400 Automotive Labor Certificate
Parts and supplies additional.
The same concept can work for contractors, printers, manufacturers, caterers, installers, and other businesses with substantial material costs.
Think of your costs as:
Soft Costs — labor, appointments, available capacity, inventory, or resources you can economically make available for trade.
Hard Costs — parts, materials, outside suppliers, taxes, shipping, and expenses requiring cash.
Structure your certificates accordingly.
Now Post Your "Money" on the Trading Post
Creating the certificate gives you something to trade.
The next problem is finding someone who wants it.
That's where MinnaarTradingPost.com comes in.
You can post your:
Gift certificates.
Goods.
Services.
Advertising.
Excess inventory.
Available capacity.
Other trade offers.
And list them FREE.
For example:
HAVE:
Five $100 Restaurant Gift Certificates
WANT:
Advertising, printing, window cleaning, professional services, Minnaar Money, or other offers.
Now your certificates aren't limited to people you already know.
They're visible to people and businesses looking for trades.
The More Things You're Willing to Accept, the More Trades Become Possible
Traditional barter has a famous problem.
You have something I want.
But I may not have something you want.
Suppose:
A restaurant wants advertising.
A radio station wants printing.
A printer wants restaurant meals.
If each business insists on a direct two-party swap, making the trades can be difficult.
Gift certificates begin to solve that problem because the value doesn't necessarily have to be consumed immediately.
But the Minnaar Trading Post introduces another way to expand the network:
Accept Minnaar Money
Minnaar Money is Art You Can Trade.
Instead of requiring every person who wants your gift certificate to possess exactly the thing you're looking for, you can also accept Minnaar Money.
That adds another potential bridge between trades.
For example:
Trade 1
A restaurant trades a $100 Dining Certificate for Minnaar Money.
The restaurant now has Minnaar Money.
Trade 2
Later, the restaurant finds a printer on the Trading Post who accepts Minnaar Money.
The restaurant trades the Minnaar Money for printing.
The restaurant didn't have to find a printer who happened to want dinner at that particular restaurant.
Minnaar Money provided another path between the two trades.
That can significantly increase the number of possible exchanges.
Think of It as a Trading Network
The more participants—and the more things each participant is willing to accept—the more combinations become possible.
Imagine businesses posting:
Restaurant certificates.
Hotel certificates.
Auto-service certificates.
Advertising certificates.
Consulting certificates.
Fitness memberships.
Retail gift certificates.
Entertainment.
Professional services.
Art.
And Minnaar Money.
Now you're no longer looking only for one exact swap.
You're participating in a network of tradable goods, services, certificates, and art.
You might trade:
Your certificate → another business's certificate
Or:
Your certificate → Minnaar Money
Then:
Minnaar Money → something else you want
Or:
Your certificate + cash → a larger purchase
Or:
Your certificate → something you trade again later
Each additional acceptable trade asset creates another possible route from what you have to what you want.
A Simple Example
Imagine you own a restaurant and want $500 worth of local advertising.
You issue:
Five $100 Dining Certificates
You post them on MinnaarTradingPost.com.
You could seek:
$500 advertising
But you don't have to stop there.
You might list:
Seeking:
Advertising, printing, professional services, Minnaar Money, or other offers.
Now several things could happen.
A media company could trade advertising directly for the certificates.
A printer could trade printing for them.
A collector could trade Minnaar Money for them.
Another business could trade its own gift certificates.
And if you acquire something you're not going to personally use, you may be able to trade that asset again.
You've taken $500 of your own future business capacity and turned it into an instrument for acquiring value.
Use Certificates to Buy Things You're Already Paying Cash For
The easiest place to start is with expenses your business already has.
Make a list.
What do you regularly write checks or use credit cards to purchase?
Advertising?
Printing?
Cleaning?
Repairs?
Web services?
Photography?
Professional services?
Meals?
Travel?
Maintenance?
Employee rewards?
Customer gifts?
Event tickets?
Office supplies?
Then ask:
"Could I acquire any of these by trading my own gift certificates instead?"
Every dollar of an expense you can economically acquire through trade is a dollar of cash you may be able to preserve for something else.
Trade for Employee and Customer Benefits
You don't necessarily have to acquire something your business consumes directly.
You could trade your gift certificates for:
Restaurant meals.
Hotel stays.
Entertainment.
Experiences.
Fitness memberships.
Artwork.
Other gift certificates.
Minnaar Money.
Those assets might then become:
Employee rewards.
Sales incentives.
Customer gifts.
Promotional prizes.
Referral rewards.
Contest prizes.
Instead of buying those perks with cash, your business may be able to acquire them using what it already produces.
Trade Certificates for Certificates
One of the simplest strategies is:
Trade your gift certificates for other businesses' gift certificates.
A restaurant could trade dining certificates for hotel certificates.
A hotel could trade room certificates for advertising certificates.
An advertising company could trade ad certificates for auto-service certificates.
A mechanic could trade labor certificates for restaurant certificates.
Every business is effectively using what it produces efficiently to acquire what another business produces efficiently.
This is one of barter's greatest advantages.
Your Gift Certificates Can Introduce New Customers
There is another potential benefit.
The person receiving your gift certificate may never have visited your business before.
Now they have a reason to do so.
Once there, they may:
Spend beyond the certificate amount.
Purchase additional products or services.
Bring another customer.
Refer friends.
Return later.
Become a cash-paying customer.
So your trade certificate can function not only as purchasing power—but also as customer acquisition and marketing.
A Business Doesn't Need to Choose Between Cash and Barter
Cash business should remain cash business when that makes sense.
Barter is an additional channel.
You decide:
How much you're willing to trade.
When certificates can be redeemed.
Whether certain products or services are excluded.
Whether reservations are required.
Whether hard costs must be paid in cash.
How long certificates remain valid, subject to applicable law.
Whether certificates are transferable.
What you're willing to accept in return.
And whether any particular trade makes sense.
You remain in control.
Start Printing Your Own Money
You can begin very simply.
1. Decide what your business can economically provide.
Look for excess inventory, unused appointments, available labor, unsold advertising, open tables, vacant rooms, memberships, services, merchandise, or other capacity.
2. Determine your true cost.
Know the difference between the retail value and what it actually costs you to fulfill the certificate.
3. Create a simple certificate.
Make the offer easy to understand.
4. Set a monthly issuance limit.
Perhaps $250, $500, $1,000—or whatever makes sense for your business.
5. Decide what you want.
Look at expenses you're currently paying cash for.
6. Be willing to accept multiple forms of value.
Goods.
Services.
Other gift certificates.
Partial cash.
Minnaar Money.
Other trade offers.
7. Post your certificates FREE on MinnaarTradingPost.com.
Then see what people are willing to trade.
The Real Opportunity
Most businesses think their purchasing power is limited to the dollars in their bank account.
It isn't.
Your business also possesses something else:
The ability to produce value.
You have products.
Services.
Expertise.
Labor.
Inventory.
Capacity.
Appointments.
Advertising.
Experiences.
Access.
Those things can become trade assets.
Package them into gift certificates.
Control how many you issue.
Post them on the Minnaar Trading Post.
Accept other businesses' certificates.
Accept Minnaar Money.
Consider partial barter when appropriate.
And create more pathways between what you have and what you want.
Print Your Own Money.
Not dollars.
Purchasing power backed by what your business does best.
Put Your Business's Purchasing Power to Work
Post your gift certificates, goods, services, advertising, and other trade offers FREE on MinnaarTradingPost.com and discover what individuals and businesses are willing to trade for them.
Trade What You Have for What You Want.
Have a business but aren't sure what certificates you should create or how to structure your barter program?
Schedule a Private Barter Consultation →
We'll look at what your business produces, where capacity is going unused, what you're currently buying with cash, what certificates you could issue, and how gift certificates, barter, Minnaar Money, and the Minnaar Trading Post could help turn your existing business capacity into greater purchasing power.