There are many costs involved with starting any business, whether it's a franchise or an independent venture. Chiropractors, massage therapists, and many other service industries are actually taught to leverage the power of bartering during their start-up phase, but why should they be the only ones to benefit?
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Beyond the major expenses of premises and equipment, a start-up business that has an abundance of enthusiasm, but a shortage of new clients, and is often undercapitalized, is smart to barter. Why, for example, spend cash from your start-up budget on your signage, business cards, construction work to fit out your building, and the like, if you can barter for it instead?
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The challenge for most start-up entrepreneurs however is finding other business owners to barter directly with. This is where companies like Merchants Barter Exchange come to the fore. As one of the few (if not the only) barter companies that insists on "100% trade, 100% of the time", same pricing as cash, there is absolutely no difference to using the MBE-barter system to trade for useful business needs. Why borrow money from a traditional bank - that is if you actually can these days - when MBE can advance a barter line of credit, which is similar to writing an I.O.U., with no interest and actually helps you build your client base.
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All MBE members have a barter bank account, similar to their cash business account, from which they spend their MBE-dollars with other members for the goods and services they need to run their business. Since bartering is such a smart business tool - and even more so in these tough economic times - it would make sense for master franchisees and franchise companies to either partner with Merchants Barter Exchange, or at the very least advocate using their services.
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Imagine owning a Quiznos, TruGreen, Molly Maids, or similar franchise, and cutting your start-up expense by $10,000 or more, and have MBE send you the new customers you need to continue to run, grow and expand your business?
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The bottom line: barter has always made sense. Beware of some of the older barter companies that don't accept full payment in barter (often hard goods have to be paid in cash), and often allow members to increase their prices, because you'll lose any economic advantage. Additionally, just because a barter company belongs to a barter 'organization', it doesn't mean they are better than any other, in fact the only regulatory body for barter is the IRS. On a taxation note, barter revenue is considered exactly the same as cash as far as Uncle Sam is concerned.
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MORE INFO: to see if you are right for MBE check out their marketing website: http://barterfranchise.com