Guest guest Posted May 28, 2005 Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 One lesson I learned early on in my practice was not make direct trades with people. more often than not, I was left holding the bag. however there is an option that some of you may not know about. barter networks. barter networks are always looking for people offering various professional services that are normally purchased in cash. this is a great way to network and gain access to services that might be hard to come by in the lean years of starting a practice. Instead of making direct one for one trades, you just do business on the network, gaining credits when you sell your service to any other member or having your account debited when you purchase something from another member. When I lived in portland, it was nice to be able to get things like haircuts, nice meals out, business cards, graphic design, tax prep, etc. These are luxuries you might otherwise do without and necessities that you shouldn't cut corners on, such as how your brochures look. I do business with a company called called tradia which has a lot of members on the west coast. you can check our their websiteat http://www.tradia.net/ or contact the socal rep at michelle.marr or 619-446-6884. Mention the chinese herb academy if you talk to Michele. I have told her to expect some of you. Chinese Herbs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 28, 2005 Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 Hi Todd and All, my experience has been just the opposite. When I first started I joined a barter group. Maybe yours is different, but mine cost to join and they took 5% as commission fees for providing the service. I joined hoping to help build the practice this way. It only worked marginally. I did much better by joining BNI, Business Networking International. I was able to barter with the members of the group and the soul purpose of that group is to build each others business. While I am no longer a member, it was very much worth my time in the beginning stages of my practice. All the services you mentioned could be obtained within BNI and exchanging services within a group like that does not leave you 'holding the bag'. Once the members learned what Chinese medicine could do, they sent many referrals. Cheers, Michael O'Brien Nashua Acupuncture - Saturday, May 28, 2005 2:34 AM barter and practice building One lesson I learned early on in my practice was not make direct trades with people. more often than not, I was left holding the bag. however there is an option that some of you may not know about. barter networks. barter networks are always looking for people offering various professional services that are normally purchased in cash. this is a great way to network and gain access to services that might be hard to come by in the lean years of starting a practice. Instead of making direct one for one trades, you just do business on the network, gaining credits when you sell your service to any other member or having your account debited when you purchase something from another member. When I lived in portland, it was nice to be able to get things like haircuts, nice meals out, business cards, graphic design, tax prep, etc. These are luxuries you might otherwise do without and necessities that you shouldn't cut corners on, such as how your brochures look. I do business with a company called called tradia which has a lot of members on the west coast. you can check our their websiteat http://www.tradia.net/ or contact the socal rep at michelle.marr or 619-446-6884. Mention the chinese herb academy if you talk to Michele. I have told her to expect some of you. Chinese Herbs Chinese Herbal Medicine offers various professional services, including board approved continuing education classes, an annual conference and a free discussion forum in Chinese Herbal Medicine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 29, 2005 Report Share Posted May 29, 2005 Thanks, Todd! What a great idea! < wrote: One lesson I learned early on in my practice was not make direct trades with people. more often than not, I was left holding the bag. however there is an option that some of you may not know about. barter networks. barter networks are always looking for people offering various professional services that are normally purchased in cash. this is a great way to network and gain access to services that might be hard to come by in the lean years of starting a practice. Instead of making direct one for one trades, you just do business on the network, gaining credits when you sell your service to any other member or having your account debited when you purchase something from another member. When I lived in portland, it was nice to be able to get things like haircuts, nice meals out, business cards, graphic design, tax prep, etc. These are luxuries you might otherwise do without and necessities that you shouldn't cut corners on, such as how your brochures look. I do business with a company called called tradia which has a lot of members on the west coast. you can check our their websiteat http://www.tradia.net/ or contact the socal rep at michelle.marr or 619-446-6884. Mention the chinese herb academy if you talk to Michele. I have told her to expect some of you. Chinese Herbs Chinese Herbal Medicine offers various professional services, including board approved continuing education classes, an annual conference and a free discussion forum in Chinese Herbal Medicine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 29, 2005 Report Share Posted May 29, 2005 , " Nashua Acupuncture " <mobrien@g...> wrote: > Hi Todd and All, > my experience has been just the opposite. When I first started I joined a barter group. Maybe yours is different, but mine cost to join and they took 5% as commission fees for providing the service. yes, they are a business, so they charge a fee. I think BNI is great. It works well, but they also charge an application fee of about $300. well worth it, though. you may or may not be able to barter directly with your BNI group members, though I still advise against direct barter. If you haven't had a problem, you will. But BNI members will help build your practice and certainly no barter is expected (I actually think the bylaws of my local chapter prohibit it). OTOH, there is certainly no guarantee that your barter group members will promote you. But that is really a fringe benefit of barter. the real benefit is the access to hundreds of services and products. BNI groups are typically limited to about 25 members, so your opportunities for barter, if any, are limited to the services these members offer and you still have all the hassle of direct barter instead of just using " virtual currency " in a network. A group like tradia gives access to servies and products in over a hundred categories. BNI also limits the group to one member per profession, so you don't have any choice about who you trade with. clearly these organizations are complementary. BNI is far better for practice building. Tradia is better for getting the stuff you want. If no one in BNI cuts hair or runs a restaurant, you aren't going to make deals to for those goods and services. It is important to see the role of all these things. It is important to be aware that there are fees involved in all of these undertaking and you need to determine your personal ROI. For example, is it worth it to pay a 5% fee to get a verizon broadband PDA phone listing at $750 for $125 cash + 625 trade credits. The 5% is paid on the $625, which comes to $31. So for $156, I get the phone. Sure, with a rebate I could have gotten it on amazon for $400, but this still saves me a load. Plus trades count as both income and capital expenditures. So I get to write off the depreciation on this item at full price, not discount, which will save me a few dollars in taxes. Definitely worth it and if I get a referral, so much the better. Finally, since all trades for your services count as taxable income, whether direct or on a network, that may factor into your decision. The network will report your trades to the IRS. If you plan to evade taxes, you might not want this. But if you pay your taxes anyway (and your income may be expensed to the IRS by someone else, so beware of cheating), it may be convenient to have your barters tracked by computer. The companies will help settle all disputes, too, so you get a decent service. You also don't charge credit cards on service trades (services are expected to be offered for 100% trade on good networks) which saves you about 2% in most cases. So it may be more like a 3% fee if you normally take plastic. Its really a matter of how you want to live your life. I like to have a few luxuries (taxes prepared, a GOOD haircut, slick brochures, etc.) Barter networks can most certainly can be used profitably. Think a moment about the cost of advertising, an often traded service on these networks. Is it worth it to pay 5% of cost for advertising. I'll let you do the math. You can even trade for TV or radio airtime. And don't worry about being overwhelmed with members demanding trades that you don't have time for. I did not find that to be the case. Unlike BNI, barter networks don't just make a deal to promote each other regardless of ability, etc. Barter networks referrals still depend on giving excellent service over a period of time. BNI members literally work for each other. that is exactly the way they explain it in their literature. Again, a good deal. A barter network takes time to generate referrals just like real life. You need to demonstrate your value first. But over years, many barter clients will refer paying clients. The nice thing is that that there are hundreds of members of each barter network, so far more possibilities for trade than with BNI. But since the services you offer are basically free to all the barter network members, it may be easier to get barter clients in those early lean days than paying ones. So while barter networks are more like real life in their referral generation than networking groups like BNI, first visits are still more likely than with the population at large. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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