Devoted to small businesses and those who run them

I was chatting with a friend yesterday who was describing the business her husband plans to start up in the next few weeks.  While we were discussing the services he planned to offer, she mentioned that she wished he already had business cards printed up, because she's already talking to business owners and shopkeepers in the town they just moved to about his services.  They've also already discussed seeking out other business owners who could benefit from the use of his services, for free, in exchange for their own products or services.  Her example was that she'd jokingly told him the first order of business is to find a piano teacher willing to trade lessons for their daughter for his computer services.

How open are you to bartering?  Did you realize that it's actually an excellent opportunity to build your own business, even though you may feel like you're "giving it up free" to someone?  You may very well gain many clients or marketing opportunities from one simple "free" barter transaction.  Here's how:

Let's use the example of a small-town printer and an IT person.  If the printer offers logo design packages, business material printing, and copy services, she probably has at least one computer, right?  The computer person, on the other hand, offers services such as troubleshooting and repair, database construction and management, and website building and updates.  He also offers classes locally, and is more than capable of training a small businessperson's staff on basic software usage or installing new computers for them.

So the printer helps the IT person design his business cards, advertising materials, and gives him a set number of "free" copies each month.  In exchange, the computer guy sets up a website for the printer, and updates it a certain number of time each month, along with debugging a computer that has a virus and teaches one of the employees how to use and maintain QuickBooks for the business owner.

Additionally, the printer is building a portfolio of all of the logo packages she has designed for clients, so she puts the computer guy's card in it.  Next time a potential client browses her portfolio, he also realizes that he needs someone to check out his laptop and tell him why it's running so slow.  He spots the computer tech's card and gives him a call.

The IT fellow, on the other hand, has a very professional website, designed by himself.  On it, he mentions that he proudly supports small business owners, particularly the printer who designed his custom logo and informational brochure.  He provides a link to his favorite printer, and the next time a potential client checks his website design rates for her new business to be, she realizes that she, too, needs business cards and a letterhead designed for her new venture.  She calls -- yes, you guessed it -- the local printer.