Does your business ever suffer from “slow” times? Does your natural business cycle leave you overbooked on some days and then bored on others? Do you ever have items on the shelf that you just can’t seem to get rid of?
If you answered “yes” to any of the above, then you are like many businesses in the world today: you have excess capacity. What this means is that you’re not quite as productive with your time, your staff, or your commercial space as you could be. That’s a problem. Think of it like an empty hotel room for example, once a night has come and gone with a room empty–the business opportunity is gone forever.
This is one of the reasons that the Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce is seeking to build functioning Business-to-Business (B2B) or Business-to-Consumer (B2C) systems for local businesses. If you have a product or service that you would like to offer to other Peninsula businesses, please contact us and we’ll chat about it.
Today, we are happy to announce a very progressive option for local companies. An option that is so progressive, that it actually takes us back thousands of years to the effective fundamentals of community economics: a trade barter system. Something that a modern economy may have forgotten about, but certainly very beneficial.
Island TradeLink is Vancouver Island’s only professionally managed Commercial Trade Exchange. Its members buy and sell goods and services among themselves using “trade credit” as the form of payment.
Membership enables businesses to participate in markets and commercial activities that epitomize business networking: by selling excess capacity at full retail value!
Members can:
- purchase goods and services with trade credit instead of cash;
- attract and retain new customers that are beyond conventional market-reach;
- access a new and innovative source of financing; and,
- conserve cash!
Some of Island TradeLink’s most actively trading members have been utilyzing the network for years; and many have different reasons for joining. “Cash is King…” says Island TradeLink CEO Fredy Boese, ”but the world does not revolve on cash alone. Our members are doing business with the liquid assets and surplus they already have”.
How does it work? Here are some examples:
- On November 3, 2004, Ric Hansen registered his new plumbing business with Island TradeLink. His account qualified for an interest-free loan, and he purchased his first truck for his startup business. Many thousands of dollars of trade-business later, he continues to share his early insights enthusiastically: “Without the ability of trade I simply would NOT have been able to launch my new business”.
- In November of 2006, a pair of registered massage therapists saw the value. By selling excess time in trade, they paid for a wedding a whole year sooner than planned – the reception, food and beverages, truckloads of flowers, and accommodation on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Two happy lovers on their honeymoon. And they trade happily ever after. They put their massage time into the system–with huge returns.
- If you have ever operated a restaurant or a hotel, you know that an empty table or an empty room is a lost opportunity forever. A British Columbia Tourism 4 ½ Star designated bed and breakfast manages to sell its spare capacity, representing double digits of overall occupancy in most years, to ‘trade-guests’ from as far afield as Florida, Alberta, Ontario, California. All in trade credit! Credit that they can spend on supplies for their business, or even their own vacation!
The members of our Chamber of Commerce can now benefit from a commercial trade account at a greatly reduced cost; but only if you’re a Chamber member. Learn more here: http://www.islandtradelink.com/peninsulachamber/.
Read the June 5th, 2012 Media Release here.
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