I agree there is no inequity at the face value. But, the emotion behind it often is a perception of inequity. At least one side inevitably feels they got the short end of the stick.

I do agree with your points on how to manage a barter deal. And feel it may be best suited for single person shops. My experiencing in batering has been all with small businesses 20 or 30 employees… and the ones I have observed have never worked as well as a simple exchange of product/service for money.

- Mike

It appears that you are not cut out for barter, and that is fine that you have identified that and you know that you do find more fairness in the exchange of cash.

My advice would be to discuss in advance whether each person is offering their products or services at wholesale price or retail price — or at a discount or a promotional price.

I have seen barter work for myself and many solopreneurs for several decades and I believe it lies in the agreement that both parties believe they are getting something need and that they are giving something of relative equal value in return.

Be a Go-Giver! Some barter may not be ~exactly~ valued to the same dollar amount. If everyone is giving and getting what they want — then satisfaction occurs on both sides of the deal.

Once you get the barter bug, you find great value in giving giving giving and then getting just what you need in return!

I recommend a contract or at least a detailed e-mail outlining what each person is giving and the timeline for any time of agreement.

Bobbie Harris, Business Consultant and Success Coach

My experience with batering is that both sides feel they lose, and both are then “motivated” to inflate the value they attribute to their part of the deal.

For example, I may be trading you 5 hours of web development service for a computer your sell. Since I sell my service for $200/hour, I argue it is a $1000 value. The computer you sell goes for $1000. If the trade went through, behind the scenes you may think the web development costs him only his time. So in fact the value is $0, and by giving him a computer you got ripped off. I on the other hand would assume the computer you sell for $1000 only costs you $500, so I am now working 5 hours for only $100 an hour…. losing out on other customers. This example can go on and on… but I hope you get the picture.

For a barter to really work. One side should provide the product/service and receive cash in exchange. Then the other side should provide their product/service and recieve the cash back (assuming the same value). The exchange of cash allows better allotment of “fairness”, and the buyer has the ability to hold back cash if they feel unfairly treated. So, in short this is in fact not batering at all, it is a standard exchange. Money for a product/service and so forth.

This may not be the best written arguement, but I hope you get my feelings on why bartering doesn’t work.

(Great blog you have going by the way).