Bartercard Australia Member News

Looking after your health on Bartercard

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

If you’re business owner who incorporate Bartercard Trade Dollars into your payroll, you have an array of health products and services available to you on Bartercard that will save you valuable cash.

On Bartercard you’re able to buy health food products, and vitamins and nutritional supplements to assist with weight management, diabetes, and your general immunity. There are plenty of alternative and natural therapies available that can assist with suffers of asthma, hay fever, insomnia and migraines.

There are registered medical practitioners and specialist available to you on Bartercard including dentist, doctors, chiropractors and osteopaths, optometrist, psychologist and counsellors, speech pathologist, and audiometrist offering hearing aid services, as well as battery suppliers who can supply the batteries for hearing aids! There are also plenty of adult products or entertainment suppliers on Bartercard who can even assist you maintain your sexual health and libido.

If you need to cleanse your body there are a couple of health retreats on Bartercard who have qualified practitioners who offer detoxification programs, and therapies. For the more serious health issues of addictions and obesity long stay extended programs are also available. You’re able to purchase a gym membership, attend a swim school or hire a personal trainer who can design a fitness program that is specialised to your needs. The emarketplace or auction site has listed from time to time gym equipment for your home or office.

For the office you can purchase first aid kits on Bartercard and you and your staff can attend first aid courses on Bartercard. You’re able to stock your kits from chemists and pharmaceutical suppliers on Bartercard. Occupational health and safety specialists are available to assess your work place on Bartercard to ensure you are operating under the correct Australian safety guidelines. Uniforms, work wear and corporate apparel are also available to protect you and your staff from machinery and the sun etc.

Running a business has the potential to put a huge strain on you, which not only affects your physical health but also your mental health. There is a wealth of information regarding maintaining your health on the Internet. The shed online (www.theshedonline.org.au) is an initiative for men founded by beyond blue, the Movember Foundation and the Australian Men’s Shed Association. The shed online is a fantastic networking site where men can ‘socialise make friends and share skills’. In addition it provides some great advise on maintaining good health and well-being and offers useful web links to organisations that can assist men maintain their health click here for more information http://www.theshedonline.org.au/health-lifestyle/your-health/your-health-links.

Health for women (www.healthforwomen.org.au) is another website that caterers for women which has a wealth of information on health issues, tips on healthy living, emotional wellbeing and the all-important sexual health.

For further ideas, please refer to the Creative business tips. The suggested video to view is ‘Use Bartercard to: Improve your lifestyle’, ‘Use Bartercard to: Assist with recruiting and retaining staff’ and ‘Incorporate Bartercard into your payroll’. Also read Carole Plant from Brendale Custom Framing testimonial on how she uses Bartercard to maintain her health and well-being using Bartercard http://www.bartercard.com.au/brendale-custom-framing.

How to become a best employer

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The results of the BRW Best Employer Work Survey revealed that Google Australia was the best employer of 2011.Read the review here - http://www.brw.com.au/p/sections/opinion/best_place_to_work_revealed_ztn2hNdbkLEzy1haPTD0KM

Five of the top ten companies to emerge from this survey were information technology companies. The list includes:

1. Google
2. E-web marketing (A search engine optimiser)
3. NetApp Australia (Data management)
4. Juniper Networks (Networking technology)
5. Atlassian (Software development)
6. Davidson Recruitment
7. OBS
8. Ikon Communications
9. MRWED Group
10. Altis Consulting

Interestingly, the IT industry contributes approximately 5 per cent to the Australian economy and employs a mere 2 per cent of working Australians. So what makes IT company such excellent employers? For a full report read here http://www.brw.com.au/p/sections/features/it_blitzed_the_list_aCzDE2KLCMElgQxrGQVlWN

Accordingly, these top ten businesses offer staff:
• Maternity and outsized paternity leave
• Outsized superannuation payments
• Flexible working hours and locations
• Large referral bonuses
• Generous training allowances
• Monthly ‘coaching conversations’ between managers and staff
• Games area (including pool tables, dartboards, pin pong tables, gaming consoles)
• Subsided healthcare and fitness
• Massages
• Free food and Friday drinks
• 10% of their staff’s time to be spend on working on their own projects
• Time out to participate in community and charity events

Where does the value of your company lie? Is it within tangible market assets of within the knowledge capital of your staff? If it is the latter, then perhaps you could reassess what you’re offering your staff in 2012 and consider how you can use Bartercard to become an excellent employer in the eyes of your employees.

Here are some ideas of how you can use Bartercard to assist your business to become a ‘best place to work’. (Discuss with your accountant what will work best for your business as some of these ideas may attract fringe benefits tax):
• Purchase computer equipment on Bartercard for your staff to work remotely from home or outside the office
• Purchase training course on Bartercard (computer and software training, business, sales and management training, hospitality and retail training, accounting training – MYOB and quickbooks, payroll, cash flow management etc driving training, health and safety training, first aid training, etc)
• Purchase flowers or hire plants, soft furnishings, and office furniture on Bartercard to create a pleasant (oxygen filled!) environment
• Subsides or pay for gym memberships or personal training sessions on Bartercard
• Sponsor a charity on Bartercard with Bartercard Trade Dollar. Also, allocate a certain number of volunteer hours for your staff to help at their events etc
• Offer $1 gold coin donations mufti days (dress down … or up!) and double your staff’s contributions with Bartercard Trade Dollars and donate to a charity on Bartercard.
• Purchase games on Bartercard (pool tables, billard tables, pin pong tables, air hockey tables, board games, gaming consoles, TV’s, DVD’s etc)
• Once a week or once a month provide lunch from a Bartercard café/caterer
• Offer monthly massages provided by mobile Bartercard masseuses

Other ideas could include:
• Hire an executive coach/psychologist to assist with recruiting the right people for your business and thereafter retaining them
• Offer regular team building events (go carting, cruises, skirmish and paint balling, ten pin bowling, horse riding or dining out at a restaurant are all available on Bartercard.)
• Pay for art classes, cooking classes or dance or gold tuition on Bartercard
• Offering a monthly dog wash for your employees pets paid for on Bartercard

Whilst offering the various perks and benefits mentioned are an expense to the business, they effectively go some way to assist you create an organisational culture that tells your staff you care about their professional and personal development and overall wellbeing. Some of these ideas could even be incorporated as part of your retention strategy to assist to retain your top performing staff members.

For further ideas, please refer to the creative business tips. The suggested video to view is Use Bartercard to: Assist with recruiting and retaining staff and Incorporate Bartercard into your payroll.

Tennis Court Constructions

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:05:45 GMT

After 13 years of trading in Bartercard Trevor Buchanan, from Tennis court constructions, still believes in the power of referrals.

"My mechanic introduced me to Bartercard. Bartercard has provided my company with great exposure to a larger audience. I’ll continue referring business owners to Bartercard, as I understand the benefit of growing the network.”

Trevor has been constructing tennis courts for the last 40 years and prior to that he played as a professional tennis player. His company Tennis court constructions specialise in building residential tennis court (rubberised bitumen surface tennis courts, synthetic grass courts, or concrete courts.)
"We construct tennis courts on Bartercard, full trade. This includes designing, constructing and landscaping for full and half size courts. Trading full trade is very important to us as that is what Bartercard is all about.”

Trevor’s trading stepped up a gear after his daughter won a Bartercard scholarship to study business at Bond University.

"After my daughter received the Bartercard scholarship to Bond University I have felt some much more connected to Bartercard. This event truly gave me a new lease on life; I’ve since put an enormous amount of effort into my Bartercard trading. So much so, I’ve recently purchased 3 properties on Bartercard! I wouldn’t have purchased these properties if it wasn’t for Bartercard. We’re currently renting these units out for cash, but in the future we hope to use them as holiday units for the family.”

Networking is very important to Trevor; he sees it as his main avenue to gain extra business.
"The social aspect of Bartercard works really well for my business. My wife and I attend as many events as we can. Bartercard’s networking functions are great and varied; there is always a positive outcome, we get to meet like-minded people, who are always pleasant. We use their services and they use ours!”

Over the years, Trevor has built up an impressive list of Bartercard suppliers. He attributes this to building and maintaining strong relationships with his suppliers.

"We’ve used Bartercard for numerous business expenses and managed to established regular suppliers including powder coaters, recycling removalists, nursery suppliers for all our gravel, and boulders, and batteries for all our trucks. From time to time we’ve even managed to get tyres on Bartercard for our trucks.”

Not only has Trevor been able to purchase a lot of his direct business expenses on Bartercard, he likes to get creative when spending Bartercard Trade Dollars.

"For the last 3 - 4 years, I’ve organised with our local medical centre for a doctor to visit our work site and administer the flu shot to all my staff – all on Bartercard! I find this is beneficial in two ways; first, it keeps my staff healthy so they don’t take sick days and second it demonstrates to my staff that I care about their health and wellbeing. It’s a great retention strategy.”
Trevor is always mindful to incorporate Bartercard in his business even when quoting on cash sales.

"Being able to put my staff up in hotels and motels on Bartercard enables me to quote competitively and win cash contracts all over South East Qld and as far down as Coff’s Harbour in NSW.”
"I’d recommend Bartercard to business owners who are looking for another avenue to gain work through especially when things get quiet.”

The Adelaide Crows are great advocates for Bartercard

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Paul Harrison is the Managing Director, of PJA Harrison Consultants , he is contracted to the AFC as their, Business Development Manager , says he is South Australia’s biggest advocate for Bartercard. Using the trade exchange over the past four years has helped Paul to kick major goals for the club."It started one day when he had a last minute vacancy on ground signage,” says Paul. "A friend of mine suggested that Bartercard was the best way to deal with the unsold inventory. And he was right."Now we offer last minute ground signage and club magazine advertising on trade. It’s perfect for moving unsold inventory.”

"We use trade dollars to purchase high quality auction items and over the years we’ve developed a great relationship with a number of suppliers we’ve met via Bartercard who are always keen to support our biggest fund raising event of the year” The Crows Gala Auction and Dinner Dance” ,” said Paul.

"One of the best uses for Bartercard is for entertainment, we can take our sponsors and guests out to Adelaide’s finest restaurant and they are never failed to be impressed.

"We also use Bartercard to hire jumping castles and climbing walls for family fun days at the home games as well as for accommodation for when our staff visit regional areas.”

The key to making Bartercard work is understanding how the system works for your business, says Paul.

"The first thing people have to understand is that the Bartercard system is actually very simple,” he said. "Once you appreciate the process, you can use trade to manage your inventory and get good value.

"Bartercard is an excellent way to manage business cashflow.”

Webtrix Technologies is planning to take on the world thanks to Bartercard.

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Brisbane-based web site developers Webtrix Technologies is planning to take on the world thanks to Bartercard.

"This is a very exciting stage for our business,” says managing director Murray Barnes.

"We’re about to launch licensing agreements for Webtrix Technologies that will allow our business to grow to 50 locations nationally and eventually expand overseas.

"About 80% of the work required to get our business ready for licensing was paid for using Bartercard Trade Dollars. It’s work that would have cost between $75,000-$80,000 in cash.

” Webtrix Technologies offers a comprehensive web site development service including e-commerce, content management system websites and sites especially designed for the hotel industry to manage customer bookings.

A friend who was already using Bartercard for his business encouraged Murray to join six years ago."When I looked into it I saw how much sense Bartercard would make to my business,” he says.

"I sat down and worked out what my business expenses were and then started to search for Bartercard suppliers who could help. About 50% of my business expenses I now pay using Bartercard.

"I have no problem taking on new clients through Bartercard, not only do those clients help me pay for a large part of my business, but also their referrals have lead to a number of cash jobs.”

Murray uses Bartercard instead of cash to enjoy pursuits away from business."I’ve just come back from a skiing holiday. I was able to pay for 80% of it using Bartercard and tonight I’m going to a dinner and show that is all paid for on trade,” he said.

"My next project, in addition to licensing Webtrix Technologies is to continue building my property portfolio. Thanks to a significant Bartercard component, about 30%, I’m on my way to my goal of owning six investment properties in two and a half years.

”So successful is Murray in making Bartercard work for his business, he’s often invited to speak to other members about how to get the best from the world’s largest trade exchange."Some people say they have trouble spending their trade dollars – that’s certainly not the case for me, I can’t get enough of it,” he says."The advice I give other Bartercard members is to think seriously about your business and examine where you can use trade instead of cash. For example I bought 5000 promotional pens on 100% trade.

"Also, be persistent. Your Trade Co-ordinator may not be able to find everything you need, so spend sometime looking through the Bartercard Trade Directory for yourself. Don’t be afraid to think laterally either. I wanted a trailer and couldn’t find one on trade to purchase so did some searching and found a welder who would make me exactly what I wanted for a fair price.

"Lastly, know your cost of sale on Bartercard. Sometimes a price you receive from a Bartercard supplier may not be the cheapest quote, but any extra cash fees on a $650 purchase on trade are going to be cheaper than forking out $500 in cash for the same item.”

Webtrix Technologies

Murray Barnes

Ph: 1300 WEBTRIX

info@webtrixtechnologies.com

Using excess capacity helps SMEs to reduce their exposure

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Having just completed last financial year’s tax return, one of the most important struggles for Australian small to medium enterprises (SMEs) is setting up the year ahead with minimal tax exposure.

According to Adrian Raftery, Director of Sydney based tax firm, 1800 TAXMAN, and 12-year long member of Bartercard, one way to do this is for SMEs to trade or swap their excess stock or idle capacity for tax-deductible expenses like printing and advertising through the barter trade network, using Trade Dollars.

"If you spend Trade Dollars on tax deductible expenses then you are going to be tax-neutral and then be freeing up cash for your own investment,” Mr Raftery said.

Mr Raftery has utilised his Trade Dollars for a range of tax deductible items including an intense bus advertising campaign over the past few tax seasons since 2006.

"The amount of enquiries we got that resulted in cash transactions was amazing. We may have spent T$30,000 but we got back four times that amount in cash sales.

"It is a no-brainer for services/businesses with the extra capacity to use Trade Dollars on tax-deductible expenses because their "cost of goods” is really their own time plus a few overheads such as rent, computers and stationery,” he said.

"Hotels and restaurants are an easy to understand example as they have the facilities already in place – there should be virtually no additional cost between looking after say 30 tables (or rooms) compared with 35 tables (or rooms).”

Owner and Founder of modern French Restaurant Red Snail Restaurant, Ann Manetakis, said she has used Trade Dollars to renovate all four of her previous businesses over the last 10 years.

"We spend on average T$200,000 Trade Dollars each year on tax-deductible expenses which usually comprises about 10% of our total sales revenue,” she said.

Bartercard Managing Director, Brian Hall, said Bartercard works as an additional income stream that utilises the downtime or excess inventory in a small business and uses it to offset taxable expenditure.

"We offer a T$5,000 - T$25,000 interest free line of credit to all our new members but this can be increased depending on your level of trading,” Mr Hall said.

"A good barter relationship is when about 10% of your total income is from Trade Dollars,” he said.

Bartercard invites all Australian business to realise the full potential afforded through their barter trade network. Visit www.bartercard.com.au or phone 1300 BARTER (1300 227 837).

About Bartercard
Bartercard was founded in 1991 on the Gold Coast, Queensland, and has grown to become the world’s largest barter exchange, with over 40 offices around Australia.

Bartercard assists approximately 20,000 businesses in Australia (55,000 around the world) to barter their goods and services – without the challenge of a direct swap.

Although the concept of barter is thousands of years old, bartering through Bartercard is an innovative way of combining modern technology, a network of businesses and direct and indirect marketing channels to increase a business’ customer base, sales and profit, and improve cash flow.

About 1800 TAXMAN and Mr Taxman, aka Adrian Raftery
1800 TAXMAN is a young and innovative boutique practice based in the Sydney CBD, with western Sydney offices in Granville and Campbelltown. 1800 TAXMAN offers services to individuals, family businesses and small/medium enterprises in each of their core competencies. Its services include: tax, financial planning, superannuation, and business consulting. Adrian Raftery, aka Mr Taxman, is an award-winning Chartered Accountant and also CEO of accountantsRus.

The Red Snail Restaurant
Modern French restaurant located in Rushcutters Bay owned by couple Ann and George Manetakis who have been Bartercard members for 10 years. The three other businesses they used to own but have now sold are: The Little Snail, Blackbird Café, and Credo Café.

Media contact:
Charlotte Deague, The Wilkinson Group, Tel: 02 8001 8827 / Mobile: 0420 811 105