I hear you. You really want something that we’re offering, and while you don’t have the cash on hand for it, you’ve got a sincere heart, and real desire to give to us. And you’re wondering if we’re willing to do a trade.

The short answer is “Occasionally.” Philosophically, we love alternative currencies, creativity, and the spirit of barter. If you’re interested in doing barter with us, here’s what works with us and here’s what doesn’t.

What doesn’t work is to just say, “Hey, I really want your product X. Can I do something for you in exchange?” The reason this doesn’t work is because it then becomes our job over here to figure out what you do, what you could offer, and whether we need any of it. That actually takes a lot of time and attention. By the time we’ve emailed back and forth getting clear with you, or even ended up having a conversation, we might have spent an hour or more of our time trying to figure it out.

The kinds of trades that generally don’t work are:

1. Office work of any kind. To have someone new step into doing administrative work requires a LOT of upfront training and supervision to make sure you learn what we need done, and that you follow through the way we need it done. Anyone who has hired an employee or a virtual assistant will tell you that the first weeks, and sometimes couple of months, are actually less efficient than doing it yourself.
2. Personal Transformation or Healing Sessions. For one, those of us involved with Heart of Business already have regular healers and practitioners we’re seeing, and so a one-off session from someone we don’t know may or may not be helpful. For another, healing and transformation is such a deeply personal thing, that there needs to be a real click between the client and the practitioner in order to receive the help.
3. Assessments. Assessments, while extremely helpful as part of a larger process, need action and implementation to work. Unless we’ve mentioned that we’re actively needing an assessment in some area, we probably won’t be interested.
   
   

What does work is to meet our clarity with your clarity. We’re clear about what we’re offering, and you’ve said you wanted it. Come to us having thought about our business, what you might guess our needs might be, and make the offer, whether it’s a product or a service.

Generally the offer should require little to no effort on our part to reap the benefits, meaning that if it’s a product, there it is. And if it’s a service, the offer is a complete service and the benefits are something we just get to enjoy once you finish your work.

Although we have done trades and barters that fall outside these guidelines, generally it’s when we have an ongoing relationship with someone, and there is evident mutual interest in each other’s specialties.

Remember the basics: our offer is clear, we want your offer to be as clear as ours is.