You can often really “wow” business clients without spending an arm and a leg, if you just take a few minutes to do your homework up front.

Begin by getting to know your clients a little better. Find out what their interests are. What do they enjoy doing with their spare time? What types of foods do they enjoy? Don’t hesitate to directly ask them these types of questions in advance.

Three Reasons Why Your Trade Exchange Membership Is Valuable!

1) Lowers Your Customer Acquisition Cost.

Your cost for customer acquisition in the barter marketplace, when working through your trade exchange, is lower than in the cash marketplace. Unlike the cash world, where you have to hunt and pay for every lead or sale through the expenditure of time, effort and money, your barter business is “pushed” to you through the efforts of the exchange and your trade broker.

Marcia Heroux Pounds

Barter is not new, but its use is picking up in lean times. With companies trimming costs in the recession, barter is a potential tool for either the business owner or financial manager to leverage a company's cash.

Entrepreneur Jay Goltz owns five small businesses in Chicago, employing more than 100 people. Here are his insights and perspectives for the coming year …

By Richard C. Cook

 Special thanks to Tom McDowell's The Barter Trainer Barter In The News The viability of the barter industry, as well as the features and benefits of membership in a trade exchange, has been profiled by such national media outlets as The W...