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Now, here is the rest of the article. The information in some part of it maybe old. So, investigate, see the resources below the article, read and adapt accordingly.
When respondents to this ad call, you handle them just as a banker handles someone opening a new account.
You explain how your bartering club works: Everyone pays a membership fee of $100 to $300, and annual dues of $50 to $100.
The depositor tells you what he wants to deposit, perhaps $150 worth of printing services, and what he's looking for in return - storage space for his boat over a three month period.
If you have a depositor with garage space for rent and needing printing services, you have a transaction.
However, let us say you have no "perfect match" for this depositor. On your list of depositors, you have those people:
Remember, when a new member joins your club, he makes a deposit and states his wants or needs. In the above example, you have a typical bartering club situation.
Your service is to spend or line up those deposits to match the wants or needs of the club members.
An affinity for people and a good memory are vital to this kind of business, especially if you are running a "one-man show". Generally, when you have a buyer for one of your depositors, you notify him or her right away with a phone call.
You simply tell her that Club Member A wants to rent your garage. She tells you fine, but she does not want any printing services.
You simply tell her to hang on because you are currently in the process of contacting the dentist who will do the work on her kids' teeth. And so it goes in the operation of a bartering club.
Some of the larger bartering clubs (with several thousand members), simply list the deposits and wants or needs on a computer, and then invite their members to come in and check out the availabilities for themselves.
Others maintain merchandise stores where the members come in to first look at the computer listing, and then to shop, using credit against their deposits. The smaller clubs usually publish a weekly "traders wanted" sheet and let it go at that.
These methods all work, but we've found that instead of leaving your members to fend for themselves or make their own trades, the most profitable system is to hire commission sales people to solicit (recruit if you will) new members, specifically with deposits to match the wants and needs of your present members.
These sales people should get 20% of the membership fee from each new member they sign, plus 3 to 5 percent of the total value of each trade they arrange and close.
This percentage, of course, to be paid in club credits, and spent on merchandise or services offered by the bartering club.
You will need a club charter, a board of directors or officers, and in many areas, a city or county license. Check with your city or county clerk for more information on these requirements.
You should also have a membership contract, the original for your files and a duplicate for the member.
In most cases, you can write your own, using any organization membership contract as a guide, or you can have your attorney draw one up for you.
You will also need a membership booklet or at least an addenda sheet to your contract, explaining the rules and bylaws of your club.
It is also suggested that you supply your members with consecutively numbered "club membership identification cards" for their wallets or purses.
Some clubs even give membership certificates suitable for framing. You can pick these up at any large stationery house or commercial print shop.
Two things are important to the make up of the membership package you exchange for membership fees:
You should have at least 100 members before you begin concentrating on arranging trades. As stated earlier in this report, the easiest way to recruit new members is to run an ad in your newspapers, and perhaps even on your local radio stations as well.
Follow up on these inquiries with a direct mail package, which would typically consist of a brochure explaining the beauty and benefits of being a member of your bartering club, a sales letter, and a return reply order form.
After you have sent out the direct mail piece, be sure too follow up by phone, and if necessary, make a call in person as any other sales person would do.
Insist on at least 10 couples for each party, and then as the "Attraction of the Evening," you or one of your salespeople gives a motivation-benefits available recruiting talk.
Be sure you get the names, addresses and phone numbers of everyone attending, and be sure that everyone leaves with your literature.
BARTERING Useful Resources:
The Feast Nearby: How I lost my job, buried a marriage, and found my way by keeping chickens, foraging, preserving, and eating locally (all on $40 a week)In addition to BARTERING, you may also be interested in the business articles in the Ezine Acts Offline Businesses (site map 21 A) with its extension into Online Free Consulting (site map 21 B) and the other articles on the Ezine Acts Biz Marketing (site map 15 A), with its extension into Wise Biz Newsletter (site map 15 B), Wise Biz Marketing (site map 15 C), WBM (site map 15 D), Ezine Acts Newsletters (site map 15 E):
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