Trading Services: The Benefits of Exchanging Talents & Bartering by Charlene Torkelson

If you have a business or if you have specific skills in certain areas, have you considered trading your services with someone else who has a business or skill that you need? Bartering has been in existence for thousands of years. It was a way to trade with someone else before money or banks or credit cards were created. “I’ll give you a bushel of corn for a sack of grain” or “I’ll give you a dress in exchange for you putting in my garden.”

As a dance teacher, I frequently trade services with my students. I gave one student dance lessons; he painted my house. Then we traded dance lessons for my dance floor to be refinished. Another cleaned my soon-to-be-put-up-for-sale home for her dance classes. I am able to do what I do through years of experience, but I am not very good at remodeling, planting or cooking. Other people, however, have those skills. And they are eager to hone in on my skills in exchange for the talents they have spent years perfecting.

Think about it. What do you do well? Child care? Snow shoveling? Raking leaves? Cooking and catering? Think about trading for something you may not enjoy doing, but someone else loves to do. It’s a win-win situation.