Before money was invented people traded or bartered for everything.  In a bad economy, you can still use the barter concept to your advantage to do more business and save money.  Many people offer their service to another party for a trade of goods or services in return.  This is the most common method people use and it's still a good idea today.  If you need something and can't afford it, offer to do a trade to get it.  The other party might say yes and if they do, you just got what you needed without spending any money AND you got a new client at the same time.  The old adage; "nothing ventured, nothing gained" is still true.  Ask people to do trades with you and see what happens.  Be careful not to trade too much because barter is reportable revenue in the eyes of the IRS and your cash flow is more important than the amount of trades you do each year so watch your total annual volume and only do 10% or less of your annual volume in barter or trade.

Many business and professional people look for a barter exchange group to trade with and there can be some advantages to this.  If you have a large amount of available inventory of products or time, consider meeting with and interviewing a barter exchange company to do trades with.  ASk them specific questions about how long they've been in business, how many participating members they have and whats available to your company if you open a barter account with them.  Make no assumptions and ask for references of happy members.  IF you do join a barter exchange system, they can bring you new clients, help you increase your advertising and branding without spending money, network you in the business community for more contacts and more cash clients and more.  Tradiin on your own can work as long as both parties agree.  with a barter exchange system, trade dollars are used to buy and sell with so every time you trade something, there's a dollar value placed on the trade and trade dollars go from the buyers account to the sellers account just like a checking account works at your bank but among the barter members only.

Barter can work for you in a bad economy to get more clients and save your cash every time you trade for something that you want or need.  If you are an individual and not a business owner, what do you have to trade?  A used car, truck, boat, motorcycle, mountain bikes, tools, collectibles, real estate, timeshares, furniture, antiques, excercize equipment and a host of skills / services that you have talent for can be offered as a trade for something you want.  Depending on what you have to trade will help determine if a barter exchange makes sence for you to join.  www.tradia.net ® is one choice for a barter exchange system to consider.