I was watching this show today that had a clip about a town where for the most part people get their daily goods and services mostly from bartering. This was everything from daily food needs as well as even services like dentistry. Just has to make you think where if someone is always complaining that they don’t have enough money to buy something on whether or not the notion of bartering for items is just missing from their vocabulary.

That made me think of why one would not even consider it. I guess for many it’s hard to put a dollar value on whatever it is that they are offering to the other person. Therefore, the simple answer I think is to not see it so much as “How much money is it worth” but rather how much the person needs or wants what you are offering. As well, the amount of time it takes you to do something. Example, if it takes one guy one minute to fix a plumbing problem and another person one minute to fix a computer related one then that would be a good trade.

Trying to think of examples like that with a mindset of trying to put a dollar value to the services to see if it is an equal trade makes it more complicated and intimidating than it really is, in my opinion. Almost like trading fruit from a tree. If one grows apples and the other grows like pears at the exact same time and quantity then a simple one for one trade should be as easy as that.

You can then start debating about which one is more in demand, tastes better and so fourth. However, that just complicates it and makes it more intimidating. Simply let the other person decide if it is a good trade based on what they want and don’t want I say.

Was watching the news and they had this interesting segment about a restaurant in the UK where people bring items in an attempt to trade it for goods in the restaurant such as a cup of beer or an order of a meal.

It looked like people were bringing everything including things like an actual chicken. Kind of would be interesting if more businesses allowed this type of transaction dealing. I wonder if in the end you would get a better value overall considering you would have to judge the trade right on the spot.

For the most part it will probably benefit the person offering something first the most as more than likely the item they are offering is very easy for them to obtain.

I was talking to a person today who like many other needed a service that would require money which he did not have. Instead of paying the person, the proposal was that the person he acquires would be willing to work for free and share in the profits instead.

I see this a lot on ad postings especially as people want say this high end website for free or say writers to create content with the compensation being a portion of potential revenue that the business generates.

I’m usually not too fond of these types of transactions as it’s almost like you are taking the risk as if you were starting something on your own anyways. If you are starting the business with someone then that is a different story, but if it is for general work it’s probably wiser to just get paid for it I’d say instead of entering into so many business agreements.