Advertising in the fast lane

A great opportunity to advertise your products and services to a targeted audience; FQ Magazine is a digital magazine aimed at working and stay at home fathers  as well as appealing to women/mothers.

With more parents spending time in front of the computer, it has become vital to broadcast and present over the internet. ‘Our readers are looking for exclusive interviews, advice, tips ideas and recommended products! Because of our unique target audience, we offer maximum exposure within a specific category.’ says Damion Queva, Managing Director of 3 Dimensional Media.

The magazine boasts a national distribution throughout the UK and 250,000 reader subscribers, reaching a wealthy target market with young children. The 100 page publication includes exclusive celebrity interviews with sports stars, awards, fashion, finance, health and travel.  Other topics include great ideas for fashion, health, fitness, motoring, days out, review on films and books targeted at young fathers.

Bartercard is a valuable source of income for us. We have been with Bartercard for seven years and we buy everything!!

Our courier is on Bartercard, enjoy corporate hospitality, flowers, packaging, advertising, car rental, computer hardware and hotels.’ says Damion.

Banners on the FQ website are noticed by thousands of visitors bi-monthly and soon due to become ipad and iphone compatible. So, advertising you take out will be traveling around on people’s iphones with them. ‘We reach many more people with a digital format, so they can dip in and out of the publication at work or at home; the Digital format also includes video and audio and hyperlinks direct to website shopping baskets or contact details or home pages.’ comments Damion.

Top ten dads and famous fathers...check out the website! www.fqmagazine.co.uk or www.fqmagazine.co.uk/magEzine to download the magazine for FREE. FQ reflects the lives and aspirations of men who have grown out of ‘lads mags’ and require a more sophisticated read.

Online supermarket for parents.

Supermarket, also affiliated with 3D Media, offers customers products such as prams, car seat, highchairs, baby monitors, cots, furniture and toys for children, gadgets, tools and lots more on Bartercard.

With top quality products and great new ranges, this site has it all on-line to make it more relaxing to choose from home. Products must be purchased from your trade coordinator or by calling Parents Supermarket directly and delivered in 24 hours.

Many items are available in limited stock today such as:

Baby Carriers

Baby Monitors

KUB cots

Flexibaths

Bottles

Sterilisers

Nappy Bins

Board Games.

"I say spend, spend, spend on Bartercard. Look at how you will integrate barter into your cash flow"

As Bartercard businesses vary, attracting both accountants and personal trainers alike, a graphic design business needs to serve different companies with gusto, listening potential and especially... originality!

Debbi, Owner and Head of Design at Snap Marketing infuses these three traits into the business. Successful projects on Bartercard have been rolled out for Abbey Antiques, the Disc Directory, Sporting Affairs, Accounting for Business, Bartercard themselves, and currently Syn-Star group.  But enough of the airy-fairy talk!

 If you are spending money you should expect clear returns. ‘Companies should be looking at what they want as a return in revenue and spend 10 - 20% of what they expect to get back.’ comments Debbi, Creative Director. Not one to beat about the bush with marketing jargon, Snap get straight down to the nitty gritty - all that with a touch of humour of course!

Check out their website to put a smile back on your face: www.snap marketing.co.uk  Snap offer innovative logo ideas and roll out marketing strategies which promise to be unique. Most agencies only specialise in either marketing or design, implying greater costs since they outsource. Snap’s in-house designers create the work that can then be rolled out to the public - all under one fun roof!‘Our clients are fairly widespread, from IT to restaurants. We take barter work because we can’t spend enough!’ comments Debbi. ‘We design a campaign around the image the business is trying to portray. No hap-hazard marketing activity, everything is collated and looks uniform. We also analyse whether the message of the company is the right one.’
Key Questions are:Why are we doing this?
What are we trying to achieve?
Who is our target audience?

With 20 years worth of experience in design and advertising, the Snap team understand what it takes to achieve results. ‘We will happily discuss business requirements, budgets and individual needs, to make sure the company is on the right path and we suggest ways of making them fly!’ comments Debbi.  As a keen Bartercard members for the past 10 years, Snap’s motto seems to be spend more and get more in return.

"I say spend, spend, spend on Bartercard. Look at how you will integrate barter into your cash flow. We stay at the lovely Peacock Hotel a lot, go to cafes, use Print  Concern. We use Bartercard for leisure and then place that money we would have spent on leisure, straight back into the business."

Snap Marketing
Contact: Debbi
Tel: 0118 945 5592
1091 Oxford Rd, Tilehurst
Reading Berkshire RG31 6YEwww.snap-marketing.co.uk

Toys and Clothes for Babies and Children

Its feels like Christmas every morning when Sarah Tubb enters her shop in Harris Arcade, Reading’s oldest shopping mall.  She is greeted by a four foot giraffe and his colony of pals.

LifeLikeFriends is a child’s and adult’s wonderland of teddy bears, soft animals, wooden toys, baby clothes and lots more. So if you’re stuck for ideas this Christmas on what to offer the smaller members of the family – look no further. (And you’ll be pleased to know you can choose your favourites online if you can’t make it to the shop.)

As well as amazing cuddly toys, LifeLikeFriends stock organic baby grows, helping endangered species. ‘We’ve really got lovely things! This year we’ve branched out into wooden toys and jigsaws which are great for children to hold and get the feel of natural materials. We have gifts, baby bibs, comfort blankets, and developmental toys. 

We try and accommodate for all tastes; we have designer brands and also more reasonable items such as finger puppets and hand puppets for £3 - £5.’ says Sarah. Sarah previously worked as a bookkeeper, but the jump from figures to fury toys was not instantaneous. ‘I have always wanted to run my own business but never knew what it would be.

Even as a child I would grate different coloured soaps and sell them in empty Britvic bottles. After traveling around Australia for a year, I was uncertain what to do on my return. I noticed some really lifelike cuddly toys in a magazine and thought they were wonderful. After much brainstorming, I registered www.lifelikefriends.co.uk andm started the business from home. I created a website and eventually - opened a shop, when the concept was
proving popular!’ says Sarah.  As well as getting my shop, Bartercard was another boost to promoting my business.

I’ve had six good years with Bartercard. What I enjoy is sourcing products, but not necessarily in my area. With today’s ease of transport why restrict yourself to your region when you can source great personalized Christmas cards from anywhere in the country? I make Bartercard work for me. I’ve also purchased small items such as key rings and pencil sharpeners on Barter that I can sell.

‘I consult the E-Marketplace every few weeks and have picked up some great things there; furniture for our spare room, jewellery, a bass guitar and a few Xbox games for the rare occasions that I’m not working on my laptop in the evenings!’
 

Sarah has also bought clothing from Juliette’s Secret’s – even got stopped in the street to ask where she bought such an unusual skirt – and bought a new snowboarding jacket at one of the trade expos in Twickenham. So, what will be the best seller this Christmas? ‘Definitely our Meerkats. 

Everyone wants them. The penguins are out and the Meerkats are in! We simply can’t get enough. And then there’s always our giant teddy bear.’…. so loveable it’s almost un’bearable!

To all Members: Sarah Tubb would love to find packaging, jiffy bags and boxes for her mailing services, a new laser printer and lots more ladies clothes. Please get in touch if your business can accommodate.

COOKING UP A STORM

Planning her daughter’s wedding should have put Sue Baxter off event organising for good. Right in the middle of the summer floods, the catering crew drove across a field and their van got lodged a foot deep in the mud. Torrential rain came gushing through the marquee and in spite of everything, Sue was the only one to remain calm.

Yet she eagerly admits: “If I were not working in cook wear, I would love to be a wedding planner! In fact, you might soon find me in the Bartercard Directory doing just that!”  Sue runs Berghoff UK Limited that produces an extensive range of domestic and catering cookware.  “Anything that you can think of that you need in the kitchen environment, we have!”

From tables to glassware to stainless steel pots and pans, chef’s knives and knife blocks for the home. With over 2000 lines of kitchenware and 60 different stainless steel saucepan ranges, the company boasts one of the broadest supplies in Europe.

Their best selling product range are kitchen essentials. The ingenious non-stick fat free cooking range!

“If you want to fry an egg, pop the lid on and the condensation will set the top of the egg. It will slide off the pan as if you had put in butter.” The range costs from T£30 - T£100, but you will certainly save on the calories!”

Sue Baxter has been an active member of Bartercard for 5 years now. Her favorite current purchase is the use of the call centre on Bartercard, where they answer her calls when she is away.  “I get so many things on trade, from my printing to my hotel accommodation, fabulous restaurants such as Da Vinci’s in Pool Harbour, Ocean Bay in Swanage, which we gain access to by boat.”

Having Trade Pounds for my daughter’s wedding was fantastic. “On trade we managed to get the marquee hire, a magician, a bouncy castle for the children, candy floss machines, helium pumped balloons in baby pink and ivory and catering. My Trade Co-ordinator was fantastic and helped me source all these items, saving me cash.”

I’ve organised so many exhibitions and conferences in my life, in fact I may be organising a friend’s wedding next year on our property. I have land at home and a small lake. For my daughter’s wedding, I had bulldozers and JCB’s remove 900 tones of rubble over 4 months, to level the land.

The wedding, covered by OK magazine was celebrated on the 31st July. Her daughter, Melissa Baxter, a famous photographic and lingerie model who has featured in Footballers Wives and Midsomer Murders, married Roger Johnson a footballer for Cardiff.
“The day was just awesome!”

We’ve bartered goods to value of £300,000

MEALS out, watches, glass wear, jewellery, a vacuum cleaner, a chair – the list of goods Jim and Mary Haran have bartered for in recent years reads like the prize conveyor belt on the Generation Game.   And it doesn’t stop there.

Good business sense for us – Jim and Mary Haran, with Mathew Harding of Bartercard Essex, at their flower shop

The couple, who run Smiles and Tears florists, in Benfleet High Road, have also bartered for a new bathroom, double glazing, roofing work, the resurfacing of their driveway, printing of business cards and a leaflet drop to thousands of homes.   But the couple have not been paying their roofer in roses.  They are part of a much more modern and sophisticated system of bartering called Bartercard, which they estimate has helped them to get about £300,000 worth of goods since they joined in 2001.

Jim, 56, said: “Years ago they never had money, they just used to barter their goods. It is a great system.”  Described as “new age” bartering, the system is not intended to replace cash but to complement it, by allowing mostly small and medium-sized businesses to exchange goods and keep cash in the business.   In Essex, the scheme has 700 members. Worldwide, 70,000 businesses have signed up in countries from Australia to Lebanon.   businesses join, they are given an interest-free overdraft of Trade Pounds, the Bartercard currency, worth one pound sterling each.

To pay this back, they offer goods and services to other Bartercard members, who hand over their credit card-sized Bartercard to pay.   These customers, who could be based anywhere, become clients the business would not otherwise have had.

For example, Jim and Mary use a dentist in Colchester, miles from their home in Harold Wood, because the dentist is a Bartercard member. They had their shop sign designed by a firm from the north of England.   Jim said: “The whole concept is you are going to meet people and work with people you would never normally come across.”   Bartercard makes its money by charging 5.5 per cent on transactions. However, Matthew Harding, director of the Bartercard Essex franchise, insists customers are better off with the system than using bank loans and overdrafts.
He said: “There is no interest on the borrowing, and you’re guaranteed new customers through the Bartercard network.”

Matthew set up the franchise in 2001, after coming across the scheme elsewhere in the country through his Basildon-based company Award Home Improvement.   Jim and Mary’s shop, then based in Harold Wood, was one of the first businesses in Essex to sign up.  Mary, 61, said: “It took us a little while to get our heads around it.
“But we have made lots of lovely friends through the network, who we wouldn’t have met otherwise.”

Crucially, especially during the current climate when small businesses are finding it difficult to borrow money from the banks, the system keeps money in the business and cash flowing.
All Bartercard transactions go through the books like everything else, and they get a statement from Bartercard at the end of the month, detailing how much tax they have to pay Matthew said: “It is a mature cashless economy.

“I have a guy in Basildon who has just put a £45,000 deposit on a villa in Cyprus using Barter, and a guy in Rainham who has had two pairs of Ugg Boots shipped over from Australia for his wife and daughter.  “I have got people who have gone to Thailand for a holiday.  “You can buy most things now using Barter.”   But despite its range, it is not intended Barter will ever replace cash, as it is made up of mostly small and medium owner-operated businesses.   You cannot use Barter to pay your council tax or buy a Big Mac, for example.   Businesses are free to opt out of Barter. For example, in the run up to Christmas, many restaurants may say they are not taking Barter temporarily.

Jim said: “With any business you have to be careful not to rely on one thing or one customer.
“For example, if you have a hotel up the road and you do all your business for them, what do you do when it shuts?   “If it is used properly it works wonderfully.”

For more information, visit http://www.bartercard.co.uk/

Australia – The Trip of a Lifetime

Bartercard Tip - Why are you in business? Hopefully it is with the view to ultimately improve your lifestyle! If Bartercard can help you to earn extra income which you can use partly for lifestyle purchases, then Bartercard is effectively helping you achieve the primary goal of improving your way of life.

“The list of what we enjoyed on Barter here was endless. We ate in a different restaurant every night on Barter, took a trip to the Barrier Reef and Scuba dived, had a night in the Daintree forest, dined on the wild side with Lions (fantastic experience), fishing, spent two nights at Port Douglas (I would love to retire there) and all excursions, car hire, chauffeur to the airport, gifts etc.... Bartercard Hospitality at its best is in Cairns!“

Holiday planning started in the Autumn of 2008, whereby we sourced and booked the best flights. D-Day was to be the 25th July 2009 - with 4 long weeks down under.  I contacted the Bartercard travel team in Australia and set out my rough agenda - I wanted to start in Sydney, on to Brisbane then up the coast finishing in Cairns. What I didn't realise was the shear size of that coastline! Our emails were bouncing back and forth for a few weeks, until we had our holiday all pinned down as follows: Arrive Sydney 25/07 and stay in a PENTHOUSE apartment in the Gemini Hotel in a suburb called Randwick 20mins from Darling Harbour - fantastic!  From there we dealt with the local Bartercard office who were great. I 'jokingly' asked if I could get UGG boots on trade and they said no problem - you could have knocked me down with a feather!

We had a couple of fantastic meals at the Sauce Grill on the beach (Bartercard), Excellent cafe in Darling Harbour (Bartercard), and take away Chinese (Bartercard). We almost enjoyed a special boat trip visiting the harbour on trade, but we were too tired and preferred to relax and enjoy the view! On 3rd August fly to Brisbane and stay at the Best Western in Sunnybank - 20 mins from Brisbane. Picked up from the Airport by Camdoit chauffeurs (Bartercard) and driven to the hotel - great service. First job was to call the local Bartercard office and see what was happening - again great service, had me booked into the local Chinese for my Anniversary!

On 6th August fly to Townsville and catch the ferry to Magnetic Island - what an enchanting place to spend my 40th Birthday! Magnetic Island was paradise lost! Three days were spent relaxing on beaches and eating under the stars listening to the calls of the ancient 'curlews'. On 10th August chauffeured 4 hours up the coast to Cairns staying 5 mins from Cairns Centre and Harbour!!! Cairns is where Barter came alive - helped by the wonderful team at the local office (especially Menake who took service to a higher level!).

On 20th August sadly have to fly home after the holiday of a lifetime - after offsetting over T£10,000 of my holiday costs on Barter.

I definitely would not have been able to do this without Bartercard!

The only upside to coming home is that we can start planning our next trip!  Vive La Barter!

 Some of the Bartercard Australia Members Matthew Used:

• Gemini Hotel, Randwick

• Ugg Boots, Sydney Rams in Sydney

• Sauce Grill, Coogee Beach, Sydney

• Cafe Darling Harbour, Sydney

• Chinese Takeaway, Randwick

• Boat Trip, A couple of these available from Sydney Harbour

• Camdoit Chauffeurs, Brisbane

• Michaels Oriental Restaurant,  Brisbane

• Haba Dive Daintree Forest Trip,

• Lattitude 16 Holiday Apartments, Cape Tribulation Port Douglas

Saving £10,000 cash!

For more information please contact Bartercard UK Travel Department

Tel: 0845 219 7030 Fax: 0845 051 8787  travel@ukbartercard.com

Helping British Business

Bartercard provides services to Members through our normal Trading Program, Internet platforms, Travel Desk and customer service staff (at a branch, national and international level). These services include sales, promotion of business network consists of a diverse range of industries including wholesale, retail, community services, mining, construction services, manufacturing, recreation, and tourism.

The following Testimonials highlight how by using these services Bartercard has helped their business.

Bartercard gets Green Fingers

High quality Award Winning plants direct from the grower Take the size of your back garden and multiply this by a hundred.  That is approximately the size of land Penny Hodshon, owner of Lea Park Nursery, prunes, sows and plants in a single day. An average day consists of tending to 4 acres, 22 tunnels (one of which was used as a wedding marquee!), 60,000 bedding packs, 20,000 tomato plants and 1,000 packs of runner beans.

Lea Park Nurseries, based in Devon, offers Bartercard members everything they grow themselves from pack bedding and vegetables plants to alpine and herb plants, shrubs, perennials or hanging baskets. ‘We’ve been growing plants for 15 years, it’s a little mad to undertake such enormous tasks, but I enjoy it.We cater for hotels, restaurants, pubs and also private home owners. We grow and plant all the baskets for Newton Abbot, Exmouth and Torquay Local Authorities.’ says Penny. Lea Park provides a variety of vegetable plants for you to continue growing: peppers, cucumbers, courgettes, tomatoes, lettuces and cabbages …. All available to Bartercard members wanting to freshen up their cooking this spring.

"We make small profits being a wholesale producer, so Bartercard has enabled us to

enjoy luxuries such as holidays, that we would otherwise not be able to afford.’

Spending on Bartercard has enabled Penny and her husband Geoff to save hard earned cash.  ‘We put a lot of effort into Bartercard; you only get out what you put in.

We organised my daughter’s wedding using 80% Barter which was very successful.

We employ a  landscape company to cut the grass and trim the land.’  But Penny’s list of purchases is endless…

The Hodshon’s also benefit from the worldwide Bartercard network.  ‘With my son living in Perth, Australia, wewere able to help pay for some of his house buying transactions on Barter. And when they had a three month premature baby earlier this year, they discovered a Barter restaurant next to the hospital which they dined at regularly.

 We also sent flowers to them, which arrived faster than if we had bought them ourselves!’ says Penny."

To read the full article: http://uk.bartercard.com/?page=bartercard-magazine

Bartercard Tip:  A gardener can purchase Window Cleaning on Bartercard and can then offer it for free to any customer who takes up his quote on the day of issue.

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Broadband on Barter

‘We are a main telecoms supplier similar to BT, but on a more friendly level.’ says Doug Hayes, Owner of Tally Cost. ‘However unlike BT, someone will actually pick up the phone if you call us!’ he jokes.
Tally Cost aim to provide a jargon free – user friendly service with real people at the end of the phone, offering on-going account management.

Doug proudly claims to have signed up as the 220th Bartercard member back in the day! With a current membership exceeding 4,000 members within the UK network, making use of Bartercard has gradually become second nature to him. ‘It’s become a habit!’ says Doug.

"Since joining, Doug has purchased a multitude of business related products and services, some of the larger items being vans and cars…and smaller items – but not necessarily cheaper when you purchase them every month - being office paper, power tools and supplies!

‘We have customers as far afield as Aberdeen and Cornwall. Each day for us is different. We offer a nationwide solution on Mobiles, Broadband, telephone lines and calls.’ ‘We’re an active trader and we’re looking for more. Learn the culture – it’s slightly different to the cash world but Barter pounds are money in the bank - so use them!’"

To read the full article: http://uk.bartercard.com/?page=bartercard-magazine

Bartercard Tip:  Did you know that 70% of business callers are placed on hold or transferred.  Impact Messages on Hold have been a Bartercard member for 10 years and can customize on-hold phone messages into an effective marketing tool.

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Sunflower Framing

A beautifully framed picture can light up a room. For your home or office requirements, Sunflower Framing in Marlow and Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, offer a great service. Sunflower framing has worked on everything that can possibly be framed, from limited edition prints by Dali and Picasso, to original artwork.  ‘We frame posters, artwork, even memorabilia and offer our clients over 300 mouldings on barter.’ says Duncan McDonald, Proprietor.

Sunflower Framing prides itself in accomplishing an immaculate high end job and offering excellent artistic advice.   Some of their more unusual jobs include framing a 10 foot long snake skin, framing one of Frank Sinatra’s bow ties and casing boxing gloves and boots!    Duncan himself set up the framing business twelve years ago, after hanging up his boxing gloves and waving goodbye to 15 years in the police force. ‘In the next couple of years, we intend to do some serious business in the market.

We have hired an interior design service on Bartercard; Jonathan Fosters Inc. are currently working a new designed look on our shops that will certainly attract a new cash paying clientele.’ says Duncan.

‘We buy everything you can think of on Barter, from dentistry to guttering, solicitors to surveying.’ says Duncan. Sunflower’s sister company UK School of Framing also offers Bartercard members framing courses throughout the UK.

‘We’re more design led than other framers, and we can take on the extra capacity on barter so we welcome more members.’

Bartercard Tip: Make the most of your Bartercard membership: combine a little lateral
thinking with some savvy trading tips to boost business growth.

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Winning cash contracts

In the normal cash economy, your business is competing with numerous competitors to win cash contracts. To make a sale more attractive to a prospective cash-paying customer, you can opt to accept part payment in goods or services.

Here’s an example:
A printer was competing for a printing contract from a non-Bartercard hotel for three years without success. On the fourth tender he quoted only 80 percent of his competitor’s cash quote and agreed to take the remaining 20 percent value in accommodation. He won the contract, offered the accommodation to the Bartercard system and earned Bartercard Trade pounds which he could offset against cash expenses. By doing the job well that year, he subsequently picked up the contract for cash the following year.

Benefits:
1. The Bartercard member ensures or wins a sale and picks up a substantial portion of the sale in cash.

2. The sale of the part payment in goods or services generates the Trade pounds to satisfy the Bartercard member’s purchase needs.

3. The cash paying customer gets a more effective price and Bartercard offers further opportunitiesfor all clients to trade.