Not many businesses have escaped the impact of the Covid crisis over the past two years. Some have bounced back, others continue to struggle, and some have had to close their doors. If you’re still trading, keep going. You have a good chance of continuing to grow your business as we continue to navigate the pandemic.
Heading into a new year is a good time to focus on planning and reassessing your priorities and strategies to ensure you’re in the best possible position for success in the coming months and years.
Working with a community such as Bartercard gives you a great opportunity to try and get back to pre-covid income levels. The Bartercard system provides tools that can help you fill the spare capacity in your business, attract new customers and move excess stock.
Let’s look at how Bartercard can help you bounce back in 2022 and beyond.
Fill the spare capacity in your business
If you’ve been able to successfully trade your way through the past couple of years, great! It’s likely however that you still have some spare capacity in your business. Not many businesses ever trade at full capacity as there are always vacant time slots or empty chairs to fill.
By tapping into the Bartercard community, you can offer these empty spots to members for full trade dollars. This will top up your Bartercard trade account so you can offset some of your expenses and keep more cash in your business.
Filling that spare capacity is one of the leading reasons business owners join the Bartercard Trade Exchange as every business could do with more business. After all, you need to pay your rent, electricity, and staff whether you have one customer per day or a hundred. Take advantage of the Bartercard community to attract new customers and fill those empty spaces.
Attract customers during slow times
As well as filling your empty capacity, you can also use Bartercard to book out your slow periods. Every business has peaks and troughs, whether it’s daily, weekly, annually, or seasonally or a combination. As a Bartercard member, you can use those quiet periods to attract new customers.
With Bartercard, you remain in control over when you open your doors to Bartercard customers. For example, a restaurant may welcome Bartercard customers to spend their trade dollars during weekdays but not on weekends.
A mechanic might find that Wednesdays are always quiet, so offer a special mid-week deal for Bartercard customers. An accountant may find certain months where business is quiet and make an offer during those times to attract trade dollars in through the Bartercard community. It’s a great way to ensure you always have a steady flow of customers through your business.
The key is in learning how to manage the flow of your trade dollars, so your Bartercard customers fill up those off-peak periods in your business. Remember too that trade customers often bring in cash-paying customers, so that’s a bonus to your business at any time!
Move your excess stock
Slow periods such as we’ve seen in recent times can lead to excess or idle stock. No business owner wants this stock taking up space in their shop. The problem is, to move it often involves discounting or advertising which both cost your business.
As a Bartercard member, you can advertise your slow-moving or excess stock through the network to tens of thousands of business owners, keen to use their trade dollars. No discounting is required as Bartercard members are happy to pay full price. So, you can recoup the full value of the stock, and advertising is free!
You might promote your excess stock through the weekly newsletter, post an ad on the online marketplace or if it’s an attractive offer, your Bartercard Account Specialist may be able to advertise it for you through email – all at no cost.
Bartercard members are keen to spend their trade dollars to offset their cash expenses. Most would rather purchase your products at full price than spend cash with your competitor – even if their product is cheaper.
Once you’ve moved some of your idle or excess stock, you can use the trade dollars you’ve earned to offset some of your business expenses and keep cash in your business.
Find out how Bartercard can help grow your business
In today’s recovering business world, you need tools that will support you to regain the health of your business and continue to grow it into better times. You want easy, efficient, and effective ways to attract new customers at times that are convenient to you and a network keen to pay you full price for your excess stock, all the while freeing up your cash.
Get in touch for your no-obligation chat to find out how Bartercard can support your business growth and recovery goals in 2022.
