Not long ago, I was talking to a friend of mine who did some work for a costume company in a large city.
Mostly what he did was help set up the display racks, storefront, lighting, and other miscellaneous handyman type tenant improvement projects.
The company is hoping for more sales, that's why they hired him in the first place, but those sales haven't come in yet, and therefore they've been unable to pay.
Well, what's a smalltime contractor to do, they have to pay the bills too? Well, that's why I say it is always better to make a trade rather than not get paid.
It turns out they traded him for a super friends cartoon character costume.
It looks as if it is of value, and this was for partial payment until they have the money to pay the rest of the bill.
If you are smalltime contractor, consultant, service professional, and you are having trouble getting paid, perhaps you can work at least some of that bill in trade.
Indeed, the small business community must stick together, and this is one way to do just that.
Training works well because it is less burdensome on the company, and they don't have to sell items and make a profit to hand out the cash.
In this way they are trading something they already have or services they can render without a lot of extra cost.
Over the years, I've done a lot of trading myself.
I can remember when I was younger, I was running a mobile detailing company, and I traded shoe stores were Nike shoes, I traded detailing the car of a tire store owner for new tires, and I even traded for a new bed from a furniture store whose trucks I was cleaning.
Look, things are tough on a small businesses right now, they have to deal with ObamaCare, increased costs for employees, more rules and regulations, and all of this in an economy which is sputtering as it tries to recover.
This is not to say that you should go around and trade for everything, only when it makes sense to you, and only when it is of benefit to the person or company you are trading with.
What I think you'll find however is that you can get a lot more value doing trading rather than waiting on money to get paid in the interim.
I guess that's my advice to you as a small business person today.
Please consider all this and think on it.