Business tool that increases profits through new customers and improved cash-flow
Savvy businesses looking to maximise their cash flow and streamline their expenses are constantly seeking new solutions, but sometimes the old ones deserve to be revisited. For thousands of business owners in New Zealand, the answer can be found in the age-old bartering system, specifically the business network Bartercard.
Read more about Bartercard Business Benefits .
If you are one of those people who still hasn’t got your head around how to use social media in your business, Ask Bartercard give you three essentials when it comes to tapping into your market online and leveraging your brand socially.
Platforms that fit your brand will always create better results when it comes to attracting followers and converting sales, and posting on platforms that feels authentic to you will come more easily.
For instance, clothing retailers and fashion brands rely heavily on imagery and therefore Instagram works well for them, as there are no limits when it comes to creativity, and it can achieve some incredible cut through in the market.
Instagram now claims to have more than 400 million users and has expanded its tools to enhance reach and visibility, launching landscape and portrait modes and adding additional search options.
Brands can also add a link in their Instagram bio which allows users to directly shop the products in their feed. Platforms like Instagram can also leverage partnerships and collaborations through cross marketing a new concept or initiative to each partner’s followers, effectively putting complementary brands in front of new markets.
When it comes to platforms, Google+ can be effective in reaching technology-focused consumers, while LinkedIn is a stronger choice for the business to business (B2B) sector (entrepreneur.com). Facebook will support virtually any brand thanks to a diverse user base which has approximately 1.49 billion monthly active user’s world-wide (statistica.com).
It’s hard to build a base of following on your own, especially if you are a start-up, and leveraging influencers is a way to fast-track this. Tagging a well-followed brand or personality on Instagram who chooses to add you to their feed will reach millions of followers. This not only outreaches traditional print advertising but comes without the exuberant cost of a print ad in a newspaper or glossy magazine. For example, if a fashion start-up tags a celebrity who decides to add the photo to their feed; it will put the brand in front of millions of followers and launch it to the market.
The best social media marketers are sticklers for quality which means no pixelated photos and using the latest technology in phones and digital SLR cameras. When it comes to images; poor lighting, positioning and styling can all break the formula for a widely-shared post and erode the credibility of your brand. Research and follow what the best brands are doing to meet the industry standard. You will learn how to tap into your market, attract followers and influence them in the social space and which platforms are the best fit for your business, so for more information on where can I use Bartercard, where can I spend my Bartercard dollars and what is Bartercard please go to http://askbartercard.co.nz
Whether you’re a start-up or established business that needs to hit reset, these tips from Ask Bartercard will help you pack more punch into your brand. Running a business involves strategy, finance, research, sourcing, paying your suppliers, ticking off routine tasks like paying bills, and sheer stamina. It’s also vital to consider whether your business idea is marketable and will convert to sales.
Research is critical to test the feasibility of your business idea and see where similar concepts thrived or fell over. Standing out takes a point of difference, so thoroughly research your competitors to see where you can set yourself apart.
You need to investigate who your competitors are, what they do, what their strengths and weaknesses are and how they price, and what’s your point of difference?
You should be clear of why you’re there, how you stand out and what you do differently, and stick to your core values and beliefs. Consistency and congruence across every aspect of your business is critical, or the stress, pressure and work will outpace you. A business plan is essential as it makes you plan, review, breakdown and map out the way your business is put together which is crucial to success. Having something written down makes you much more accountable to ensure things get done.
Seek finances resourcefully, and even low-cost start-ups require financing to get started. Finance options include business loans, overdrafts, lines of credit, fully-drawn cash advances and many start-ups take the route of crowdfunding or private investors like venture capitalists.
Sourcing finance isn’t always easy; however, Bartercard members have access to an interest-free line of credit when they join. This can cover start-up, renovations, expansion, or other business costs. You should also speak to, follow, and read about the successes and failures of entrepreneurs. Learning from their mistakes can save you from slipping up, while leveraging off their lessons and successes.
For more information on how Bartercard can help your business grow and increase profits, and to find out more about Bartercard members, business networking and What is Bartercard please go to http://askbartercard.co.nz .
As a small business owner, you may be looking for ways to do things smarter and more efficiently, and you may be aware of how valuable it would be if you were able to turn your unutilised trading capacity and surplus inventory, into business opportunities. This would be a step towards increased sales, improved cash flow, and retaining clients – always an attractive outcome as a business owner.
In this article, Ask Bartercard discuss how you can improve and grow your business, and will show you how to move excess stock effectively and attract good, loyal customers in the process with Bartercard’s help. Bartercard provides business opportunities to members by converting unutilised trading capacity and excess inventory into business opportunities with new customers, and their world-leading, innovative trade exchange system allows over 24,000 member businesses in seven countries worldwide to benefit from the cashless economy of bartering.
Bartercard helps New Zealand businesses grow and achieve financial success through bartering unfilled capacity through the Bartercard network using an electronic currency called a Trade Dollar. They also help companies put inventory, equipment and employees to good use, converting downtime and spare capacity (such as businesses who experience seasonal markets) into new revenue which would not have been available otherwise.
Bartercard’s large referral network allows members to increase their customer base and expand their geographic reach, and the new customers generated by Bartercard are on top of existing cash business, and therefore don’t interfere with existing business models.
You know that for most businesses, retention of good staff members is important but finding ways to reward staff that go the extra mile for the business without increasing wages or salaries can be tricky Using Bartercard Trade Dollars as employee bonuses, incentive schemes or gifts is an excellent use of Bartercard.
The Bartercard guide also explains the way you can easily implement Bartercard into your business, how you spend your Bartercard Trade Dollars, and provides tips on how you and your clients can get the most out of Bartercard. By using Bartercard you can open up your business to new customer markets, improve cash flow, reduce business expenses and clear idle and excess stock, without having to discount. It’s easy to use and acts no differently to a normal bank account or line of credit.
You can download the full guide for more indepth advice and guidance on how Bartercard can work for you, and for more information on where can I use Bartercard, where can I spend my Bartercard dollars and how does Bartercard work please go to http://askbartercard.co.nz.
We know competition is fierce when it comes to recruiting the right individuals – there’s so much to consider. However, according to Forbes Magazine’s, Alan Hall, there are some basic rules to follow, including ensuring competency, and measuring capability and creativity. To hire an exceptional employee, ensure that they can demonstrate from experience, that they can come up with creative and innovative ways in which to increase productivity or problem-solving in a particular area.
You also need to ensure that they are compatible with you, the job and other staff, and calling past employers is a good way of finding out about team functioning. Similarly, you need to know that they are committed to you and your success. Team culture is important, being sure they fit in from the start.
It is also important to compensate staff according to award conditions and rates, as dissatisfied employees can adversely affect the mood of your business.
However, what also needs to be considered is how employers reward their teams and the impact on payroll. How do you incentivise employees, both new and loyal, to keep them motivated? For most businesses, retention of good staff members is important but finding ways to reward staff that go the extra mile for the business, without increasing wages or salaries can be tricky (and anything that goes through the payroll will incur PAYE).
Bartercard is a great tool to reward, provide incentives and support wage levels, and with the intelligent use of Bartercard, you have an incredible tool with which to select, maintain, up-skill and retain staff.
Take a small manufacturing company who wants to reward their top sales person with an incentive, but budgets are tight. Working with the Bartercard trade exchange the business can gift that staff member by purchasing a reward (such as a dinner out) through the Bartercard network using accumulated Trade Dollars. The business preserves their cash, while saying thank you to that employee, and better still gifts under $300/per employee, per quarter are exempt from tax under Fringe Benefit rules.
Bartercard’s eBook How to use Bartercard to grow your business offers helpful advice on how to use Bartercard to incentivise and reward your staff so you can ensure you make sure your employees are the secret to your long-term success.
For more information on increasing profits, excess stock and getting new customers please go to www.bartercard.co.nz.
Online Reputation Management (ORM) is all about brand awareness, and is the
process of measuring, monitoring, tracking and creating constructive conversations about your brand, corporate and personal identity, on the Internet. In summary, it encompasses monitoring online conversation about your brand and corporate or personal identity, understanding what is being said about it and critically analyzing the reasons behind the discussions.
It is about devising a methodical strategy, and interacting with your consumers to mitigate any damage to your brand that could potentially arise as a result of negative feedback about your company, product or business methods, ensuring
that no further negative repercussions occur by maintaining a strong positive online presence.
ORM plays a crucial role in Digital Marketing, helping to get rid of negative reviews about a company, person and brand from search engines, taking away harmful hidden content. For a brand, reputation is their first priority, and ORM involves inserting new content on-line that pushes previous or unwanted content lower in search results.
Online Reputation Management has become an essential component of any brand reputation management strategy, and protecting a brand’s image is the most important thing a company can do. A brand’s name and goodwill is earned through years of hard work, and losing it might take just minutes in the online world. In today’s reality, businesses are steadily falling prey to negative scam allegations that can damage their web reputation drastically. Slander feedback or negative remarks can topple the online reputation of your business which will lead to negative impact to your online credibility and result in significant loss of sales, maybe even of the business itself.
Bartercard is all about helping businesses to grow and prosper, so for more information on increasing profits, increasing business profits and increasing sales please go to www.bartercard.co.nz .
$4 Billion Trade Dollars Later, Bartercard Celebrates 25 Years
Bartercard, New Zealand’s original digital currency channel, has racked up more than $4 billion worth trading since it launched in this country in late 1992. Twenty-five years later, the company now has 15,000 cardholders nationwide and more than 6,000 active member businesses who are served by 110 staff in 13 offices.
One of those members is Auckland-based Kennedy Furniture Ltd which has been an active Bartercard member since day two. Kennedy Furniture director Kevin Johnstone is as enthusiastic about Bartercard now as he was then. “To be a part of something from its inception is a unique experience. It’s been a privilege to see how Bartercard has evolved over the past 25 years and how the network has grown. Bartercard has been of great benefit to our business from the start and still is 25 years later,” he says.
Bartercard New Zealand chief executive John Scott, who has been with the company almost five years after a long career in business finance and data, says the quarter century birthday is a significant achievement for a company and a concept that some people struggle to understand.
“We were one of the first companies in the world to offer a digital currency where no money actually trades hands. That took a bit of explaining in 1992 and, to some degree, it still does. The best way to use Bartercard is to use trade dollars to offset a proportion of cash spending and then use the funds generated to reinvest in your business. It does require a bit of lateral thinking to make the Bartercard network work for you. Our most successful members are the one who put in the effort and treat Bartercard as another business channel that can help grow their business,” says Scott.
He gives the example of the recent Lions tour. With hotels and motels running at 95 per cent occupancy, Bartercard members in places like Rotorua set up temporary accommodation for the Barmy Army, using their Trade Dollars. This was such a creative approach and showed their willingness to use Bartercard to offset some of their cash expenses and thereby bring in new business.”
With Bartercard now operating in eight countries, and plans in place to expand further, its New Zealand business is seen as a global innovator. “We’ve successfully developed systems and solutions here that have been deployed globally, including a web-enabled search app and sales tracker databases. New Zealand is used as an incubator for new technology-driven initiatives because we’re digitally enabled, early adopters and known for our ability to back ourselves,” says Scott.
Coming up next year is a mobile-enabled app which will list all New Zealand members’ products and services and link to Bartercard’s everyday rewards programme, bucqi. Scott is also working on an improved platform that will delivery real-time information based on the behaviours and buying preference of members.
“The future is around convergence – products, services and rewards. The trade economy is essentially about identifying idle capacity and, rather than giving it away, moving it in a more effective way that lets business owners reinvest in their company.”
Scott says 70 per cent of Bartercard New Zealand members have relationships within the trade exchange that last more than four years. And external research covering 10 years’ worth of data from new members show their average sales grow by almost 10 per cent in their first 12 months. “So, if you want to grow your business, Bartercard is an effective tool.”
Strong member relationships and community activities are an important part of the Bartercard story, with the Bartercard Foundation, set up in 2010, supporting a wide range of charities. 100% of the donations raised by the Foundation go to the chosen charity, with Bartercard New Zealand paying for all the costs of operating the trust. This year, it raised T$130,000 for Heart Kids NZ. Bartercard also sponsors the New Zealand Breakers.
To celebrate its milestone birthday, Bartercard head office and regional members have made a series of matching donations to worthy community groups, such as 50 bags of dog food to a pet shelter in Auckland and 50 boxes of nappies for Women’s Refuge in Auckland.
Bartercard’s Parent Company Acquiring Digital Business And Changing Name
BPS Technology, the parent company of Bartercard, is undergoing a reorganisation, acquiring a digital agency in Australia and renaming itself IncentiaPay in order to focus on the fastest-growing arms of its business.
The changes will not impact on the Bartercard divisions in New Zealand or Australia, which will continue “business as usual”, says Bartercard chief executive, John Scott.
“However, these moves do allow for our parent company to expand and diversify into new digital payment areas, which, as previously indicated, are expected to be a strong growth sector for the business.”
The changes are set to be approved at an Extraordinary General Meeting in Queensland on Thursday, 5 April. They include the acquisition of Sydney-based Gruden Group – a listed digital marketing and transactional payment company. Under the terms, BPS has agreed to provide consideration of $8 million, comprised of 27.68 million BPS shares and $250,000 cash, to Gruden.
BPS says benefits of the acquisition are access to customers including Oporto, Red Rooster and Starbucks, further penetration of the fast food and hospitality sectors, and tapping into cost synergies with other parts of its business.
At the same time, the company has put in place a new management team and Board and plans to change its name to IncentiaPay to better reflect its core business activities.
“BPS remains a strong underlying business,” says its new CEO Iain Dunstan. “We are pursuing a restructuring and turnaround plan and will focus on re-positioning BPS for growth to drive revenue and profitability.”
“It’s an exciting time to be part of the company expansion,” says Scott who was appointed trans-Tasman CEO for Bartercard in December, after running the New Zealand operation for five years.
“It was logical to combine the NZ and Australian operation into one business unit and part of my role is to develop a shared service model to support the requirements of the enlarged business. At the same time, I am ensuring we continue to drive our culture of leadership and continuous improvement underpinned by technological innovation.”
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Ask Bartercard focuses on the impact of brand, when answering questions about Bartercard. As the dedicated resource in answering your questions regarding Bartercard, Ask Bartercard presents a transparent system of gathering and acting upon feedback, and at the same time, providing constructive comments.
Many people seem to have the same queries regarding what Bartercard is, and what it isn’t, and Ask Bartercard ensure that people have the correct information so that they can make informed decisions when seeking to join the Bartercard community. Ask Bartercard will also help spread the word about the Bartercard network and the benefits it can bring to your business.
Ask Bartercard was set up to allow people to ask questions and, in turn, to receive prompt answers. All you need to do is register, then type in your question, and you will receive a response within 48 hours (with the exception of weekends and public holidays when it may take longer to respond). You can also check out their FAQ’s to see if your question has already been answered. These have been compiled from the most common queries Ask Bartercard have received previously.
Ask Bartercard consists of a panel of staff, and Bartercard members, who review and assist with answering your questions. Once your question is submitted, it will be reviewed by the Ask Bartercard panel, and you will receive notification of the answer before it is published. Not all answers will be made public. Ask Bartercard recommend users register to use the site, using a social login. Social login, also known as social sign-in, is a form of single sign-on using existing information from a social networking service such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.
For more information on how does Bartercard work, what is Bartercard and where can I use Bartercard please go to http://www.askbartercard.co.nz.
Barter Services | Bartercard New Zealand 