In a medieval village stricken with famine, one wandering man finds a way to feed himself and all of the miserly villagers through colorful bartering. He has the expertise to cook an outstanding meal, and he persuades each villager to contribute an ingredient to his stone soup for a taste of it. All who offer their produce gets, through an exchange of sorts, the best meal they have eaten their entire lives. The story of Stone Soup is a timeless lesson on sharing but it also defines the bartering system. No money was exchanged.

Take the lesson from this tale, bring it up to date with the needs and wants of modern people, then make it personal to you or your business. You'll find that you might have something to offer family members, friends or other businesses in exchange for something they may have to offer you.

Think Close To Home

Your son just ran in the house, breathless, telling you he just traded his ultra-humongous-ugly monster card for a tooty-shrilly-99 noise whistle. He just bartered. Your daughter cleans out the interiors of the family's cars--her half the deal for the party food you cook this weekend. Bartering, even in the parental sense. No money changed hands.

Say your neighbor is a professional painter and she is in need of a baby-sitter for an hour a day for one week. You love children, and your living room needs painted. There is a bartering match if ever there was one.

Your garage roof needs a few shingles replaced but you are afraid of heights? Perhaps your home cooking will be the perfect payment for a neighbor who is handy with repairs such as that.

You, your family and your neighbors probably have a cornucopia of expertise or products that can be traded mutually. Those times when you have said or heard this, "I owe you one," is half of what bartering is all about.

Hobbies are great resources for bartering. For example: A newlywed couple needs curtains for their new apartment but their budget doesn't allow for the ones they want. You love to sew and you know that you can make curtains very close to the style they want. You also know the husband of that couple tinkers around with car engines and your car has been running rough lately. It just takes a phone call to set up the exchange, window treatments for a tune-up.

But what if you need dog-sitting services and all you can offer for barter is lawn care and the only person you find to care for your dogs, doesn't even have a yard? Ask the dog-sitter what service they might want then find someone who is offering that same service and ask if they will take lawn care in exchange. Sound confusing? Look at it this way:

You want dog-sitting service and will do lawn care in exchange.

Person 2 wants a kitchen painted and will dog-sit in exchange

Person 3 wants lawn care and will paint rooms.

You care for person 3's lawn; person 3 will paint person 2's kitchen; person 2 will take care of your dogs. Everyone does what he or she likes doing and everyone gets what they want. Almost a perfect world huh?

In times when cash on hand is tight, bartering in this way saves your cash for purchases where actual cash is needed.

You have more to offer than you think

Make a list of your hobbies, skills and available time frames. Then make a list of things or services you want or need. Now make a list of who might have the ability to give you what you need. Compare the values you place on these things so you can barter in terms of "this for that". Then contact your family, friends and business acquaintances and make the offers.

Here is an incomplete list of services or products that could be available from you or others: painting, wallpapering, baby-sitting, car repair, lawn care, artwork, resume writing, vegetables, flower arrangements, catering, party planning, discounts, advertisement, tutoring, piano lessons, running errands, roofing...shwew! the list is virtually endless.

I have used a bartering system myself by wallpapering a banquet hall in exchange for a summer of golf and pizzas. The time I used was time otherwise spent sitting in front of the television wishing I could make extra cash for those things.

Businesses

The scale of bartering mentioned so far, is small when you think of business execs or government officials exchanging favors.

Business to business trades are commonplace; for example, tool repair could be traded for hotel rooms or advertisement could be traded between different media venues on opposite coasts.

You recently started a catering business but your advertising budget only allows for word of mouth. No problem, offer a catered lunch to radio executives in exchange for airtime and make their catered affair spectacular--kudos for your service from the execs may even be included in your ad.

A printing company might trade printed flyers for your new cleaning business in exchange for their offices being cleaned.

Make it your own business

On a different scale, bartering in itself could be made into a lucrative business--barter matchmaking if you would.

To accomplish this you would want to have exceptional organizational, sales and people skills. Party planners, campaign managers, executive secretaries and logistic technicians would feel at home.

For capital, the least you would need is an organized plan, a pen and paper, a phone and contacts. Contacts for prospective traders are as close as the yellow pages of any city. With an open mind for ideas, you might find that even professionals such as dentists, doctors, teachers and lawyers need something that a barter service would conveniently give them.

As with any business, checking with local licensing and tax regulations is a must. To start any business on the right foot would mean writing up a business plan with policies on how you would be paid, etc. One idea would be to charge a yearly fee for your services. Gather bartering prospects, tell them about your service as a trade coordinator and your low, once a year service charge.

And guess what? You could barter a service of yours for help in doing that! And maybe add onions to the soup?