Got some time to spare? Trade a few hours of your IT expertise for an Argentine Tango social dance lesson or a custom-made pistol and rifle case. According to The International Reciprocal Trade Association, a Chicago-based group that promotes barter, the barter business is on the rise, with 1.2 million businesses expected to swap goods and services in North America within a decade. That’s four times the 300,000 companies that barter goods and services today. Online barter companies, which have emerged in recent years, can take some credit for this boost. Take All Business Barter, the online barter company backed by American Express. The San Francisco-based company claims 75,000 members. “Barter is the oldest business in the world,” says Bippy Siegal, CEO of All Business Barter. “It used to be that if you wanted to participate in barter, you needed to be part of a local exchange or hook up with a broker. But the Internet creates an instant catalog.” Other barter sites include Isolve.com and Targetbarter.com.Companies and individuals post goods and services online, attributing a specific “trade dollar” amount to them (one U.S. dollar is equivalent to one trade dollar). Once a sale is made, barter companies take a percentage and credit the seller with trade dollars, which must be re-deemed on the site. Then the barter company simply subtracts the appropriate trade dollars from the seller’s account when he purchases something. Companies barter largely to save cash, says Siegal, who anticipates that the economic downturn will bring new customers. Other reasons to barter include acquiring new customers and obtaining hard-to-find items (for example, custom-flavored gum and interactive clock repair books, both All Business Barter items up for grabs). Moin Ghatala, CEO and owner of the San Fran-cisco-based computer and software sales company A&M Computers, used All Business Barter’s services to move five laser printers that had been collecting dust in the company warehouse for six months. He posted the printers on the All Business Barter website and sold all of them in less than a week. He’s used his trade dollars for restaurant vouchers and toner cartridges, with some cash left to spend on the site. Related content BrandPost The future of trust—no more playing catch up Broadcom: 2023 Tech Trends That Transform IT By Eric Chien, Director of Security Response, Symantec Enterprise Division, Broadcom Mar 31, 2023 5 mins Security BrandPost TCS gives Blackhawk Network an edge with Microsoft Cloud In this case study, Blackhawk Network’s Cara Renfroe joins Tata Consultancy Services’ Rakesh Kumar and Microsoft’s Nilendu Pattanaik to explain how TCS transformed the gift card company’s customer engagement and global operati By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 31, 2023 1 min Financial Services Industry Cloud Computing IT Leadership BrandPost How TCS pioneered the ‘borderless workspace’ with Microsoft 365 Microsoft’s modern workplace solution proved a perfect fit for improving productivity and collaboration, while maintaining security of systems and data. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 31, 2023 1 min Financial Services Industry Microsoft Cloud Computing BrandPost Supply chain decarbonization: The missing link to net zero By improving the quality of global supply chain data, enterprises can better measure their true carbon footprint and make progress toward a net-zero business ecosystem. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 31, 2023 2 mins Retail Industry Supply Chain Green IT Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe