Hey PH, 👋 When starting my last startup, I realized that I needed to get more tasks done but didn't have a lot of cash. It sucked not having a cash reserve. Since it was bootstrapped, I had to be creative to grow my business without capital. I was sitting on excess inventory and I had skills in design, strategy and more that I could use. So I thought, what if I can trade with another freelancer or startup to help my with my marketing? 🤯 That's when I realized it can be easy to barter with other startups. 🤯 But I soon realized there are many other places to barter, but they take a cut out of the transactions or charge a membership fee just to barter. I wanted to create a free, open, and fair place for anyone to barter. One that's based on honest exchange and that's when Barter Growth was born. From SEO services to graphic design, to access to SaaS platforms, you can barter anything (as long as you're keeping it appropriate). If you don't need anything and simply want to help others, there's a way to do that. It's free since it's all open, and if you successfully bartered with others, you can get perks in startup credits like Airtable, Weblow, Notion and others. Thanks for reading thus far 😊 Hope you check it out and let me know your experience of bartering, have you bartered/traded before?

I have implicitly traded services with other entrepreneurs many times but have rarely made it explicit. Like the approach of an open matching market with the only goal of creating a positive community/marketplace. Doing this in the context of what @itsnajeeb has built with council.club makes lots of sense as the key is the curation of the community.

Excellent idea, would love to see this pick up!

Hi @itsnajeeb For US customers, do you provide the IRS Form 1099-B for every party who transacts? It's a requirement for a "barter exchange." (I played around with something like this in a different niche but couldn't figure out how to get around this issue.) From IRS website: A barter exchange is an organization whose members contract with each other (or with the barter exchange) to exchange property or services. The term doesn't include arrangements that provide solely for the informal exchange of similar services on a noncommercial basis (for example, a babysitting cooperative run by neighborhood parents). Usually there's no exchange of cash. An example of bartering is a plumber exchanging plumbing services for the dental services of a dentist. The Internet has provided a medium for new growth in the bartering industry. This growth prompts the following reminder: Barter exchanges are required to file Form 1099-B, Proceeds From Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions (PDF) for all transactions unless an exception applies."

Sounds awesome! I'm starting up my services slowly so this will be really useful :)

This is great @itsnajeeb! As always you've got an unique angle to the world! 😀 Question: how are you helping people measure their unit of work, if at all? How are the values of two services measured?

I like the way informal talks become more formal with this . Good Going , will try out @itsnajeeb

Love this. Been there and I couldn't agree more with this product description. 😄 Do you plan on vetting skill levels, ensuring proper exchange? @itsnajeeb