Aside from the obvious benefits of donating our time and money to a cause we believe in, there are tax benefits as well.  What most people don't realize is how to offer a larger contribution without using money at all.

Bartering your excess time or inventory and donating some of that credit is a great way to keep more of your money instead of giving it to Uncle Sam needlessly.  I'm not saying that taxes are all bad, I'm saying we get the chance to keep more of our money depending on how many expenses we have for that tax year.  We get the opportunity to write-off losses, list expenses and contributions and it's all legal.  This applies to all small business & entrepreneurs as well as large corporations.

Many Tradia® Members have taken advantage of this concept.  Some members donate large sums of Tradia® Dollars to various 501c3 corporations and the IRS allows a dollar-for-dollar contribution if you use barter dollars from a legitimate barter / trade exchange system.  This is one of the many advantages of maintaining a barter account with a trade exchange.

A small hotel chain could barter unsold rooms accumulating Tradia® Dollars into their Tradia® account.  As a separate transaction, that same hotel chain can make a charitable contributuion and list the entire amount on their tax records.  The hotel fills several empty rooms, finds new clients and uses some of the barter currency to help a charity bringing more good media exposure to the hotel chain.  Everyone wins and it is all made possible due to the trade exchange and a hotel with more empty rooms than they would wish for.  Barter allows the hotel to fill empty rooms as they see fit.

Tradia ® has updated our training system to accomodate every individual and franchise group not only for new operations but also for existing franchises.  We feel the necessity to add more training opportunities to insure that every Tradia ® representative can speak with authority and provide the highest level of customer service.

As a barter / trade exchange system with proprietary software, we have a customized system that all Tradia ® representatives must learn and know.  We are in the service industry and have to know our playbook in great detail in order to serve our growing membership.  The more we know the better prepared we are to assist our members with their needs and wants.

We now require all franchises to attend a training in Portland Oregon for the better part of 4 days.  The following 2 weeks after their trip to Portland we added a 2-week teleconference review with deeper training additions to further embed the Tradia ® System within the new Tradia ® Franchisee.

In addition for all franchisee's new and experienced, we now offer 3 different weekly teleconference trainings for the Tradia ® Website, Tradia ® New Member Sales and Trade Brokering Tips to build larger trade volume and increase revenues for each franchise.

And finally, we added a Tradia ® Franchise Support position so every franchisee has an immediate contact with the Tradia ® Corporate Offices and a go-to person to hold their hand and assist with all aspects of the Tradia ® Franchise Business.

We've had 3 meetings with investors and key marketing people in Florida over the past five months in an effort to dramatically increase the number of Tradia ® Franchise Operations in the USA and Canada.  We're almost complete in our negotiations and feel certain that Tradia ® will be the largest Barter Exchange Franchise in North America.  There's always room at the top and we expect to be there in 2 short years.

In mid-April of this year, we video taped a key portion of our Franchise / Trade Director training that will play a huge role in our Franchise & staff training efforts.  Franchisee's will use our training system to teach their growing staff members how to do the Tradia ® business.  You can be in all places at all times when you use the technology available to us today.  On-line training as well as weekly web-conference training will add to our vast training system and make it possible that every single Tradia ® representative will speak from the same platform based on a systematic and readily available training format.  If you buy a Tradia ® Franchise, you expect to get more results and our training does deliver that at every level.

We have the name, the marketing materials, the training system, a trained corporate staff, a targeted business plan with 6 levels of profitability and a dynamic business opportunity aimed at small business, all ready for this expansion.  We're ready for the wave of growth and we're excited.  Tradia ® is a cash-less alternative to banks, credit cards and debt.  People can literally trade what they have to get what they want using the Tradia ® Barter Exchange & Database.

 After a lot of preparation and testing, Tradia ® is ready to set the pace and take the lead in the Barter industry.

George Wells, a veteran barter exchange owner has decided to ride off into the sunset.  At the young age of 78, George has sold his Tradia ® Franchise to newcomer; Ron Paul and his wife Katie.  Ron has a ton of sales and customer service experience and we're excited to see this transition.  It's always a little scary when we go through a change like this but it usually brings new energy and growth with the change-over.

We're always looking for a true entreprenuer and we are certain to have found it in Ron.  Tradia ® in Boise will be hard to beat with the addition of the Pauls as franchise owner / operators.

Ron & Katie Paul will be trained as a Tradia ® Franchise in the month of May 2008.  We'll see them in Portland and then schedule the first of 2 in-field trainings.  Tradia ® has recently increased the amount of training offered to a new Tradia Franchise.  The more a franchisee knows about Tradia ®, the faster and stronger they grow as a business.  This is a very positive step in the growth of Tradia ® in Idaho.

Want to know how to make a customer loyal and how to get the most out of your relationship with your customers?  It's simple.  Ask questions your competitor doesn’t ask!  Whether it’s during an in-person sales presentation, over the phone or at a networking event, identify the types of questions every other salesperson just like you is asking their prospects.  Examples might include textbook, unoriginal questions like, “How much are you currently spending on…?” or “How happy are you with you present suppliers?”

Knowing what questions your prospects are used to and tired of being asked is a powerful sales weapon.  Because now all YOU have to do is NOT ask those questions!

So, create 2 lists:  “Top Ten Most Common Questions Asked by a Salesperson in My Field", and “Kick Butt Sales Questions My Competitors Aren’t Asking.”  Think of the best, most creative and most original sales questions you’ve ever used or heard.  Questions that made customers smile.  Questions that caused customers to stop in their tracks.  Questions that enabled customers to share their needs and wants.

13 Kick Butt Sales Questions Your Competitors Aren’t Asking
1. How are you making it difficult for your customers to…?
2. How are you making it easy for your customers to…?
3. How many customers are you losing by…?
4. What are the benefits you’d like to see as a result of…?
5. What are the bottlenecks in…?
6. What are the three biggest mistakes being made by…?
7. What do you think makes the difference between…?
8. What excuses are preventing you from…?
9. What one word do you want customers to use when describing…?
10. When someone comes to your website, what's the ONE thing…?
11. When someone walks into your store, how do you want them…?
12. When was the first occasion you noticed…?
13. When was the last time you actually…?

Questions ARE differentiators.  Make your own customized list based on your industry and needs, then start asking the hard questions.  These questions will set you apart from the competition and change the way your customers do business.  This will make them more successful and you will have a part of their success.

* If you need sales or business coaching/training, imagine using a barter/trade exchange for this service.  Trade your excess inventory for the training you and your staff need.  This way, you keep your hard-earned cash and get the product or service you need.  Business coaching is one of the many services you can get as a Tradia ® Member.  Why Pay Cash When You Can Tradia? ®