Lovella Esthetics

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! The holiday had me thinking about one of the great benefits of working in a service industry: professionals have the option to use their talents creatively to exchange services with other businesses and introduce their talents to new potential clientele. It’s a smart, affordable way to advertise your business and earn new customers.

Bartering creates appointments—when someone trades with you and they are happy with your service they like to tell everyone they know. One happy client trading for services can easily generate five new paying clients.

The way bartering works is through agreeing to exchange your service or product for an equal amount from another business that would like to use your services. For example: As an esthetician and massage therapist I have traded my services of spa facials and massages for laser hair removal, massages, eyelash extensions, and the building of my website. I have negotiated all of my own barters, but there are companies that can help you buy and sell through barter which uses trade “dollars” instead of cash. Trade dollars allow you to earn and use your dollars where you want—the benefit of trade dollars is you don’t have to trade directly with a company that you would like to purchase or sell to.

Buying products and services through barter is exciting when you start to see how much cash you save! Think of all the things that you need for your business that you have put off purchasing because of cash flow. Expenses such as accounting, advertising, website design, beauty supplies legal services, and so on can be received through bartering. Having extra buying power is important when starting your business, but having a business strategy for improving sales is just as important.