Business: Crows Nest
Owner: Tracy Cantle
The following Bartercard review was submitted by Tracy Cantle, owner of Sydney restaurant Crows Nest.
“I’ve been a part of Bartercard for more than 10 years and I’ve found it to be a very fruitful relationship.
For me, I get a ‘rent a crowd’ from Bartercard. Members of Bartercard choose to come to my bar specifically as they’re able to spend their Bartercard dollars with us. This helps to create a vibe and fill our venue. We provide a memorable experience that these members then tell their friends and family about. Through this word of mouth, we gain new cash customers. The third benefit is the income we earn through Bartercard we’re able to spend on items that we would normally have to take cash out of our profit to pay for. For example, we’ve purchased an awning, a fireplace and we are in the process of buying loyalty cards for our customers – all without using cash.
I think the difference as to whether it will work for your business lies in understanding how and where to spend your Bartercard trade dollars and how to best use Bartercard for your personalised business needs. The difference also lies in understanding the cost of your dollar.
By that I mean, for every trade dollar you earn by providing your services to other Bartercard members you have a cash outlay to earn that dollar. For example, our cash outlay is the direct product – food and beverage – as everything else is already in place to provide our service. For us to earn $100 on trade we have a cash outlay of roughly $45. So when I spend $100 on trade it’s really only costing me $45. Even if something is on sale in the cash economy, it makes better sense to spend Bartercard dollars because it will always be more cost effective.”