- Special Report & Commentary -

December 3, 2010 (FinancialWire) (http://www.financialwire.net/) (Investrend Forums Syndicate) — Editor’s note: Our series of articles featuring business-to-business bartering, as a viable alternative means for keeping businesses moving, we offer the following International Monetary Systems (ITNM.OB) “success story”. As a point of reference, encourage readers to have a look at previous articles, “Barter In-Focus” (at http://www.financialwire.net/2010/08/04/barter-intl-monetary/), “Trade Dollars And The WIR” (http://www.financialwire.net/2010/07/26/trade-dollars/) and “A Thriving Alternative Economy” (http://www.financialwire.net/2010/07/08/essary-commentary/). Also, see the “resource note” following the article below, if you are interested getting involved with ITNM’s corporate barter system.

Like the cell phone ads, International Monetary Systems (“IMS”) allows contractor John Ferrara's potential customers to "hear him now."

In 2003, Ferrara, of Rochester, N.Y.-based Vanguard Glass Block, took the fledgling business of installing glass-block basement windows to another level by using barter's concept of cashless business transactions.

By trading his services and using IMS' free communication amongst its 18,000 members, Vanguard has reached customers to the tune of 35,000 total installations.

Ferrara realized early on that barter income was one of the best ways to grow the business from both the sales and expenditure sides. "Ninety-five percent of our barter income goes into advertising, getting us TV ads, direct mail, and a great website (www.vanguardglassblock.com). Anytime I can defer a cash outlay, it's a major benefit to my business."

Advertising generates more barter clients, but also cash customer referrals from barter clients. It allows Ferrara to buy direct marketing to explore new market segments, such as crime prevention. It even makes liquidating excess inventory easy. One time, he bartered a $2,000 trailer and converted the proceeds into advertising dollars.

"With IMS-driven assistance, we've been putting in windows as fast as we can assemble them," says Ferrara.

Vanguard's barter sales were $5,000 the first year and today, he's on pace to do about $25,000 in 2008.

"Spending my barter dollars on advertising allows me to reach from the East Coast down to Richmond, Va. With my business I have to be in everyone's face every minute – and now I am."

IMS has an office in Hartford, CT, which helped create a new market for Vanguard. Hartford, with 900,000 residents, is similar in population and demographics to Rochester.

The first ad they ran for Vanguard generated $6,000 worth of trade work. Now, Vanguard has a full-time installer in Hartford and Ferrara considers the city a possible site for its first franchise.

"I also used barter to pay for a professional setup for trade shows. I had two or three vertical displays made up on trade and now I can set up in 15 minutes. People are drawn to our display and ask questions. And then I sell them windows," he winks.

When Ferrara began bartering, he had no real concept of how barter worked except the goal was to get me more sales.

Vanguard joined Action International Business Coaching three years ago and an evaluation of the company revealed that in return on investment, barter continually came up as one of the top factors every year. In the evaluation, under cost-per-lead, IMS is always the least expensive.

Like most successful barter members, Ferrara makes good use of his broker. Some people are sitting on $30,000 worth of barter income and don't know how to spend it wisely.

"I always know that if I have any problems, my trade broker will go to bat for me. Over the years, my trade broker has called me explaining how I can do this or that to get new customers or good deals. And it helped me to keep learning about barter. He's not only my broker; I consider him a friend."

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More about ITNM: Other FinancialWire(tm) news about International Monetary is accessible via The FinancialWire(tm) search function (at http://www.financialwire.net/?s=itnmtcb), additional information and independent research on International Monetary is available via Investrend Syndications (at http://www.investrend.com/synd0006), and official information and company filings from International Monetary are accessible via the SEC website (at http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001097430). In addition, a summary of ITNM’s recent financial results is posted in FinancialWire(tm)’s reference section (at http://www.financialwire.net/2010/11/17/itnm-financials/).

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Resource note: For a preferred introduction to the IMS regarding its corporate barter system, write in care of Investrend Syndications’ Monetary Exchange initiative at mx@investrend.com with “IMS Introduction” in the subject line.

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