Five reasons why you should not barter to create products

You are ramping up your business, looking for individual clients. While networking, you meet many people who are also in the business building stage. They are interested in your work, but aren’t sure they can afford it. So, rather than pay you, they offer to exchange services with you. The barter discussion follows.

Prospective clients might offer to help you format the ebook you’re writing, videotape a presentation or record some audio. These three bartering offers are focused on helping you create and produce product to sell to generate passive income.

Tempting as it may seem to barter with clients during the start up phase, I’m not a big fan of this arrangement, especially when it comes to creating products. Let me explain.

1. Your first ramp up priority is to generate income.
At seminars you may attend, the discussion often covers how it’s so much easier to make passive income. But that’s not the fastest path to cash – individual clients are. Filling your practice needs to be your main objective. So creating product is like getting distracted by a bright shiny object rather than getting new clients.

2. You don’t have a big list for selling products.
During the earlier phase of your business, you are working to build your list. To generate significant passive income, you need a substantial size list for marketing – a minimum of 1,000 or 2,000. That’s when you can start to make money with passive income.

3. The production quality is questionable.
Have your prospective clients created information products before? There is a specific way that audio/video needs to be made to be effective. To keep your clients and customers satisfied, you want to deliver high quality materials or you risk turning them off.

4. People don’t take your service seriously.
In barter, even if you have a contract, your project will likely never be on the front burner because there isn’t any money at stake. You may have to chase after them to get what you need completed which is no way to conduct business.

5. Your ideal clients will pay for your service.
If a person really wants to work with you, she will find the money. That’s what I have found during my many years in business. When clients barter for your service, they are saying it’s not worth paying for or finding the money. These are not likely to be your ideal clients anyway.

Overall, I recommend avoiding the barter relationship for product creation or really for any reason. It seems like it could work out, and occasionally it does. But more times than not, one party walks away disappointed.

Your Client Attraction Assignment.

If you are interested in creating product while ramping up your business, one simple way is to write blog articles. This way you populate your blog which helps you get found on the Internet. And if you take the time to make a plan before you write, each post could be a book chapter. So over time, your book is getting written to generate future passive income, without distracting you from your top priority – filling your practice.