The Next Generation of Barter

After "experiencing" nearly all of the so-called barter organizations in the Phoenix area over the last few years-the good, the bad and the very ugly- Club E has decided to launch it's own barter company. As you all may or may not know, barter is the simple trade of goods or services at retail rates through an organization that keeps track of these exchanges through debits and credits of their own currency. The trade organization makes it's profits through transaction fees and (supposedly) provides customer service to facilitate the trades among the members in a (supposedly) seamless transaction. The results are sadly nowhere near these expectations for the client.

Over the years of trying out other barter organizations I have been flabbergasted at both the incompetence and sometimes outright criminality present. With little or no regulation (yet) in the barter world, very stupid or very crooked people are actually allowed to start and run some organizations...a distinct black eye for the barter world as a whole. I, personally, have been ripped off for one significant transaction that I engineered for $150,000 in trade credits and in light of the fact that the principal of this trade organization has been accused, convicted and now sentenced for fraud on another matter, I expected that her trade company would simply fade away. However, that's not the case. They are still out their touting their trade company, probably deceiving more business owners as they did to me and others before. Another very well established trade organization simply "forgot" to pay me what may be tens of thousands of shared trade fees we were to have earned by agreement for enrolling nearly 100 Club E members into their trade group. Now, I am forced to hire my accounting firm's forensic accounting arm to dig into the trade group's finances to prove what they "forgot" to pay me and pry it out of them.

In short, my experience with local trade groups hasn't been pretty but I remain totally committed to the concept of barter...properly executed. So, last Friday I announced that Club E will start it's own barter organization and the Club E Exchange will no longer be a "private label" for other trade organizations but will now do barter business on it's own under the name "Instant Barter."

We're going to do things a lot differently than the other trade companies. First, we're not going to gouge customers with exhorbitant transaction fees. While others may charge their clients 12% to 15% for the "privilege" of buying and selling goods and services through their exchanges, Club E's "Instant Barter" will charge only 2.5%for both the buy and sell or between 1/3 and 1/2 of everyone else's transaction fees. We will also collect that fee at the time of the transaction, so there will not be any big monthly bill to swallow for you active traders.

Club E will also accept barter from virtually any other trade organization that you may belong to. We're receiving many inquiries from people that are "stuck" with large trade balances that they simply cannot spend within their existing trade companies. We'll take care of that for you.

Finally, we're actually going to offer you something that is woefully absent in virtually any other trade group-customer service. How sad is it that customer service is the exception rather than the rule in today's business world and particularly in the barter business? Well, we are committed to doing something about that so, Ana Hawk, our Trade Director, will do her utmost to meet your needs. Simply send her your "wish list" at azclube@gmail.com and join "Instant Barter" with no enrollment fees, transaction costs at a fraction of anyone else's and our promise to do our utmost to serve your needs.

Club E has paved the way on many fronts these past four years to serve entrepreneurs...now it's time for us to lead the way in the barter world. Please join us.

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

Join Us at our Club E Office (CEO)

Last August, Club Entrepreneur moved into new headquarters (our 3rd) at 300 W Osborn in Downtown Phoenix. Our CEO (Club E Office) has been established in N. Phoenix and then in Tempe but our landlords, victims to the economic times, had lost each facility to bankruptcy and we were forced to move. This new facility, with wonderful views of the City of Phoenix and plenty of parking, provides us with multiple private offices (17),conference rooms (3) and an open space capable of housing dozens od drop-ins (instead of the home office and coffe shop "offices) and hosting events of up to 300 attendees.

Our 8,000' (soon to be 10,000') of space is filled with aspiring and accomplished entrepreneurs and I hold my daily one-on-ones (almost 1000 since March) with our membership. Club Entrepreneur and it's various initiatives like Club E Products, Club E Funding and other serevices is housed at our CEO, along with 17 member businesses and scores of others that come through our doors each day. We host both our own events (Thursday noon Club E Funding workshops, "Fridays at 5," and our 1st Wednesday monthly meeting ta 5:30 PM ) along with many other gatherings. Please see if we can host your event at our CEO by reaching out to us.

Our rates can't be beat and the benefits are extraordinary-where else can you be a part of the most dynamic group of pureblood entrepreneurs in the area? We are just introducing the Club E Marketplace, an array of products and services for our membership. See the link below for my "back story" and what the Club E Marketplace is all about.

http://www.cv-vision.com/ovmt/pburns/

If you are interested in a tour of the facility to stake out your own private office or drop-in space, please reach out to us at azclube@gmail.com and we'll show you around.

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

Have a Merry (Bartered) Christmas...

As many of you know, Club Entrepreneur is deeply vested in the barter applications of business. (see www.clubeexchange.net) We've partnered up with the longstanding and integrity-filled barter company, Tradesource (see www.tradesource.net)and have conducted many tens of thousands of barter transactions with our Club E members through Tradesource's barter network.

Over the last year or so, Club Entrepreneur (and me personally) have been able to trade for the lease of our beautiful Downtown Phoenix facility (www.clubeoffice.com), complete with bartered furnishings and even the delicious catered food at our weekly and monthly gatherings of entrepreneurs. In the past several weeks, we've added both print and ink catridges (www.clubeinkandtoner.com) as well as good, used automobiles to the roster of products that can be purchased through our barter network.

Perhaps the greatest personal story of what can be bartered occured just a day or two ago, when I had the privilege of hosting two young single mothers, who are now working with Club E, as well as a surrogate aunt and young Club E member, who were able to pick out literally hundreds of dollars of toys and gifts for their 20 month, 4 and 5 year old little girls for a Christmas that they will never forget. You see, each of these young ladies had been unable to afford to buy Christmas gifts for their little girls because they simply could not afford to this year.

Fortunately, the sale of catridges and cars on barter had left a generous amount of surplus barter in my accounts and I was honored to bring these young ladies to go Christmas shopping at the Tradesource store, which was filed with member items, including toys for little girls of these three fine women. The ladies at Tradesource, named Sally and Amanda, kindly assisted these young ladies in finding many great gifts for their children and the smiles on their faces, as they gleefully filled their cars with gifts for their baby girls, was the greatest gift of all!

Tonight, I was able to fill up my daughter's large SUV to the brim with large boxes of beautiful new furnishings for her townhouse, which she shares with her sister. My daughters had been laboriously filling their new home, piece by piece over the months they settled in together but they still had a long way to go to make their place comfortably furnished. Through one of Tradesource's members in the new and consigned furniture business, I was able to locate beautiful furniture and accessories that I could give to my two daughters for Christmas. Had I had to pay cash for such beautiful items, I never could have afforded to be so generous this Christmas. Barter saved the day!

There are many other examples of how using barter can help us all in this tough economy. I, for one, can proudly gratefully attest that barter has allowed me to provide a very Merry Christmas for five young ladies...the three little girls of Club E members and my own two beautiful daughters!

Have a Merry (Bartered) Christmas to you all!

Best always,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder
Club Entrepreneur

Headliner at Club E On December 1

The evening started off with the logistics of a military campaign. Chairs were imported for the expected overflow crowd, the caterer arrived with extra tables and enough food to fuel a small army. The sound equipment was being tested, sponsor tables were being organized. That night, we were having one of Arizona's most well known and successful entrepreneurs, Robert Sarver, the SUNS owner and banking magnate with a $59B empire. We were also hosting LeAnn Hull, our very own Club E member that was throwing her hat into the political arena for the Mayor's Office of Phoenix.

We hoped for a crowd over 200 and exceeded that by over 50%, with a solid 300 plus business owners, entrepreneurs and friends crowding our downtown Phoenix headquarters at 300 W Osborn. It was a magical night...

I introduced Club E and it's mission to the many newcomers in the audience and then had each of our 6 or 8 sponsors share what their companies did with the crowd. Robert Sarver had requested an earlier start than usual (5 PM vs. 5:30 PM) to accommodate his schedule, which we gladly complied with. I introduced him and for a solid 45 minutes, he regaled us with his history and observations, all with great humor and ease. The audience loved him and there were a many questions and answers directed to him after his talk. He had to leave right away to head to a family function and I'm looking forward to getting together with him one-on-one myself sometime. He's my type of entrepreneur.

LeAnn Hull, our Club E favorite for political office, stepped up to the mike and in a very well presented speech, shared her sweeping vision of turning the City of Phoenix around as the next Mayor. Her ideas were solid and very executable...if there were cooperation in the City government. She asked us to help put certain Council members into office along with her to make this all come together. LeAnn is a champion and we need entrepreneurs like her in political office. I aim to do whatever I can with Club E to make that happen because we will all win with her at the helm of America's 5th largest city.

The rest of the evening was filled with significant connections being made between the attendees and a universal delight with the event. As always, everyone enjoyed the spectacular feast put together by Club E's own caterer, Janet Williams of JW Productions.

We were so fortunate to have one of our Club E members, Rick Allen, who kindly recorded the whole event and a link is offered here below for those that missed it or for attendees that wanted to see the great evening again.

https://www.onlinefilefolder.com/4fYTVPZJti8p5K

I am very proud of Club Entrepreneur and the organization it has become these past (nearly) four years. Our members are the backbone of this State and together, we will drive Phoenix to rise from it's own ashes and become the "Small Business Capital" of this country and as a beacon of Free Enterprise to others across our great country.

Best regards,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

"The New (Old) Coin of the Realm"- Barter

By Wikipedia's standard....
Barter is a method of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money.[1] It is usually bilateral, but may be multilateral, and usually exists parallel to monetary systems in most developed countries, though to a very limited extent. Barter usually replaces money as the method of exchange in times of monetary crisis, when the currency is unstable and devalued by hyperinflation.
My experience with barter goes back 10 years when I first moved to Phoenix and partnered with a businessman who taught me the ropes. Brian had a party bus limousine
business and he often traded his services through one or more of the established barter companies in the area. Next, he moved into the magazine business and traded ads for barter currency, which he used for restaurant scrip, printing and other services for himself and his business. I moved on to other enterprises and found a use for barter in literally every field.
I was involved in the first Destination Club in the country, Private Retreats and I actually figured out how to barter memberships (at $100k apiece) and use the barter dollars to both furnish the multimillion dollar residences as well help the company purchase full page ads in such high profile and glossy national magazines like the Dupont Registry and Ritz Magazine. The results of my introduction to barter and it's adaptation to as-of-yet untested uses like private club members...$900,000 in barter sales!
So, like a duck to water, I learned the "ins and outs" of barter. This lasted the couple or three years I was partnered up with Brian and then I was involved in other businesses, which didn't lend themselves as readily to barter. That all changed this past year, when I introduced barter to our ever expanding group at Club Entrepreneur. First, I "tested the waters" by joining one barter company after another. It took four tries because the first barter groups I tried were so incompetent and/or crooked, that only the most optimistic (or gullible) of souls would ever have remained committed to barter. Finally, I landed in an organization whose integrity and longivity were a testament to what a barter company should really be about.
Tradesource (www.tradesource.net) run by the mother and daughter team of Sylvia and Mary Ellen Rosinski has been operating their 1100 member trade company for 24 years. In a barter organization, the members buy and sell their products or services to each other at retail prices, accepting barter currency for their "sales to each other. The barter company, Tradesource in this case, acts as the "bank" and makes it's revenue through the 12% transaction charge, which it assesses each member monthly and in cash, for those barter sales.
The "trick" in any barter company is to maintain the quality of service between the members and to "balance the books' by keeping the value of it's currency intact. Hypervigilance is essential, so that "inflation" or "devaluation" of it's barter currency does not occur and remains solid. In all candor, the Tradsource dollar is much stronger than our own American "greenbacks" because it really is perfectly balanced.
Having my own organization of literally thousands of Club E members (4500 at last count), I proposed a partnership of sorts with Tradesource. First, I established my own "private label" barter organization that I named the Club E Exchange (see link) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC_Ir-VzFlM . Next, I negotiated for a split of the transaction fees for Club E members that I brought into Tradesource. I also negotiated a release from both the membership fee of $695 (cash) and monthly maintenece fees of $20 (cash) for the first six months, for all new members coming from Club E. Tradesource would act as the bookkeeper and "bank" to make certain that everything ran smoothly. It seemed a perfect solution for both organizations.
In the meantime, Sylvia approached me with the possibility of locating one of our CEOs (Club E Office) into one of the new commercial properties that were offered through a new account of Tradesource. These landlords, suffering from commercial vacancies on an unprecedented scale had decided that they'd rather take barter dollars than no dollars for some of their properties. My crew and I staked out a facility and the rest, they say is history.
Club Entrepreneur is now heavily ensconced in a beautiful 8,000' facility in Downtown Phoenix, with plenty of parking and a multitude of private offices and open space. We bartered for this "all inclusive" space at less than market rate and for all barter, which includes both the utilities and daily janitorial service. In exchange, we offer the offices and other parts the space to our Club E members at retail rates...but in barter dollars by signing them up on Tradesource through our own Club E Exchange. Our Club E Office (CEO) keeps the spread of barter dollars as our profit and spends those barter dollars to maintain operations.
For instance, we bartered for the handyman services to assemble the furnishings, which we also purchased with our barter dollars. We used a bartered mover to transport our equipment and furniture to the new facility. We even use a bartered catering service to provide our event attendees with delicious food and beverages at our weekly and monthly events.
Recently, I chanced upon a rather unique application of barter...the retention of skilled services needed by companies who haven't the cash to retain the needed employee. I establish these companies as trade exchange members that then use their excess products or services to generate barter dollars. In turn, the skilled worker incorporates himself and establishes a barter account of their own to offer it's services to the company for a 1099 barter exchange. A thorough discussion of this can be read by accessing my blog entry at the link below.
http://peterjburns.blogspot.com/2010/09/club-entrepreneurs-solution-to.html
In short, there is no limit on how you can make barter work for you, especially in these turbulent times of limited cash and uncertainty. Sign up to an established and reputable barter company, using your excess products and services to generate your barter dollars. Then offset many of your cash expenses for bartered products and services and you will benefit greatly. My own experience proves this out.
Best to all,
Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

CEO Update

Lots to report on the progress of our Club E Office (CEO) expansion. The 300 W Osborn facility in Downtown Phoenix is filling up, with a waiting list for the private offices. We're also starting to get some traction on both the "Drop In" spaces and hosted meetings outside of our regular Club E functions. We are optimistic that this CEO will quickly become the epicenter of entrepreneurial activity in the Phoenix Metropolitan area.

Through a key introduction from our resident CFO, Al Schaap, we are now discussing the possibility of opening a Veteran-only CEO in a secured facility so that we can host military veterans that win some of the 80% "set aside" government contracts (see below.) We have a 6,000' site in Tempe and a Camelback site with 10,000' (both secured sites) under consideration. The government contract expert, Dr. Janathin Miller is scheduled to come visit us in Phoenix in about a week. There are over 1 million veterans returning to America after serving our country in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones.

Many of these men and women are disabled. Our government has established an 80% "set aside" for government contracts for qualified disabled vets who seek to go into business for themselves and bid on these contracts. In order to win such a contract, the military entrepreneur must operate from a secured facility. Club E can provide such a facility and support the fledgling Vetrepreneur with assorted business services and the collaboration that is only found within the ranks of Club Entrepreneur.

My old friend and business partner, Bob Johnson, has established a new CEO in the Atlanta suburb of College Park. A friend from the economic development department of Goodyear, Arizona, Barb Coffee, moved to College Park (Ga) and took her admiration of working with Club E with her. She and Bob connected about creating both a Club E chapter and a CEO facility, located a perfect spot, and for the past 6 months have been working dilgently to make this happen. I just received word that Barb had successfully negotiated a $150,000 grant to help support the $300,000 tenant improvement guarantee that Club E needs in order to open the facility. Bob tells me that we already have commitments to rent for 25% of the space and a real shot at making this facility Vetrepreneur-eligible through the help of our new friend, Dr. Miller.

There are a lot of empty commercial structures across the country that could be retrofitted to incorporate a Club E chapter and a CEO operation that could house the cilvilian and military operators alike. This story will only continue to grow...

Stay tuned!

Best always,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

1% of Club E = Infinity

Last night, 1% of our membership of Club Entrepreneur showed up for our one-on-one roundtable. That's over 60 individual business owners from every walk of life...and it was powerful!

Generally, around 2 dozen invited one-on-one "alumni" show up, we introduce each other to ourselves and then deal with one or two issues that need solving within the group. Next, we break for a social hour, usually joined by another dozen attendees for refreshments and conversation. Last night was very different.

For some reason, a whole lot more Club E members came to share last night. The group ranged from a young start up restaurateur to one of America's most recognized informercial personalities with over $1 B in sales. As I was listening to the individual business owners introduce themselves and what businesses they were in, I couldn't help but wonder what magic could be performed for our local economy by simply harnessing the energy and optimism within that room last night.

Think about it...60 business owners averaging $700k in gross revenues (average small business statistic) represents over $40MM in annualized sales. Commit that sum to one or two of our local community banks as deposits in Club E's "Bank Local" program and we could pump over $400MM of financing into the economy through the Federal guidelines of matching 10 times a bank's deposits at 0% interest.

We had a husband and wife team whose company provides the successful step-by-step process of obtaining business credit based on a company's EIN number only, without the need for personal credit. For a very reasonable charge (and they'll even finance it) they guarantee that if you follow their steps, your company will receive up to $100,000 in business credit. In a room like last night, that means we could generate over $6,000,000 in unsecured business credit for those businesses. In an economy like this, that is truly outstanding.

A start-up utilizing a proprietary software that attached a bar code on the back of a person's business card debuted last night. The bar code, when accessed by taking a picture from a smartphone that had installed a free aplication, accessed the card holder's web site and video message, making that person's message much more memorable than a handful of other business cards we all collect each time we network. Imagine the effect to that start-up if all 60 businesses became their customers last night.

There was a lady in the ink cartridge business, who recently had a one-on-one with me. Her employer was the largest ink catridge manufacturer in the U.S. with prices far less than the normal providers of such products like Staples and Office Max. I introduced her her employer to barter and we just launched www.clubeinkandtoner.com, where you can now spend your barter dollars and not cash on replacing the "necessary evil" of print and ink cartridges. The average business spends over $700 annually on ink and printer catridges. Imagine if each of last night's attendees gave that business to the "ink lady?" She would have booked a cool $40,000 in sales.

Speaking of barter, the founder of the area's largest and most longstanding (24 years) barter exchange was in attendance last evening. Club E works very closely with Sylvia and Tradesource and counts over 75 Club E members that are part of the 1100 Tradesource members. If all 60 attendees became part of Tradesource and utilized barter for only 10% of their sales, there would be over $4,000,000 in additional annualized business that Tradesource could have booked. This represents millions of dollars in freed up cash flow for these businesses.

We had a talented artist there last night who produces wonderful paintings of classic cars, portraits and anything else that a client might want. Why not consider giving her your business and commissioning a family portrait for a unique Christmas gift?

There was a young woman who had created a number of products from a unique textile that she had discovered after much research. Who couldn't use the beach and athletic towels which were so much better and more compact than available products? There was a longstanding manufacturer's rep in the audience that started discussing his representation of her product after the break. Another product produced by another attendee, a biomass produced log for burning, also caught his attention and they began discussions last night.

A call center operator with state-of-the art technology which hired American workers and charged far less than even offshore competitors to generate leads and sales calls was in attendance. He will be setting up headquarters at our facility and what company doesn't need more sales leads? Many of the members were lining up to speak with this fella last night.

There was a data base programmer there last night. He has engineered a number of software based products including a program that "remembers" all of one's log-ins and passwords for every account. This gentleman has created a CRM, email delivery platform and data base management system that will take all of Club E's thousands of members, classifying them by industry and other parameters for ease of use. What company couldn't use his services? Who couldn'y use his "memory stick?"

Speaking of a perfect candidate for our data base expert...we had a first time attendee, the founder of one of America's most successful product sales through infomercials, with over $1B in sales. This gentleman's data base has over 18 million customers who have bought his products and he has come to Club E to see if there are any new products that he might be interested in promoting through his vast network and via his television celebrity. This man has spent over $250,000,000 in advertising over the years and his recognition factor is greater than former President Clinton's, I am told.

A couple of young men had a towing business and were looking for contracts from commercial property owners. They offered this service free of charge to the property owner and made their money in towing and storage fees. Our landlord was there and she offered them our building and four others that she owned to try out their service. What other commmercial property owners are there in Club E that could use their free towing service to remove unwanted cars that are illegally parked or abandoned?

A lovely young woman in the photography business was there. She specializes in weddings but is now branching off into specialized photo shoots and is even working towards producing an album cover with yet another Club E member who started his own Hip Hop label.

Two old friends of mone that I did business with ten years ago showed up for a one-on-one a few days ago and shared what had happended since. They are starting a women-only racecar team and through a Club E connection, now have the first lady Indy driver as their CEO. There are numerous sponsorship possibilities and PR plays for this exciting business starting in our midst.

There were dozens of other business owners with services and products that many of the attendees could use for their own businesses. If all we did last night was to open the possibilities of working together to become each other's clients and referrals, that would be great. But I have something much bigger in mind...

What if we formed a cohort of members from the group last evening and all worked together and acted to become each others' customers? What if we all worked enmasse to drive business to each other, to pool our banking resources and to energize our community from within by throwing our collective weight to each other in an effort to jumpstart the local economy?

I can bring America's largest small business lender into the mix to loan $5k-$25k to each member with a 680 FICO score and an executive summary. This loan carries only a 6% interest, is amortized over 10 years and requires no capital. At a mere $10k per loan for the members of last night's gathering, we can generate $600,000 in fresh capital into the businesses there last night. Add the $6 million in new business credit obtained from our experts and you have some serious resources that could be generated from this group.

We could all come together again and again to brainstorm with each other and share the three type of capital that Club E professes in it's "Open Source" credo of: Relationship Capital, Knowledge Capital and Capital Capital. There could be a simple agenda prepared and we can break into smaller groups, offering each other advice, contacts and most importantly, business. Why dilute this extraordinary collective buying power when we could all throw our much needed business to each other? Like our forefathers once said when facing our British oppressors, "Together we stand or divided we fall."

I work up at 3 AM this morning, so excited with the possibilities that this concept offers all of us. What a model could be created that could be duplicated after proving it out. Sixty talented and motivated entrepreneurs and business owners from within the ranks of Club E can do some seriously great things. I am going to start putting this together right now and I am going to be reaching out to every one of you.

Expect my call!

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder

Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!

Naval hero, Admiral Faragat is credited with these immortal words in the heat of combat and these same words resonate with me now. Like all entrepreneurs and people in general, I've had my fair share of ups and downs, of failures and successes. When you put yourself out there in the battleground of war and even business, you're going to have to take the shots fired at you...literally or figuratively.

I've been a "pureblood" entrepreneur for 35 years now, having started my first "official" business as a young man of 19 years old while a freshman in college. Looking back, I've taken some major rolls of the dice with any number of attempts to start, enlarge or acquire businesses. At the tender age of 21, just two years into my first business of renting mopeds on Nantucket Island, I took the plunge of commercial property ownership when I committed to a $1.1 million purchase of an empty lot with a popcorn stand and a broken down garage in Nantucket's town center.

I signed on the dotted line when "offered" this extraordinary opportunity from the S&H Green Stamps heir, Walter Beinecke, Jr. by carrying the whole balance at 10% interest for six months, when I'd then have to hand him $1.1 million in cash. While nearly every available dime earned from renting my little fleet of mopeds went to supporting this monumental sum (to me), I scrambled around putting together my first syndicate of investors to cover the purchase price.

That day, six months later, when I handed my cashier's check for over a million dollars to Mr. Beinecke, I was a very proud young man. That day, a scant two years later, our syndicate sold just one lot for $2.5 millon, keeping the garage and adjoining lot for redvelopment...I was a rich young man.

If I told you the ridicule I took from nearly every person that learned of my million dollar purchase, (before I multiplied my investment multiple times) you'd learn the lesson I did at such an early age. Admiral Farrgat was right..."Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead." Let the sheep who bray "It can't be done" remain on the sidelines of obscurity.

Best to all,

Peter J. Burns, III
Founder