hey all,

Silly question, and NO i haven't done this, but have any of you ever traded a pricey cake for a service? And before you get the wrong idea (wink wink) the only reason i mentioned this is because my husband and I will be building our own house starting this spring, so in order to save money we have been trading some work (my husband is an electrician) and I had thought if a couple came in for a wedding tasting or something and during chit chat, should it happen to come up that one of them had a beneficial skill, like a hardwood floor installer, or a brick layer or something, i wonder if i could trade them for their cake... ? :)  i doubt i will do this, it just crossed my mind and it got me thinking :)  so.....anyone?

I have to admit and I know I will be blasted for this but yes I have traded services . I needed a cold pastry display and I had ran out of funds in my budget for such things. So I traded for one and I could not be happier about it.I of course do not make it a habit or I would be out of business but I have done it the once and I am a contract paperwork person so I made sure it was on paper what transpired .

In order for it to work you need to be very specific about what services you will be trading and the value of each of the services.  Get it in writing and have both parties sign it.  Otherwise you can end up with someone feeling like they got the short end of the stick.
 

I trade cupcakes for salsa all the time. My friend makes the absolute best salsa and they love my cupcakes. So there you go...

I read that people who use bartering websites can really benefit. A printer in Pittsburgh earned enough credits to send his kid to a really good college.

I'd do it, in a minute!

jen

AI can't ever find any local bartering websites! When we built our bakery, it was bare studs with no insulation or drywall, and I was poking around Facebook and saw a friend of mine worked for a dry wall company that was named "her last name drywall" so I put the offer out there, and they accepted. It did take a frigging month for them to do it all, when it was a 4 day job, but they got 5 $100 cakes out if it.

We bought the drywall but they used their own tools and mud, and did a BEAUTIFUL job!

A

This. You will also need documentation of the value of the services you receive for tax purposes, since you will owe income tax on the fair market value of the bartered service just as if you were paid with cash.

Note that fair market value is higher than the cost to the person providing the bartered service, so be sure you are both bartering based on FMV and not cost.

hmmm good to know!  maybe i'll start poking around to find some good deals!

craigslist does have a bartering page.

cupcakes pay for my monthly hair salon visits :)

I just started trading my cake for babysitting from one of my girlfriends!  She's a social butterfly so is always needing this or that dessert to bring to functions.  A few times ago she's like, hey, how about some babysitting for a cake?  I'm like, fistpump awesomesauce!  We agreed that each $10 in cake = 1 hour of babysitting.  Win=win.

I traded cakes for photography at a party I hosted last summer. I ended up getting the cake picture of my little career so far .  I'd definitely do more bartering if I could!

Years ago I traded a Christening Cake for babysitting with my regular babysitter.  We agreed on the price for the cake and took it from there.

I will mention (so no one gets the impression that it is all roses) that I traded the Wilton Castle cake for a bunch of baby items. The playpen was a disgrace! There was no way I was ever going to stick my kid in there, even if I strapped it to the roof of my car and drove it through a car wash about 15 times, it would still be nasty! I had to throw it out! I have never been one to abuse the play pen, anyway, so mine were only in them if I had to run the laundry downstairs, or go potty. By the looks of it, hers lived and ate and pottied in it. And she never brought my castle pieces back to me, and her deposit check bounced, it was from a closed account

We have a local company called Executive One which is a bartering exchange.  I "sell" to other members then that money goes into an account.  I can then spend that money at any place in the group - and there are TONS!  I'm getting married this month and this is paying for the limo, about half the flowers, and our hotel in Hawaii (as they also connect with other agencies).  The very best part is it *feels* (yes I know it's not) like free money!  I also get my oil changes, pizzas, locksmithing... the list goes on and on.  I highly recommend bartering!

Of course if you are doing it person-to-person (as I am with my DJ who is not involved in the group) make sure you both charge the regular rate and have it spelled out on paper what you are doing so no one is left with the short end of the stick. 

Bartering can also result in additional cash flow!  For example my DJ will likely use a good portion of his credit doing business promotion items (logo cookies at bridal fairs or whatever) and then I get my name out there for those additional products as well.

Did I mention I love bartering?

ps. going through the agency, they track all the sales and send me tax forms for them so that part is made easy.

I trade cake for advertising and my tax preparation! A woman from my mommy group runs a local website/e-newsletter that is geared towards parents in the area. She runs my ad and I give her and her business partner 2 birthday cakes/year (yes, I specified the value of the cakes to be provided!). And my sister-in-law is a CPA so she does my taxes in exchange for 2 cakes/year for her kids birthdays. That's a straight-up win for me since I would have done their cakes for free anyway :)