Barter My Time

Our Philosophy

We hope we will be able to help many people and businesses. We hope our users will trade locally and help the communities they are in. We all know the importance of buying local goods and services, but are often lured away by big stores and lower prices. We often enjoy serving in our local communities with our time, but often overlook serving our local community with our £'s by simply spending a little more to help our neighbors and their families. It is important to keep money and value in our local communities.

Barter My Time was started in an era where people hold on tightly to their cash. This halt of the velocity of money turns our economy into a recession. Yet people are still willing to work and be productive in efforts to get things they want and need to survive.

Monetary System

The monetary system is amazing for trade. It makes trade simple, easy, and in some circumstances possible. However, there are several downfalls with this system.

1. the system is based on the exchange of money. Once that exchange slows or stops, trading often slows or stops in correlation.

2. those in the system tend to focus more on price of goods and services than they do on the value.

Even though the value is always present for a trade, those making the trade may not be as happy simply because of the price. Let us explain. We've all been to a movie or football game where we buy a £3 drink to quench our thirst, or in rudimentary terms to satisfy a need/pain. Almost every time we feel we must say something negative about the price because that same product is for sale at Tesco for only 75p. We are usually still happy to extinguish a pain and perform the trade because we value that drink more than £3, or we wouldn't make the trade in the first place. Yet we are still less happy that we had to pay more. Although the value is still great, the price dampens the scenario.

While the barter system still has many drawbacks of its own, it was our first form of trading. For trading two or three items, the system can work marvelously. But for more items, it starts to get somewhat complicated.

In time of a recession where money is being hoarded, bartering can be a great alternative for trade as money is often held on reserve.

Because there is no "price" in bartering, those involved in a barter trade tend to focus on the value of the items. Both parties seem to walk away from a trade happier. If you knew you would have to work for 5 minutes to quench the pain of thirst, that doesn't sound bad, right?

Many believe that the Monetary System substitutes the Barter System, and vice versa. However, the Monetary System is simply a layer on top of the Barter System, as the Barter System is the foundation of all trade. When monetary systems fail (as we have seen during the collapse of Soviet Russia, the Great Depression, and many recessions) the Barter System is always available.

There's no doubt that the majority of us has been affected by the economy, some more than others. We start to see just how reliant we are on each other to trade for our own wellbeing because in every trade, value is created. In the monetary system, when cash is tight and trade slows, so does the value being created in every exchange. Some may feel embarrassed or discouraged that they must barter to keep themselves afloat, thinking they failed because their product or service doesn't create enough value that people are willing to pay cash for it. I say to these people, "Welcome to a new era of fun and excitement where value exchange it plentiful."

We know and have felt the pains of closing down a business in this economy. We created Barter My Time to help those businesses have a way to continue trade when it some times seems impossible in this recession.