ITEX International acquires assets of Ubarter.com

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The ITEX International Trade Exchange Corporation, which has its headquarters in Sacramento, Calif., and a licensed office in Springfield at 1601 W. Sunshine, Ste. N, recently acquired a majority of the assets of Ubarter.com Canada. |ret||ret||tab|

Ubarter.com's largest Canadian trade office was in Toronto, and the company also operated in the United States. |ret||ret||tab|

R. C. Amer, who bought the local ITEX-licensed brokerage office about a year and a half ago, said with the acquisition, ITEX, a business-to-business barter trade company, now has more than 30,000 members worldwide. |ret||ret||tab|

While ITEX has members in several countries, the main foreign countries the company does business with are Canada and Mexico. Locally, Amer noted, ITEX has about 100 member businesses, but he'd eventually like to triple that number. |ret||ret||tab|

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How ITEX works|ret||ret||tab|

Amer said the Internal Revenue Service considers ITEX a third-party record keeper. |ret||ret||tab|

"What our function is, is individual business members have goods and services that they would like to sell, to exchange for other goods and services, find a way to generate some revenue, maybe it's surplus inventory that they have," Amer said. "Maybe it's a service business, like a lawyer or accountant, and he has extra time that he's not occupied. So rather than just let it go by, they can turn it into something that has value."|ret||ret||tab|

With ITEX, that value comes in the form of trade dollars. ITEX members get trade drafts which resemble checks, and they get an ITEX account that works like a bank account. |ret||ret||tab|

"So, when a person makes a transaction, they fill out that check' and give it to the other ITEX member, (and) it ends up being deposited in their account," he said.|ret||ret||tab|

The types of business members in the ITEX system are varied, Amer said, and they include hair salons, hotels, restaurants, accountants, lawyers, printers and media that trade available advertising space. Amer said there are also a few participating airlines.|ret||ret||tab|

Members don't have to trade directly with whichever member purchases their products and services through ITEX.|ret||ret||tab|

"Say we've got a dentist that's a member. Instead of him having to trade (his services) directly with someone who's got chairs maybe he doesn't need chairs he can go ahead and take the trade dollars anyway and put them into his account until he finds some other member that has something that he would like," Amer said. "He doesn't miss out on the opportunity just because he doesn't need chairs. Because the chair guy, you know, he maybe needs dental work ... so otherwise, those two people would never have gotten together before," he said. |ret||ret||tab|

A lot of businesses already do some bartering on their own, Amer said, so getting them to understand the ITEX system isn't difficult. But for other companies, it's an educational process.|ret||ret||tab|

"Our goal is not to replace cash business with trade business, but it's to bring new business and that's really the key word, new business that they would not have gotten otherwise," Amer said.|ret||ret||tab|

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Using the ITEX system|ret||ret||tab|

Karen Dresner, who with her husband, Bob, owns DomesticAide, 607 N. Jefferson Ave., a commercial and residential cleaning firm, said the company's been an ITEX member for seven years, joining the St. Louis ITEX office "long before it was fashionable down here." |ret||ret||tab|

"I try to use the ITEX income that I get for business purposes. Copies, mailing things, I try to find cleaning products on the barter, but it also has served us well for personal needs," Dresner said.|ret||ret||tab|

She said ITEX dollars pay for some of the company's advertising, and the system also has helped build Domestic-Aide's client base. |ret||ret||tab|

But even for companies that don't realize an increased client base, the system can be beneficial. |ret||ret||tab|

Brian Wityk, owner of Wityk CPA Group, 2101 W. Chesterfield Blvd., has been an ITEX member for about three years. Wityk said Amer, and several of the companies he owns, are among his firms' major clients, and he signed on to ITEX to generate some additional business. While his original intent of adding more customers hasn't happened yet, he said he earns plenty of ITEX dollars from Amer that he uses both personally and professionally.|ret||ret||tab|

"Just off of his business alone, I've gotten as much as I've needed. Other companies have not taken advantage of my services through the network, but of what I generate through Sign Pro and KADI, I'm able to trade a lot with some of the other members," Wityk said. |ret||ret||tab|

"My wife and I went to Florida, and our hotel was traded on ITEX, and we spent probably $300 in meals in Florida as well that were on ITEX," he said. The Florida trip was business-related he said, but he's also used it for personal needs, such as booking hotel rooms for a family reunion, haircuts, tuxedo rental, Branson show tickets and eating at local restaurants. |ret||ret||tab|

Penny Meridith, owner of Dianne's Bookkeeping, 1350 E. Kingsley, said her company has been an ITEX member for about nine years, offering bookkeeping and tax return preparation services through the barter system. Meridith said advertising via ITEX trade dollars is an especially good deal. |ret||ret||tab|

"If I advertise and spend $3,000 (in advertising) with a company, the ITEX corporation will actually give me half of what I spend back ... in my account, so that advertising really only costs me $1,500," Meridith said. |ret||ret||tab|

Other business needs Meridith has met with ITEX dollars include plaques and name plates, rubber stamps, security, a lawyer's services and motel accommodations.|ret||ret||tab|

"We went to a conference in St. Louis, and used a motel in St. Louis using ITEX. Well, that saved me an outlay of my cash of $160. Instead of spending my cash, I just gave them an ITEX voucher," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Meridith noted that ITEX vouchers don't cover taxes, but she said it's still worth it to use the system. Goods and services aside, ITEX has gotten her new clients, some of whom continue to pay with ITEX, and some who have switched to cash-paying customers.|ret||ret||tab|

Meridith said there are rules to selling goods and services on the ITEX system.|ret||ret||tab|

"I have to be able to offer my service to an ITEX member at the same price that I offer it to anybody else. I can't charge more to that ITEX member, and I can't charge less to that ITEX member. It has to be what my normal rates are," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Lou and Sandy Belobraydic's two Mailboxes Etc. stores at 610 E. Battlefield, Ste. A, and 1926 S. Glenstone Ave., on the Plaza, are ITEX members. |ret||ret||tab|

"For us, here, it has helped out a lot insofar as it is bringing customers in that normally would not come into our store," said Lou Belobraydic. |ret||ret||tab|

The Belobraydic's stores offer a lot of different services on ITEX, including copies, mail boxes, fax service and packaging supplies and materials. In return, Belobraydic said he's been able to use ITEX dollars for several things purchasing boxes from an Ohio company to sell in the stores and taking clients out for dinner. He and his wife also have used ITEX for travel. |ret||ret||tab|

Belobraydic said finding things to buy on ITEX is often easy, but sometimes it does take some work, because members have to know what to look for.|ret||ret||tab|

"Basically, you're not looking up a particular item, but you're looking up a company that has that particular item," Belobraydic said. "If you want a particular item, it may take you a little bit longer to research it, but it's worth it." |ret||ret||tab|

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Members only|ret||ret||tab|

Amer said there is a fee to join ITEX, and ITEX also charges a small per-transaction fee, similar to what businesses pay credit card companies to use their services. ITEX members have access to the corporate Web site, www.itex.com, where they can look for companies that offer goods and services they need. |ret||ret||tab|

"The first means of exchange that there ever was in the history of the world was barter. Now with computers and everything, it's become more sophisticated," Amer said.|ret||ret||tab|

In fact, he added, Internet capabilities are helping the use of bartering in business to increase. "The Internet is now becoming a tool to take barter from just a local situation, where a farmer is trading eggs for milk, or whatever shoes at the local grocery store and creating an opportunity where you can then work with tens of thousands of people on the national level," he said. |ret||ret||tab|

Trade Director Danene Moulin and Amer are the only two local ITEX staff members. Moulin works with local members to help them grow their ITEX business, and to spend their trade dollars. Amer said having that human contact is a plus, and it's a big reason why ITEX, unlike Ubarter.com, has been able to achieve such a level of success. |ret||ret||tab|

"Ubarter was basically Internet only. They did not have the live person backing up the transaction. And it failed for the most part, because people need help, and they won't take the initiative on themselves," he said. |ret||ret||tab|

Amer said ITEX has been in business since the mid-1980s, and there are about 80 ITEX offices in the United States. [[In-content Ad]]