The Power of Barter |
Last week, I had one of my good friends from Boston contact me. Let’s call him Jeff. Jeff had heard from his friend that his website as bringing him some significant business. This didn’t surprise me. You see, Jeff is a real estate lawyer. I don’t know how familiar you are with commercial real estate, but a single transaction can make a lot of money. A couple percent of many millions can feed a family for a long time.
Jeff wanted to duplicate his friend’s success and since they were different types of lawyers, he knew that he wouldn’t hurt his friend’s business. Still, Jeff had a problem… he didn’t know how to create a website. He figured that he could put some time and learn how to do it, but it would take a lot of time. In general, a lawyer’s time is very valuable. This is why Jeff contacted me. He knew that I could build a website very quickly.
Jeff and I talked and he explained what he needed. I took notes and made suggestions where appropriate. Towards the end of the conversation he said, “Who does your estate planning?” Unfortunately, this is one of the areas where I earn my Lazy Man name. I have nothing set up in the estate planning at all. When I mentioned this to Jeff, he said that he’d draw up the paperwork and the next time I’m in Boston, we can finalize it.
It took me a minute to understand what he was saying. In exchange for me doing the work on his website, I’d have an estate plan. I got really excited when I realized that that I was saving hundreds of dollars. I got so excited that Jeff had his website 90% completed about four hours later.
There are two limitations preventing me from greatly expanding my bartering enterprise. Some industries, I just can’t seems to barter with - Safeway already has a pretty good website. In other industries, I just lack the connections - I don’t have a friend who is a mechanic.
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Lazy Man has been a lender at Prosper since February 2006. He is the author of the personal finance blog, Lazy Man and Money and the health and fitness blog, Lazy Man and Health.
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