Whatever the reason, it seems for the many restaurants doing it tough and that there may be no end in sight.

However, Broadbeach Restaurateur Andrew McElhone who owns the multi award winning venues; Yellowfin Seafood Restaurant, 1 two 3 Mediterranean Dining & Lounge Bar, and Sage Restaurant has found that through Bartercard he has been able to offset some of his cash expenses and get more customers through the door.

He stated “It is always good to have a busy looking restaurant; customers and potential customers always deem this to indicate quality and value. So Bartercard is perfect for both slower and semi busy times; with bums on seats passerbys make a mental note that they must dine there then and there or at a later time.”

Mr. McElhone continued “To counter this [the quiet months this year]  I have picked up the volume of my Bartercard sales and spent a little more time on ensuring I get lots of good business expenses on Bartercard. This extra effort has seen my sales return to normal in a short time and I have spent my Barter dollars just as quickly as I have received them, so Bartercard has been a massive help during these quieter months. “

Mr. McElhone has been a Bartercard member for about 6 years and in his experience he has used his Bartercard to offset both business and personal expenses “probably 90% of my spend is on business expenses and 10% on personal.“

He boasts having great holidays, and many personal lifestyle improvements thanks to his extra barter business as well as business expenses like painting, pest control, upholstery cleaning, graphic design and printing, photography, equipment hire, staff entertainment, framing, he has even been able to buy over $1 million of wine to supply  his restaurants.

He believes in his time as a Bartercard Member he has saved approximately $900,000 in cash.

Using Bartercard to his advantage as well as utilizing the internet and social media to promote his businesses has seemingly helped Mr. McElhone cope in this trying time.

The Sage Restaurant has won the 2010 National I Love Food Award for Favourite Family Restaurant while 1two3 Mediterranean has won Australia’s Favourite ‘Flavours of the World’.

Sage and Yellowfin Seafood Restaurants are open at 12pm daily while 1two3 Mediterranean is open daily from 7am. For more information on each restaurant find them on the web or Facebook or download the 1two3 Mediterranean iPhone application.

Such non-cash transactions also help restaurants, cafes, clubs, and bars fill empty seats, attract customers away from the competition, develop their market, and help maintain that essential “buzz”. A win-win all round.

Unfortunately, it’s not all plain sailing. Ideally, these types of businesses could trade directly with existing suppliers for things they need but this is not always practical.

Issues such as timing, needs/wants matching, quantity and seasonal variations make direct transactions of this type somewhat challenging, although those who have entered into them see the obvious benefits.

As an alternative to these one-to-one deals, large well-established centralised marketplaces, designed to broker multi-way cashless transactions, operate across the globe. These commerce networks allow participating businesses to engage in virtually any type of trade while eliminating the complication of direct transactions.

•    Have unsold venue tickets on one hand, and ongoing sound and lighting expenses on the other?
•    Are you buying imported, or local, wines for cash now but still have empty seats some nights of the week?
•    Looking for more corporate customers to fill up your empty afternoons or to help you expand into the lucrative catering or venue-hire markets?

The Ormita Commerce Network has recently entered the Indian marketplace to answer these problems, and more. The companies cashless trade network currently spans 46 countries and performs more than $100 million US Dollars of similar transactions every month. Everything from electronics, machinery, produce and minerals are available to members of the system.

An Example Transaction

1.    Let’s say that your restaurant has an ongoing budget of 1 Lakh per month for advertising, spread across billboards, newspapers, magazines, and radio.

2.    Instead of paying cash for this advertising, Ormita will take 1 Lakh worth of gift certificates from you and give you the same value of advertising in return.

3.    You now have 1 Lakh worth of advertising at a cost of between 15% – 30% (the raw material cost to make the meals) and you are paying for your advertising with new sales, not existing income.

Effectively Ormita has:
•    Reduced your cash outlay by up to 85%;
•    Introduced new customers to your establishment;
•    Improved your profitability; and
•    Expanded your market share.

Additional benefits

Research shows that, in general, less than 75% of all vouchers ever get redeemed and that a guest with a certificate tends to purchase more than the certificate itself.

You may also get the “breakage” on the certificates you produce – if a customer does not spend the full value of certificate as you do not have to refund the remaining balance.

Brought to you by Neha Gupta
Marketing Department
Ormita Australia Limited
http://www.ormita.com.au

Bartering for food and wine

A restaurant owner could enter into a barter relationship whereby they give gift certificates to a winery in exchange for a certain amount of wine per month. The winery, in turn, can use these for customer promotions, giveaways and incentives – or simply as a way to reward owners, employees and staff. This represents a good way for the winery to increase their customer-base and allows them to introduce their wine to more restaurants as they will now have more reference sites.

Restaurants can also partner with wineries for wine-tasting evenings where the restaurant provides the food and the winery provides the beverages. Both parties win through cross-promotion to each-others existing customer base and can receive excellent publicity.

If indirect barter is needed the restaurant could consider joining a Commerce Network who will, in turn, enable them to trade out a set amount of meals for food and wine on an ongoing basis. The restaurant will then be covering their ongoing cash expenses with new sales instead of existing income. This is a great solution for those looking for creative ways to meet new growth targets and/or save money.

Other suggestions for barter

Barter meals on slow nights: Restaurant may barter meals on specified days only e.g.  Monday to Thursday when the business is slow or during lunch hours rather than dinner hour.  Understanding your options when entering into a barter arrangement, and being selective about when you barter, will help to ensure that you have clientele to fill the unoccupied tables of your restaurants even during the slow nights. This gives your restaurant a busy look and keeps your resources fully utilized.

Rent out: You may also barter deals wherein you rent out your restaurant for parties, conferences, weddings etc. This can be utilized as a good way to diversify your customer base as you will be able to reach out a larger group. Also the guests at such occasions will come back to your restaurant if you give impeccable service and food.

Sell gift certificates: Don’t be shy in selling your meal gift certificates to your customers. Promote them so that the customers feel they are the best deal they could get and that you are doing them a service by giving them an opportunity to buy these gift certificates. Offer them to loyal clients who patronize your restaurants regularly or to completely new customers to ensure they comeback.

Host events: To attract more barter business at times favorable to the restaurant, owners can host special daytime cooking classes or luncheons on weekday evenings. By using downtime, the restaurant remains full and income is being generated.

Restaurateurs have can not only supply and service their existing locations with trade money, but they can also use trade to expand, and even to build, new restaurants.

Pay in Gift Certificates: For those businesses looking to renovate or grow you could consider paying for contract labour, equipment and materials in gift certificates which can be redeemed over a period of time. This is a great way for you to fund your current developments out of guaranteed future sales!

Brought to you by Neha Gupta
Marketing Department
Ormita Australia Limited
http://www.ormita.com.au

See the full story at http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/operations/138/barter-1.phtml

Mentioned by name in the article are Arizona Trade Exchange, Atlanta Exchange, and The Barter Company.

See the full story at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735004574572050273487032.html?mod=article-outset-box