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Welcome to the Barter Edge Podcast—your insider guide to smarter business, bigger networks, and better ways to trade.
Whether you're a seasoned member or just getting started, we're here to share real stories, expert tips from different industries, and fresh ideas to help you grow your business using the power of the Bartercard ecosystem.
Barter Card_Andrea Video
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Barter Edge Podcast, your insider guide to smarter business, bigger networks, and better ways to trade. We are here to share real stories, expert tips from different industries and fresh ideas to help you grow your business using the power of Bartercard.
Well, welcome to another episode of the Barter Edge. Today we are with. Who I think we can call, um, Barta Card Royalty. That is Andrea Key. She's been in the Barta card team for over 25 years and she has played many different roles within the company and she's an amazing support for our team as the training and process manager for Barde Card Australia.
Um, Andrea. Can you share a little bit about who you are in your journey with Barta card? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you Jen. Thanks for that great introduction. It's fantastic. Um, [00:01:00] yeah, so yeah, I've been with the company over 25 years now. A long time. Um, and yeah, love working for Barta Card. You know, they say, um, there's quite a few of our staff that have been around a long time and they say that when you've been with the company a long time, you get green blood.
And I definitely had that. I had that passion for the business so. I love what I do. I was amazed when I started with the Barta card team at the longevity of a lot of the team members and with the new leadership and the new direction and you know, the rebirth of Barta card recently. It's been amazing watching more and more.
Green blooded Bartercard staff members that are coming back, aren't they? Absolutely. Yeah. Which is great too because you know, there's so much experience in the team and yeah, we have had some staff that have gone on and done other things and then we're seeing a lot and they're back with the company and it's a great [00:02:00] energy in the business at the moment.
The culture is phenomenal and we've got Andrew leading the team, which is just so good. Really lovely. Yeah. And everyone is such a valued member of the team as well. Um, but why do you love Barta card so much? Oh, there's so many reasons. I love this business, but I think for me. One of the big things I love about Bartercard is that it's such a people orientated business.
It's a culture of people. It's, and that includes the staff, the clients and members. Um, there's just such an emphasis on developing people, helping our members grow their business, you know, find ways that they can do things in their business they wouldn't have otherwise been able to do. So there's just this energy around connecting with people and building relationships and.
You know, and I think that's the thing, um, part of the reason that keeps you in a business like this for so long, [00:03:00] because, you know, there's just, you build relationships with so many different people and you get to know some of their great members. And there's members that have been in the Bartercard business who I've known pretty much since those early days of when I started.
And then there's the new ones that are coming through as well. So just great connections and you build some really great business friendships with some of our members as well. Just fantastic all over it. Yeah, I love that. Every day I hear stories of, uh, our members or things that our team has been able to help facilitate that otherwise wouldn't have happened.
You've been with the company 25 years. What would be one of your favorite stories in that time? Oh, wow. How do you narrow that one down, Andrea? Yeah. Well, there's lots of stories, as you would imagine after that long and. I mean, I've done, I've actually had so many different very roles in the business and that's been another great thing about the company because it is really for our staff about developing our staff and opportunities.
And [00:04:00] so, you know, I've worked in a range of different roles where I've, you know, there's probably been different stories in different situations, but I think when I think back and think about that, the stories that I love the most are where our members really. Get this amazing day, you're out to buy a card and you're able to do things that, you know, maybe they couldn't have done before.
A lot of our businesses are small, medium business people. Um. And buy the car really gives them that opportunity to grow their business or just do things, you know, maybe that they couldn't afford to do. So I think a story that I, I, when I was thinking about this, a story that I'd love to share is, you know, over the years we've had a lot of networking functions with our clients and in fact we have one coming up very soon.
But, um, those events where we get the clients together and they talk about the things they're being able to do with barde card are just incredible. And I remember. Uh, this is a few years ago now, but we had an event which was focused around some of our top trading clients at the [00:05:00] time, and Andrew Feki ran a, a group session with them.
We are in their groups and then tables. They each talked about those creative things they've done with borrow cards and outside that normal buying and sewing. And, um, out of each group, they then had to share the top one or two stories, and the stories that came outta that were just so incredible, you know, and their experiences with Bartercard and what they're being able to achieve and.
And in bio carb we call that the creative business tips, the things that they can do outside of that normal buying and selling, um, that really can allow them to grow their business or, you know, even generate more cash business forums. So some of those tips is a fantastic, and every time I see those sort situations where the members share those stories, I love it.
And I would say to any member, when you're going to events. Or talking to any other Biopower members. Ask them what they've been able to do with Bartercard, some of the things they've achieved and learn [00:06:00] about those different things that you can do. Obviously we have our account managers to help with that.
Um, but there's just so many wonderful stories. Um, a couple that. Um, I would mention many years ago I worked as an account manager up in Brisbane, and we had a member at that time, uh, where she ran a hair salon. It was her business and she was really looking at ways to generate more cash business for the salon as well as bar account.
But one great thing that she was able to do, which we call a, if we give it a name, that's what we call it, she actually ran a promotion for Lovers Day. And the promotion was marketed to the cash and bail card economy and. What we actually looked at was what could we do to value add to what she was offering to entice more cash business for her business.
So what we ultimately did was she ran a promotion where if somebody boughted a Mother's Day package, which was a couple hundred dollars for that package for [00:07:00] their mother, then when their mother came in, they would get a beautiful bunch of flowers and. A beautiful bottle of wine that was added to that package as an add, and the member was able to purchase the flowers and the wine using her trade dopps.
So her cost to do that was minimal, but the return that she got on the cash business that she received from that was just fantastic and it was a great promotion for her. So those sort of stories, uh, were some about creative training kit I love. Um, another one that I'll share, uh, which was a recent one actually, uh, one of our members here on the Gold Coast was looking at ways to incentivize their staff.
And a lot of businesses, you know, cash wise, it can be tight for them to do that. Um, so in this particular situation, this business bought massage vouchers on buy the car. And then they gave them to staff as incentives to award their staff. Um, and the great thing about this was we've got two Bartercard [00:08:00] members that we've transmuted here.
Yeah, that member has bought the massage vouchers. The staff don't realize they're bought for cash or trade. It makes no difference to them, but they're being rewarded for a job well done, which is great for the business because then with their staff, you wanna step up because they feel they're being appreciated.
And how does that affect their culture and the productivity and all of that sort of thing? Just from feeling some of their spare capacity? Absolutely. Yeah. And they're using their trade to incentivize their staff. So productivity increases because the staff feel appreciate it. Uh, and the other great thing from that story was um, the scarf obviously went and had their massages, used the vouchers, but that buy the card business.
Then also got some repeat business from some of those staff who were then paying cash to grow Gil. So that actually brought some cash business in for that Amber as well. Yeah, and it's not just. Looking at Barta card as just a [00:09:00] transaction tool. Is it because the flow on effect of Barta card members supporting Barta card members equals opportunities in the cash economy as well?
Absolutely. Yeah. If you have. I mean, if you go to any business and you receive great service, you're going to share that with your friends, family, business associates. You're gonna tell people, you know, I had a great experience. And that doesn't matter whether it's a buy the card member or a cash, you know, um, customer.
But you'll always share that. So, you know, we always say to the BAB members, if you give great service to a Bar cab member, they're gonna refer you. And that can bring in more cash business as well. So, yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for sharing your amazing stories. Now, you were talking about trading tips.
Can you give me an example of a trading tip that these businesses were talking about? Yeah, sure. Well, those truths that I've just talked about was what we call salary packaging, and they ran with the hairdresser. [00:10:00] Um, another great trading ticket, which is probably my favorite, uh, is what we call winning cash contracts.
And that's fantastic. 'cause like I said, a lot of our businesses are small, medium businesses, so they're out there competing for cash business all the time. Um, and a lot of times I guess they could be competing for cash business against an organization that's, you know, maybe a bigger organization than then they can afford to.
Drop their prices a little bit more, um, and, and have a bit more of a competitive advantage. So a lot of times a business will drop their price to try and compete, but the winning cash contracts, trading tip works on the basis that rather than drop your price, why don't you offer to take some product or service from that business as an alternative.
So like hypothetically, uh, I can remember a situation where this happened with a cleaning business. Who was Boab member, they were competing with a [00:11:00] contract to win the cleaning at a hotel. So what they did was with say, hypothetically it was a $10,000 contract, they said rather than drop their price, they said we'll take 8,000 cash and $2,000 worth of wounds of the hotel.
And the beauty of that is they could then resell those rooms through the body card net worth and generate trade dollars from that. So they haven't reduced their price. But what they've done is they've taken some product or service and then been able to turn that into trade dollars and use those trade dollars to offset some of their over cashing expense in such a competitive world where there's so many businesses fighting for business.
Like I love that. You know, if I was to Google, say a pest controller, it's the big names that have got multiple vans out on the road that. I'm going to see first when I do my Google search. Oh, absolutely. But. Being in the [00:12:00] network, getting to the decision maker, like we're able to support small businesses get con to get contracts as well within the Bartercard network that they otherwise wouldn't be able to do.
And I love that we're able to help small businesses do those sorts of things. And that comes back to that, I guess, that culture of people and connection because. If you're a member of Bartercard, you're a member of a community and network and you know, if I'm a business person or I'm a member of Bartercard and I need to go and get some pest control load done, I'm proud to go to a Bartercard member over a cash competitor of this.
So it does give businesses and the bandage in that respect, and I'll probably, if I have to travel to that business, travel a little bit further to do that because I know I am gonna save myself cash by using my Barb Camp trailer. Its so, it's so good for business to give them that competitive edge as well.
Thank you so much for [00:13:00] sharing that, Andrea. Now Andrea, you are head of training. Why? And you train the whole Bartercard team from the account managers, uh, to the, um, the, the accounts team, the sales team. You help onboard all of our team members as they join. Why is training such a big thing within Bartercard?
Oh, well, I mean, I account's a little bit of a unique industry, you know, particularly when we had new staff come to join us that hadn't worked for the business before. So, you know, it's really important that we do ensure they understand Bartercard and that they know how to work effectively with clients and businesses, uh, to, you know, educate them on Bartercard as well.
So, I mean, look, I, I've been with business over 25 years and always it's been culture of training there has always been there. Um, but at the end of the day, it's really important that our staff understand, buy the card and how to educate our, our businesses, how to use it, [00:14:00] um, right from the sales side where they're, you know, talking to businesses about how, both, how it works, understanding their business, looking at how it could work effectively for them.
Then to our account managers who manage the accounts and, you know, the account managers. Are really working. It's quite strategic, very closely with those businesses. They need to understand, you know, how do we promote this business? What are the key features of this business that we can use to help get them more business?
Um, where do they spend in the cash economy so that we can look out, you know, what can we offset on Barta card to save them cash and you know, educating 'em on the trading kicks. There's just so many areas. Um, but, you know, training in the business, I know I look after training, but I think everyone by the card has culture of education and training.
Um, you know, everybody helps out with training. Even you, Dan, you've been involved in training some of our new 10 as well. Um, so it is a real [00:15:00] culture of that and we really, I think, aspire to build our team up and, you know, make them. Um, I ensure that they're skilled and that they're competent and they know what they're doing.
So yeah, when we have a new person join our team, we have a very intensive first week of training for all of our staff that join the team. But we have weekly meetings, could always have a focus of our training for ourselves and trading tanks. Um, you know, there's always ongoing training happening. I'm running training on a weekly basis with some of our established teams so that we can, you know, build their skills ongoing and make sure everyone's up to speed with some of our, um, new initiatives in the business.
So we're very digital in our website development. It's absolutely a continual learning environment. Even me after 25 years, I'm still learning. So, yeah, and look, I've, one of my favorite sayings is you're either green and growing or [00:16:00] ripe and rotting, and it's always about that growth mindset and learning and all of that sort of thing, and it's very much a culture of that, but we offer a lot of support to our members.
What are some of the new developments you're working on at the moment? Yeah, well, we actually, um, are running a great initiative at the moment, which has always been kind of business, but with a real emphasis on at the moment with our account managers. So, you know, with Barta card, one of our goals with our members is to offset their cash expenses.
Um, and so for an account manager to do that, we, they really need to understand where a business spends in the cash economy, and that can be in their business and in their lifestyle. Um, so at the moment we have initiatives that, uh, our trading manager is running with all of our account managers around the country to have our account managers work with our members and update this information.
So some of our [00:17:00] members have probably already been contacted to do this. Um, but this is a really, we call it a core business expense analysis review, where we're really looking into their business and looking at where those. All those regular, ongoing business expenses, um, and understanding where they are, what they are, how much they're spending, how often, what are their biggest spends around that area.
Um, and then the account managers are working strategically with those kinds to say, let's look at where we can offset some of these for your buy cart and save you will cash back in business. So that's an initiative we're really focused on at the moment. Yeah, it does focus on lifestyle personal spends as well, um, because, you know, a, a business person, you know, we're, we're all in business to make money, so we spend in our lifestyle as well.
So, you know, it can be important to know where our members spend [00:18:00] personally because. Most members are drawing a business, a wage, sorry, from the business. So you know, hypothetically, if I was drawing, say, a thousand dollars a week cash from the business, maybe I could draw $800 cash and $200 by the card, put it into a separate staff account, and then use that.
To offset some of my personal spending as well, but $200 a week is a small amount, but over a year, that's money. That's span the business as cash, so it can actually help make a difference in terms of cash flow as well. Andrea, you talked before about value add as being a trading tip. That's amazing value for all of our members with our account managers actually caring about their business and looking at their business in strategic ways.
Andrea, I love working beside you in the Barta card head office. I thank you so much for being here and sharing so much value. Value with our [00:19:00] listeners today. Thanks, Joe. It was my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being with us today and sharing your stories and expertise. If you wanna find out how Bartercard can help your business, or if you wanna be a guest on our future podcast, contact our team at hello@bartercard.com.
Make sure you tune in for our next episode of the Barta Edge.