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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.
BC_Episode 4
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[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 barter cart. Well, this is a very exciting episode of the Barta Edge.
It is our very first episode and launch of this podcast where we get to really help give some insights into how people can utilize the Barta Card Network to grow their business. And we've got an incredibly special guest because one of the original founders of Bartercard is here with us. Today, Mr.
Andrew Federowski can you please introduce yourself to everyone who may not be familiar with who you are? How far do you want me to go back? Well, thanks very much for the intro. Good to be here. Well, Andrew Federowski originally born in Germany, got here the tender age of 23. [00:01:00] That was in 1988. Now I'm giving my age away.
And in 1991 we started the Bartercard Company, and 34 years later we are here. Well, it's great to have you here now. What is your role within Barter card? Because I feel like we've gone back to the future, but we, there's so much excitement around everyone within the team, but also our existing members that have been members for the last 30 plus years.
Yeah. Well, my current role is being the CEO of the company. And I think the excitement comes from being an original founder of the company, having. Led our company owned franchise group, then Bartercard Australia, then Bartercard International, you know, offshore award-winning franchise model recognized by the International Reciprocal Trade Association listed on couple of international stock markets.
So the company has pioneered a [00:02:00] lot of things in Australia. You know, not to forget, obviously creating an alternative currency that has lasted 34 years, and I think the original drive entrepreneurship and the values of the company has resonated with the members through, you know, listing and a couple of ownership changes.
Some of those. Have maybe been a little bit lost in the process and I think the excitement is that we are going basically back to the basics. Bolting on a lot of brand new technology, but keeping the values. Firmly in our side. One of my favorite things about working at Barta Card is hearing all of your stories, and today I'm excited to hear a couple of your stories.
But before we get there, if someone's listening to this and they have never heard of Barta card before or they never have looked into it, what is Barta card? Well, the most asked question, [00:03:00] and if you would ask any of our many thousand clients, the answer would always be different. In a nutshell, bar cut is an alternative currency, call it a digital currency that gives you access to a close network of like-minded business people to enhance your business.
So you will essentially, you will get exposed to a brand new group of people that you normally wouldn't do business with. These people come to you because simply you are a member. Pay your in the Barta card currency for your goods and services, and then you use those barta card trade dollars to buy the things you normally pay cash for.
Hence, the cash that you normally would use stays in the business, but there's a myriad of applications to it. That's why it's never really a fast answer. Yeah, and it's interesting speaking to so many of our clients as well at that the benefits, everyone's benefits of being in that network is so [00:04:00] different.
Some people, you know, they wanna be able to purchase things at their gross profit margins because they know that that's a smart way of saving cash flow. But some people want the introductions to some of our clients. And so you're right, everyone's answer to that would be very, very different. Now, we've had some changes.
Mm-hmm. Can you talk us through the new platform? Well, pretty exciting technology brings with it not only headaches, sometimes for people to get their head around, but also ease of use. So when we originally started the company, many of the viewers would be, I. Familiar with the old way of doing a, a credit card transaction.
You know, where you've got the three copy transaction voucher that went through the zip zap machine. You had to in insert your card, make sure that it printed properly and put a lot of pressure on the machine. Today I think it's a bit nostalgic and fun, then it was essential. But then technology moved on where you could do transactions online.
Obviously when swipe card [00:05:00] technology came in, we'd done some deals with the, with the banks and used their platform to transact Barta card transactions so members could just swipe their card in the terminals. We skipped the chip in the cards because obviously swipe was still enabled, and now we are using a full on app, which is mind boggling.
Just. Basically hold your fonts, read a QR code, do your transaction. Anybody anywhere can do Bartercard transactions. Now, it doesn't matter where you're based, if you're mobile on the road, or if you've got a retail outlet. It's just fantastic. And our online platform, the members trading portal, just reflects the same progress, you know, ease of listing.
Think of it like Facebook marketplace, but you can use your Bartercard trade dollars to purchase. Yeah, and it's amazing what you can find in there. We've been speaking with so many people that have used it for so many different things to reduce their business expenses, but [00:06:00] also some more for their lifestyle.
I got a puppy like, it's amazing what you can do through the Barta card network. Now you've got a lot of stare at stories. After 34 years so far with Barta card, I would love to hear a couple of your stories. When I, when I look at the video testimonials and we've got hundreds of those and we are slowly but surely putting them on our website as well for people to, to have a look at.
And yes, there's people who have approached me in the past or shared their story that, you know, small business is a bit of a myth. People think that, being in business for themselves. All of a sudden we'll afford 'em. All the glitz things in life and the holidays and trips overseas, and you name it. But we all know, well, business owner owners all know that that's a bit of a myth.
You work harder than anybody else. You don't get as many public holidays because there's work to do. And you're constantly [00:07:00] battling with competitors. Market changing conditions changing, you name it. So as we said a little bit earlier, it would be so different for everybody. So sometimes when I speak to a client and they say, look, we just came back from holiday maybe in Thailand or the Cook Islands or New Zealand, or even in Europe, and that they have saved thousands of dollars to do it or.
Maybe they weren't even able to afford it if they had to pay cash for it very quickly. You know, you can spend on a family holiday $10,000, and that's money that you have to save up or whack on your credit card and then pay for a long time paying it off. Now if you use Bartercard trade dollars, you don't have to do the saving up.
You can charge it to your Bartercard and then Bartercard brings you the customers to pay for it or to work it off kind of thing. So is. Almost like a good old [00:08:00] contra deal. So yes, some of the stories where people just afforded holidays were great. Recently we had one of our clients took the whole family to New Zealand, not just the immediate family, but extended family, cousins, brother, sister, the whole kit and caboodle, and most of it was paid for on Bartercard So that was amazing. And. She told me that she wouldn't have been able to do that otherwise. That's a great story, but something that's maybe a little bit more heart heartwarming is some, A client approached me, oh, that's a long time ago. Maybe 20 years ago at one of our trade shows. That was in Brisbane.
We had like 200 stands. Like over a thousand people through the doors, people do business. And this guy picks me out of the crowd and he goes, are you Andrew Roski? I said, yes. I want to sh shake your hand. [00:09:00] And I said, okay, why? Give him a hand? You know, it's like shook the hand. I said, what's the story? And he said, look, I moved from Tasmania up to the Gold Coast sorry, up to Brisbane with his wife and seven children.
I. And because he was busy doing all the work, the wife handled the, the real estate transaction, the funds and everything, and on he moved, he moved up with the children. Transactions been happening. I don't know exactly how it happened, but his Mrs left with the proceeds of the sale of the house. So the only thing that he ended up having was a Ute and seven children.
Wow. So. He was going to start a sign writing business and he had obviously the money to rent some premises and get started by the equipment and materials that he needed to do the jobs. He was a brand new Bartercard client. He applied for an extended [00:10:00] line of credit, which he was granted because sign writing is a popular product within the Bartercard network.
Every business at some stage needs sign writing, so he got a line of credit approved. His account manager put him in touch with another Signwriter, who's been with us for quite some time. That particular Signwriter then sold him, did the signage on the Ute, then sold him some of his materials on barter card as well, and he said, you can use my workshop until you get on your feet.
From then on, the account manager started sending him for some work. He was able to rent a place. I can't even believe that he ended up. In Brisbane with nowhere and seven kids. It is just beyond me. He established himself, he got his sign writing business up and running, kids all booked in schools and kindies.
And today he's got a flourishing sign writing business. And after he told me the story, I wanted to shake [00:11:00] his hands because the real hero. The story was him. We just provided the tool. Yeah. It's such an amazing story. I don't know about our listeners out there, but I've got goosebumps from hearing that story.
Share another one with us. I really like the, the member stories. I mean, there's so many personal things that have gone on in my life and our life, like the whole team that about cut. Everybody goes through personal growth and professional growth. Anything from being invited by the King of Jordan. I mean, that was like a big honor for myself or being inducted into the Barta Hall of Fame in the US for significant contribution to the barta industry globally.
I mean, when you get recognized by your peers, that's pretty amazing. But as, as amazing as that is, nothing beats when you can give back something. For example, we, we participated with a Matt Rogers charity [00:12:00] that he operates and Bio cart. We rebuilt the Early Learning Center in Burleigh. Not far from here actually, and once we've done it all, like in the Be beginning was a bit of a basket case.
The kitchen was really run down, swollen cabinets, water damage. Very aged facility. I mean, the people that were there were fantastic. Kids were great and but the place looked really sad. So we went, gutted the place, rebuilt this, put some beautiful like fittings, looked like clouds on the ceiling, big screen tv, play area, soft furnishings, you name it.
It was all fantastic. And on the night of Reveal, they had a lot of their. Parents there as well, and was just us. No big media, you know, because we didn't do it for media exposure. We just did it because was the right thing to do and giving something back. And when the I would say the [00:13:00] principle of the early learning center was sort of talking to the crowd and thank Matt Rogers and us and we were sort of.
Walking some of the kids and the parents through the different play areas. You know, I had a couple of kids come up, hug my leg and thank me for the for the new facility. And yeah, that was pretty heartwarming, you know, so those stories just burn into your mind, you know, when you actually give back some.
You know, everybody wants to be a good corporate citizen, but we, we do it because we want to do it, not because we have to do it, you know? Yeah. And Barter card has partnered with quite a few amazing charities nationally, and it's amazing to hear the stories of some of the partnerships that we do have and what.
They've been able to do like Animal Welfare league and there's so many amazing stories and it keeps me really excited when I'm in the office hearing stories like that. But after so [00:14:00] long, being with Barter card, what keeps you motivated? Well, you've just heard the reasons for it, you know, every, those stories.
We do that every single day. A lot of people. Don't talk about how they pay for things or how they got to things. Nobody says, oh, I put this on my MasterCard or Visa card, or I paid cash for it, or I took a loan or lease. Nobody really talks about it or I bought it on Barta card. But we do that every day.
We help every day. Business people gain extra customers they normally wouldn't have. Meet like-minded people. You know, networking is not always easy for people. If you're busy, busy, busy chasing the next dollar to keep food on the table, keeping the business afloat, keeping employees employed, no matter what size business you operate in, there's plenty to do all the time.
You know, so people don't do a lot of networking. So we kind [00:15:00] of do that for them. We have selective. People that's all open-minded. They join barter card at some stage, they're looking for extra business, and on the flip side, they're looking to reduce their cash expenses by then using the barter dollars and what some people, in fact, even the media in the past, they said, oh wow, that's amazing.
You know, we had a cruise bot company here on the Gold Coast. They were struggling pretty bad. They were considering winding the business up and going outta business just because. Of how things were going. Maintenance was needed on the business, marketing was needed. They hit the boat, not enough, not enough customers.
And we helped out with the customers, which in then they used their Bartercard trade dollars to promote their business and do some renovations on the, on the boat. The business picked up because they were better presented and they were now in the market. People could find them easily and the business flourished.[00:16:00]
They went to the media and told their story, you know, we, and because they pre appreciated what happened to them, they gave Bartercard a pretty good plug. Now those things happen with us every single day, and when you have success stories every day of helping people other helping other people every day, why wouldn't you get a bus out of coming to work every day?
Hmm. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I love it. And there is such a buzz at the moment within the team. And I know before I knew about Barta card and became a member myself before I started working for Barta Card, I loved it so much. You gonna end up buying the company. I dunno about that. But the person I would call if I ever needed something, and she was one of the first people I met when I moved to the Gold Coast, is your.
A key account holder Renee, and anytime we needed anything, whether it was storage or. Oh, I don't [00:17:00] know anything you could imagine. She's the one with the relationships with every person in every sector, and I think that that's one of the biggest selling points to becoming a Barta Card member is you've got someone who understands your business, who is looking for business and connections for you.
Both in the cash economy as well as being in the trade economy. So it's, they're the, the relationship kings and queens throughout Australia that know everyone. Now, what would you say to someone if they were considering becoming a barter card member? Is barter card for everyone? No, not really. Card is for every business, but not for every business owner.
Some people, no matter how good the product or service, some people will just never do business with you. They either don't believe in it. They're conditioned by the cash economy, they're not [00:18:00] open-minded. They don't want to try something different to what they've been brought up in. So if your mindset is closed, then barter card is not for you.
But I can guarantee that barter card is for every business. So when we, when you've got, I mean, I'll give you an example. We had two restaurants next to each other in Broad Beach. I wouldn't name 'em because otherwise, you know, people could work back. But there were previous owners, they, they're now owned by somebody else that were next to each other.
One of them was a bit of a bistro style food. The other one was a bit, a lot more upmarket. The owner of the bistro style food embraced barter cart fully, had always more people in his restaurant than the other one. 'cause people attract people. He used his barta car trade dollars to pay for marketing advertising and.
[00:19:00] Prizes, value adds. He bought wine into his business that he then sold through the restaurant and he was doing, in fact, this guy had three restaurants. He was doing round about a hundred thousand dollars a month turnover with us alone. Wow. That's incredible. I mean, even I was blown away when we realized the numbers that he was doing and, that is not the norm, but the guy next door, and I think arguably the restaurant was a better restaurant, was mostly empty. When the guy had $1,500 in his, in his butter cart account, he started to sweat, wonder what he was gonna do with it. He, he didn't like the wine that we had available, you know, even though it was.
Some names that you would be familiar with different wineries. But because he didn't like it, he didn't buy the product. He didn't use his Bartercard [00:20:00] trade dollars to turn it back into cash. And ultimately that person closed his account. Ultimately, he closed the restaurant because he wasn't really successful and the other one sold his restaurant for.
A pretty penny. Yeah. Amazing. So it's it's mindset, which is something that every business owner needs to consider. Yep. But looking for new opportunities, we are coming into, well, we've been in this climate financially in Australia for quite a long time, and what I. Find interesting is Barta card was actually launched not long after the late eighties recession, which where businesses were needing other ways of doing business.
And we are finding that at now with people inquiring on how Barta Card could work for them. So would you say the timing is absolutely right to look into Barta card being a great fit for your business? Sadly, it seems that when [00:21:00] times get tough. People are actively looking for different ways of doing things and that's when we come, you know, on their radar.
The time is always right to join Bartercard. Over 34 years, we had ups and downs. We had booming economy, we had struggling economy. We had not only the recession in the late eighties, but we had the GFC we had covid. We've got, we are currently in a cost of living crisis. House affordability, you name it.
The, the list of challenges is super long. So where do you see Barta card going into the future? Well look, you gotta sort of think about it a little bit. Go back, wind, back a little bit. Actually, when we started cell phones at the time, mobile phones weren't an everyday thing. When you saw someone on the street with one of those big mobile phones, people call them names.
You know, I'm sure you've, you've heard about [00:22:00] that. Computers weren't on everybody's desk. We, of course, our backend was driven by computers, but our CRM customer service, all that kinda stuff, that was all very manually and the businesses were very manual today. You could almost say if you haven't got a computer, you're not competitive in your business.
Cell phones. If you haven't got a cell phone. I mean, hardly anybody who's got landlines, and if you call from a landline, nobody answers the phone because they think you're some kind of scam or telemarketer. So everything changes and when business progresses, when the economy or the the payment systems.
Zip Zap machine for transaction vouchers over swipe card over chip. If you don't accept a credit card, you'll probably be outta business. If you don't have a mobile phone, you'll be outta business. [00:23:00] If you haven't got a computer, you're outta business. They're essentials to keep moving. If you ignore trends, you will not be in business now.
Maybe we were a bit lucky, maybe we had foresight. We created a digital currency way before it became a term. But over the last five or 10 years, I mean, everybody's talking about cryptos and digital currencies and alternative ways of payment idea to say, if you don't get on the trend, you will get left behind.
Mm-hmm. Absolutely, absolutely. Couldn't agree more with that. Well, Andrew, it's such a pleasure to have you in the recording studio at Studio Six. We are here with Kingsley, who's also one of our clients, so we love supporting all of our Barta card members, but I'm sure we will get you on again soon for another episode of the Barter Edge.
Can't wait. Good to see everybody. And don't be scared. [00:24:00] Just give us a buzz. Thank you for being with us today and sharing your stories and expertise. If you wanna find out how Barter Card 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.