Trading, bartering and negotiating contra deals have been around for centuries. I remember trading at primary school – I’m not even sure where I learned it from – but it always started with something along the lines of “If you give me this, I’ll give you …..” .

Last week I posted a link on my Facebook page to a post from The Wonder Jam called ‘When and How to Barter’. They were talking about those moments when someone says they would like to work with you but they would like to remunerate you in odd ways. Today, as a semi-professional freelancer, I quite like the idea of sharing the skills that we have and of trading them for the items and services of others that we want or need. And as I mentioned, if I have something you want, I’m open to sharing what I have.
The Wonder Jam go on to talk about ways you can make this work for you, times when you might like to just say “Yeah, Nah” and things to make sure you do if you take them up on their offer.

Funnily enough a situation, or rather an opportunity, arose just a few days later for me to be able to put that in to practice.
An organisation here in the Waikato wanted some event photography done – cool!
They said they couldn’t afford to pay me – okay. Surely they must have a few things I want right? Well yes, yes they do.
One of the suggestions we made was pretty ballsy. I never expected them to agree to it. And eventually they came back saying no. Just a flat out no.
Okay. Right.

I’m okay with working for no money, especially one offs and where I might have the chance to network. But I am not okay with working for nothing. Not even an offer of … let’s just say coffee for example. Tit for Tat and all that jazz.
This particular organisation isn’t broke. They have great services and they are also in the creative industry. I was quite surprised at their response to be honest.

You might have a product or service. I might not want it, I might not use it, but you offering it to me tells me that you place some value on the service that you would like me to provide you. Otherwise we may as well just rely on money.

And that’s in the spirit of bartering. And giving a self starting freelancing semi-professional photographer a leg up.