How to Barter or Trade Creative Services (the fair & stress-free way)
As a creative, I’m sure at some time during your career, a family member, friend or colleague has asked: Oh, could you whip up a (logo, invitation, website..fill in the blank) for me, it won’t take long! Instead of giving your skills away for free, we want to introduce you to the concept of – How to Barter or Trade Creative Services (the fair & stress-free way).
We’ll guide you through the when, how, what & why of bartering and trading creative services. And by the end of this blog, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner! Are you ready to try trading your Creative Services? Let’s go!
Before we start – check out our Design Series below.
- What is a signature style and, do I (really) need it?
- Should I Watermark my Designs?
- Which Mac is Best for Designers?
- Mockups for Pattern Designers – The Ultimate Resource Guide
- What are Vector and Raster Files?
WHY Barter or Trade Creative Services?
Going back to our previous example, the way you often feel after being asked to “just whip some designs up” is dread and being taken advantage of by your generous nature.
Anyone outside your creative field doesn’t fully understand how long the design process takes. And let’s face it, everything takes time. And your good designs take research, time, trial and error.
But what our well-meaning family and friends do understand is how long it takes to do their job. That’s why bartering or trading services with them rather than doing it for free works so well.
And when you’re starting out in business, you need to be smart and scrappy with your limited budget.
So bartering or trading creative services can be an economical way of getting something you need for your business by exchanging your time, rather than your funds.
HOW to Barter or Trade Creative Services (& How it Works)
When you barter or trade services there’s an equal exchange.
It can be an equal exchange of time, costs or services.
This equal exchange means it suddenly goes from you being the one doing all the work with nothing to show for it at the end to both parties feeling happy and satisfied as they both worked together to achieve something that was needed and wanted by both people.
WHAT Creative Services Should I Barter?
Whether you are starting in business or are in a season when money resources are tight, bartering or trading services is a fantastic way to help you overcome this issue and succeed.
Remember, your time is a valuable resource. And there’s always a fellow creative that needs what you do and will be more than happy to exchange services with you.
Firstly, create a list of all the things in your business that you need to do but currently don’t have the resources to do them yourself.
Some examples include.
- Photos of you and your products.
- A logo for your business.
- Visual Branding & a Style Guide.
- Bookkeeping Services.
- Website design, creation or hosting.
- Promotion of your product or service.
Exchange what you do with a fellow creative such as a photographer friend.
That’s what we did to have the professional photos on our website.
Our photographer friend needed an updated logo. She offered to pay, but do you charge “mates rates” or your regular rate? Instead, we swapped creative services.
We needed professional photos and, she needed a professional logo.
This takes away (for both of you) that feeling of resentment for doing something “for free” and not being compensated for it.
There’s an understanding between both parties of the time, effort and expertise needed to create what each person needs.
Below is the logo suite I created in trade for photos for our website.
How to Make the Barter or Trade Work
Treat the job as you would any fully paid one.
We gave our friend three rounds of logos to choose from and went back and forward until she was happy with the final result.
Once approved, we supplied her with a logo suite of an ai, eps, jpeg and png.
In return, she gave us a collection of photos. We picked the ones we liked and, she colour-corrected and amended them so that we could use them across our website and branding.
Insider Tip
As an extra thank you, mention the person you bartered with on your website and include a link directly to their site or social media account. Underpromising and over-delivering will make you someone they’ll want to work with (and recommend) again.
Exchange what you do with a professional service such as an accountant.
When I started my freelance design business, I was completely unaware of what accounts I needed to look after.
When you work as an employee, your employer looks after your tax. However, this isn’t the case when you work for yourself. That’s when I called in my accountant friend.
My accountant friend needed some strategic design work created for a project she was working on and I needed help setting up a ledger and an account-keeping workflow to keep my new business on track.
Think outside the box with who you can exchange creative services
My Chiropractor mentioned how he exchanges services with one of his patients who owns a carpet cleaning service.
My chiro couldn’t find someone reliable to clean the floors in his practice. So, his patient offered an exchange for services – carpet cleaning for chiropractic treatments. He was delighted.
This same chiropractor both writes and produces short horror films and novels. And he needed some design work created to promote it.
Knowing I’m a graphic designer, he asked me if I could help, and I said sure – I’ll trade my designs for Chiropractor services!
Keeping track of our hourly rate, we exchanged my creative services for Chiropractic treatments. (Something I always need after working on a computer day after day!)
What started as some creative design for posters morphed into logo design. And finally, a one-pager website promoting his latest horror novel and, both of us couldn’t be happier.
Exchange what you do with a Friend that Sells.
Selling your products or services as a creative doesn’t always come easy. So if you have an experienced friend that is amazing at sales, try an exchange of services.
Our friend can sell anything. And she is also great at forming genuine relationships with all her clients.
So when she came to us to help her design some logos and design material for her latest side hustle, instead of working out a quote, we instead worked out we could both trade our services to help each other succeed.
Below is the design work we created in exchange for promoting our services.
Your Action Steps
- Make a list of the products or services you need and would like to exchange.
- Pick a fellow creative or friend to offer to barter or exchange.
- Both discuss what you would exchange for your service.
- If money was involved, how much would you charge? Is this equivalent to what they are trading with you?
- Decide whether you would feel excited or deflated about the exchange.
- If both parties are happy, get to work and have fun!
You Did it!
That’s a wrap on How to Barter or Trade Creative Services (the fair & stress-free way). How do you feel about bartering and trading now? Is it something you would like to try? What services will you exchange? Let us know. And in the meantime, follow us on Pinterest for more blog posts like this.
Where to now?
Before you try trading services, start creating the following elements for your business.
- Want a unique business logo? This blog will show you how.
- Does your business have a Style Guide – get one here.
- Need a website made for your creative niche? Check these out.
Want to Exchange with Us?
Have you spent months tweaking your site (& you are still not happy with how it looks?) Then this exchange was made for you.
Our free essential guide download will guide you through all the steps of the Do’s & Don’ts of what to add to your website.
Simply go here and fill in your email details and the exchange is done!
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