History

In 2000, a Baton Rouge based barter exchange by the name of PartnersOne, Inc. (Partners) was begun by approximately 12 men from area small businesses.  All having been members in a previous exchange and seeing the inherent difficulties with maintaining the barter dollar value compared to US currency in a singularly owned exchange, this group of men developed a means of structuring an exchange without the negative influences brought on by individual ownership.  With individual ownership, policies and procedures for the barter exchange are sometimes implemented by the owner in his or her own interest that eventually tend to devalue the barter dollar, leaving members of the exchange with a reluctance to take more of these barter dollars, the ownership of the exchange with excessive barter dollar debt, and an exchange that struggles to promote a high volume of trading. With Partners, the exchange was owned by the membership and its elected Board of Directors, monitored and controlled by the same, and employ an Executive Director to manage the trade.  Since this Executive Director has no ownership, there is no influence for him or her to allow or disallow transactions based upon self interest, but rather based upon the overall health of the exchange.  Thus, Partners has grown to well over 500 members in the past 11 years with an annual trade volume of over $8 million, an annual average of about $15,000 per member.  This per member trade volume is well over twice the national average of other trade exchanges.

In 2004, three of the original founders of Partners began plans to acquire proprietary rights from PartnersOne in order to duplicate their success by starting similar exchanges in cities across the country.  TradeAuthority's mission is to take the principals and practices learned through development of Partners and produce systems to enable duplication of like exchanges in other cities.  One key objective was to develop a web-based data operation management system capable of facilitating the more efficient operation of existing local barter exchanges and the development of new barter exchanges throughout the U.S.  In 2010, the first phase of this system, QuikTrade, was completed and TradeAuthority was further capitalized for the purpose of extending that software and bringing the Partners modeled exchange into new territories.

We do not seek to own or operate local barter exchanges, but rather provide start-up know-how for the local barter exchanges and continued support and services, including QuikTrade.  TradeAuthority intends to actively help recruit staff and members in selected cities for the purpose of assisting them organize and develop their own successful exchanges, with ongoing support and services to be provided by TradeAuthority.

Why Barter? Barter is generally described as the exchange of goods or services between parties without the use of cash. Where direct barter implies a direct one-to-one transaction, a barter network or trade exchange allows barter credits or trade dollars to be accounted so that direct bartering is no longer necessary, but can be accomplished by any multiple of parties. An effective trade exchange is a system which utilizes computerized information sharing and human intelligence, relationships, and creativity to create opportunities for members to trade their products and services on a regular basis. A small cash transaction fee accompanies all barter transactions, thus paying for banking and promotional infrastructure of the network.  Most businesses see this fee similarly to that of a sales commission as it is bringing new business that only had the opportunity to come as a result of the network.

Opportunity TradeAuthority seeks to find Executive Directors to launch a new member-owned barter/trade exchanges in their area. The successful launch of that exchange is directly tied to the Executive Director's ability to build a thriving network of small business members. Thus, the Executive Director is one of the most critical factors to the success of a local barter/trade exchange. TradeAuthority is not the employer, but rather seeks to help develop new exchanges and provide management and software services. The Executive Director serves as an employee of the very network he or she develops, but realize the benefits of ownership without the upfront costs of a franchise fee or other start-up costs.

The ideal candidate should have substantial small business experience (preferably as an owner), a long-time resident of the area (minimum population of 40,000 and 3,000 area small businesses) that is highly connected and networked in the small business community with current or previous leadership activity, a person of the highest integrity and character, a recognized trusted individual among his or her peers, with a fair understanding of economic concepts, and in a position to sustain a year of growth in return for greater long term financial benefit. This position should expect to earn compensation according to the success of the exchange in which employeed, but with the successful implementation of that exchange, should expect a compensation package of an annual minimum of at least $100K. The Executive Director is not the owner of the exchange but rather an employee of it's membership, but should be compensated as if an owner.

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