Discuss: Bartering art for services.

We haven't as yet, but would. This would be only if the bartered goods or services were something we really needed. If it saved us money, then to me that's as good as earning money. But I wouldn't do it for luxury goods or non-essentials.

I have a barter deal with a local gourmet shop. I provide their social media services and they supply a weekly supply of great food. I plan our meals around it so we rarely go to the supermarket and when we do, it's for non-food essentials.

The store knows the monetary value of our services and provide us with their goods to that value. I do believe that's the best way to do it. Our car needs work soon which is likely to be expensive. If the repair shop wanted artwork as a barter, that would be fine as long as the artwork value (as shown on our site or in a gallery) matched their invoice.

Haha Brian - that would work for me!

In fact, in our previous jobs, we had a wine shop client. We used to do their weekly email newsletter. Our payment was three cases of wine per month. This was great for them as the perceived value was much higher than the cost to them. (I'd like that job now!)

Although the wine was used for evening client meetings, there was always some to take home too!

We have a local restaurant owner who supply the food for our openings. Because we are graphic designers we do their print ads in exchange.

I'm currently working with the local farmers market to get a similar deal as the one with the gourmet shop - social media in exchange for produce and other goods.

I'm all for this system.

Lisa -- I did not think about offering art lessons when bartering. That is a fantastic idea.