For some businesses, its appeal might lie in the globalization of the marketplace and the distasteful prospect of grappling with bewildering foreign currencies. For others, the trend might simply be emblematic of a kinder, gentler marketplace, a backlash from the conspicuous consumption of the go-go '80s. Indeed, there may be as many singular benefits as there are devotees of and dabblers in the practice, but for whatever reasons, bartering is big business.

How big, exactly, nobody really knows. It is estimated that as many as 300,000 U.S. companies trade $8 billion worth of services and merchandise a year, and the number of participating businesses is projected to swell.

The advantages of business-to-business bartering are numerous and varied. Here are a few, to get you started thinking about how your organization might benefit from bartering:

• Bartering allows you to use an otherwise wasted products or services, including seasonal, perishable, or otherwise time-sensitive articles and excess inventory due to canceled orders, overproduction, overly optimistic sales forecasts, and returns as currency.
• You can avoid cash outlay and improve liquidity.
• Bartering expands your business by putting you in touch with new customers or clients.
• It is a vehicle for penetrating new markets and employing new distribution channels.

Bartering also allows you to do business with people who do not have a strong cash flow or are hesitant to spend it. One New York City trade publisher decided to discontinue a particular newsletter and offered to sell the rights to the consultant who had been writing and editing it for twelve years. The consultant considered that suddenly becoming a publisher at this late date in his career would be a risky venture and so was reluctant to purchase the newsletter outright. Instead, he agreed to write a business textbook for his former employer in his area of expertise.

The Swap Around the Corner: Such a procedure is relatively simple and low-tech, and this is how barter usually occurs: at the grass-roots level, between people who know one another. Businesses, professionals, service providers, tradespeople, even skilled amateurs approach each other and make deals. At this level, it's common to mix business needs and offerings with the personal: A professional calligrapher hand-letters diplomas for the graduating class of the private school where her sons are enrolled. In return, the school gives her a break on the following year's tuition. (At the same school, a teacher provides private tutoring for a student, who details her car as payment.)

If you join a barter network, you will usually have to pay a one-time membership fee as well as transaction fees and perhaps a monthly maintenance fee, but there are plenty of advantages that make the investment worthwhile. For one thing, you'll be given a credit line that allows you to buy essentials from other members of the network before your own goods or services have been sold into the system. Also, barter networks participate in reciprocal relationships with other networks nationwide and even worldwide, so you will have access to a huge variety of goods and services, and the likelihood of finding an interested customer or client is that much greater.