Barter Black®, a community for Black entrepreneurs to exchange goods and services with each other, will relaunch in a bigger and better fashion on Monday, August 12, 2024. However, before Monday’s relaunch, Barter Black® invites users to celebrate with them during the pre-launch party that will take place on Sunday, August 11, 2024.
“I call it a relaunch party because I want us to celebrate this, and I appreciate everyone who has helped me along the way to get here. But we’re going to have a networking session where you break out, and you meet (other users) because I want people to get to know each other. That’s one of my biggest things. Like, before we even start, I want you to actually meet people who are there, not by just posting your business in the chat. No, let’s get face-to-face with people.,” says the company founder, Nicole Murphy. The launch party will also include a live demonstration of the upgraded platform.
Basically, Barter Black is similar to Fiverr or Upwork but for Black business owners. Murphy notes that Black Americans are starkly underrepresented in employer-operated businesses. This means that while there are thousands of Black-owned businesses, most are owned and operated by solopreneurs.
“The truth is that if we were to pass away yesterday, our businesses would die with us, too, so we have to ask our questions. I mean, we have to ask ourselves questions like, “Why are we trying to grow this business?” or “Why have we started this business?” Because statistics show us that it’s not going to be a sustainable business.” Murphy explains that we’re not going to grow it as far as we think we are, but we have to start hiring. “I love it when people finally get the help they need, and they’re like, “Oh, the weight is lifted!” Okay. This is how it feels when you hire, making things so much easier. I believe that people are going to be building legacies with the new Barter Black platform because they’re going to get the help that they need, and they’re going to grow even more.”
Nicole developed the concept in 2020 and launched the original platform in 2022. However, she says she’s spent the past two years educating Black business owners about bartering because many are more concerned with making sales. “Educating people is the biggest challenge because I feel like we focus a lot on getting the sales in Black entrepreneurship. We need to make the money; we need that fast. But a lot of times, we haven’t focused on our foundation of what can actually help us grow our business faster. Like I said, we like to do the easy work or the fun work first and then the hard work we put off. But educating has been our main thing throughout, from the start and even until now. Even though more people know about Barter Black, we are still educating on how the process can work and how you can grow and scale your business using it.
As mentioned before, Barter Black will provide services like graphic design, accounting, virtual assistance, and more. Black business owners can leverage their skills and expertise with other business owners to obtain the services they need to keep their businesses afloat. There are two plans that users can subscribe to. Depending on which plan users decide on, they can join and receive $250 Barter Bucks or $500 Barter Bucks to make purchases with. This allows users to shop even if their services are not needed at that time, but they will still have something that they can exchange with others.
Right now, Barter Black is offering an early adopter program. So if anyone signs up before August 12, they will pay the activation fee and the one monthly membership fee, and they’ll get six months for free. They’ll also get an onboarding call with Murphy, an early adopter badge on their profile, and a gift box.
To register for the relaunch party, click here or visit www.barterblack.io.
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