We are pleased to welcome our newest partner bizunlimited to LookupPage! Judith Hunt, CEO & Founder of bizunlimited shares her story with the LookupPage Blog.
"I must have been asked a thousand times in the last 4 years why I liquidated every asset I ever had to create a bit of technology
The answer has always been vague – “well, no-one else had done it so I thought I’d have a go…” Or “The only alternatives out there are pretty appalling!”. The truth was I didn’t know. I was going to make it work and nothing would stop me. My good friend and advisor Lynne Brooke says I’m a steamroller - not an attractive description but nonetheless accurate. Inexorable I suppose.
Let me explain.
In 2003 I was close to bankruptcy. An ocean racing campaign I’d managed had crumbled when we lost our racing yacht and the insurance didn’t pay out. As a result I had no business and was penniless. Just 9 months before we were on the point of signing up a sponsor and were confident we could attract more financial support as long as we could get in the race – after all, you can’t win a race if you’re not in it. It’s become my philosophy in business and in life.
So we were contenders. An international sponsor within our grasp, a superb boat and a winning team. Then 9/11 happened and our sponsor and lifeline withdrew leaving us with 2 months to the race to find £40,000. We did it. He got into the race and he won the race. How we did or rather how I did it was a thing of beauty. I used barter. That ancient, simplistic form of trade that bypasses advertising, banking and distribution. Simply puts one individual in front of another so they can say ‘it’s a deal’.
In fact I had access to 400 individual business owners who through membership of a trade exchange in London did business with each other buying and selling products and services amongst themselves without using cash. The owners of the trade exchange acted as third party record keepers, logging all the sales and purchases among the community. They would then charge a cash fee to the users for helping them with the transaction. After all they got the businesses together, showed them how to use the system and promoted the various businesses to each other. They also created the ‘currency’ the barter£ that was used to transact in the group.
The system was based on pooled bartering so that unlike traditional barter you didn’t have to be in the market for a pig when the other guy wanted you to plough his field. You did the trade and ‘banked’ the value you received and when you were ready to buy something you wanted you bought it from one of the businesses in the pool.
I hadn’t used the system until faced with the failure of the ocean racing campaign before we’d even started, when I turned to the directory of businesses one August day in 2002 and started calling people.
In two weeks we had sign makers applying logos on the hull and sails for barter£’s. Hotel groups gave us vouchers for accommodation in the UK and France for the start of the race. Printing firms did our press packs. Restaurants bartered their unused space with us for press and sponsor presentations. A telecoms company bartered land and mobile calls. A hire car company traded a van so we could get about. And a courier company agreed to carry back the yacht in a container on one of their freighters. I went into £37,000 of barter debt in the system to get our star to the start-line… and had only to trade my services –my event management skills – to get back into the 'black' with the exchange.
It worked – we accomplished what we needed to do and I realised how powerful this system could be. I had to work very hard to make it work. The members weren’t on line. I had to persuade, cajole and inspire to get these business owners to deal with me – they had no idea what a racing yacht looked like or what a racing campaign was all about.
When everything went pear shaped, I used the exchange again to pay for basic services like ADSL, telephone calls, mobile phone bills, printing and ink cartridges, photo copy paper. I also used it for client services which I then charged on for conventional £’s including hotel rooms, venue space for seminars, conferences, product launches, client gifts, hospitality and promotions such as holidays. And when the little trade exchange that had been my lifeline for 2 years went into liquidation when its US parent scuttled for cover in the aftermath of 9/11, I decided to build my own. Just better. Online, built like a bank but one that businesses would like!
The result is called bizunlimited. We launched quietly in 2007 and are working with other networks to grow our trading base. We’re also franchising the concept in the UK and internationally, so if anyone’s interested call me.
We want businesses to rethink money or rather, rethink the value they have in their business. Conventional cash is scarce and expensive. Our community currency (we call it Credible Currency) is abundant. It would be: it is created the second you transact with another business in the community. And Credible Currency is designed to be mixed with cash so you get to cover your cost of materials.
As of late March we have over 200 members and want 1500 users by June 2008. The more businesses we work with the more choice small businesses will have in how they do business. Operating without the national currency is liberating. It's a collaborative process and brings with it so many value benefits from the relationships you build. And we show you how it’s done and how you can get really good at it. Our programme of seminars, workshops and networking events are meant to bring real value to membership, after all, people do business with people not websites.
We want to grow so we are offering the first 1500 businesses who join their first 12 months’ subscription absolutely free. If you’d like to join us, just visit the website www.bizunlimited.com and sign up online!"
Written by: Judith Hunt, CEO & Founder bizunlimited
