Yesterday, I was talking with another coach about those in our industry who barter their coaching for other services, and whether that’s a good idea or not (this led to a busy thread and debate in “The Coaching Jungle” Facebook group too.)
I’m not a fan of bartering.
I’ve made a lot of trades in my life. As a kid, I traded my Brett Hull rookie card for some Eric Lindros ones (that didn’t work out too well for me.) I’ve also traded some Transformers and G.I.Joe toys back in the day.
But in my experience, bartering is hard to make work in the coaching world.
Those in the pro-bartering camp argue that bartering can be win/win, as long as equal value is being exchanged, and they make some compelling points.
But the difficult thing is to determine equal value. Odds are that one side will end up providing more in the relationship, hurting the overall results.
When no money is being exchanged, the waters can get muddy.
I think that the relationship is strengthened with an exchange of money, as my coaching friend said yesterday. Even if the value of your coaching and whatever it is you’re trading for is the exact same, both parties will be better off paying the other side (even if it’s a wash at the end of the day.)
The debate has passionate supporters on both sides, and also a lot of coaches “on the fence”. Of all the posts in the Facebook group this year, this has been one of the most active.
To check out the debate, and see other interesting conversations about coaching and building a coaching business, you can join the Facebook group here ->
