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Southside students beat recesson with barter website

Friday, 24 April 2009

THREE enterprising third level students from South Dublin have come up with a novel way of beating the recession. The trio have set up a free website where people can save cash by bartering goods, services and even ideas. Brothers Gerry (21) and Geoff Harte (24), from Donnybrook, along with pal Fionn McDonnell (22), from Dalkey, believe their Swaponomics website will be big hit with individuals and businesses who can barter anything from concert tickets to IT skills. Founder of Swoponomics Gerry Harte, who is currently studying for a master’s degree in finance at Trinity College, said the plight of the increasing number of unemployed people who have valuable skills to offer provided him with the inspiration to establish the site. Reserves “I was hearing a lot of reports that there are many highly skilled people losing their jobs and finding it difficult to get work and I was trying to think of a way that could help reduce unemployment and a way for people to offer their services,” he said. “With unemployed people cash reserves are tight - and I am just using unemployed people as an example – so they are looking for ways to keep consuming but still not waste their tight cash reserves on unnecessary things or things that they could put off for a while. “At the moment there is an accountant using the service and he offered his accounting services to a web designer. He found a web designer who wanted set up his own web design company and needed some accounting assistance, so they got together.” There are also numerous other services the site provides such as a section for members to trade goods for other goods, as well as an 'ideas exchange' to help nurture entrepreneurship and connect budding business people with suitable mentors. Gerry said companies can also use the service and the Swoponomics team are currently trying to build up traffic on the site so that they have something to offer to businesses. “Companies can also use the site and it could help keep costs down,” continued Gerry. “For example, the service could help a company with bad debts. If you are willing to consider payment from one of your debtors by means of accepting their goods or services, as opposed to cash, then it opens up an opportunity for you to arrange something with them so they don’t have to default, which helps both parties.” Happy Ger is happy with the response to the site since it started just over a month ago, as it has already received about 4,000 hits and attracted some 80 members. Similar international sites with Irish members such as Bartercard, SwapThing and U-Exchange have all seen a significant increase in business in recent months. And the JumbleTown and DublinWaste sites, where users give away or sell unwanted goods cheaply, are also more popular than ever. For more information on Swoponomics, contact Ger Harte by email at ger@ swoponomics.com or log on to www.swoponomics.com