Ormita Commerce Network

Save cash

• Make purchases from new sales rather than existing cash
• Reduce cost of warehousing
• Offset many costs of doing business, travelling, and living
• Reduce cash borrowings and subsequent interest
• Repay shareholder loans in trade instead of needed cash
• Goods and services procured always turn out to be cheaper than they would have been with cash, since there are purchased from the wholesale cost to produce the buyers own product or service (spare time = little cost, products sold = the difference between the wholesale and retail price)
• Opportunity to convert excess capacity into cashless donations for which a tax-credit can be received

Realise value from underperforming assets

• Trade excess capacity for already budgeted for goods or services
• Employee incentives – travel, entertainment, gifts, perks & bonuses
• Receive more value than through discounting or liquidation
• Conversion of bad debts into needed goods or services

Increase asset base

• Add new customers without any additional advertising cost
• Increase overall company revenue
• Improve shareholder value
• Add new product lines which are purchased on barter
• Participants can trade regardless of the amount of cash in the community or other external economic factors

Borrower advantages

• No interest charged on borrowed trade credits
• Purchases are funded through the sale of the borrowers own goods and services (they are obliged to sell their own services to repay the debt)
• Loans are provided on the basis of what the borrower can produce / sell – not their current turn-over
• Borrowed funds guarantee additional sales for the borrowing group
• If a loan is repaid through selling unsold product or spare time then the cost is minimal
• If a loan is repaid through selling product for retail price then the cost is higher but less than it would be if the loan was repaid with cash

Increase cash sales

Referrals

Opportunity to convert lost capacity into advertising and marketing

Purchase of additional products on barter for resale in the cash economy

Valued customer give-aways and prizes

More market exposure

• Another advertising outlet
• Turns downtime into an increased work portfolio
• Increased customer base
• Increase number of potential word-of-mouth referrals
• Greater exposure to the market of your product or service offerings

Expanding market reach

• Risk-free method of purchasing / trialling different methods of advertising
• Facilitate trade between groups historically not likely to trade
• Build new customer bases away in new areas and use these as a base for references and referrals to acquire cash-paying customers

Repeat business

• Take away customers from the competition
• Suppliers become customers of your business group
• Expanded group of customers

Provides alternate revenue sources

• Allow for the exchange of goods and/or services in asset-rich, cash-poor communities
• Provides additional customers without significantly greater advertising cost

Local asset protection

• Stocks of unused goods become mobilized, people become employed, and those traditionally at the “bottom” of the economy like home-makers, farmers and unskilled labourers find a place in the economy, and through it, in society
• Opportunities for local import substitution are increased
• Community relations and standards of living improve
• Ensures that more local assets stay within the community
• Economies of scale, transfer pricing, and capitalising on cheap Third World labour or raw materials enables larger multinational and interstate manufacturers and retailers to tip the so-called “level playing field” in their direction, to the detriment of local businesses

Builds community networks

• Because exchanges plug members into a local information network, it provides new or isolated residents living in a local community with an instantaneous community support system, which avoids the embarrassment of introductions to strangers

Local welfare

• To recognize, value and develop the abilities and skills of the members
• Community wealth is not related to the amount of cash in a community, but the amount of assets, capacity and skills
• Promotes local entrepreneurship
• By increasing access to asset creation by the poorest members of society, the gap between the richest and poorest members of society is reduced
• Addresses the need of fair trade between cash poor / cashless groups (school age, elderly, infirmed etc)
• Creates loyalty and long-term relationships between participants

Efficiency

• Companies may elect to use the ‘pool’ instead of using first-line sales people to market special, redundant or unsuccessful lines in order to maximise sales for their latest or core products
• Time / excess capacity are a priceless non-recoverable, non-recyclable limited commodities; selling under-utilized time and capacity means greater wealth for the seller and buyer
• Both unsold products and services can be on-sold without loosing their value

Cost

• Cost to acquire preferred / environmentally sustainable products is reduced
• Greater purchasing power = more flexibility to acquire environmentally sustainable products

Pollution

• Wastage is not primarily created because of over-consumption, it is created because of over-production and inefficient use of what is produced (throwing away instead of on-selling or recycling)
• Less travel and transport required when dealing with local markets
• More efficient use of assets
• Developing and experiencing new habits as consumers