Starting on a Shoestring

July 2009

...some businesses will make barter deals instead of insisting on cash payments. Christine Marchuska started an eco-friendly fashion label, cmarchuska LLC, in November, using $40,000 in savings and severance she got after being laid off from Wall Street.

To keep her marketing costs low, she has found young photographers, videographers and models who will work free to get material for their portfolios. A friend who is starting a public-relations firm is handling publicity. “It usually it turns out so much better because everyone is so driven,” Ms. Marchuska says. “They’re working harder.”

Of course, bartering works better for services than for products. It’s easier, say, for a model to pose for a couple of hours in exchange for exposure than for a fabric maker to hand over free cloth. And the practice is more common for start-ups and very small businesses with limited cash.