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How This Founder Created A Share For Share Community


Starting a business can seem daunting, especially when it comes to financing the operation. Many people fund the idea themselves or take out loans or try to raise money. What about bartering? Why does the old method of exchanging goods or products get overlooked? Before money, dating back to 6000 B.C., people traded goods and products to survive and grow the community. Once money became popular, bartering became reserved for children learning how to negotiate when wanting one of their friend’s toys. But what if bartering could be the one thing that could help entrepreneurs build a brand, make connections and start a company with minimal financial obligations?

Melissa Barker, founder of Women Entrepreneurs Inc (WE), a women’s networking platform, saw the value in the bartering system and how others could benefit. 

The idea stemmed from her frustration from trying to learn everything about starting a company. Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted with all the business books and webinars, she thought there had to be a better way to access the information. Barker had a vision of a community where women could barter their knowledge to help each other grow their respective businesses. For example, a woman needing financial advice might barter her know-how with a woman in need of legal assistance. Her mission was to give busy women who owned businesses the skills they needed as quickly as possible. 

“There were a lot of networking events where it was having cocktails and exchanging business cards, but I wanted a lot more than that,” Barker explains. I literally wanted to be able to say, ‘Hey, I’m an expert in marketing, but I need legal help. I would be willing to give you feedback on your website in exchange for you to give me some legal advice.’ That was really the spirit of it. If you join our group, you’ve got to be willing to do that; it’s got to just be more than lip service or being connected or networking. I wanted to create a share for share community.”

Barker began her career working for a large marketing firm before transitioning over to marketing at The Coca-Cola Company. After giving birth to her son, she realized she wanted to raise him in a more suburban area than in the hustle and bustle of city life. She thought having experience at a large well-known company would make it easy to find another job. The reality of her moving out of the city was that it came with a $30,000 pay cut. 

She decided to open her own marketing firm. She quickly realized there was a lot to the operation of running a business that she didn’t fully understand or know. To not fail her clients, she focused more on the projects than spending the time necessary to become a great business owner.

“I did understand graphic design and storytelling, but I really had no clue how to run a business,” Barker humbly states. “My business wasn’t legally protected. I got ripped off from clients because I didn’t have the right contracts in place. I had a mostly freelance team because when you’re starting out, you don’t have the money to build your dream team. The running of the business was really difficult for me. When you go from working for someone, being an employer, your gaps start to show. The things that you don’t know really start to show.”

After making it through her first tax season as a newbie entrepreneur, she began prioritizing her time. Barker was determined to make her firm sustainable. So she spent hours reading business books to attending workshops and watching webinars. 

“I discovered that I wasn’t a failed marketer at all,” she smiles. “I learned that I really was not acting like a CEO. After I had read all the business books I could read through, sat through all the podcasts I could sit through, that’s actually when I started to reach out to find other entrepreneurs.”

After many coffee meet-ups with other entrepreneurs to learn how they launched their businesses and asking for favors, Barker had the idea for WE. Barker started with 25 members and has now expanded her ecosystem to over 5,000 people in 44 industries across 25 cities. At the crux of WE is the bartering system, both small trades like writing a review to big trades like developing a website in exchange for public speaking coaching. 

As Barker continues to transition as a founder and expand WE, she focuses on the following essential steps:

  • Connect with other entrepreneurs who have done what you want to do. Ask for help. Learn from their mistakes.
  • Strategically build out a plan. It will guide you like a north star, so you don’t become distracted.
  • Find an accountability partner. Having someone to report to drives you to stay the course and makes you walk your talk. 

“When I first started my marketing agency, it was really important for everyone that I was around to know that I was awesome,” Barker concludes. “I needed everyone to think I was really good at what I did. … At networking events, it was never about me learning. It was like, ‘how can I get you to hire me?’ I’ve totally changed from that. I’m more interested in you’re going to remember me and refer me out later to your network than I ever am of turning you into a client. When you begin to think like that, you can build way better relationships.”



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