Steve Nicholas, an entrepreneur and business owner for over three decades provides practical business experience and marketing expertise to his ITEX members. This is an opportunity for the members to utilize what he has learned about bartering over the past 30 years.
First Hand Story
“With every business I have owned, I have traded goods and services with other business owners for what they had to offer. “What do you have to trade”, was always my final closing question when I was pushing for a sale. Once, as the owner of a bedroom specialty store, I traded a floor model mattress set for two sides of beef. Yep, the whole cow! The deal was done and I hadn’t given a thought about where I was going to keep the frozen beef. I called a few used appliance stores and was able to trade ½ the cow for a freezer. When I returned to my office, I had a call from a friend that knew of my predicament. That call lead me to selling my side of beef to my friend’s family member for cash. As a matter of fact, it was more cash than I originally was going to sell the mattress set for. Now, without a need for a freezer, I sold it for cash! That particular trade was “the one” that flared my passion for barter. I often refer to it as my cash cow story.”
The ITEX Member
When Steve became a member of ITEX, he immediately understood the value of being involved in a network of nearly 13,000(at that time) like-minded business owners to sell his products to. He parlayed the new-found income (“blue dollars”, as he likes to refer to them) into business building tools that he would have to otherwise paid cash for.
The ITEX Franchisee
When offered the prospect of purchasing the exchange in Olympia, WA, Steve jumped at the opportunity. Through the focused efforts of Steve and his staff, the exchange has opened an office in Spokane, WA and has added valued members as far away as Chicago, Michigan and New York.
Away From Business
Aside from his zeal for his business, Steve enjoys spending time with his wife, Nancy, their family and friends. Steve & Nancy enjoy traveling, gardening, remodeling projects around their home and just “hanging together”. Steve is an avid fly fisherman. While standing knee deep in a pristine mountain stream trying to out-think the elusive Cutthroat trout, he often dreams of finding one more cash cow. Where’s the beef?