PSU Magazine Winter 2000

ith help from Portland State students, an energetic local entrepreneur is putting a Y2K spin on an ancient concept-bartering. Bianca Hein estimates students have provided the equivalent of $40,000 in assistance to help her develop a barter– ing site on the World Wide Web-– including writing lyrics for an original jingle. "My goal was to launch the e-Trading Post on $1,000," she says. "Thanks in large part to the students, it was up and running on $70.52." Thee-Trading Post at www.e– TradingPost.com is a trading forum in cyberspace-although those who find something they want and have noth– ing to trade can always use cash. Hein developed the idea based on a newspa– per version she published for expatri– ates when she lived in Thailand during the 1980s and 1990s. "I published 5,000 copies every two weeks for 10,000 foreigners," Hein says. "It was matchmaking for people An Internet barter service makes its first deal with talented students. who had things to trade or wanted to find something to trade .for." When she moved to Portland in 1996, Hein spent 18 months working on contract at the Oregon Department of Economic Development. At first Hein fielded up to 30 calls a day from Oregonians seeking money to start or develop small businesses. Although money was typically not available, Hein would ask what the entrepreneur needed to buy. Often she could find free or low-cost sources for their needs. Hein turned her findings into the Small Business Resource Directory for Oregon, an extensive listing of organi– zations, services, and programs that offer free and low-cost help. A chance encounter with Portland State added another freebie notch in the directory. m uring a trade show for the Economic Development Department, Hein met Brad Robertson, then a counselor and now director of Portland State's Business Outreach Program. The program provides counseling for local businesses and matches students and businesses for real-world work experi– ences or free help, depending on which side of the handshake you're on. Leaming that PSU offered busi– nesses free help, Hein added the program to her directory and took a fledgling Web site idea to school. For several months Hein had been work– ing evenings and weekends to develop her trading post on the Intemet– leaming how to design Web pages as a first step. Working with the Business Outreach Program, Hein got individ– ual business counseling and enlisted a succession of student teams to help her speed up her work. One student helped her develop a business plan to see what she would need to charge to make the trading post viable, and how much potential traders would likely be willing to pay. Another student analyzed equipment costs to help her