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## THE POWER OF BARTERING: A SMALL BUSINESS SURVIVAL STORY

By Felicity Evans

Money editor, Wales

### December 1, 2023

#### Updated: December 2, 2023


**The boss of a small business that nearly “ran out of money” has described how a bartering system helped to turn things around.**

Sondra Butterworth founded RareQol, a non-profit social enterprise which supports people with rare diseases, during the pandemic. As the business faced rising prices and limited resources, it struggled to survive. But Dr. Butterworth realized that a system of swapping skills and services could turn things around. Inspired by the way people in her village of Llandrillo, Denbighshire, supported each other, the community psychologist leveraged her expertise to barter skills with other people and organizations. This system of bartering helped her business to not only survive, but thrive.

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“RareQol could have closed,” Dr. Butterworth said. “[But] earlier this year we actually managed to put a big conference on with no money because so many people would help us. Someone would do something for someone and then they’d swap, like bartering, and I thought ‘this is a sustainable model. This could work in other areas’.”

Libby Humphris, 36, from Cardiff, is one of those people to offer her skills to RareQol and get something in return. In return for the support she gets from RareQol, she uses her expertise in social media and health to raise the business’s profile – which gives her “a sense of purpose”.

Dr. Butterworth is planning another conference for 2024 and Ms. Humphris is getting involved. “I’m going to be helping Sondra with social media, raising awareness of the symposium happening and also the planning behind the scenes, putting my patient voice to helping direct what direction it goes in,” she said.

Another contributor is therapeutic art practitioner Anna Amalia Coviello. The 27-year-old founded her business, a mobile community art space called Well Wagon, during the Covid-19 pandemic. “The main ethos that we share is that we are interested in having people’s stories heard,” she said. “Sondra’s amazing at networking and I’m good at the craft so together we merge into this really great system.”

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### ‘It’s got to work, because there’s no money’

Social enterprises are businesses with social, charitable, or community-based objectives. There are nearly 3,000 of them in Wales, according to the development agency Cwmpas. But a 2022 survey found many had been affected by a reduction in public funding, the cost of energy, and high prices.

Glenn Bowen, director of enterprise at Cwmpas, said many social enterprises were finding creative ways to cope. “One of the factors that make social businesses slightly more resilient is the number of stakeholders that are engaged in that business,” he said. “When things get tough for a commercial business, you’ve got your bank and shareholders and the investors. But within the social business, you have your membership from a broader community that you can fall back on.”

Despite continuing financial pressures, Dr. Butterworth is optimistic for the future. “I think it’s going to work. I think it’s going to be sustainable,” she said. “It’s got to work because there’s no money. So we’ve got to build on something that will help our communities. It’s got to be a feedback loop.”

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