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Bethanne Dressel loves the business of bartering because it allows her to link companies together and get them what they need.

Dressel and her husband, Bill Stein, started Corporate Barter Solutions this summer. The company has set up a sort of bartering bank where members obtain goods and services in exchange for putting their own goods or services on the market.

Corporate Barter Solutions has members across Colorado and started working the Yampa Valley in earnest in June, Dressel said. The company has about 150 members and is in the process of renting office space in Denver.

"We've always felt that living here in the Yampa Valley, this is, especially in this economy, an amazing tool for businesspeople to be using here," she said. "So we just started marketing in this part of the world."

Members pay $15 a month to participate and 6 percent on each trade. Corporate Barter Solutions handles the paperwork, sending a statement to members once a month and tax forms at the end of the year. The Internal Revenue Service views trade exchanges as a form of external bookkeeping, Dressel said.

"What CBS does is, we recruit members, and we run the organization and kind of run the master economy," Dressel said. "We put members together; we match them up; we make sure trades happen; we make sure people play nice in the sandbox."

Stein has 23 years of experience in the bartering world and ran Trade Exchange of the Rockies. Dressel worked with him in the barter industry for five years. They said they were hooked. Bartering "gets in your blood," Dressel said.

Dave Sypert said he has bartered for years but joined Corporate Barter Solutions just last month. He owns Giovanni's Ristorante with his wife, Jennifer. The couple used CBS to get tile work done at their home, Dave Sypert said.

"It's definitely a program that's, I think, good for everybody involved," he said.

The system is beneficial partly because businesses don't have to barter directly with one another, Stein said. So if a restaurant needs $300 worth of T-shirt printing and a T-shirt business needs $300 worth of something else, they can find it through the bartering bank.

No cash changes hands.

Dick Sumerfield owns Verlo Mattresses in Boulder and Longmont and said he has been bartering for 20 years.

"I use it primarily for adver

tising and things I need," Sumerfield said. "For instance, I needed signage for my new location; I needed a forklift; I needed painting done; I needed lighting done."

He sees it as an alternative type of currency. Plus, Sumerfield said, bartering brings him business he might not otherwise have.

"I don't want to necessarily change cash customers into trade customers," he said. "That's not a good plan, but certainly bringing people in because it saves my cash."

Corporate Barter Solutions members have an account that tracks their spending. They can barter for services and trade and then transfer credits to other accounts, or members can request CBS dollars to use at other businesses that participate. Those who barter with a restaurant, for example, could pay for a meal with CBS dollars but still would pay the sales tax and tip.

Businesses that barter are keeping workers busy who might otherwise be sitting still during a slow period, Dressel said.

"You'll see underutilized and unused capacity a lot," Dressel said.

For example, she noticed that a recent forecast put lodging at 45 percent occupancy for a Saturday night. Hotels could trade those open rooms, which they pay overhead for anyway, and get a service they need.

Stein used the example of a house painter. The painter barters his services and paints someone's house. The truck outside, bearing the company's name, attracts a neighbor seeking an estimate. That barter deal therefore could lead to a cash sale, Stein said.

"The most successful businesspeople take advantage of being exposed in the marketplace," he said.

Dave Sypert has seen the effects of that. Corporate Barter Solutions is linked to a global network that allows people to barter beyond the region, and a Houston woman came in to use bartering dollars at Giovanni's. She brought others along who paid in cash.

"So not only does Dave get his cash out of it, he also got exposure," Dressel said.

She and Stein have been in Steamboat Springs for about five years. They love the area and are part of the community, Dressel said. The couple also operates Affordable Flooring Warehouse.

"This isn't where you've got nameless, faceless people at the end of an Internet site," she said. "We're local people. : We're real, live people that have got a lot of experience in this industry."