micro service trading system
hi indie hackers! i am working on a project that i'd love to get some feedback on. my site is in the works as a micro trading system, where small businesses, soloprenuers and makers can barter services, rentable items and more either locally or virtually using an internal credits system, providing them the means to "outsource" the tasks/materials/ideas that they need to grow so they can focus on what they are good at (making or servicing their end product). the problem i have now is i need the service to be up and running so i can finish the damn thing, since there are parts of the development that i can't do that id love to trade marketing or web dev services for ;) does this sound like something that could be successful and would y'all use it?
Interesting idea! If you’re using internal credits, what’s the advantage over just a forum or something where people can meet up and barter services? If credits are involved, why not just use... money?
hey thanks, great questions. the really beneficial part of using an internal credits system is that a traditional bartering system is logistically a one-to-one transaction (person a does x and needs y, person b does y and needs x). But what if person b does y but doesn't need x? My idea centralizes the exchange part of that, so person a does x and gets credits and then purchases y from person b, or person c, or d, or all of the above if they want and those people would get credits for x, y or z.
the idea of using credits is specifically so money is NOT required, let's face it we're all strapped for cash when first starting out or trying to do everything ourselves. and if we could spend our time doing what we love and are good at (the reason we started out in our businesses or projects in the first place!) and collaborate with others who love doing the other stuff then we all can grow and be successful.
Ok gotcha. I get what you're coming from.
My question came about because you're really describing solving the problem that money solves over bartering, but then it's at a very small marketplace, so it's hard for the "credits" market to work efficiently from an economics perspective.
If it was me, I would just make the credits system like a guideline, so it's not restrictive, and people might be just able to judge based on your credits whether you're a net positive or negative contributor. Otherwise I just worry that people might be forced to purchase credits, or end up bartering anyway despite the credits system.
Just my 2c, and I'm no expert haha. Nonetheless, it sounds like a really cool project. Good luck :)
awesome point, thats actually something i was talking to a friend of mine about over the weekend. there is the possibility of having a "buy in" setup where you could get x credits for $, would be helpful to get started.
this part though "people might be just able to judge based on your credits whether you're a net positive or negative contributor", a persons credits are not made public. its like a store credit, money in your account that you use to buy services.
So it's for the things you'd usually ask your friends for, and that you don't have money for to get a freelancer.
Actually quite like the idea.
Shoot me an email about the part you can't do, maybe I can help. Email in my profile.
thanks! ill send you an email
Great idea, fucking hard to execute. But you probably already knew both?
Do you have any specific part that you need feedback on?
thanks! i can say the development of the logistics and design is 95% done now with just a few loose ends and additional features that i need to finish to then move on to copy and marketing. and then work on the app, which is where i'm stuck development wise.
as for feedback, i am looking for people to listen to the idea, give me some feedback on what they think that would look like and function like, how the flow works, create a service and book a service etc. making sure the basic flow makes sense and works well before i build it into an app and then share it with the masses. i set up a beta test site that launched on small business saturday (about a week ago) and i invited a few close friends to test it out and so far and no major complaints, but there also isn't much of anything to "do" on there yet so it is just in limbo at the moment.