# Silvatree

> A Capacity Exchange is a B2B network where UK SMEs sell spare capacity (unsold time, unfilled rooms, empty seats, surplus stock) for Silva instead of cash, then spend Silva on real business expenses. Silvatree is a Capacity Exchange designed as a modern, structurally safer evolution of traditional Trade Exchange models.

Silvatree owns and operates the Capacity Exchange model in the UK. Silva is a unit of account (1 Silva = £1 for record-keeping), not money. Silvatree is not a bank and never lends.

## Key pages
- [Silvatree homepage](https://silvatree.co/): what a Capacity Exchange is and how UK SMEs use it.
- [About Silvatree](https://silvatree.co/about): who Silvatree is, what Silva is, and how the exchange stays safe.
- [Silvatree FAQ](https://silvatree.co/faq): straight answers on the model, Silva, safety and fees, and getting started.
- [Silvatree Blog](https://silvatree.co/blog): articles on the Capacity Exchange model, idle capacity and cashflow.
- [Do You Have to Sign a Personal Guarantee to Trade Your Spare Capacity?](https://silvatree.co/blog/do-you-need-a-personal-guarantee-to-join): Why credit-line exchanges ask a director to guarantee the debt, what BBX's and Bartercard's rules say, and why a Capacity Exchange has nothing to guarantee.
- [Who Are You Actually Contracting With When You Join a Trade Exchange?](https://silvatree.co/blog/who-are-you-contracting-with): Before fees or network size, find out which single entity holds your account, whose law governs the contract, and which forum decides a dispute.
- [A 90-Day Plan for Putting Idle Capacity to Work](https://silvatree.co/blog/90-day-idle-capacity-plan): A staged, three-month plan for listing spare capacity carefully, watching what actually sells, and scaling only once real trades prove it works for your business.
- [Be Everywhere Your Best Buyers Are](https://silvatree.co/blog/be-everywhere-your-best-buyers-are): A practical guide to showing up where buyers already gather, through honest video, borrowed audiences, consistent content and a simple community, without a bigger ad budget.
- [Build a Resilient, Profitable Business Without Cutting Costs First](https://silvatree.co/blog/build-a-resilient-profitable-business): Protect your visibility, stack value instead of discounting, track profit not revenue, keep adapting, and fund it all with idle capacity you already own.
- [The Reserve Sitting Next to Your Cash Reserve](https://silvatree.co/blog/capacity-as-a-cash-reserve): Your cash reserve protects wages and tax. Your spare capacity is a second reserve, and it can fund the marketing, training and kit you keep deferring.
- [The Capacity Profit Multiplier: When Filling Capacity Beats Chasing Sales](https://silvatree.co/blog/capacity-profit-multiplier): A worked, illustrative comparison of what a modest utilisation lift is worth in profit against chasing the same growth through new cash customers.
- [Why a Real Limit Sells Harder Than a Fake One](https://silvatree.co/blog/honest-scarcity-selling): Countdown timers that quietly reset and "only 3 left" banners on stock that restocks nightly cost you trust. A genuine cap on seats or slots, stated plainly, is what actually persuades a sceptical buyer.
- [How to Build a Referral Programme That Actually Gets Used](https://silvatree.co/blog/how-to-build-a-referral-programme): A practical guide to building a structured referral programme for a UK SME: when to ask, how to ask, the reward that feels generous, and the honesty rules that keep it trustworthy.
- [How to Calculate Your Idle Capacity](https://silvatree.co/blog/how-to-calculate-your-idle-capacity): A simple three-number method for working out what your unsold time, space and stock are worth over a year, and how much of that figure is genuinely worth listing.
- [How to Get More Customer Reviews Without Buying Them](https://silvatree.co/blog/how-to-get-more-customer-reviews): A practical guide to systemising review collection at the right moment, and turning the proof you gather into something that actually keeps selling.
- [How to Reactivate Past Customers](https://silvatree.co/blog/how-to-reactivate-past-customers): A practical guide to waking up the customers and old leads you've already paid to find: how to segment the list, what to say, and when a list is too stale to bother.
- [How to Spend Your Spare Capacity](https://silvatree.co/blog/how-to-spend-your-spare-capacity): A practical guide to what you can actually buy with Silva, what stays in cash for now, and what to do if the network doesn't yet supply what you need.
- [The trade exchange worked. Then I learned what it couldn't fix.](https://silvatree.co/blog/how-trade-exchanges-evolved): Ian Jones ran Bartercard businesses in four countries. Twenty years inside the credit-line trade exchange taught him what its structure could never fix, and why Silvatree is built the way it is.
- [Split the Price: How Hybrid Payments Save a Deal](https://silvatree.co/blog/hybrid-payments-cash-and-capacity): How a hybrid price, part cash and part Silva, lets you win a deal cash alone would lose and fill capacity that would otherwise go unsold.
- [The Risk Line Your Balance Sheet Never Shows](https://silvatree.co/blog/idle-capacity-and-your-balance-sheet): Idle hours, empty rooms and slow stock behave like a hidden cost line. Here's how to see that risk on your books and put it to work instead of losing it.
- [Make Every Sales Conversation Count](https://silvatree.co/blog/make-every-sales-conversation-count): Five points where a sale you already have on the line quietly turns into a no, and how to fix each one without discounting or overselling.
- [Monetise the Customers You Already Have](https://silvatree.co/blog/monetise-the-customers-you-already-have): A practical guide to getting more from the customers, list and reviews you already have: better email, a smaller list that buys, referrals and proof that turns hesitation into a sale.
- [Someone Else Already Has the Customers You're Trying to Reach](https://silvatree.co/blog/partner-marketing-with-borrowed-audiences): How UK SMEs use joint ventures and partner-driven funnels to reach customers who already trust another business, and how to make the arrangement fair.
- [Plug the Leaks in Your Sales Funnel](https://silvatree.co/blog/plug-the-leaks-in-your-sales-funnel): Five places most UK SMEs lose customers they've already paid to attract, and how to fix each one before spending another penny on new traffic.
- [Should You Cut Marketing in a Downturn?](https://silvatree.co/blog/should-you-cut-marketing-in-a-downturn): The honest answer on cutting marketing when trading tightens: what it actually costs, when cutting is the right call, and how to keep visibility running without finding new cash.
- [Silvatree vs Bartercard: What's the Difference?](https://silvatree.co/blog/silvatree-vs-bartercard): How Silvatree and Bartercard differ in structure: who issues the currency, who can run a negative balance, and what the rules say on wind-down and exit.
- [Silvatree vs BBX: How Do the Two Models Compare?](https://silvatree.co/blog/silvatree-vs-bbx): How Silvatree and BBX compare on the structural facts in each operator's own rules: who issues the currency, who can run a negative balance, and what happens on exit.
- [Stop Discounting, Stack Your Offer Instead](https://silvatree.co/blog/stop-discounting-stack-your-offer): Discounting trains customers to wait for the next sale and quietly erodes every full-price sale after it. Stacking genuine value around your price protects the margin a discount gives away.
- [The Hidden Cost of Idle Capacity](https://silvatree.co/blog/the-hidden-cost-of-idle-capacity): Idle capacity feels like nothing happening, so it looks free. It isn't. Why an unsold hour, table or van run is a cost you've already paid, and how UK SMEs can start putting it to work.
- [What Are the Alternatives to a Trade Exchange in the UK?](https://silvatree.co/blog/trade-exchange-alternatives-uk): An honest buyer's guide to the alternatives to a UK trade exchange: another credit-line exchange, direct barter, cash discounting, or a Capacity Exchange, and the questions that matter more than the brand.
- [Why Do Trade Exchange Balances Lose Their Spending Power?](https://silvatree.co/blog/why-trade-balances-lose-spending-power): The economics behind trade balances that get hard to spend: how an operator that can issue and spend its own currency inflates prices and dries up liquidity, and the structure that prevents it.
- [Capacity Exchange vs Barter: What's the Difference?](https://silvatree.co/blog/capacity-exchange-vs-barter): How barter, trade exchanges, timebanks and a Capacity Exchange really differ, and why the structure behind a trade is what protects your business.
- [Capacity Exchange vs Trade Exchange: What's the Difference?](https://silvatree.co/blog/capacity-exchange-vs-trade-exchange): How a Capacity Exchange differs from a trade exchange: who can run a negative balance, what happens on wind-down, and why structure beats promises.
- [How Does Silva Work?](https://silvatree.co/blog/how-silva-works): How Silva works in plain English: a unit of account referenced at 1 Silva to £1, earned by filling spare capacity, spent with members, and never cashed out.
- [How to Choose a Trade or Capacity Exchange](https://silvatree.co/blog/how-to-choose-a-trade-or-capacity-exchange): A practical due-diligence checklist for any trade or capacity exchange: twelve structural questions to ask before you join, and why each one matters.
- [Is a Capacity Exchange Safe?](https://silvatree.co/blog/is-a-capacity-exchange-safe): How a Capacity Exchange protects members by architecture, not promises: the non-negative operator rule, the wind-down ranking, and a tamper-evident ledger.
- [The Two-Pot World: Run Your Business on Cash and Silva](https://silvatree.co/blog/two-pot-world-silvatree): Why running your business from two pots, a cash pot you protect and a Silva pot that circulates, keeps cash in the bank while your spare capacity earns.
- [What Is a Capacity Exchange?](https://silvatree.co/blog/what-is-capacity-exchange): A plain-English guide to what a Capacity Exchange is, how it turns spare business capacity into Silva you can spend, and how it differs from a trade exchange.

## Interactive stories
Interactive explainers on spare capacity, cashflow and how a Capacity Exchange works. Each page carries a written summary and takeaways alongside the interactive piece. Figures throughout are illustrative.
- [The £1,000 Mechanic](https://silvatree.co/stories/mechanic-1000): An interactive worked example: why settling a £1,000 bill with your own goods and services rarely costs you £1,000. Pick your trade and see the cost to supply, sector by sector.
- [Two-Pot World](https://silvatree.co/stories/two-pot-world): Play a year in a restaurant: watch spare capacity fill a second pot that pays the cleaning, printing and accountancy bills, and protects the cash pot for wages and rent.
- [Cashflow & Profit Model](https://silvatree.co/stories/cashflow-profit-model): Enter your annual income, idle capacity and costs, and watch a four-step model rebuild around your business: the cash a Capacity Exchange preserves and the profit it can add, without discounting.
- [Cash vs Capacity](https://silvatree.co/stories/cash-vs-capacity): A counter game: one restaurant, its accountant supplied two ways, two months. Same sales, same bill, two very different bank balances at the end.
- [The 100% Silva Lesson](https://silvatree.co/stories/silva-lesson-100): Why does Silvatree ask members to pay 100% in Silva? Run one trade two ways — all Silva, then half Silva and half cash — and watch what happens to the bank balance.
- [Double Betrayal](https://silvatree.co/stories/double-betrayal): Audit five suppliers against two questions: do they ever spend cash with you, and do they send you referrals? If the answer is neither, the relationship is running one way.
- [Banks & Fairy Tales](https://silvatree.co/stories/banks-and-fairy-tales): Ken’s story: imagine a bank account that refills itself with sales from new customers. A parable about the difference between borrowing money and earning it from spare capacity.
- [Trade Exchange vs Capacity Exchange](https://silvatree.co/stories/trade-vs-capacity-exchange): A ledger simulation across 400 members: why an exchange manager with an unlimited overdraft eventually collapses the currency, and why a positive-balance Capacity Exchange cannot.

## Sectors
- [Hotels & stays](https://silvatree.co/for/hotels): The room you don't sell tonight can never be sold again. Silvatree turns your quiet midweek and off-season capacity into Silva to spend across the network.
- [Restaurants](https://silvatree.co/for/restaurants): Fill half-empty midweek services and unbooked private dining. UK restaurants put quiet covers to work and earn Silva to spend across the Silvatree network.
- [Salons & clinics](https://silvatree.co/for/salons): The chairs you don't book and treatment rooms sitting quiet expire by closing. Put them to work and earn Silva to spend across the network.
- [Retail](https://silvatree.co/for/retail): UK independent retailers: put slow-moving stock, quiet hours and shelf space to work, earn Silva and spend it across the network — cash stays in the till.
- [Print & production](https://silvatree.co/for/print): A UK capacity exchange for print, signage and production. Turn idle press hours and quiet studio time into Silva to spend across the Silvatree network.
- [Media & outdoor](https://silvatree.co/for/media): Unsold billboards, unbooked airtime and blank pages can never be re-sold. Silvatree turns UK media inventory into purchasing power to spend across the network.
- [Trades & services](https://silvatree.co/for/trades): Plumbers, electricians, builders and cleaners: turn the gaps between jobs and the quiet weeks into purchasing power. Earn Silva for time you'd otherwise lose.
- [Professional services](https://silvatree.co/for/professional-services): Accountants, solicitors, agencies and consultants: put unbilled hours and bench time to work and earn Silva to spend across the network.

## Getting started
- [Capacity Exchange Readiness Test](https://silvatree.co/readiness-test): A short, honest self-assessment to see whether your business is set up to benefit from trading spare capacity on Silvatree. Ten questions; instant score.
- [Book a Free Capacity Exchange Suitability Call](https://silvatree.co/book-a-call): Book a free, no-obligation call to see if your UK business can trade spare capacity for Silva on Silvatree. Answer a few questions and get an estimate.

- [Full article text for LLMs](https://silvatree.co/llms-full.txt)