How to nullify these 5 joint venture nuisances: Are these gremlins biting you in the butt?

How a joint venture can help you and your business is limited only by your imagination and self-imposed limits. Here are five of those nuisances that my Canadian Joint Venture partner and I have identified:

Gremlin #1: Joint venture partnerships don’t apply to me because they are mostly international, and not local or national.

Have you ever noticed when you visit a restaurant that there are often flyers of surrounding businesses located at their counter? Or maybe you’ve seen at your local bank branch, a bulletin board with people’s business cards? This is a lower committal type of joint venture. Here’s an example of a higher level joint venture: Two business owners meet and strike up a rapport with one another at a Chamber of Commerce business meeting. They decide to become joint venture partners and to subsequently make a presentation to the Chamber members. They can both market to their respective lists, as well as have the Chamber do some marketing for them! It’s a joint venture triad. Entrepreneurs collaborate every day… whether across the street, across town, or across the world. You get to define the level of collaboration, who best to partner with, and how much (if at all) you want to go across global borders. We discuss this in our ebook: Entrepreneurial Joint Ventures Boost Business Success.

Gremlin #2: I don’t have time to look for a joint venture partner.

What if you knew you didn’t have to look for a joint venture partner? That is the actual truth. But you do have to take some kind of action which mixes well with some business activities you likely already engage in. The first and most imperative thing that needs to be done is having a clear overall business goal or business intention. With this at the top of your awareness, you are already attracting potential joint venture partners into your days. Second, you need to engage in conversations with other entrepreneurs or small business owners, which you are probably already doing if you are networking locally and/or globally. If you have marketing materials like a newsletter or ezine, you are engaging in conversation there as well. Third, define on paper your “ideal joint venture partner” with as much clarity as you gave to your business goal or intention. Now, you all that’s left is to listen to your prospect joint venture partners using heightened awareness. Be on the lookout for key words and phrases that will indicate to you: “This is someone to have a joint venture conversation with!”

Gremlin #3: “I don’t have enough money to invest in a joint venture partnership.”

If you knew a product or service would allow you to attract new clients, or even reestablish buying with past or current clients, would it be worthwhile to consider? When you collaborate in a joint venture, the investment is more in time and energy than money. It’s similar to you adding a new product line; it’s an investment. Along with your partner, you will agree on a budget and inventory. While you may need to invest some money in the joint venture, at least this will be broached up front during the Joint Venture Exploratory Discussion, which is covered in the Joint Venture Your Way To The Lifestyle You Love! program which starts Wednesday, March 17th. At any rate, should you decide to use that gremlin, I don’t have enough money”, which is a constricting belief, your conversation will automatically be steered into the “No Deal Zone.” No matter what, it’s important to stay open to what you are investing in, including for what business goal or intention, and what it will bring in return. On the bright side, should you discover you’re in synch with one another financially, then you’ll be ready for the next step: to mutually define the budget with your potential partner.

Gremlin #4: “I don’t feel comfortable splitting half the joint venture profits with a JV partner.”

What happens in a true joint venture partnership is the partners bring skills and resources to the table. It may be that one person, or company, has creative resources for marketing and the other has some marketing infrastructure in place. Additionally, one may be skilled technically and the other at proofreading and editing marketing copy. How skills and resources become blended is discovered during the Joint Venture Exploratory Discussion. It’s part of due diligence. It’s also during this discussion that the partners agree on how how to split the sales, cost of sales and profits. Speaking of which, it’s wise to know up front what one or two entrepreneurial style(s) your partner has. These six unique entrepreneurial styles are addressed is our ebook: Entrepreneurial Joint Ventures: Psychology and Soul. If there are two parties, and those skills and resources balance out, then using a 50/50 sales-costs-profits arrangement is easy to use and acceptable. If there is a mismatch in skills and resources, then more in-depth discussions will bring forth ideas of a more equitable split.

Gremlin #5: “How can a joint venture help me as a…?”

A) Coach?: Hosting a teleseminar with a complementary business, including each other’s promotional material on your corresponding web sites and/or exchanging testimonials or endorsements for each other’s offerings are options open to you.

B) Network marketer?: You could hold a live event in which you would both invite your databases of customers, prospects, and even some of your down line, e.g. Spring Splash, where you feature your new spring line of products and encourage invitees to dress up in their favorite spring rainwear or outfit.

C) Creative entrepreneur?: The obvious answer would be to create a product or service together with another business and offer it as one big package, e.g. Joint Venture Your Way To The Lifestyle You Love!, as Monique MacKinnon and I have.

D) Professional with a business on the side?: Write a referral letter introducing your partner to your clients and recommending their service(s), and vice versa. You and your partner will appreciate this time-saving client attraction technique.

If you’re stuck about the “how” of joint ventures, we would strongly recommend you join our Joint Venture Your Way To The Lifestyle You Love! program, which starts Wednesday, March 17th. To secure your spot today,

We would love your comments to help our delivery of our services to you, and we’d love to receive your “feed forward” (Marshall Goldsmith revolutionary and refreshing take on the word “feedback”)… including suggestions for what else JV-ish you’re desiring to learn more about. In the meantime, we want to thank you for your reading by giving you a F.R.E.E. GIFT. To claim your copies of the Perfect Pair of joint venture success ebooks, Entrepreneurial Joint Ventures Boost Business Success and Entrepreneurial Joint Ventures: Psychology + Soul.