The simplest, easiest way to boost your business and your income is a joint venture, which is a partnership with another person or business to benefit everyone involved, including customers and clients.
How does a joint venture work?
For example, if you own a shoe store—online or offline—you could contact a clothing store and offer them a 20% off coupon to give to their customers with each purchase. This coupon builds customer goodwill toward the clothing store owner and gives their customers an incentive to visit your store, building your prospect and customer lists.
In return, you could offer your customers a coupon for the clothing store. Both of you have access to new customers and more opportunities to sell. Joint ventures are a win-win-win situation—everyone involved gains something.
Joint ventures are the perfect way to boost your business.
The advantages of joint ventures are many, but here are a few of the most important pluses:
1. Done properly, a joint venture costs you little or nothing, and carries little to no risk.
2. Easily and quickly create multiple active and passive streams of income and diversify your business, with no more worry about holding on to specific accounts or clients. Once you know how to JV, if you lose one income stream, you can simply add a new one.
3. Work with partners in several different industries if you wish. The opportunities to expand your business and your bank account are limited only by your imagination—and best of all, you don’t need to be an expert in the industries you partner with.
4. Use your leverage to compete with the top businesses in your field and be paid accordingly.
5. Build high-quality prospect and customer lists faster and cheaper than you could on your own. These lists are gold to you, as you can market to them at will.
6. Expose your product or service to a wider audience and cement your position in your own market.
7. Snowball your business success. When you become skilled at joint ventures, you’ll see opportunity everywhere and know exactly how to capitalize on it.
Be selective in your choice of joint venture partners.
While joint ventures are by nature low risk and low cost, you must do your homework before you agree to a JV. You need the right people to make a joint venture work, so your first step is to screen potential partners. Ensure they are serious, honest, and dependable, because you want to work only with winners who see the potential of the JV. Don’t be afraid to ask for and call references or clients.
After you have screened partners, decide what you wish to offer. Be clear on what you will do and what they need to do, the financial split, the time frame for the JV, and the exit strategy in case something goes wrong. Put everything in writing, and have your lawyer look it over before you ask your partners to sign. Time and careful thought spent here will help to avoid misunderstandings later.
Have you ever participated in a joint venture, and what were your results?
