Have any joint venture experience?

I've read that joint venture type deals can be quite a successful way of generating revenues and profits for a business.

Does anyone here have any successful or not so successful experiences with joint venture situations they wouldn't mind sharing?

Also, has anyone know of or found any useful information on working with joint ventures deals?

Cheers

Brian:

Joint Ventures (JVs) can also be known as Strategic Alliances. And they can be a VERY lucrative way of making money - generating sales and/or customer lists and increasing turnover.

The trick with JVs is to create a match... lets say you have some kind of women's shoes for sale. What you have to do is list which woman buy your types of shoe and then figure which others businesses sell to those same customers. Then approach those business owners.

What product do you have to sell?

Michael Ross

I have some experience with things close to joint ventures. But not on the net. For some reason people are scared of that to a large extent.

Here is one: I do his tax return each year and he does my web site. This is more of a barter.

Another fellow who is my client occassionally and I his. We put ads together selling both our products and services. He has send tax clients to me. I sent people that had problems with their credit to him and people that needed corporations formed to him. We never actually split fees as of yet. That would be a better joint venture, maybe. I am not real sure about that.

Now we are working trying to service people that want to sell their lotteries, accouts Receivables or notes receivable. We try to find factors to do that for them. We are paid by the Factors and not the prospect. So far this is in its infancy for us

I hope I helped.

I recently offered a person on the net instead of me paying a few for putting my book at his site I would have him tax his fees from the first sales. Then I offered we share 50-50 of the gross.

First this business person did not really understand the difference of barter and Joint Venture. And He considers himself a great guru.

Then he told me he was not comfortable do this.

You go figure.

One of my associates at the school I worked tried several Alliances on the net....never made a dime.

I never tried that so I cannot comment.

PS. What to learn how to succeed in business again and again? Get my FREE 4 Week Course..."The Business Course!" Just Go to my site http://www.Joetrevison.com




http://www.Joetrevison.com

Michael:

What if you don't have a product to sell? I've read that you can broker the JV's and get a slice of the profits. How would you set that up?

I think the main issues would be:

1. locating the right partners (so you need to know what constitutes a good partner - my guess is that it would be someone with a good product but needs to increase revenues and doesn't already have very good access to certain markets)

2. negotiating the agreement (what key isses need to be addressed here other than the profit sharing?)

3. implementation including some form of tracking to ensure all concerned are actioning and recieving what is intended (what are the best ways to track?)

Best,
Brian

> What if you don't have a product to sell?
> I've read that you can broker the JV's and
> get a slice of the profits. How would you
> set that up?

Ok. First things first. Being a JV Deal Maker is TOUGH. Sure. It is appealing. After all, what better way to make money than put two people together for a percentage of every sale that gets made. NO WORK after it has been set up.

BUT

*I* would consider THAT kind of project to be for the ADVANCED JV entrepreneur. NO BEGINNERS ALLOWED kind of thing.

TRUTH is: Businesses owners will more readily deal with other businesses than with a go between.

Knowing this FACT, you can rework how you would approach a JV deal. And that is, by being the other business owner.

So

Instead of trying to match a shoe seller with a dress store... YOU become the shoe seller. YOU get your shoes from the wholesalers. Just like the shoe store does. THEN the dress shop will talk to you. And talk to you as a fellow business OWNER. More respect.

Not saying a deal cannot be brokered by someone. Just that THOSE kinds of deals are BEST left to those who KNOW what they are DOING and NOT someone who is LEARNING.

Like all things... learn FIRST and SMALL. Cut your teeth. GAIN experience. Then - and only then - move on up to the bigger fishies.

You may just find - after YOU have made money by being one of the business owners in the deal - that you don't want to be a JV Deal Broker.

One reason: YOU get a customer list. Deal brokers get nothing but the money. Once the deal is done, money stops flowing. With a list... you get to market to them again and again and again and again and again.

Maybe next time you deal with Mobile Lube Dude - sell mobile lube to those who bought your wonderous shoes. Or mayhaps you sell your shoe buyers some special-blend mountain-grown can't-stop-at-just-one-cup coffee-grounds for their plugers - and if they don't have plungers sell them one.

Putting deals together (brokering) is a headache. Better to BE a PROPER BUSINESS OWNER and put deals together to sell YOUR products to the customers of others PROPER BUSINESS OWNERS.

Wear the marketing cost. Give a profit percentage. Rejoice at the increased sales and extra customers you have.

Can't be bothered with that. Then FINDING is the BETTER OPTION. Better than JV Deal Brokering. Lets REAL BUSINESS OWNERS do their own deal and you get a percentage of it. (Jim Straw has a GREAT course on Finding.)

I know this did not answer your questions - setting it up, guaranteeing payments, etc. That's because learning to walk before being a JV deal broker (run) is more important.

Michael Ross

P.S. Whatever deals you make with these "businesses owners" put it in writing get it in writing.

Thanks Michael for your detailed reply here.

I do understand your point of view and I don't want to be banging on the same drum over and over again - however I do have some additional questions for you. (As they say, one of the critical things to success is ASKING :D)

What specifically do you feel is important for an advanced JV entrepreneur - are you referring to skills, knowledge, contacts and/or other things? I'm asking so that I get a better understanding of what to focus on.

What are the types of problems or "headaches" that can occur when putting together the deals - in addition to ensuring you get paid?

I'm not deterred and understand that it will require some work to get the "formula" down. With your suggestion in mind - approaching as a business owner - I actually do have some thoughts along those lines too.

My original question was to get some feedback on people's real life experiences with this type of deal.

Thanks for your input.

Brian

Brain:

You can ask me all the questions you want. And they can all be related to the ADVANCED form of JV. I won't answer them any different than what you read below - no matter how determined you are...

BEFORE you can be a JV Deal Broker you MUST be able to do a JV between just YOU and SOMEONE ELSE.

I know it is not what you want to hear. But - it is a necessary step. LEARN how to do a basic JV first. DO a basic JV first. Even do a few.

THEN - and only then - will you have the necessary EXPERIENCE to consider being a JV Deal Broker - where you act as a middle man.

TRUST me on this. DO a basic JV first.

Yes. This is repeating what I wrote in previous post. I repeat it because it is IMPORTANT.

DO a basic JV first. LEARN. You will learn the answers to all your questions - how to set up, payment handling, headache solving, etc.

> What are the types of problems or
> "headaches" that can occur when
> putting together the deals - in addition to
> ensuring you get paid?

Expect everything you can think of to go wrong. Mail problems. JV Partner changes their mind problems. JV partner overwhelmed problems. JV partner knows better problems.

Believe-ability. Believe it or believe it. Other people - business owners who do not know you from a crack on the sidewalk - will not believe you just because you say something in a letter. BUT... approach business owners as a fellow business owner - and no tricky tricks here, okay? - and you have better success. They sense you are like them - a real business owner - and not a see ya later guy.

In this sense, just come right out and make your offer. Be straight forward. Tell 'em in plain English...

Dear Brian:

I am writing to you today with regards to a mutually beneficial business proposal.

I own a shoe business and would like to offer my shoes to your customers for a share of the profits. That is, you get 50% of the profit of every shoe we sell to your customers.

If you are interested, or if you have any questions about how it would work, please call me on 555-5555 so we can discuss it.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely yours,

Joe Blogs - manager
Joes Shoes.


You can wait for them to call if you want to. Or, give them a couple of days and call them yourself.

This helps, I trust.

Michael Ross




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Thanks again Michael for taking the time to share your thoughts on this. I do understand your point and the logic in it.

I guess many would like to sprint like an Olympian but you can't get away from starting with the crawl.

Best Brian

Brian:

I'm curious. Why did you ask about doing joint ventures when on your website you already claim to help people do them?

Michael Ross