YARD JOBS

These complementary partnerships benefit all the businesses involved if set up correctly with the right partner. Here’s a powerful but simple example of a JV that many businesses can take advantage of to grow their small business fast. It is a highly efficient method of increasing business profits by teaming up with another partner whose business is non-competitive and offers a highly valuable asset, a highly responsive client list that would be interested in your products or services. By tapping into this hidden goldmine, small businesses can save thousands of dollars in marketing expense to reach their target clientele while achieving the goal of boosting the bottom line. The business offering the vehicle in which to reach these clientele, the client list, benefits from offering complementary products and services that it does not sell and makes a cut of the sales generated from marketing to this list.

Here are 5 tips for joint venture success:

1. - Choose your partners carefully. A joint venture has greater chance of being successful if partners have an excellent reputation. An essential component to good team building is having the right partners. They must be trustworthy and have a high level of integrity.
2. Joint ventures involve extensive team building effort because it is a relationship between two parties and if the relationship is to last, it must be nurtured and kept going. Both parties must be able to trust each other and deliver on each other’s promises. To find the right partner, perform solid market research and approach only businesses you would want to do business with long term. If you want to form a partnership with a certain company, make sure that its business practices are in-line with yours. It would be very difficult for you to form a reliable team with people who lack motivation or professionalism, so you should look for well-trained, open-minded potential partners. - Know what to expect from the beginning of any JV relationship. Know from the start what your goals are, what you want to accomplish, and see if your goals are attuned with the partner. Each company should come up with a marketing plan and clearly specify what is expected from their potential partners.

Plan your strategy ahead of time and make sure you cover all the legal aspects stipulated in your joint venture contract, like resource availability and management, special allocations, mutual gains, deductions and income issues. Stick to the business development plan and establish new priorities and goals as you progress. By efficiently managing resources and by maintaining a good, competitive business policy, you will secure the longevity and the success of your business. - Draft proposals like mini-sales letters. Compose a professional proposal letter explaining the advantages of the joint venture in a convincing way. Keep it short, clear, concise and coherent while briefly introducing your business and why they should do business with you. Remember to tune in to the radio station your prospective JV partner listens to, WIIFM or What’s In It For Me.

If you want to propose a joint venture to anyone you have to give them a really good reason why they should do it. Otherwise, they will most likely decline your proposal. Big, successful companies receive many joint venture offers so you have to stand out. You should educate them about the advantages and the benefits of choosing you over the others. If this partner happens to be a dream partner, stay persistent as persistence demonstrates sincerity and determination to make it work for the potential JV partner.

- Avoid shooting too high with your offers. If you are a smaller business, do not target your offer to a large company first as it will most likely be thrown away. Instead of aiming too high at this point, establish successful joint ventures with small companies in order to get noticed by the bigger, powerful ones. Establish a reputation as a solid business owner who knows how to turn joint ventures into gold for their partners. Businesses naturally gravitate towards successful businesses. Remember to toot your own horn by announcing JVs through press releases and/or articles in trade magazines. As your business expands, the competition will quickly become aware of your presence, and there is a chance that powerful companies might come up with proposals of joining forces with your company.