The Art Of The Joint Venture

There is no quicker or easier way to grow your business than to joint venture with appropriate businesses. The reason that this is so powerful is because of the leverage joint ventures allow you to harness. Doing joint ventures allows you to decisively capitalize on the resources that both you and others are under-utilizing.

These under-utilized resources can be anything from equipment to intangible assets such as services. The joint venture most readers of this ezine will be familiar with is an endorsement emailed to a partners mailing list. One person has a product that is a perfect match for another person‘s existing contacts/list. He asks that person to recommend this product to his list in exchange for a share of the profits generated from resulting sales.

The process described above works beautifully but is often poorly implemented. In order to carry off an effective joint venture, the person proposing the joint venture needs to begin with the interest of his potential partners in mind. He needs to begin by asking, ‘How can I benefit my potential partner and make him want to take part in this deal.’ He needs to ask, ‘What‘s in it for my potential partner.’ He also needs to ask what‘s in it for his potential partner‘s contacts or customers.

First what‘s in it for the potential partner. If you are structuring a joint venture proposal for anyone with a sizable mailing list or contacts list, realize that they probably get more joint venture proposals than they can possibly accept. They don‘t generally want to bombard their subscribers with ‘special offers’ so they will be fairly selective. Therefore, it is essential that your joint venture offer be better than the other offers competing for your potential partners attention.

Since profit is an incentive for anyone in business, one way to stand out from the crowd is to offer a higher than normal commission to your potential partners. If you only offer what anyone can earn by signing up for your affiliate program then you don‘t really offer them any reason to partner with you instead of someone else. To really entice a joint venture partner you should present him with an offer that‘s hard to refuse.

Another way to make your offer stand out from the crowd with your potential joint venture partner is to offer a special price to his customers or maybe a bonus that‘s only available through your partner‘s special url.

Perhaps the most important consideration you should have in-mind when making your joint venture offer is that your potential partner should only want to offer his list members top quality products and services. Therefore, you should only ask him to partner with you in providing his customers with superior products and services. If your products are as good as they should be, it will be fairly easy to find lots of partners. Your job is to provide this level of product and then show potential partners that they are doing a disservice to their subscribers if they don‘t make them aware of your products or services.

The easiest way to show a potential partner the quality of your product or service is to give him a complimentary copy. Make this a part of your joint venture offer so that he can ‘see and feel’ your product. This makes it very easy to get excited about your product and to share its true value with others.

When structuring your joint venture proposal - think long-term. Don‘t get greedy with your partner who is probably doing most of the work in acquiring new customers. Instead consider the backend. What we mean by that is that if you offer a product for say... $20, and it‘s digitally delivered, you can probably afford to give your partner 50 - 70%. If he is offering your product to his list, you are not paying for any advertising, you are only paying for performance. Structure you product line so that you can later offer additional products and services to new customers that your joint venture partners bring in. This is where the real profits are anyway.

Hopefully you offer a full line of somewhat related products. If these products are properly positioned, new customers that joint venture partners send to you are very likely to buy additional products and services from you. With the additional sales to the same customer, you don‘t have the customer acquisition costs, so these sales will usually offer a higher percentage profit. Keep this in mind when you structure your offer for potential joint venture partners. Offer them as much as is practical so that they work really hard to bring you new customers.... customers who will hopefully be customers for a long time.

If you do have your own products and services and you approach joint ventures from this frame of mind you will be unstoppable. Because you place the interests of your partners and potential customers above your own immediate interests, you set yourself up for these same partners and customer to benefit you more in the long-run. That‘s all there really is to structuring a joint venture deal that is irresistible. Make this mindset you own and you‘ll be miles ahead of your competition because they all approach joint ventures with the wrong mindset

If you don‘t have your own product or service, you can still joint venture with others. You just need to examine what valuable and under-utilized assets you have. The same mindset needs to be brought to the table though.

Willie Crawford is an expert on internet marketing, joint ventures, and buying and selling reprint rights.

Best Work At Home Business Option, Network Marketing or Affiliate Programs?

by Montegaza Cristian

Cruise the Internet at any time and it is obvious that many individuals are actively seeking to either start a work at home business, or maintain one. The literature available and the number of programs concerning h^ome b^usinesses attest to this fact, simply by the sheer volume of available materials on the Internet.

A home business of one's own is quite attractive to everyone, as many individuals have lost any faith whatsoever in the "corporate identity" of today due to job lay-offs and closings. Businesses no longer offer their employees the stability and benefits that they once did, and this has led to the "Internet Work-At-Home-Business Boom" of today.

Although there are many ways to make money on the Internet, and in a home business, everything from producing your own goods and services to running an online wholesale storefront, a good choice for many "beginners" is either an Affiliate Program or Network Marketing Program (previously called MLM, or Multi-Level Marketing).

Affiliate Programs and Network Marketing Programs are essentially, "turn-key businesses", in that individuals joining the programs are given a business that is already, for the most part, "in place". A product or service is provided, as well as instructions and support, and there may even be marketing materials and a Website given. Methods of payment are usually provided also, and it is quite reasonable that everyone can start a work at h^ome business in quite a short period of time by choosing to join an Affiliate Program or Network Marketing Program. Many have become quite successful with either of these business models, and there are thousands of new members each and every day.

There are differences, though, in these business models, and care should be taken when joining to ensure that the program most closely fits what the person joining is searching for in a work at h^ome b^usiness. Here then, are the major differences, to guide anyone in their choice of program model:

In Affiliate Programs there may be one or two income levels, with a standard earning percentage. An Affiliate Program can be somewhat easier to market, as the monetary investment is usually smaller, but there is little, if any chance of residual i^ncome (long-term extra cash flow based on multiple earning levels). Affiliate Programs, though, take less maintenance than Network Marketing Programs, and the results can usually be seen sooner, due to their more simplistic nature. Unlike Network Marketing Programs, many Affiliate Programs can be marketed almost entirely online, with very little customer contact.

In Network Marketing Programs, there are many, many levels of income (hence the multi-level idea), leading to more long-term residual income. However, Network Marketing Programs do entail a much larger extent of customer contact, as they require the building of "downlines" to achieve the residual i^ncome, and anyone joining must provide support to their d^ownlines almost continually in order to maintain a certain income level. A Network Marketing Company can usually be somewhat harder to start and maintain, but can grow more easily to the level in which an individual member so chooses.

The choice of one business model or another as a work at home business is rather personal and should be well suited to an individual's personal needs and personality. All in all, if you are a real "people person" who desires a great income, and has a lot of determination, then a Network Marketing Program will be a good choice. On the other hand, if you are somewhat shy, would rather have a program that turns around more quickly and easily, and if you prefer to "work alone", than an Affiliate Program is probably the better choice.

Just remember, when choosing any work at h^ome b^usiness, consider yourself and your needs well, and you will indeed, make the perfect choice.

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Montegaza Cristian is the editor of Work At Home Business Dot - A website dedicated to assist you whatever you're looking for a work at home business.

Since I review business opportunities and internet gurus all day for a living, you can guess I know which ones work and which ones don't. Click here to see how I make my money.