How to Reaffirm Your JV Commitment

Small business owners and entrepreneurs need to work for a bigger picture or goal. Simply going through the motions each day becomes monotonous and leads to a placid and stale work life.

The same holds true for a joint venture. When you formed your JV with your JV partner, you were most likely excited and enthusiastic about the idea. But even if you are accomplishing the goals you set for your JV, there is no place for complacency. If you feel that you are simply going through the motions with your JV, it may be time to reaffirm your JV commitment.

Revisit Your JV Mission Statement and Keep it on Display

What was your JV mission? Do you even remember? By simply revisiting a mission statement on a frequent basis, you feel the impact of what you set out to do. Sure, you probably wanted to make some money with your JV. But what else did you wish to accomplish? Expand your own skills? Educate yourself about new sales techniques? Perhaps you wanted to provide an essential service to a community in disrepair. Keep your mission in mind constantly and you will rejuvenate your enthusiasm.  

What is the Value of Your JV to the Market and Community?

Remember that your JV was formed with the intent of providing added value with the combination of products and services from both you and your JV partner. Is that value still provided? How about to the community? Does your JV hire outside help and provide jobs? Remember to always keep value in mind when you reaffirm your JV commitment.

Make Your JV Stand for Something Important

If your JV is going to experience continued success, it needs to stand for something important. It could be personal, such as providing added income to you and your family, or maybe even a sense of accomplishment. It could also be external, such as providing a much needed community service. If you know your JV stands for something important, your commitment will easily be reaffirmed.

Encourage Your JV Partner and Employees

Remember that a JV requires at least two people. You are not alone. Include your JV partner and other employees who work toward the success of the JV with your reaffirmations. Encourage your JV partner by showing your enthusiasm for continued success. Reward employees for doing a great job and meeting goals.

Listen

As mentioned, you are not alone in your JV. Take time to listen to your JV partner, business associates, and employees and discover how they feel about the progress. Perhaps they are excited about the success and future prospects of the joint venture. Or maybe by listening, you find out that your joint venture partner wishes to go in a new direction with his business that doesn’t include your JV activities. Be perceptive and mindful of how your JV affects others.

Reaffirming your commitment to your JV doesn’t have to be a constant activity. But every now and again it is important to remember why you formed a joint venture in the first place and what you need to do for its continued success.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

5 Easy Steps for a JV Business Plan

At the core of any successful business venture is a solid business plan. And a joint venture is no exception. Even though a full business plan may not be necessary for a JV, it is still important to prepare a blueprint that outlines the goals and strategies on how your JV will succeed. What are 5 essential inclusions in a JV business plan?

1. Identify Your Product and Market

What exactly is your JV product or service going to be? Will customers buy your product? Why? Identify what distinguishes your product from the competition. Is it quality? Convenience? Price?

Define your market and niche. Who are your target customers? What marketing techniques and strategies will reach your target customers? How will you price your product so customers will buy? You may need to simply put a reasonable price tag and watch what happens. Your market will reveal itself if you need to make any price adjustments.

2. Identify Your Place in Your Industry

Where does your product fit within a specific industry or niche? In order to properly place yourself, you should also identify strengths and weaknesses, as well as all known opportunities and threats that could have an impact on your joint venture.

Every business has weaknesses. Identifying them gives you an opportunity to improve. Recognize opportunities that can help your JV succeed and your strategy for taking advantage of them. Become aware of potential threats to your JV endeavor, including economic climate, important legislation, trends and technology.

3. Set Market Goals

What goals do you and your JV partner wish to achieve? Write down both short term and long term goals. Where do you want your JV to be in 30 days? 6 months? 2 years? Remember, goals are just possible achievable future markers. Refrain from planning to far into the future since goals constantly need to be revisited and updated.

4. Define Strategies and Actions

With goals identified, you also need to determine how you and your JV partner will accomplish your goals. What needs to happen to set things in motion? Determine actions and strategies that will help you get closer to your short and long term goals.

5. Create Measuring Devices

How will you and your JV partner know when you have met a goal? You’ll need to set timelines and deadlines for your action plans. As you reach your measured milestones, you can see if you are on track to accomplishing the short and long-term goals expectations. Your measuring devices will help you determine any changes needed in your tactics or strategies in order to keep the goal in sight.

A major key to your JV success is the completion of a great business plan. Keep this document handy for easy access and refer to often. Your ability to create a concise and comprehensive JV business plan will help your JV become the success you envisioned.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Find Strength in Complimentary Joint Venture Partners

A joint venture is a strategic alliance arrangement between two or more businesses. The nature of a JV is that it’s mutually beneficial to both parties and allows the JV partners to continue running their own respective businesses. However, how can a joint venture be mutually beneficial to two independent and separate business entities?

Who is an Ideal Fit for Your Business?

If you want to consider whom you can partner up with in a JV arrangement, start by identifying your target customer and market. Who purchases your products or services? Are they younger, more outgoing spenders or perhaps a more conservative, older, and wealthier clientele?

Once you have solidly identified your main customer, it is just a matter of discovering and identifying other types of markets that your customers share. These are the markets from which you want to carefully hand pick a suitable JV partner.

Finding a Complimentary Service in Your Industry

One good example of an industry with complimentary services is real estate sales. A real estate broker’s main job is to list and show homes for sale to potential customers. However, they can increase business and contacts by teaming up with partners that have complimentary services needed by new homebuyers. For instance, a real estate agent could form a joint venture with a mortgage broker where it’s agreed to cross promote each other’s services. In many cases, new homebuyers look for a home before getting approved for a loan. In this instance, the real estate agent can simply refer his or her client to the mortgage broker as a good starting place for a loan application.

Ways to Form a Beneficial Joint Venture

What other services or products would be good for your customers or clients? Be creative and you’ll be able to come up with many suitable complimentary products or services in your industry or closely related industry. Use your creativity to form JVs so you can:

• Form complimentary products or services and offer package deals.
• Create joint seminars and promote yourselves jointly to a specific marketplace.
• Write articles and post them in each other’s newsletters and websites.
• Give special offers to your JV partner’s customers and have them do the same.
• Include a special offer or coupon for your product or service within their client mailings.
• Add links to and from each other’s web sites.
• Co-author a helpful “how to” booklet and then offer it as an exclusive gift to your mutual clients.
• Agree to refer clients to each other’s business for a nominal “referral fee”.

These are just quick examples of how a JV in a complementary industry can help your business. It’s also important to make sure you thoroughly know and understand what you recommend to your clients and customers. Try your potential JV’s products yourself. Would you use them? Be sure to protect your own business reputation if you recommend other products and services.

Creative JV arrangements can give a big boost to revenues if done properly. If you use your own creativity and savvy business acumen, you can discover a bountiful number of ways that a JV can help you.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Perfectionists vs. “Good Enough” Partners for Your JV

Most people are “good enough” types of workers. They know what a job entails and how to get the desired results, but nothing else is needed. A job is done when it’s “good enough” and will suffice for the purpose. Though you may not think it, these are the type of people who get things done and are good for progressive business processes like those found in joint ventures.

Perfectionists, on the other hand, may determine that a job is never done – not until it is perfect. They will spend hours, days, and even months trying to perfect a business process, product, or service and still determine that it is incomplete. Perfectionists are important in business because they can see the fine details and flaws that others may not notice. But is a perfectionist the perfect type of JV partner?

Combining a Joint Venture with a Perfectionist

A perfectionist personality who owns and runs a small business may find that they really need to loosen their standards and look ahead at progress. A JV can be good for this type of personality with the right partner – one who can help guide the perfectionist toward a goal and see the benefits waiting at the end of the rainbow. Remember, it’s not necessarily the destination that is important, but the journey to get there that counts.

How can perfectionists be more productive in a JV situation? Though perfectionists may have a hard time giving up their quality standards, it may be just the thing to get them to more profits and a thriving business.  Here’s what they can do:

Toss the Fear of Mistakes

One of the worst perfectionist attitudes is the fear of making a mistake. They believe it must be done right the first time. However, this attitude can lead to stagnation. It is important to make mistakes and learn from them. NASA didn’t go straight to the Moon. They developed their technologies little by little, learning from their mistakes in order to get the right method and strategy for getting a man on the Moon.

Accept Change

Many perfectionists are resistant to change. The method that has always worked in the past is the one to follow. However, “the way we’ve always done it” has to progress through change. For hundreds of years, accountants kept the books by handwritten ledgers. Computers have changed all that just in the last 25 years. Though it was difficult to let go of the “hardcopy” ledgers, computer accounting is the norm now with safety standards and procedures that avoid loss of data.

Learn to Let Go

Perfectionists have a hard time letting go. A project is never complete. The result is “imperfect” in their mind. However, progress and success must come even with a little imperfection. It is important that a perfectionist learn to move forward in order to make a business or JV strategy work. And sometimes that means letting go of the “perfect” image in order to make something “good enough” for the overall purpose of business success.

Perfectionists can be good for producing the best quality products and services. However, a JV with a perfectionist as a partner will need to learn a little give and take in order to meet the goals of the venture.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

5 Key Elements of a Joint Venture Vision

What is your joint venture vision? Do you have one? Or are you just on a coasting pattern that brings some profits but nothing to brag about? If you want your JV to be a big success and experience the full profit potential that JVs can offer, you need a clear and excellent vision.

A JV vision is not just a blueprint. Though you need a roadmap detailing the route to your goal, a vision entails much more. Here are the 5 main key elements of a great JV vision:

1. Goals

Of course, your vision needs a destination. What is the outcome of your JV? Do you want to see profit? Bigger market bases? Expansion? Your JV vision needs to have a clearly defined goal or goals that you are trying to achieve.

Sit down with your JV partner and list the goals that you want to achieve together. You may come up with more than one, and you may have too many that need to be carved down to a few achievable goals. However, knowing where your destination is will help you to form your strategy.

2. Strategy

Using the roadmap metaphor, your strategy is the route you will take to reach your destination. Is there a straight line to your goal? Or will you need to take a few side roads in order to achieve your main goal? Your strategy will consist of smaller, step-by-step goals that will ultimately lead to the top.

3. Inspiration

Who wants to take an uninspired journey? The vision journey should be inspiring to you, your JV partner, and all employees and business partners you need along the way.  Inspiration is important as part of your vision in order to make the journey to the goal worthwhile. That may mean inspiring others to endure hardships, as well as the joys along the way.

4. Leadership

Your JV vision needs leadership to keep the metaphorical car moving along the road.  Sometimes it may require tough-love leadership to keep the momentum needed to reach your goals. Your leadership role means you need to work in harmony with your JV partner, as well as your own team. A leader needs to be respected by his peers and employees. But be sure you respect them in return, and they will follow you along your vision.

5. Enthusiasm

Lastly, enthusiasm is important for your JV vision. Through the hardships and trials, it is the enthusiastic leader who will keep a JV partner or employees motivated. Enthusiasm means looking past the negative and seeing the positive of every situation. That’s not an easy task. If you will to achieve your JV vision, it will be done only through an enthusiastic effort on all parts.

Your JV vision may be long, medium, or short-term. You may have more than one vision at a time. But if you plan on making your JV a success, keep a vision on the horizon at all times so you know what you and your JV partner are working for.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

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