Joint Ventures: No Product? No Problem

By Author: Justin Bryce
Total Articles: 35
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Joint ventures (JVs) are gaining popularity throughout the business world. Perhaps that's because they're such an effective way to make or increase profits -- even if you don't have a product to sell.

A JV is the entity created when two businesses, individuals, companies or other legal entities enter into an agreement. The joint venture benefits both parties by combining skills, customer bases, capital or other products or services.

The concept behind a joint venture is obvious if you have a product to sell. You would simply want to find a partner who could help you increase sales. Maybe you would look for someone with an established set of regular customers who could sell to them for a portion of the profit. You might also find someone who sells a product that offsets your own to sell together in a package. In this scenario, it's clear that both sides benefit from the partnership.

But what if you don't have a product to sell? That might make it a little tougher to see how a JV could benefit you -- or how joining with you could benefit a potential partner. If you aren't selling a product, you're probably ...
... selling a service or skill. If this is true, you are called a "dealmaker."

As a dealmaker, you must first find a business partner with a product that compliments your skills. For example, if you are a savvy marketing expert who knows how to manipulate the Internet, you would do well to find a company with a good product for sale online but a lackluster marketing campaign. Do multiple Web searches for great product ideas with boring websites and imagine ways you could help them improve.

When you have a few good ideas about what you can offer them, it's time to think about what you will ask from them in return. After all, it's a two-way business transaction. You can use these ideas to write a creative, detailed proposal to present to the company. If they like your proposal, then you can begin taking steps toward creating a JV -- writing a business plan, joint venture agreement and exit strategy.

Still another way you can use joint ventures when you don't sell products is by using them to actually obtain products. Traditional methods of obtaining products can be very costly. However, when you use JVs, you can get products for free.

Joint venture marketing, or JVM, is a new trend that has become popular with the growth of the Internet. JVM partners obtain free e-products, like e-books and e-zines, that they then sell on their websites.

There are plenty of these free products available online. Many of them are labeled as Private Label Rights or Master Resell Rights products, meaning they are already packaged and ready to sell. All you have to do is add your contact information and it's ready to go.

The benefit to you, as the small business owner, is offering a product on your site, and the benefit to the creator of the product is free advertising. You might also have an agreement that the product's provider receives a portion of the sales of the package on your site.

There is also a growing crowd of people joining what are known as joint venture collaborative pools online. These groups of Internet marketers' policy is: "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine." They all advertise on each others' sites, thereby giving each other access to everyone's visitors and customer base. If you joined one of these groups, you might add a link on your site where a customer could sign up for an email list or newsletter in which members of the collaborative would advertise. These subscriber boxes help to build a large subscription list -- which means more potential customers. Plus, any e-products you sell can include your ads and links as well.

Regardless of whether you have products to offer, joint ventures are an excellent way to increase your profits and build a solid customer base. When entering into any JV, make sure you understand all aspects of the venture -- what's expected of you and what you expect of your partner.