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Business, go wrong, Internet marketing, Joint venture, JV partners, market access, marketer, partners, shared knowledge, Small business, timetable, Venture Capital
Are You Thinking About Doing A Joint Venture With Someone? Here Are Four Things To Think About by Fred Horstman
in Business / Business Ideas (submitted 2013-12-01)
Creating a joint ventures can be a wonderful thing. Joint ventures can allow you to make money you wouldn’t otherwise be able to make on your own, they enable you to tap into other people’s expertise and knowledge, and potentially they can speed up projects, whilst making them more successful and sharing some of the risk. JV’s are talked about a great deal in the internet marketing world, but despite the many benefits there are also a number of drawbacks. Here are four things to think about before doing a joint venture:
1. Joint ventures mean shared profit
Say you decide to join forces with another marketer and create your own product together. You can share some of the development costs and utilise both of your respective expertise, however assuming the joint venture is split straight down the middle then it also means you’ll only make half of what you would if it was solely your own product. Of course in many scenarios this is irrelevant because the project might have been impossible on your own, but it’s something to think about.
2. Joint ventures can go wrong
It can be the case that your JV partner simply doesn’t share the same commitment to the project as you do. This can be extremely frustrating if you’re putting in lots of hard work yourself and your partner simply doesn’t do their bit.
3. Before you start, make sure you have an agreed timetable
It is all too easy for a JV project to slip behind schedule because your partner is not good at doing things on time (relating back to the point above) or simply that you both have other commitments and the project never gets finished. Before you start, make sure you agree on a timetable that both of you are happy with and are sure you can commit to.
4. Choose your joint venture partners carefully
Are you compatible with the other party? Should you even be considering working together? There is little point in doing a joint venture with someone who has a completely different skill set or way of thinking. Whilst joint ventures allow you to tap into other peoples expertise, it is also essential that you have some shared knowledge, skills, or common ground. Otherwise the venture will become impossible. Similarly it is usually of little value to join forces with someone who has exactly the same skill set or market access as yourself. If, for example, you have a product but no list to sell it to then look to venture with someone who has a list, but no product to sell to them! I don’t need to say this, but if you just can’t stand this person, it’s a good idea to avoid possible trouble in the future. Pick your partner wisely. It is a kind of marriage.
About the Author
Author: Fred Horstman has experienced many things in his long life. His present goal is to help newbies in Internet Marketing with helpful information and suggestions on this blog.