Top Ten Ways for an Entrepreneur to Improve Joint Venture Success

While National Entrepreneurship Week falls in the last week of February in the USA, and the rest of the world who celebrates it, does so in November. This year may find the timing ripe to have entrepreneurs save economies around with the world, with joint ventures. Whether it's labeled joint venture, partnering, collaboration or cross-promotion, here are ten ways to get started:
1. Start out with a paper and pencil task, or use your word processing program. Give thought to, and write down, all the characteristics you want in your ideal joint venture partner. This will help guide your decision to partner or not as you begin to attract people whom also want joint venture partners.
2. If you are doing business online, you could dip your toes in and find someone with a blog about a similar topic. Then contact that person and ask about exchanging a guest blog post and include links to each other’s websites in the post. A blog is an ideal central point for getting someone found and when you leverage this with a joint venture it can have a compound affect.
3. If your business is more often conducted face-to-face in the brick and mortar world, visit people who you know would have a similar target customer. Find mutually agreeable ways to help promote each other where both benefit. For example, a dentist and an artist: the dentist could offer the artist’s services with a display in their offices. The artist could offer the dentist services with coupons attached to any portrait kind of pictures, to go along with the smiles.
4. Back to online business, grab another piece of paper and pencil, or use your word processor. Look in the online networking venue or venues you enjoy the most. Find people who you are already connected with in these who might be talking to a similar audience. Write down their names and their product or service.
5. With this targeted list of possible collaborative partners, in the list you just created, email each with either an introduction or a re-introduction. Find out if they are considering any joint ventures now or in the future. Move the conversation forward from there.
6. Communication is crucial to choose the right partner. Your entrepreneurial style may be to move from one idea to the next fairly quickly. Be certain to focus on the importance of in-depth conversation, as it’s this conversation that will help you understand shared values, goals and vision.
7. Joint ventures are not a substitute for success if you are not finding success in your own business. As an entrepreneur a joint venture will be – one other idea for you to take your ideas and energy into.
8. You may have disparate goals than your joint venture partner. Your goals may be for a larger amount of revenue, your partners for a part time income. Contemplate and decide how you will work with this.
9. A benefit of a joint venture relationship is the shared risk. Accept that the risk is just as normal as other risks you take.
10. If you are starry eyed with the joint venture possibility, be sure that you keep those stars shining by putting an exit strategy in place. What happens if things don’t go as planned is something to take care of in pre-planning for success not in the heat of frustration.