Gremlin #1: Joint venture partnerships don’t apply to me because they are mostly international, and not local or national.

Have you ever noticed when you visit a restaurant that there are often flyers of surrounding businesses located at their counter? Or maybe you’ve seen at your local bank branch, a bulletin board with people’s business cards? This is a lower committal type of joint venture. Here’s an example of a higher level joint venture: Two business owners meet and strike up a rapport with one another at a Chamber of Commerce business meeting. They decide to become joint venture partners and to subsequently make a presentation to the Chamber members. They can both market to their respective lists, as well as have the Chamber do some marketing for them! It’s a joint venture triad. Entrepreneurs collaborate every day… whether across the street, across town, or across the world. You get to define the level of collaboration, who best to partner with, and how much (if at all) you want to go across global borders. We discuss this in our ebook: Entrepreneurial Joint Ventures Boost Business Success.

Gremlin #2: I don’t have time to look for a joint venture partner.

What if you knew you didn’t have to look for a joint venture partner? That is the actual truth. But you do have to take some kind of action which mixes well with some business activities you likely already engage in. The first and most imperative thing that needs to be done is having a clear overall business goal or business intention. With this at the top of your awareness, you are already attracting potential joint venture partners into your days. Second, you need to engage in conversations with other entrepreneurs or small business owners, which you are probably already doing if you are networking locally and/or globally. If you have marketing materials like a newsletter or ezine, you are engaging in conversation there as well. Third, define on paper your “ideal joint venture partner” with as much clarity as you gave to your business goal or intention. Now, you all that’s left is to listen to your prospect joint venture partners using heightened awareness. Be on the lookout for key words and phrases that will indicate to you: “This is someone to have a joint venture conversation with!”

Gremlin #3: “I don’t have enough money to invest in a joint venture partnership.”

If you knew a product or service would allow you to attract new clients, or even reestablish buying with past or current clients, would it be worthwhile to consider? When you collaborate in a joint venture, the investment is more in time and energy than money. It’s similar to you adding a new product line; it’s an investment. Along with your partner, you will agree on a budget and inventory. While you may need to invest some money in the joint venture, at least this will be broached up front during the Joint Venture Exploratory Discussion, which is covered in the Joint Venture Your Way To The Lifestyle You Love! program which starts Wednesday, March 17th. At any rate, should you decide to use that gremlin, I don’t have enough money”, which is a constricting belief, your conversation will automatically be steered into the “No Deal Zone.” No matter what, it’s important to stay open to what you are investing in, including for what business goal or intention, and what it will bring in return. On the bright side, should you discover you’re in synch with one another financially, then you’ll be ready for the next step: to mutually define the budget with your potential partner.

Gremlin #4: “I don’t feel comfortable splitting half the joint venture profits with a JV partner.”

What happens in a true joint venture partnership is the partners bring skills and resources to the table. It may be that one person, or company, has creative resources for marketing and the other has some marketing infrastructure in place. Additionally, one may be skilled technically and the other at proofreading and editing marketing copy. How skills and resources become blended is discovered during the Joint Venture Exploratory Discussion. It’s part of due diligence. It’s also during this discussion that the partners agree on how how to split the sales, cost of sales and profits. Speaking of which, it’s wise to know up front what one or two entrepreneurial style(s) your partner has. These six unique entrepreneurial styles are addressed is our ebook: Entrepreneurial Joint Ventures: Psychology and Soul. If there are two parties, and those skills and resources balance out, then using a 50/50 sales-costs-profits arrangement is easy to use and acceptable. If there is a mismatch in skills and resources, then more in-depth discussions will bring forth ideas of a more equitable split.

Gremlin #5: “How can a joint venture help me as a…?”

A) Coach?: Hosting a teleseminar with a complementary business, including each other’s promotional material on your corresponding web sites and/or exchanging testimonials or endorsements for each other’s offerings are options open to you.

B) Network marketer?: You could hold a live event in which you would both invite your databases of customers, prospects, and even some of your down line, e.g. Spring Splash, where you feature your new spring line of products and encourage invitees to dress up in their favorite spring rainwear or outfit.

C) Creative entrepreneur?: The obvious answer would be to create a product or service together with another business and offer it as one big package, e.g. Joint Venture Your Way To The Lifestyle You Love!, as Monique MacKinnon and I have.

D) Professional with a business on the side?: Write a referral letter introducing your partner to your clients and recommending their service(s), and vice versa. You and your partner will appreciate this time-saving client attraction technique.

If you’re stuck about the “how” of joint ventures, we would strongly recommend you join our Joint Venture Your Way To The Lifestyle You Love! program, which starts Wednesday, March 17th. To secure your spot today, http://prostrategies.com/jointventures.html

We would love your comments to help our delivery of our services to you, and we’d love to receive your “feed forward” (Marshall Goldsmith revolutionary and refreshing take on the word “feedback”)… including suggestions for what else JV-ish you’re desiring to learn more about. In the meantime, we want to thank you for your reading by giving you a F.R.E.E. GIFT. To claim your copies of the Perfect Pair of joint venture success ebooks, Entrepreneurial Joint Ventures Boost Business Success and Entrepreneurial Joint Ventures: Psychology + Soul.

New markets: In 2000 I was fortunate to have a one-week experience training the leaders of one of the largest organizations in Mauritius. The tiny South African island country of Mauritius has a reputation for being a melting pot of cultures that at the same time exists with a national unity belief, like no other place in the world. As Mauritius partners with industrialized nations, the foreign investment creates new opportunities for entrepreneurs. This creates expansion into totally new markets, quite possibly not open before by either side. Mauritius, a developing country, is a metaphor for a developing entrepreneur: bring in a melting pot of personal cultures and create one larger belief to be able to give something to the greater success of a broader new market. Even though Mauritius is now exposed to the global economy to a greater degree, it is thriving more than it likely would have all on its own.

New product development: In most joint ventures, new product development comes from the combined efforts of the collaborating parties. At some point of attraction which bring the parties together, there may have been spoken or unspoken, “Hey, we are speaking a similar message, and we are providing a similar product, but in different ways. So how could we take this all to another, higher level?” Joint Venture partners are able to combine their knowledge, expertise and experience. Ideas to create new products that could be very appealing to their respectivecustomers and clients (current and prospective) come out of that sharing. New contacts come along the way as their JV partnership grows and evolves. With proper structuring and respectful communication, no one loses their shirt.

Giving style balance: Hewitt Associates research on joint venture success found that one main reason of several for JV difficulties is that there are often conflicting corporate cultures and operational styles. Entrepreneurs may find this also to be the case with their unique giving styles. For instance, when you combine what two or more JV partners have to offer, you have more tangible and intangible resources on hand to use. One intangible resource is giving. Too much giving on either side of the equation can often spell trouble. If you give to the degree of never monetizing efforts, then this can become either an issue for opposition or an issue that doesn’t get addressed and one partner may walk away. If at the other extreme, there is a hoarding of giving, the same fracture of the relationship can occur. With leverage and balance of two or three different giving styles at the same time, risk goes down and financial success goes up. In the creation of new products and new markets, giving becomes more like the back only taking off it’s shirt.

With about 30 to 61 percent of joint ventures failing or fading away within 5 years, the art of balancing selfless and selfish is key. New products, new markets are possible in the most successful of joint ventures by strengthened giving styles. By not giving the shirt off your back, you can be both selfish (maintain individual integrity) as well as selfless (reaching to new markets and products).

Are you in a joint venture? Is your combined giving style strengthening or weakening your new products or new markets? Tell me what your findings are.

Find out how compatible you are for your next Joint Venture. Sign up for a free one-hour online webinar, Joint venture matchmaking: How compatible are you?

First, a cartoon that appears with the article is incorrect; introverts don’t hate people. And, we aren’t shy either. We are just guarded about our time with others because that outward activity can drain us of personal energy. The cartoon made me wonder if the author is possibly introverted to the degree of wanting nothing to do with people, which isn’t the norm. Or also quite possibly is a shy introvert too. Or that the author isn’t an introvert at all anyway.

Second, the author has a narrow definition of what actions are. I think what might be truer than his saying, “The hardest part of the process [meeting people], for introverts, is taking the first step,” is that it’s hard for introverts to take the same first step as someone more extroverted might take. In meeting people, an introvert will typically analyze the situation – is there a compelling enough reason to want to connect further? It’s also possible that someone more introverted wants to find out more about the person through other connections before talking further. As an introvert, I’ll often take those next steps identified by the author, after steps that I am suit my curious and contemplative nature.

Then, at the end of the article, it seems to me the author offers even more misguided advice. He suggests that introverts don’t pick up the telephone or have coffee or lunch with an old school classmate or someone they met in another venue as an ideal way to get more referrals. Well the truth is, most introverts do have deep enough relationships with a smaller circle of people in this respect that it would be comfortable for them.

If the author’s intent was to encourage introverts to step up to anything, for me, I step up to my disagreement with his overall message. How degrading to start with a cartoon that simply perpetuates a negative myth; we’re not shy and we certainly do not hate people. And then to add to the indignity of by telling what first steps should be. There is more than one way to Rome isn’t there?

What do you think of the article? Is it mostly true for you? Or do you disagree?

Hustle, bustle, hurry. Life is hectic – get over it. It comes with the territory. As societies advance in technology and information, we often find ourselves in overwhelm. Sometimes you may feel like you are in a zoo and the cages are left open. As introverts we must create our own structure so that we can find a cage rest and recover for a brief escape. How do you do this? Be yourself. Use your strengths. With networking as an example, if you find yourself going to an event, you can either scout a quiet place out on premises upon arriving or plan your day with more solitary activities before and after the event. Since you aren’t life’s zoo keeper, just take care of your own cage, I mean space of course!

Hang around the edges. I say hang around the edges of whatever the situation or event, until you are darn good and ready to move into the action. As you hang around the edge of the crowd, savor your energy and get comfortable with putting your plan into action. No don’t let the edges get frayed but instead, use that savored energy to move you forward. Currently, social online networking is all the rage. As we come to the end of the year, if you have been on websites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like, stop, pause and evaluate, how effective were these networking venues in meeting your intentions? By now there are likely thousands more so, be yourself. Take time to look back, evaluate and then plan better for 2010.

Avoiding self-promotion: Self-promotion can make you feel like you are a shark circling it’s dinner. The truth is, that style is quite long ago unappreciated. It is surprising though how many people still go in circles with this. Self-promotion is not about being verbally diarrhea-like all over someone. Think of it as tooting your own horn in harmony. If you toot your own horn then first, you tune into yourself; find that place where you connect with yourself inside and feel that confidence soar. Then, focus on your intention: if you want to find a prospect, what’s important to them? If you are applying for a job, what do they need and then – you toot in harmony with them. For the introvert or shy: let your listening, your natural curiosity and your planning strengths work in your favor. You’ll find you attract more people who want to meet with you, if that is what you want.

Networking is all wrong. In a recent article, Introverts at Work, Jennifer Kahnweiler was quoted from her book, “The Introverted Leader: Building on Your Own Quiet Strength” as saying that 80 percent of introverts struggle with networking. If this is true for you, how do you release yourself from this straight jacket? After all networking is said to put us just 2 or 3 people from whatever it is that we want: a client, tickets to a theater show, a referral to possible employment. One reason introverts often have a problem with networking is because we approach it like an extrovert: attend all events we can, meet as many people as we can and collect all the business cards that are flying in our faces. How disillusioning; introverts and extroverts are as different as a candle is to a halogen light. Decide which events serve your purpose best. Plan around your different energy needs: consider meeting a number of people you want to meet or decide how long you will stay at any particular event. The key to comfort in this personally engaging process is to pay attention to being you. Be yourself.

We can dramatically shift our results our introverts if we look at our strengths instead of envying the extrovert preference. Not being recognized, not having sales success, not feeling confidence, doesn’t need to be your reality. I’m an introvert too. It may take time for some to be happy with that and to claim it as a distinct advantage. Once you realize you are perfect as you are, and it’s time to claim that, 2010 can be your year.

What do you think will be your piece to claim in 2010 as an introvert? Where are you being like an extrovert that you can and will let go of in 2010?

Best Impact:
• Spontaneously call the people you meet within 24 hours of your last connection. Focus on showing sincere interest in them, instead of impressing them. This will make you readily stand out amidst your competition, as a whopping 80% of business people don’t even follow-up with their prospects!
• Send people you’d like to do further business with a small gift, as a means to express “Nice to meet you”. Avoid foods that might cause allergic reactions. A box of tea bags or a small basket of fruit are usually safe options. Stay with choices that state the items are free from particular allergens.
• Send an invitation to your own after-holidays appreciation event. Partner with someone to hold a strictly “let’s meet” event that features just some light hors d’oeuvres — and no elevator pitches and no business card exchanges. In 2006, four of us teamed up to host such an event at a local comedy club during one of their days off. Almost 50 people showed up, enjoyed mixing and mingling, and the four of us paid for the entire affair, including a headline comedian. What fun!

BONUS Impact Action: If you are meeting someone for the first time, ditch your canned elevator pitch. Do just this one thing differently if nothing else: Take an interest in new people who you meet by having just two or three open-ended questions about them. ‘Tis the season to give others a break from sales spiels!

Since you’ll both be taking advantage of the season to meet new friends and reconnect with current ones, invest your time in pre-planning your WOW networking now!

What ideas do you have to WOW people you meet through networking during the holidays?

Better Impact:
• Provide a take away, as in a one-page handout of your Top Ten Ideas or share your one best tip about your product or service. Give only ideas and information that will be valued and appreciated by your networks.
• As you listen to others’ elevator pitches, think of who you could introduce them to and then make the introduction, on the spot. Be a connector. Remember, people network to meet others for a variety of reasons.
• Dress for the occasion. In the spirit of the holidays, wear a pin that flashes, a necktie that plays music, or a festive-looking purse. I’ve even heard of a Virtual Assistant wearing pink slippers to an event! This tells your networks that you’re “unique”: a powerful thing indeed!

Add to the already-hectic holidays an expression, a conversation, or a message that makes you stand head above the crowd and that reminds people why they might want to choose you instead of your competitors. If you are interested in learning some worthwhile processes, ideas and Warm Bun strategies, listen to this free call, 9 Ways to Get WOWs From Your Holiday Season Networking, from Basic Training Boot Camp: Networking for Straight Shooters.
Are you starting to get into the season spirit? How can you let that help you to get more WOW in your networking?

Good Impact:
• Add a holiday special offer at the end of your elevator pitch: One that leaves your networks wanting more from you.
• Ask your networks for their advice regarding something they can easily answer: directly, or indirectly via a referral. It could be something small and personal like where to find the best pumpkin pie to take to a party.
• Give your networks something like an audio CD or a PDF download from a 2009 event that would be relevant to their New Year’s business and/or personal needs. A CD costs as little as $1.00 and you likely already put your time and effort into the making of this gift. This offer also gives you a valid business reason to follow-up.

You can make your networking stand out from the typical everyday, verbal diarrhea conversations. And we’re just getting warmed up with the good impact actions. If you are interested in learning some worthwhile processes, ideas and Warm Bun strategies, listen to this free call, 9 Ways to Get WOWs From Your Holiday Season Networking, from Basic Training Boot Camp: Networking for Straight Shooters.
While there are three more better impact and three best impact, what do you think would make your networking get a WOW reaction?

People don’t network effectively because their thinking about it is wrong. They only start to network when they need something: a job, a customer, an employee or a connection to help them. Networking is something that is part of life. My husband and I have neighbors who love parties. They have some kind of gathering at their home at least once a month. Oh yeah; if you guessed they are both extroverts you are spot on. In this atmosphere of their guests eating with them, drinking with them and watching football games with them, they are networking. Need proof? Three or four neighbors now use their product in their home or business. This effective networking has little to do with the fact the people are extroverts or introverts. It has to know with their understanding that networking is a way of living.

One of the tips in the article that does make sense for introverts, once they let go of some of the ways they “see” networking – be other focused in networking; the number one article’s tip. Being focused on the other person first, kicks in an introverts natural skills and strengths of listening and asking questions. In a recent networking conversation with someone I just met, I received an email following the event. “I noticed that you very skillfully had me talk about myself and my business, but you didn’t talk about yourself and what you do. You’re obviously very good at helping introverts succeed.” Most people are interested in talking about themselves. But as introverts, particularly on a first meeting, self-disclosing is not on our agenda. The best thing is, it doesn’t need to be. Be yourself.

Another useful tip in the article, networking is like dating. I often a similar analogy and it’s worth repeating. Even extroverts will find benefit. On a first date you wouldn’t ask someone to marry you would you? Not usually. So why on earth on first meeting someone in networking would you ask them to “buy” what you are selling by droning on and on about you are yourself, your company, your product? I’m sorry; I don’t even know you. I think introverts know the goal of networking darn well: to get to the stage in the relationship to where you earnthe right to have that conversation. Again my fellow introverts, be yourself.

What’s the one thing that helps introverts do better in networking? Introverts are better at networking when they are themselves. Be yourself. Networking isn’t just about showing up. It isn’t even just about having polite conversations when you do show up. It’s about moving that meeting with someone to a meaningful conversation – about what they want and about what you want. To get to that point, you have to have a relationship. And relationships are something that introverts are quite adept with building. My introverts friends, be yourself.

As an INTJ, in sales and marketing for 30 years, if my business doesn’t come from referrals (a form of networking) it comes from networking. Networking can work for everyone. It’s about what beliefs are guiding you through the process: if you believe you can’t connect, you won’t; if you believe you only need to connect with three people, you will. And if you think that networking doesn’t work because you are an introvert or you are shy, then, read this again: Networking can work for everyone.

#1 – Hi. Happy Holidays. I hope you are all enjoying this time of year. My name is John Gist, I’m with Honest Insurance Agency and we can provide you with any kind of insurance you need. Happy Holidays.
#2 – My name is Gerry Anderson with Franklin and Company. There are eight of us here today and I’m going to let Tina tell you what we do.
#3 – Yes; I’m Tina and we are an attorney handling all of your legal needs. Thank you. (sitting down and then suddenly popping back up) And we specialize in estate planning. (sits down, finally.)
#4 – My name is Kelly Michaels. As marketing director for All Kinds of Software, we help save small business money. I also do pet sitting so call me if you have a cat. (you thought it was going to be a good one?)
#5 – Oh. What? Um. I’m Sandy Prince. Um. With Colorful Photo Prints. We color with the rainbow. If you have, um, well, a photo you want matted. We do that. And, oh, what is it? If you have a black and white photo, we can do. Oh. I forget. But we can do something with it. Juts call me. Sandy. We color with the rainbow. (Somewhere over the rainbow – go!)

And my most recent favorite:
#6 – Hi, my name is Leslie Lindy. I’m with Everywhere Travel Agency. We’ve been serving the area for more than 20 years. (goes on to tell you everything they know about the travel industry, talks about 2 minutes instead of the group’s 60 seconds, uses ums and ahs as if they were salt and pepper, and finally invites you to visit their new offices.)

Now really. As a card carrying INTJ, I’m insulted by some of these for wasting my thinking time. It’s difficult enough to get out and network as an introvert. Then to go through such torture. I mean what if these were said all in one meeting?

Can you tell me there is any one of these folks who you want to continue in a conversation with after the meeting is over? Really, whatever model these follow, the pitches should – only be said in an elevator without anyone around. Or, said just for comic relief. Honest to goodness people: get your elevator headed in the right direction or don’t get in it at all.

What’s one of the most hilarious elevator pitches you’ve ever heard?

Hot Potato Energy: It isn’t always worth holding on to a networking relationship but how do you know when to let go?

Warm Bun Energy: You nurture a warm bun effect with people who you decide to follow-up. Why would anyone choose the hot potato energy instead of the warm bun energy in networking?

Many of us network on autopilot. Networking on autopilot can ignore the good and the bad about networking. As long as we attend events, shake hands, do business with the same people and give our elevator pitch, the truth is we can feel like we are moving forward. But what we ignore is that we may either be treating others or setting ourselves up to be the hot potato no one wants to hold on too long. But, is staying in an organization or chasing down a potential connection always the right thing to do? Are there times to move on?

Being on autopilot, we don’t stop to check how we feel. Now stay with me. I won’t take you down a woo-woo path. The truth is, there are many places in the networking process where if we just stop momentarily to check-in with ourselves, we would pay more attention to the course we are setting. Say you’ve had a disturbing day – a deer hit your car, you broke a favorite dinner plate that your grandmother gave you as a gift, or you tossed and turned the night before and feel tired. Do you stop to acknowledge any of this? Do you ignore it and keep moving? Picture this: The above scenarios are comparable to you carrying emotional baggage as you network with people. You are making the process more labor-intensive than you need to.

Get and use more self-steering. If we stop and find out how we are feeling, we can make better decisions, including whether or not to be in the crowd of networking. Before going either on-line or to an in-person networking event, what if you thought both about how you feel as well as how this particular venue is for your networking events? You’re feeling quite excellent – a new client signed on with you, you got a larger commission check than usual, you have a dinner date with your honey tonight – things are buzzing. But you checked your sales results for where your best prospective clients are coming from, and it’s not this particular networking venue. Are you going to take your bags (good baggage this time) and refocus your efforts? Do you choose hot potato or warm bun energy? Are you not going to attend or put your efforts toward something more productive, whether you go or not?

Get off of autopilot and learn to self-steer, as you trust your feelings about the messiness of networking. As introverts, we’re accustomed to likely spending more time than with our own thoughts than extroverts. Why not leverage this trait? Let those thoughts guide us to those feelings. After all it’s those inner thoughts that created the feelings. You’ll find you make better choices, of whether to take the hot potato or the warm bun approach with improved discernment. Likely sooner than later, the messy burgers of your networking will eventually bring you the best outcomes possible.

What are you doing to get off of autopilot with your networking? If you are interested in learning some worthwhile processes, ideas and Warm Bun strategies, listen to this free call, 9 Ways to Get WOWs From Your Holiday Season Networking, from Basic Training Boot Camp: Networking for Straight Shooters.