Most ideas for JVM strategies are quite simple, but there is always plenty of scope for new innovated ideas i.e.

Branding – Most small businesses have minimum credibility and brand awareness in their market place and region, which can affect the response of their promotions and presentations for new business. Prospects may not know certain members, but they may know one or more of the fellow members. This aspect and the fact that the promoter is part of an associated group of established companies, gives the promoter more credibility and the prospects more confidence, especially important with corporate companies.

Advertising – JV partners can combine their advertising budgets and strategies to get bigger and better coverage from running joint adverts. JV members can chose to save money by sharing costs of regular size advert they may use, or using their full budgets to get additional coverage with bigger adverts or using more forms of media.

Public Relations – Conduct a long-term PR campaign submitting any interesting story, or information article you can provide on any member of the group or the group itself i.e. the launch of the group, additional benefits and value for customers, or any project the group is involved in.

Endorsement Marketing – Endorsement is very powerful promotional strategy for members of a JVM group and can be done directly when networking or by sending personal letters of recommendation of other members directly to a client base. A well-written endorsement letter can easily achieve a high response of around 30% – 50% if certain rules are followed.

Newsletters are an excellent JVM promotional medium, which can be used to promote all partners in a JVM group. One business may have challenges and lack the budget to produce their own high quality and interesting newsletter, but several businesses co-producing such a publication would find it far easier and very cost effective.

Vouchers are a really exceptional promotional incentive to use in a long-term JVM strategy programme. When all JVM members proactively operate a high value voucher incentive scheme, it will offer one of the best and most cost effective ways of getting free promotion and potential new long-term clients. A single business may only be able to afford a small incentive offer; collectively the members of a joint venture will be able to “pool” the value of their incentives and provide a far larger value and incentive offer. All members would also enjoy free marketing on the back of other member’s promotions.

Loyalty Marketing can offer JV members an excellent strategy for additional sales and customer retention when they combine their incentives and special offers in their individual customer loyalty projects.

Competitions – Promote like a voucher scheme.

Internet – all partner’s websites can be reciprocally linked to each other, providing opportunities for a lot of additional free traffic, greater profile, affiliated income, higher ratings with search engines etc.

Opportunities – Members of a well managed joint venture consisting of high quality members will have many new and greater opportunities available to them through communication and working closely with fellow members, which can include new contacts, markets, projects, investments and small joint ventures with various members can be formed within the main joint venture itself.

Competitive Companies in a joint venture – Competitive companies, professionals and organisations can also successfully work together in a joint venture. Example joint ventures I have conducted with competitive companies have included; 11 DIY shops and 5 restaurants. These projects were successful and competitiveness was minimised due to distance in-between member’s locations and in the case of the 5 restaurants, each had a different food speciality and most consumers prefer to vary their eating requirements in the long term.

In cases of small JVM projects involving just 2 – 3 companies, with zero or very little marketing investment, management of the project should be easily conducted between all partners.

If all members in a JVM group worked in a positive, proactive and determined matter, promoting each other extensively and the group as a whole, then the driving force and results will far exceed the effort placed by all members. This “synergy” is a major contribution to the success behind a professional run joint venture marketing programme.

If you are looking for a sound approach to expand your company, increase sales and profile at minimum cost and with best results, then seriously consider joint venture marketing as part of your future marketing strategy.

Thank you Vince!

What other ideas do you have to partner together for this synergistic approach to marketing?

One to add because of experience with it is – cross-promotion. It falls in the broader category of Endorsement Marketing. If you are invited to cross-promoting someone’s book then consider the due diligence discussed in part one of this two part article and then – take action. Either participate with a relevant and valuable give-away to add to the bonuses people get. Or say, no thank you and wait for the next one to come into your email box.

Come and join Monique MacKinnon and I at a group on LinkedIn, You Are In Royal Hands or FaceBook, You Are In Royal Hands or both. These are a central resource for joint venture enthusiasts open to collaborating. We inspire entrepreneurs at all levels to actualize their creative vision by helping them lift their passions to an energized and profitable focus. We connect for either potential collaborating, like this, or to discuss successful strategies.

Imagine you were on a TV quiz programme and the million dollar question was “If two horses can pull a total load of 9,000 pounds, how many pounds can FOUR horses pull?”

If you were like me, your initial answer would be to say that four horses could pull a total load of 18,000 pounds. Sounds reasonable — but it’s wrong and you have lost your million dollar prize!!

Four horses combined efforts can actually pull a total load of over 30,000 POUNDS. This amazing achievement is possible because of something called synergy (synergy is the scientific term for combined power that is greater than the sum of its components).

Synergy is also a good description of the real power behind a very successful promotional strategy called Joint Venture Marketing (JVM). In brief JVM involves two or more companies or organisations conducting joint marketing campaigns on a co-operative basis, to promote each other’s company, organisation, charity, products or services. When done properly, this form of marketing is very powerful and will result in greater success when conducted in a combined team effort between several companies.

What is the difference between an alliance and a joint venture? An alliance is a more casual form of association between companies normally “I scratch your back if you scratch mine”. A joint venture is a structured association between companies, with an agreement in place, a clear marketing plan and strategy programme. If there are many companies involved then there can be a committee structure headed by a chairperson, with committee members responsible for marketing, administration and accounts. If any members have a particular skill such as presentation, then they could take on the task of presenting the JV group to large potential projects.

The potential benefits of JVM for your own company or organisation would be many and far greater than you could obtain from trying to market yourself independently. On the operational side this would include; huge savings on marketing costs (from 50%), greater return on your marketing investment, sharing of branding, contacts, commitment, skills, technology, resources, budgets etc.

Actual marketing benefits from JVM would include; wider exposure, higher promotional response, greater sales results, new business contacts, extended client base, higher company profile and greater credibility for your business or organisation.

Companies and organisations of all sizes continually conduct joint ventures in various formats; i.e. Coca Cola, Mattel, McDonalds, Sony, Tesco and many SMEs use joint ventures very successfully. Many example case studies of joint ventures used by corporate companies can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_venture#Examples

JVM methods are many and varied and can be used in ALL forms of marketing strategies including; advertising, mail-shots, PR, exhibitions, networking and especially the Internet. Normally all partners in a JVM group are non-competitive and their services and products compliment and promote each other, but competitive companies can still work very well together (examples later). Joint venture marketing is also a very powerful concept to be considered for rural enterprise projects, those aim is to help many small businesses in a particular region.

Try and form marketing partnerships with people and companies you already know and can work with, these can also include your own clients and suppliers. Choose potential partners on how their products and services could compliment your own business and how you could do the same for them.

Well-established businesses with an excellent background, reputation and integrity, large client bases, with good client relationships etc. would obviously make the best JVM partners. Having an association with top quality, highly respected companies would greater increase your own company’s profile and credibility.

Choose your marketing partners carefully, only form associations with companies who have a referral mindset, a positive attitude, are very customer focused and have excellent business and professional ethics, background, reputation and financial status.

In cases of small JVM projects involving just 2 – 3 companies, with zero or very little marketing investment, management of the project should be easily conducted between all partners. For larger, long-term and more extensive JVM projects, it would be wise to commission an experienced JVM marketing consultant to help develop and be a project manager for the whole strategy programme.

If all members in a JVM group worked in a positive, proactive and determined matter, promoting each other extensively and the group as a whole, then the driving force and results will far exceed the effort placed by all members. This “synergy” is a major contribution to the success behind a professional run joint venture marketing programme.

A thread that stands out for me as crucial to a collaborative success is the due diligence to make as certain as possible there is that synergy gets results: research, relationship and reputation – just three pieces to consider as you are deciding who to collaborate with.

For more details on the strategies you can used in joint ventures go to part two of how to really Boost Your Business with Joint Venture Marketing.

Vince has project managed 28 successful joint venture marketing projects so the details to come will be worth subscribing to this blog for.

Come and join Monique MacKinnon and I at a group on LinkedIn, You Are In Royal Hands or FaceBook, You Are In Royal Hands or both. These are a central resource for joint venture enthusiasts open to collaborating. We inspire entrepreneurs at all levels to actualize their creative vision by helping them lift their passions to an energized and profitable focus. We connect for either potential collaborating, like this, or to discuss successful strategies.

In the word collaborate you will see the word LABOR. The top lesson that I have learned from being in partnerships is that you have to be willing to work. There are 5 steps to making team work payoff.

L – Listen to your partner. When they have ideas pay close attention to your front line and their thoughts have an effect on your bottom line. Never think you are the only with great ideas. Get feedback from them on what you can do better and how you can implement it.

A – Act on things immediately. After you and your partner have a terrific brainstorm session pick 1 to 3 ideas that your company or organization can put into effect in the next 21 days. Urgency can keep your business out of the emergency.

B – Be alert to your industry. Go to networking events and do research on and off line to find new trends and opportunities in your field.

O – Offer encouragement. There will be up and down times in any business. It’s not how you go down, it’s how you get up. Empower each other with positive works and uplifting feedback. If you keep them up they will rarely let you down.

R – Review results often and make adjustments. Set up a meeting weekly and see where you stand. Did you meet your sales goal? If not, find out what you can do next week to improve? Average people stay in the same places and above average people make the adjustments and take off like a rocket.

These 5 steps will help any partnership go from LABOR pains to LABOR gains.

There’s a trend in the collaboration theme and what top lessons people have from their own partnerships. Have you noticed it?

Communication is key! In being clear you minimize mistakes, build trust and are able to get things done.

What do you think about Derrick’s ideas to turn labor pains into labor gains?

Derrick Hayes, an alumnus of Tennessee State University is available for small and large meetings, church events, academic speaking engagements and workshops. Please visit Derrick’s website at http://www.DerrickHayes.com or send an email to info@DerrickHayes.com

Since my first business, Professional Strategies Inc, a name I still use but my services and products have changed, I’ve found collaboration to be fun, profitable and evolving. One theme that remains consistent with anyone I collaborate with is the issue of trust. If it isn’t there, I can sense it, I don’t stuff it or ignore, instead, good-byes are imminent.

What are natural pieces for an introvert? What pieces do you want to pay attention to regardless of your preference to introversion or extroversion? Marc Lawn of The Business GP, a consultant to some key blue chip businesses across the globe, has a few lessons for all:

Never forget that collaboration by its dictionary definition is all about people coming together to deliver an overall goal or project. This must be a ‘win-win’ for all concerned. It is extremely easy for each party to come in to a project with a very selfish view of what they want to get. It is exactly this behaviour that affects the overall result for all concerned. You must always be clear on the desired outputs for all parties up front. Write these down early and share with everyone. The collaborators must also regularly review the project against these objectives and be committed to driving and supports the objectives of others as well as their own. It is only with a true partnership that all parties get the fullest value and superior performance based on mutual respect and trust.

For me clarity is imperative. The words we use are so important yet sometimes taken for granted. My goodness, think of the work collaborate and what do you think of? If just glossed over you might be thinking cross-promotion and I might be thinking affiliate. That’s where the win-win for all can begin to unravel. These are two very different forms of collaboration.

At the heart of whatever direction a collaborative effort takes is to be clear in words, goals and intentions. As Marc so assuredly says, when you are in collaboration, “be committed to driving and supports the objectives of others as well as their own.” That’s the mutually beneficial piece and that’s the piece an introvert in particular may need to learn a lesson about speaking confidently. We’re generally quite clear in our head aren’t we? That’s a plus. However we want to be just as clear in our words. It’s really being selfish about being mutually beneficial. Clarity equals better chance of success.

How do you think collaborating for mutual beneficial can go off course?

How do you think you can use your strengths to keep it on course?

Level of Integrity Equals Level of Trust Determines Level of Collaboration

Being an entrepreneur is difficult. You are always selling and marketing plus actually delivering products or services. When you are a team of one, these challenges truly escalate because you cannot be in two places at once.

One of the most viable solutions to increase sales and expand your business presence is through collaboration with another person or persons. These collaborations are called strategic partnerships or joint ventures.

Having engaged in several collaborations during the last 10 years and turning down at least three times that, I can share the most important aspect of any engagement is the level of integrity. Simply speaking, do you and the other person or persons share the same high level of ethics and trust each other?

If you are considering a collaboration to improve your business results, here are some questions to ask yourself:

Is everyone investing approximately the same amount of time into the endeavor?

Is everyone reaping the same percentage of monetary reward?

Is everyone willing to be open specific to opportunities and sharing those opportunities with each other?

Is everyone committed to this relationship?

If you cannot answer yes to each of these questions, then the level of trust is weak and this will weaken the collaboration.

The benefits of a great collaboration include:

-Tag team networking events to speaking engagements
-Leverage off each other’s strengths
-Be larger than just one person

Collaboration is a great way to increase sales provided you share the same high levels of integrity and trust.

Wow! Thank you Leanne Hoagland-Smith. For my introvert side so much of this rings true.

The questions are excellent and the answers will be invaluable with whom ever I consider partnering with. It’s possible even asking some form of them might be useful in the exploratory discussions with the person being considered for the joint venture.

The questions and the answers could be a an ideal to benchmark for the relationship if you choose. As Rabbi Harold S. Kushner says in one of his books, like in a marriage, you might find there are actually four people in the relationship: 1) the husband, 2) the wife, 3) the husband the wife thought she married and 4) the wife the husband thought he married. In collaborating, whether a joint venture, an affiliate program, cross-promotion, you want to learn ways to stay in integrity for stronger trust. You want to know the people you are in a joint venture relationship with maybe even better than you know your husband or wife.

Are you an introvert or extrovert and how do these questions resonate with you?

As an introvert, how do you like the depth of the questions?

And if you want more of a collaboration discussion, or maybe you are ready for a joint venture experience, sign up now and receive the webinar recording, Joint Venture Matchmaking. Monique and I are pretty excited about helping you build your entrepreneurial empire.

This month, my Canadian joint venture partner (a higher level collaboration) and I have been asking successful entrepreneurs:

“What is your top lesson learned from collaborating, to consider future collaborations?”

Would you be interested in learning from these lessons? I thought so! After all even introverts don’t need to have all lessons be first-hand experience.

Business Strategist, Dale Little, has this to offer from her experience:

The top lesson I’ve learned from collaborating is that you must communicate openly and clearly from the beginning of the relationship. Initially, communication will revolve around goals, expectations, and strategic planning. As the relationship develops so will the communication. Effective communication will begin to focus on review and evaluation of methods and processes as well as continued planning, often with plan revisions. Communication must be courteous and respectful. There will be times when constructive criticism may be required, but partners must always remember to be constructive and professional. There is no room for emotional outbursts or destructive language in a professional alliance. Partners must be clear when communicating their plans, ideas, and concerns. These offerings should be accepted with questions and discussions that will not only provide additional insight, but also further develop the initial thoughts. As a strategic relationship grows, it may seem there are fewer opportunities for communication. Schedule specific times to discuss the business and/or projects that you share. This prevents glitches from becoming catastrophes. Never underestimate the power of face-to-face conversations. Email, texting, phone calls, and FAXing are fine for the transfer of much business information, but they can never replace the insight and intuitive benefits of face-to-face communication. Keeping the lines of communication open will ensure a productive and positive collaboration for all involved.

Does anything jump out to you as an introvert that you can feel comfortable in doing?

Here are two key things that struck me:

How about – goals, expectations, and strategic planning? This is in your head kind of work. Do you like this? You bet. Can you do this? Pretty easily and it’s enjoyable.

Then Dale said,

“Partners must be clear when communicating their plans, ideas, and concerns.” How do you communicate? If you are like me, it’s after listening and contemplating. By then, things are pretty darn clear.

What jumps out for you that would make you consider more collaborative efforts?

And if you can’t wait until the next collaboration discussion, or maybe you are ready for a joint venture experience, sign up now and receive the webinar recording, Joint Venture Matchmaking. Monique and I are pretty excited about helping you build your entrepreneurial empire.

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.

Thoughts: The downfall of being able to create just as we want as I see it, is our lack of wavering personal acceptance of who we are and often wishing-thinking-hoping-praying we were an extrovert. That in itself is enough to set abundance in a trajectory away from us. If to begin with your thoughts get in the way of acceptance, just what is that accepting? It’s not. It’s creating a negative vibration. And there are an abundance of negative introvert beliefs that can keep us stuck there in the sludge. Let’s use one I am often accused of: anti-social. First I know I am not anti-social. I like people but I like my alone time better. I know that about myself. When I am in a situation that someone might incorrectly judge me that way, it’s an acceptance on my part that this may occur because I didn’t prepare myself with enough solitary time to be ready. I know I do enjoy limited social time. So which negative myth are you ready to change your thinking about?

Emotion: One of the emotions likely most introverts can conjure up is one of fear brought on by the feeling around some extroverting events that we somehow believe must be carried on in true extrovert fashion. Let’s take networking for example. Imagine we all agree that networking is a productive way of finding your dream job, finding the best prospects for clients or joint ventures or finding a resource you want. I have a neighbor who’s an all out extrovert. She’s told me she gets so excited when she has a party in her home that she can get carried away with the guest list. Knowing this about her, and knowing I’m an introvert who can be wrongly accused of being anti-social in large groups, I want to know and usually ask her, “How many people are you expecting?” Regardless of the number she tells me, I plan accordingly with my before and after activities so that I can be emotionally positive when I arrive and as I mingle.

Attraction: Let’s put the two together: the inner thought is “I enjoy limited social time,” and “I happily prepare for socializing in large groups.” At a bare minimum think and feel what goes with, “I intend to enjoy the degree of socializing that makes me happy even when in large groups.” Your feeling moves toward the positive and your actions match up. You find yourself behaving appropriately for your own energy levels and you are ready for the extroverting activity in a positive way. Even when present at an event, you’ll find you’ll be socializing because you are now attracting to you abundantly, all around, to be in this example, social.

We are after all, introverts. So you want more in 2010? More of what ever it is, is your choice to contemplate the formula and put in place the abundance of what might free your soul – Thought plus Emotion = Attraction.

Maybe you are ready to be abundantly happy collaborating with like minded individuals. 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?

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?