More and more people are suffering from economic setbacks and corporate layoffs.  What is the solution for many of these people? They consider starting their own freelance business working from home. 

Forming a home business has become as easy as pressing a few keystrokes and hanging out your virtual “shingle.” However, being in business for yourself is not so helpful if you can’t make the business come to you. That is why many home-based businesses thrive with joint venture partnerships.

What can a JV do for your home business? Here are some of the growth possibilities you could experience with your home business through joint ventures:

Internet Marketing

Marketing is one of the most grueling tasks for most home business entrepreneurs. You want to focus on doing the business you love, whether it be consulting on retirement investments, designing web sites, or working as a virtual assistant. Marketing means you have to make time in your schedule to generate the business that keeps you in business. 

Thankfully, a joint venture can help. How? Look for a potential joint venture partner who specializes in Internet marketing. These kinds of specialists can help you gain customers or clients in some of the following ways:

• Increased mailing list – Your marketing materials need to get into the hands of your potential customers. Whether it is email or regular mail, you want focused marketing material read by those who will most likely look to purchase your product or service. Signing up with a joint venture marketing specialist can help you get the leads you need to increase business.

• Affiliates – Do you have a product or service that can be sold through affiliates? Using other websites or Internet marketers with high traffic sites may be a great way to increase income. Generally, you don’t have to pay for advertising space with an affiliate. Using affiliates means you agree to split a sale generated from an ad on an affiliate’s website. You get increased revenue and marketing from your affiliate, and they also receive a nice income from sharing their traffic numbers.

A joint venture with an affiliate is also great for your business due to credibility. A web site with high traffic and subscriber lists carries a lot of weight with its readers. If your affiliate recommends your product to millions of readers, just think what kind of sales that could generate. 

Combine Talents, Products, or Services

Many home businesses are focused in a specific area of specialty. Bookkeeping, web design, or jewelry making are good examples. Why not join up with a partner and combine your talents to help create more business or make business easier? Trade your bookkeeping skills with a joint venture partner who can design an attractive and workable web site for your services. 

Many home business owners think that online joint ventures are difficult. On the contrary, every other Internet or home business is looking to increase their sales, generate more revenue streams, and gain more clients or customers. With the right approach and proposition, you can help ease your marketing needs with an Internet joint venture.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

We have been stressing the potential overwhelming success of joint venture business. A successful JV is not one that is approached by all parties in a lazy fashion. Creativity and earnest work is essential in making a JV work for all parties. 

However, joint ventures can be such a foreign business process for so many business owners and entrepreneurs. What are some fundamental strategies that make a JV work?

Cross Promote

When taking on a JV partner, don’t forget that you are depending on the other party to promote your business. Do the same for them! Cross promoting services and products is one of the key elements of a successful JV partnership.

How can you cross promote? Here is just a sample of ideas:

• Signs – Of course, posters or post cards promoting each other’s business is a great way to get your respective business seen by each other’s customers.

• Reduced Price – Agree with your JV partner to offer a special to customers who make a purchase.  By bringing in a receipt or particular voucher, you and your JV partner might give reduced prices or a special promotion to that customer.

• Free Sample – Exchange with your JV partner a supply of samples to distribute to customers.  Everyone likes something for free, and by introducing your customers to your JV partner’s product and vice versa, they may feel compelled to buy from you in the future.

Bundle Your Products Together

Bundling products or services is a great way to offer mutual customers a bargain. You always want to be sure that your JV partner does not overshadow your product or service.  By using this type of strategy, you should recognize a complementary way that your products can be sold. For instance:

• Your nail business can offer a bundle with your JV partner’s hair styling shop.

• Your clothing boutique might offer a package deal for alterations at your JV partner’s store.

• Combine your JV partner’s balloons and flower business with your gift basket delivery operation.

Communicate and Cooperate

The most important successful JV strategy is to communicate with your partner and cooperate in a business-like manner. Too often joint venture attempts fail because one or both partners do not communicate their expectations to the other. When you and your potential JV partner start talking about a joint venture, discuss all the points in which you both want to succeed and what should be expected of each. 

Further communication strategies:

• Write it down – Always, ALWAYS, write your joint venture agreement down so both parties have a copy.  Whether you form a formal legal arrangement or just a simply list of expectations, having a written agreement helps dispel finger pointing if something goes wrong.

• Keep a positive attitude – In helping to make a successful joint venture partnership, it always helps to be cheerful and enthusiastic.  But things do go wrong, and when they do, remember to keep a business-like demeanor.  Avoid getting red-faced and angry.  Stay cool and pleasant and you’ll find cooperation much more amiable.

• Talk about results – As the joint venture progresses, take time every so often to chat with your JV partner about how things are working out.  Discuss how to make success even more successful.  Or perhaps talk about disbanding the joint venture partnership if it isn’t working for one or both partners.  Whatever the case may be, don’t be afraid to talk results with your partner.

Remember joint ventures are a two-way street between you and your JV partner.  Keep the communication lines open, stay enthusiastic about your combined efforts, and you will surely see results.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

A good joint venture marketing partnership creates a type of synergy that benefits both parties in greater ways than going solo. One could say that the sum of a JV is greater than the individual parts. How is this so? Using the right marketing techniques together in a combined effort just makes sense if it saves money on the budget and generates more revenue.

JV Match Maker

Finding the right JV match can be time consuming. When you look for a potential JV partner, you should consider which type of people (direct, aggressive, or creative) you like working with. Sometimes a great JV partnership is gained from sharing different talents in a combined effort. For example, you may be a techno wiz and need a creative person who can help with marketing messages. Together your talents can benefit the other.

You also may want to look at the type of industry or business of your potential JV partner. Sometimes working with someone who does a similar business can create a synergetic partnership, and sometimes a company doing a completely different business can be beneficial. Look for what you want to gain.

Sending the Right Message

A synergetic JV partnership develops the right message to customers. Opening the right market channels through your message helps both parties gain more clients and customers, as well as other potential business partners.

More Money

Of course, one of the main goals of a joint partnership is earning more revenue. Through the synergetic efforts of both parties, a JV partnership can save money on marketing costs, possibly production costs, and generate more revenue with increased sales. 

Consider if you had a budget of $10,000 per year on marketing costs. Through a combined joint venture effort, including sharing marketing costs, you’ll find that you can save $2,000 a year on that portion of your budget. That’s $2,000 that could be spent on other efforts such as R & D, or perhaps hiring additional employees for all the extra products you need to produce.

Another way of forming cost savings with a JV partnership is by creating an economy scale. Perhaps by using your special container equipment combined with your JV partner’s ability to efficiently manufacture and package goods, your economies of scale synergy can result in saving of costs of goods sold and increased revenue.

Ultimately a successful JV will produce satisfying profits for both parties. Increased revenue with only half or a portion of the effort is successful synergetic business. With increased revenue, you can help take your company to another level of business. 

Your potential joint venture partner can help your business succeed. Consider the possibilities of working with another business owner to develop ways of making new business. It starts with choosing the right partner, and working your synergy to develop the right marketing message that results in extra money in your business account.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Is your small business making just enough to stay afloat and provide you with a livable salary? Perhaps you haven’t analyzed your product potential well enough. There may be a joint venture that can take your small company from a neighborhood business to national exposure with exponential profits.

Joint Ventures Turned Stickers into a Multi-Million Enterprise

How can you take a small business and turn it into a multi-million dollar enterprise? Consider a strategic joint venture with a big name company. Take a look at Mello Smello. Jon and Leah Miner, husband and wife, had a small sticker store they operated in Minnesota. They approached another Minnesota firm, 3M about combining their technologies to create a new line of stickers. The result was a process called micro-encapsulation, where odors and smells could be captured and coated onto paper stickers. 

Scratch n’ Sniff stickers were born, and Mello Smello suddenly went from a small, unknown business to a multi-million dollar a year company. Since then, Jon and Leah have partnered up with the likes of Disney, Nascar, and DC Comics to create Mello Smello stickers of popular characters. They have also developed other products such as glow-in-the-dark stickers, temporary tattoos, and children’s greeting cards.

The Benefits of Thinking Big

Jon and Leah have enjoyed over 20 years of tremendous success due to their original idea of forming a joint venture with a big partner. What can you do with your business by thinking big?

Reduce the Learning Curve – Strategic joint ventures with big partners reduce your learning curve for technology significantly. By agreeing to share revenues with 3M, Mello Smello gained access to new technology bases that otherwise may have taken years, even decades, to develop and market on their own. 3M’s revolutionary technology for sticky paper helped Mello Smello to manufacture their creative product. 

Build Credibility – By linking your business with nationally branded companies, you can increase your credibility as one who produces quality merchandise, products, or services. Would Mello Smello have been able to partner with Disney without the technological help and exposure from 3M? Probably not. But by teaming with a national player, the little business from Minnesota was able to start growing in exponential waves with new partnerships with other big businesses.

Create New and Bigger Revenue Streams – With a joint venture, new markets open up for your business that may not have been available before. With the licensing partnership with Disney, Mello Smello gained international markets for their products. 

Additionally, Mello Smello began additional product development that helped create new revenue streams. This can be another exponential revenue generator. With a successful product already in hand, new products can double, or even triple, revenue cycles.

Joint ventures can be the key for a small business to make a quantum leap from local business to national producer.  Take the time to take a look at possible strategic alliances that could position your business for the future.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

In a relationship marketing platform, creating long-term relationships with customers is an integral part of a successful marketing strategy. Building strong affiliations and contacts through superior customer service is the first step towards a successful marketing platform. Just as important as building strong customer relations, is developing new ways to give the customer more than other companies are providing and more than then the customer expects.

Giving Customers Something They Can’t Get Elsewhere

If you are operating in a niche market, chances are you are already offering a product or service that’s difficult for customers to find elsewhere. In a competitive marketplace, what can you do to distinguish your business from the competition? Give your customers something that they don’t typically get from other companies.

One idea that isn’t universally implemented is free samples and discount coupons with each order. Another good idea that’s only utilized by a handful of businesses is birthday recognition. You can send your customer a birthday greeting by email or by card, offering special discounts or free samples during their birthday month. People love to get something for free even though a high percentage of people who receive the coupon never actually redeem it. The feeling of goodwill and loyalty is still planted in your customer’s mind.

Giving Your Customer the Totally Unexpected

This is somewhat similar to the above suggestions, but with a slightly different twist. Doing something for your customers that is really unexpected and out of the ordinary will set you apart from your competition.

How about a follow up email after an order to be sure that the customer is happy with their products? Instead of a free birthday coupon that the customer can redeem, how about just sending a small sample with a birthday greeting? What about automatic re-order email reminders? Reminders are popular for products like contact lenses, but how about for coffee or skin care supplies?

Thanking Potential Customers Who Don’t Make a Purchase

How about a “thank you” to customers who don’t end up buying from your site? This may sound a bit odd, but if you’ve reached out to a new client, but they haven’t made a purchase, it’s still a good idea to thank this person for their time and consideration. This is not a widespread practice. Typically we only thank people who make a purchase. The idea here is that just because this person did not buy this time doesn’t mean they never will. If they are thanked regardless, this will distinguish you from the rest and cause them to think of your company when make future purchases.

All of these strategies are suggestions and ways to help you strengthen the relationship marketing platform you are building for your business.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=2

If you’re doing business in the eCommerce universe, it’s vital to build a strong network of relationships with your clients.  From time to time, it’s necessary to gain new business, new clients and new customers to bring into the pool of focus for building this network of relationships. You may be doing all the “right” things, such as newsletters, email marketing campaigns and advertising on other websites, but you still feel that you’re not attracting as many new customers, or building as many new relationships as you’d like. Exploring social networks, as a way to form new or expand upon existing business relationships will be worth investigating, if your business has not yet done so.

Social Networking

Popular social networks like Facebook are thought of as a place to keep in touch with long distance friends, share photos and stories about your life. But these online social networks are also a great way to make new business contacts. Each network is structured differently so you may want to join several, or investigate the sites on your own before deciding which ones to utilize for business purposes. Implementing consistent social networking can be the next step in a relationship-marketing based strategy for your business. Below are a few of the most popular social networks and what they have to offer from a business perspective.

LinkedIn

When thinking of a social network, many adults assume they are juvenile or the domain of teenagers and twenty-somethings. If you have an aversion to the idea, LinkedIn is the best place for you to start, as it has a mature, professional audience with a combination of social and business networking. When you join LinkedIn, you can list your contacts, both social and professional, and invite them to join. Once your contacts have joined, you then have access to their social and professional contacts and they have access to yours. This is a great way to reach out to new people and make connections because of the mutual friend/associate you have in common.

Facebook

Facebook isn’t just for kids anymore, the demographic of this particular social network continues to broaden, and it’s a great resource for making contacts and potentially looking for people to hire if and when your business expands. Facebook has a number of useful features and advanced applications, along with a certain level of privacy that doesn’t exist in other networks. It also has the sheer volume of numbers on its side: with 600 million searches and more than 30 billion page views a month, there is a seemingly endless pool of resources to tap into.

MySpace

MySpace is perhaps the social network that is geared most towards a younger population. However, try not to let that deter you. The Internet is making it easier for younger, tech-savvy people to create their own online companies, which means there is large market of younger business owners and entrepreneurs, as well as potential customers that you can connect with on MySpace. Young people also have more disposable income than ever before, which means that subscribers to MySpace have money to spend, and they’re always looking for unique, niche market products.

Building strong customer relationships as part of a relationship-marketing platform is an important ingredient in the success of your business. Using these social networking sites has the potential to connect you with an extremely talented and professional cross-section of people previously untapped by your business. Part of any successful relationship-marketing platform involves reaching out and building relationships with people with whom you have something in common. These social networks are an excellent way to expand your network of business contacts.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=2

Relationship marketing focuses on the connection a company has with its existing client base while building and improving on those relationships. This is a long-term process seeking stable solutions to earnings and return on investment. It is not a glitzy quick fix solution, so it doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, but it is a collaborative strategy that truly works.

Less Expense, Higher Returns

If you were told that you could increase your sales without increasing your marketing budget, your interest would be piqued, would it not? This is precisely what relationship marketing does.

A typical way businesses operate is to assume that when a customer has purchased a product or service once, the customer will remain loyal. This can be a costly mistake, as it is easier and less expensive to build relationships with existing customers than it is to entice new consumers or to win back customers that have defected to your competition.

The following are a few key statistics to consider when determining where to put your marketing dollars:

• Repeat customers spend 33% more than new customers
• Referrals among repeat customers are 107% greater than referrals from non-customers
• It costs six times more to sell something to a prospect than to sell to an existing customer

Based on these statistics, you can see that your marketing budget will go further if it is used to build and nurture your existing customer relationships. This means treating your customers as though they are your strategic collaborative partners, rather than just numbers.

One Thing at a Time

It may seem a bit daunting to think you need to completely change your marketing strategy overnight, but it need not send you into a panic. You can choose to start slowly. Focus on just one of the above mentioned bullet points to test the efficiency of the strategy and you should notice a difference in your business right away.

For example, bullet point number one: Repeat customers spend 33% more than new customers. For example, you operate a website that sells specialty health and beauty supplies. There is a certain brand of sunscreen Sally found on holiday in France that isn’t sold in the United States. She happens to find your website, which does sell this particular sunscreen, and she’s thrilled. She becomes a loyal customer and purchases the product. On a return trip to France, she finds a shampoo she loves that yet again, isn’t available in the U.S. Happily, she finds the shampoo on your website, and in the meantime, purchases a few more products to try. She talks with her sister on the phone and recommends the shampoo from your website, which then results in more purchases for your company.

This is not an unlikely scenario. In Sally’s story, she has taken the lead in investigating the website, but there are marketing strategies that would push a customer towards making that leap on their own. How about an email with a list of new products offering a discount? Or a few samples of new products when you ship orders? There are many ways to strategically build strong customer relationships, which will enhance the longevity of your business, as well as its bottom line.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=2

 

Simply put, relationship marketing is the strategy of building strong, loyal and committed relationships with your client base. Often in striving to gain media visibility and recognition, businesses temporarily forget or overlook their most important marketing resource, your business relationship with people!

Below are a few handy tips to help you reassess your relationships with your customers, and how to develop a plan for building and improving those relationships.

Get Organized

It’s difficult to target and streamline communication and build relationships if you don’t start out knowing where you stand with your customers. You probably have files on your customers, but do these files include the tracking of correspondence? If not, this is an aspect that should be added to your customer files.

Another idea is to develop a file of success stories. Are there customers with whom you have a strong relationship, who are loyal and devoted clients? If so, assess the history of your relationship with these clients to determine if you did something different to gain their loyalty. You may even want to start a file of success stories to refer to for inspiration when creativity about how to expand customer relationships may be waning.

Develop a Communication Plan

Communication is the first step in building strong relationships with your customers. First, assess what your communication strategy is. If you do not currently have a strategy for ongoing contact with your clients, it’s time to develop one! Whether it’s a weekly, monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly correspondence with your clients, it’s important to decide on a plan of action and implement that plan.

If you already have a communication plan in place, and are tracking your customer communication, now is the time to review and assess the effectiveness of your plan.

• Do your customers seem engaged and interested in your communication with them?
• Is your customer base steady, or do you seem to be losing customers?
• Have you had any repeated complaints from multiple customers?
• How can you better serve your customers?
• Is there an easy and reliable way for customers to reach you if they have a complaint, concern, or would like to make a suggestion?

This may all sound overwhelming at first, but these are just a few areas to get you started thinking about how to facilitate more communication with your customers. You are probably already doing some of these things. If there are several of these suggestions that you are not doing, yet you feel compelled to implement, don’t panic! Just take one suggestion at a time and move forward that way.

Relationships with clients are built over time, and anything you do now to start the process is a step in the right direction. Once you start to understand and embrace the importance of customer relationships in a strategic marketing plan, you will be heading for success.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=2

Business owners have to be creative when it comes to cost effective ways to promote a product or service. Advertising has its place, but it is critical that any advertising and marketing efforts have a return on investment. Joint ventures are an extremely effective and low-cost way to market your business and increase profit.

There are many simple ways to step into the joint venture arena. Think about sharing these ideas with a joint venture partner:

• Exchange links on your websites
• Include information in your newsletters about your joint venture partner
• Display information on counter tops
• Place information in shopping bags, billings or other mailings
• Share a booth at a tradeshow or event
• Write articles for each other’s newsletters
• Provide prizes for fundraising events for various organizations
• Become involved with a local non-profit or non-profit event that allows you to be seen as benefactors.

Find businesses and service providers in your industry or a cross-related industry and approach them about with your joint venture idea. Here are some examples of creative joint ventures to get your juices flowing:

• Make up Artist/ Bridal Shop: The make-up artist kept bridal shop and prom information in her kit and passed it to potential clients when she was out on a job. The bridal store displayed the make-up artist’s information on their counter.

• Travel Agent/ Wedding Planner: The wedding planner kept the travel agent information available for her clients to book honeymoons and received a free trip for every so many clients she sent to the agent.

• Real Estate Agent/ Moving Company: The real estate agent negotiated a discounted moving rate within a local area for her clients. The moving company received additional advertising in the agent’s newsletter.

• Small Pet Shop/ Dog Groomer/ Animal Shelter: The pet shop offered the groomer’s services and helped to promote the local animal shelter fundraising events. The groomer offered services to the shelter and the pet shop. The shelter promoted the pet shop and the groomer to people who adopted pets.

• Travel Agent/ Luggage Store/ Non-wrinkle Clothing Line: The travel agent promoted both the luggage store and the non-wrinkle clothing line. The luggage store included the travel agent’s card and information about the non-wrinkle clothing in their luggage and on the counter. The clothing line consultant promoted the luggage store and the travel agent during her consultations.

By thinking of scenarios where both parties benefit, joint venture opportunities abound. Pick a target market that you don’t always reach, but your potential joint venture partner does. Then brainstorm as to the type of cross-promotion you would like to do. Bring that to your potential partner and explain what it is that you envision. Be sure to highlight the benefits to him. Also, make sure that you outline what the responsibilities are for each project you work on together. That way, you’ll avoid misunderstandings.

Use joint ventures to increase exposure and profit. Be creative and have fun!

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=2

Before entering into a strategic alliance, it’s a good idea to decide what you hope to see happen as a result of the relationship. Most strategic alliances have one central mission: to increase sales in such a way that both companies benefit. There are many ways to approach a strategic alliance, but there are a few things to consider before you rush headlong into the relationship.

First, outline a business plan specifically for the proposed alliance. It doesn’t need to be extremely detailed, but it should clearly outline the functions of each participant, the expected contributions on both sides, and the anticipated benefits both partners should expect to receive. Do some preliminary research to determine if the alliance is actually feasible from a financial standpoint.

Next, learn all you can about the company you plan to approach. It doesn’t hurt to have a list of candidate companies for your proposed alliance. Think of this process as interviewing to fill an executive position in your company. You may need to see several candidates before you find the right fit.

Once you’ve found the right company, initiate contact with the decision maker at the company to whom you wish to present your ideas. Finding the right person within the sales or marketing department will save time and energy.  It can be as simple as picking up the phone and asking: “Who would the decision maker regarding _______.” (name whatever your project is.)

After you’ve located your contact person, submit a concise proposal. Explain exactly how the alliance will benefit both parties and if possible include a financial projection spreadsheet. Companies are always interested in the bottom line, so show them the potential profit and you should be able to gain immediate interest in your proposal.

When you’ve secured interest, create a simple contract that outlines who does what, how the money flows, and what the disbursement terms will be. Make sure that everyone understands the role that they play so as to eliminate potential surprises. Follow your gut. You may think a company would make a great strategic partner, but if your worldview or business practices are not the same, you could find yourself wishing you’d never joined forces.

Create a clause in your contract that states you are going to start small or for a limited time to test the concept. This way, if personalities don’t mesh, each of you is free to go their own way with no harm done. However, if things work well, you have a contract in place that will allow you to move ahead full speed when the time is right.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Join his JV Wealth e-zine at http://www.christianfea.com/joint-venture-wealth-report/?a=2