Use Joint Ventures to Grow your Business

Use Joint Ventures to Grow your Business
Copyright 2002 lessworkmoremoney.com
By Armand Melanson

So let's talk about "joint venturing". The term sounds
daunting like it is reserved to people who are already at
the top, but that isn't at all the case: a joint venture
is simply two companies working together to increase the
value they provide to their customers.

Let me give you an example of a simple joint venture that I
just setup which required about 1hr of my time.

When I initially setup my lessworkmoremoney.com website, I did
a pretty thorough review of webhosting companies. I went with a
big company that advertised all of the things that I knew I
wanted in a webhost. After a few weeks of hassles, I realized
that they were too big to deliver high quality service, so I
revised my search criteria & starting looking at smaller
companies.

I fell upon a small webhosting company
http://fastwebsites.com
& really liked what I saw when I reviewed what they had to
offer. So I setup an account with them & got
lessworkmoremoney.com up & running.

Over the next few months & had to contact fastwebsites.com
several times to request help on various issues. I always got
prompt & very helpful service.

So one day I was thinking about how others would benefit from my
search for a great webhost & I decided to write up a
recommendation for fastwebsites.com. I also started to do the
math on the lifetime value of each customer who signs-up with
fastwebsites thanks to my recommendation.

I figured why not email them & ask them if they would be
willing to give me an incentive for any subscriber who signs up.
Here's what they had to say:

"Ok we will offer you 1 months hosting fee for any clients you
refer. We will add a referrer entry in the referrer drop down
menu on he order page. You must let your customers know to
choose you as the referrer. If this is satisfactory, let us know
what the entry for your name will be and we will add it to the
order page.

So for no money & less than a few hours work, I am getting a
check from fastwebsites for every subscriber who signs-up with
them.

It is no hassle for me because I was going to recommend them
anyhow. It is good for fastwebsites because they get new
customers. And it is good for my customers because they get
access to a great webhost without having to take a shot in the
dark. Everybody wins!!!

And the possibilities are endless. As long as the joint venture
brings added value to both you & your customers, then it is
probably a good idea. Careful though - don't ever send out
misleading or useless info to your customers even when the joint
venture payoff appears to be good - that is a quick way to kill
your business.

So when you see a mutual benefit from collaborating with another
company, go for it. One word of caution though: most e-companies
are inundated with JV offers. In order to make your stand out,
you should:

=> clearly illustrate the benefits to your JV partner
=> cover the details - leave no unanswered questions

Email is one way to approach a JV partner, but it will likely
get turfed by whoever handles it. If you want to get results,
call the company & get the number of the person in charge of
the area that relates to your proposal. Start at the top of the
chain & work your way down...

----------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Armand Melanson is an emarketing
consultant & author. For free marketing tips & articles you
can re-use, visit him at http://lessworkmoremoney.com
----------------------------------------------------