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Growing Your Small Business Through Alliances and Joint Ventures

Written by: Janis Pettit

Article Overview: Most small business owners struggle with marketing. What works and what doesn't? What approach fits my skill set? We all need to try a variety of creative targeted marketing ideas. Cold calling, "warm" calling and sending e-mails may seem like the most obvious way to let people know about us and to generate sales. But, there’s another way that works even better.

Growing Your Small Business Through Alliances and Joint Ventures

Most small business owners struggle with marketing. What works and what doesn't? What approach fits my skill set? We all need to try a variety of creative targeted marketing ideas. Cold calling, "warm" calling and sending e-mails may seem like the most obvious way to let people know about us and to generate sales. But, there’s another way that works even better.



An alliance is usually an agreement between two businesses whose services or products compliment each other. Each agrees to recommend the other’s services to their respective clients and to pay a percentage to the other if the referral results in paying work. Let’s say you’re a marketing expert, but you don’t do public relations. However, sometimes your clients require public relations as part of their marketing strategy. You meet with several public relations experts who specialize in different fields, but who don’t offer your type of marketing services, and you form 3 alliances. A 10% commission is what you agree on for mutual referrals that result in work. Now, both you and your alliance partners are more "full service" providers. You can offer PR services to your clients and your partners can offer marketing services to theirs through you. In addition you could add them as "partners" on your website, giving your company the advantage and versatility of an expert team. It’s a win - win situation.



Another way to structure an alliance is to come up with a strategy to find customers together. Suppose you make custom window treatments. You decide to speak to a local fabric shop that specializes in upholstery and window fabric. If you could be their exclusive referral for customers that need someone to make their fabric into beautiful draperies, and you are willing to pay them a commission for each referral, what happens? They can say they now offer a new value-added service to their customers, which may mean a customer chooses their store above another. You have a steady source of customers. You may even get them to display some of your draperies made with their fabric in your store. They agree to allow you to advertise in their store, perhaps even offer a workshop, and you’ll recommend them exclusively to your clients. You may even advertise together. The possibilities are limitless.



On the internet, businesses are forming joint ventures to sell information and software products regularly. If you have a new e-book, e-course, tele-seminar, e-workshop or software product, and you have a website or webpage set up to sell that product, you can recruit other complimentary internet marketers whose database is your target client. Set up an affiliate program especially for this JV group and ask them to market your new product to their subscriber lists. They'll get a percentage of every sale. It's a huge win-win because your sales will skyrocket and your partners will benefit as well. For all the details about how to accomplish a joint venture like this go to:



There are numerous ways to put together alliances or joint ventures. Thinking outside the box and being clear about what benefits both parties would receive are essential. As always, getting the agreement in writing is a good idea, as is being sure the person your dealing with is honorable and reliable. And try to discover ALL the alliance possibilities that exist for your business. Our custom window treatment business owner above could also contact interior designers, furniture stores, residential real estate agents, home builders sales offices and even paint stores. So, what are you waiting for? Start today by:

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making a list of at least 5 prospective alliance or joint venture partners.
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making a list of 5 ways the alliance would benefit both of you
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make a list of 5 ways you could implement the alliance.
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start making contact.
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watch your small business grow!

Related Articles
  Joint Venture and NonDisclosure Agreements
  How to Develop Your Small Business: 3 Overlooked Strategies
  The Importance of Joint Ventures
  Advantages and Disadvantages of Joint Venture
  Funding Resources

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Related Forum Posts
Joint Ventures?? - I read this following paragraph in another business forum. Has anyone used joint ventures and had successful results? How do you go about setting up joint ventures? [quote:3vnvuml9]Joint Ventures have been, and always will be one of the most powerful marketing tactics ever, and for good reason. They are easy to set up, and they cost you nothing and if set up correctly will allow you to have more customers than you can handle! So if you promote a great product or service and want to expose it to more prospects, or you you seek ways to increase your sales, but aren't quite sure how to go about it you should definitely consider harnessing the power of Joint Ventures And the best part is that anybody can start using joint ventures to skyrocket their profits. It doesn't matter what you sell, or where you sell it.[/quote:3vnvuml9]
Different types of funding - Business Relationship Funding This is another source of funds that can be overlooked. It may be possible to introduce potential alliances to add value to both parties. It may produce an ultimate exit route in the medium to long term. Joint Ventures: Requires a legal agreement embodying the deal and another company Partnerships: Two companies collaborate with possible funding. Joint working relationships: These are an informal partnership which may be more project specific where the parties can share resources. Agencies: These can be geographical or product specific and generally incorporates a payment for the right to the agency. Distributors: Very like an agency but may not necessarily involve up front payment. Alliances: These do not require a separate company and can be embodied by a legal agreement to work together. Trade investors: Otherwise known as Corporate Partnering. This can be a good way to involve a much larger company in the business with a view to possible trade sale further down the line. Associates: This can be a loose arrangement with no fundamental commitments either way, rather like a preferred supplier. Equity Swop: Two companies exchange shares to a similar value to develop both businesses. Franchises: This can allow the business to grow without further direct investment. Licensing: This involves licensing a product or service to enable others to sell it. This requires you to own the intellectual property.
Re: Marketing a company - Get their contacts from someone who had been marketing to them before and do Joint Ventures with the guy
Free Ebook on Joint Ventures - Julie, you might be interested in the free ebook offer through Dollarmakers.com on Joint Ventures that has upto 30 variations for a small business to create joint ventures. Once you've read it I'd be happy to share more advanced ideas based on the book.
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.


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