Growing Your Small Business Through Alliances and Joint Ventures
Growing Your Small Business Through Alliances and Joint Ventures
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:
*
making a list of at least 5 prospective alliance or joint venture partners.
*
making a list of 5 ways the alliance would benefit both of you
*
make a list of 5 ways you could implement the alliance.
*
start making contact.
*
watch your small business grow!
Growing Your Small Business Through Alliances and Joint Ventures - To learn more about this author, visit Janis Pettit's Website.
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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:
*
making a list of at least 5 prospective alliance or joint venture partners.
*
making a list of 5 ways the alliance would benefit both of you
*
make a list of 5 ways you could implement the alliance.
*
start making contact.
*
watch your small business grow!
Growing Your Small Business Through Alliances and Joint Ventures - To learn more about this author, visit Janis Pettit's Website.
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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