A joint venture is a strategic alliance agreement between two or more companies. The nature of a JV is that it is mutually beneficial to both parties and allows the JV partners to continue to conduct their own respective businesses. However, how can a joint venture be mutually beneficial for two separate and independent business entities?

Who is the ideal candidate for your business?

If you want to consider who you can partner with in a JV, start by identifying your customer and target market. Who buys your products or services? Are they younger, more outgoing spenders, or perhaps a more conservative, older, and wealthier clientele?

Once you’ve solidly identified your primary customer, it’s just a matter of discovering and identifying other types of markets that your customers share. These are the markets from which you want to carefully choose a suitable JV partner.

Find a courtesy service in your industry

A good example of an industry with ancillary services is the sale of real estate. The main job of a real estate broker is to list and show houses for sale to potential clients. However, they can increase business and networking by partnering with partners who have the complementary services that new home buyers need. For example, a real estate agent could form a joint venture with a mortgage broker where they agree to cross-promote the services of others. In many cases, new home buyers search for a home before getting approved for a loan. In this case, the real estate agent can simply refer his client to the mortgage broker as a good starting point for a loan application.

Ways to Form a Profitable Joint Venture

What other services or products would be good for your customers or clients? Get creative and you will be able to find many suitable complementary products or services in your industry or closely related industry. Use your creativity to form joint ventures so that you can:

– Form complementary products or services and offer packages of offers.
– Create joint seminars and promote jointly in a specific market.
– Write articles and publish them in the newsletters and websites of others.
– Offer special offers to your JV partner’s clients and ask them to do the same.
– Include a special offer or a coupon for your product or service in your customers’ emails.
– Add links to and from the websites of others.
– Co-author a helpful “how-to” brochure and then offer it as an exclusive gift to your mutual clients.
– Agree to refer clients to each other’s business for a nominal “referral fee.”

These are just quick examples of how a joint venture in a complementary industry can help your business. It is also important to make sure you have a thorough knowledge and understanding of what you are recommending to your clients and clients. Try the products of your potential joint venture for yourself. Would you wear them? Be sure to protect your own business reputation by recommending other products and services.

Creative JV deals can give a huge boost to revenue if done right. By using your own creativity and business acumen, you can discover a host of ways a joint venture can help you.