Junior Varsity
Way back in high school (I mean WAY BACK), JV stood for junior varsity. I loved playing football! When I was in middle school I was a bruiser middle linebacker. I realized when entering high school as a freshman that all of a sudden the kids were 5 to 6 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than I was. I was a 150-pound punching bag, and I had had enough. I never made it through that freshman football season.
So, I decided to find a sport with kids my own size and took up wrestling! I never grew beyond my 5’7″ frame and I only exploded to a whopping 155 pounds. I was never super good at it, but I made it to the junior varsity team. I was asked to wrestle in a higher weight class, and not knowing any better, I said okay! I was wrestling 185-pound kids, and holding my own. Every time one of them fell on me, I remember hearing my mother screaming from the stands “Oh, Oh, OH” (insert New Jersey Italian mom voice). In my final stand, I beat the first two kids because I was quicker and more agile, but then was paired up with a guy who was just too fast, too strong, and too heavy. Mom was happy there were no broken bones.
JV + Joint Venture
Let me put this in context. If you have an iPhone, you have apps. Apple actually provides you with the software and the training to create those apps. You develop something that people actually want to buy. Apple rewards you with 70% of the income and they keep 30%. Granted, you’re doing all the work, but it’s a win-win for both of you.
Wikipedia defines a joint venture as, “A business agreement in which the parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity.”Fast-forward a few years and JV means something completely different to me (and frankly a lot less painful … sometimes). It’s not so different in the fact that you still have to play on someone else’s team, and you have to be good enough and smart enough to want to share what you have.”
Built On JVs
My business is built on JVs. I can extend the breadth and quality of services that I can offer my clients. Yes, I can take a picture or video with my iPhone, but the level of my clients expect people with the skill, equipment, and creative knowledge to take them to the next level. That’s why I hire dedicated experts who can take my clients to the next level with their marketing. These are not the people that you can get on Fiverr, and I am not saying that Fiverr is bad (certainly has its place with certain marketing needs), but there is a certain level I’m trying to attain for my clients and my business.
When you’re looking for a quick fix, Fiverr is fine, but if you need a logo that will fit on the banner or one that comes in color and black and white, and actually look goods sized down into a business card, then sometimes you need to look outside the box … and not the cheap way out.
Good video production sometimes requires a crew, including: a producer, director, scriptwriter, videographer, audio engineer, gaffer, lighting person, and so much more. Then there is the editing, the sound person who mixes all the music and sound effects, and then finally somebody who understands how to maximize it for the end result (YouTube, social media and more). This is one reason why movies cost millions of dollars; it is not just the actors’ salaries.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place to simply shoot video or screen captures yourself with your phone or your laptop, because I do them all the time … and they work great. But sometimes you just have to be willing to bring in other people to help make you more successful.
You first have to figure out if this a value to the end user or customer first.
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Core Joint Ventures
Joint ventures can come in different flavors and sizes. The bottom line is they have to be universally beneficial to all parties involved. Here are a few examples that you can use for your business (whether you’re a solopreneur, a large business or an online marketer).
- Local Business – Let’s say you’re a local plumber and you want to team up with the pool company. You can do the install of pool heaters or gas lines to the heaters to help both companies serve their customers. In exchange, you can provide them with leads and customers who need pool supplies like chlorine and other services. By working together you can both expand your businesses, without stepping on each other’s toes and taking business away from each other.
- Product Building – I’ve worked with a virtual assistant, Natalie Collins. You can re-visit our blog or podcast about working with virtual assistants. We produced an online course. Natalie comes from the perspective of being a virtual assistant and I come from the perspective of using virtual assistants. This helped to provide training to people who want to grow their businesses without hiring new employees, and has been a total win-win for both of us.
- Cross Selling – If you have a product or service that benefits other people, and you find somebody whose product or service does not step on your toes, but could benefit both audiences, wouldn’t you want to try to do that? I’ve worked with somebody who sells an e-course about writing e-books and how to use that knowledge to sell them on Amazon.com. He allowed me to get in front of his audience to help them use social media to expand their reach to sell more books. Even though we both have similar knowledge, we compliment each other by helping to make our clients stronger while getting better results.
Making Joint Ventures Work
Now, you may all be tempted to just say, “I need to find people that help me sell my products”, but that’s not really the way it works. You first have to figure out if this a value to the end user or customer first. If it is, could it be beneficial to you and your joint venture partner? The second thing you have to think about is your partner. Is this beneficial to him or her, and their business? Are you adding value to them and their client base? Then finally, how does this help you and your business?
You may be all excited to grow your list of email subscribers, or to just get your product in front of new people who you think that will love it. However, you have to focus on the end customer first, JV partner second, and you last!
Provide value first to the end customer, and then the joint venture partner, and you will never be disappointed.
I would love to hear your successes and horror stories … so, please comment away!
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