Communication is Key

If you truly want to connect with your current customers, the first step is to talk to them regularly. Greet them by name when they walk into your business and ask how they are doing. Learn the names of their children, pets or favorite sports teams. Ask what they think about your business and what they would change if they could. These regular exchanges don’t have to take a lot of time and effort, but they can make the world of difference in how often a customer chooses your company for his business.

Listen to Them

Customers will provide plenty of feedback about the quality of your business, and all you have to do is listen to what they have to say. However, active listening is a skill that is cultivated through use and practice. Active listening involves tuning into your customer’s words and repeating their meaning back to ensure there are no misunderstandings.

During the active listening process, you should be able to identify any potential needs your customer might have and provide effective solutions to those needs to enhance your customer’s satisfaction with your business.

Provide Incentives

Everyone likes to be appreciated, and your customers are no exception. Show them what their business means to you by scheduling periodic customer appreciation events. It might be coffee and donuts or a complete meal. You might also do a frequent customer mailing that includes special discounts only available to current clients or provide a special sale open only to those special people. If your cash is limited, get creative in your appreciation offerings, such as a special express line for current customers or a customer card that offers a discount after so many visits to your establishment.

Solicit Feedback

Some companies use customer surveys, while others take a less formal approach and simply ask customers what they like and don’t like about your business. You can have staff do follow-up calls after working with customers or send a mailing asking for customer feedback. To ensure you get a good response from your request, provide a small incentive with the survey, such as a discount on the next visit after the survey is returned. You might be surprised at how much you can learn about your company by simply asking the people who patronize it most.

Customer connections are the most effective way to build a loyal customer base and a healthy bottom line. By taking the time to forge professional relationships with the people who patronize your business most, you are more likely to keep those customers satisfied and coming back for more.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Building a Business Brand

The first step in a successful marketing campaign is to build a familiar business branding that customers can easily identify. Joint ventures make this process much simpler by allowing newer businesses to piggyback on the names and reputations of more established companies. If customers are loyal to one brand, they will be more likely to purchase a brand associated with the original business.

You don’t need much initial capital to partner with bigger businesses; simply research the needs of the business you are interested in and find out what your company could bring to the table to make the joint venture partnership complete.

Pooling Resources

The best feature of online marketing is that it doesn’t cost a small fortune to use many of the effective tools at your disposable. The cost of Internet marketing can also be cut exponentially by pooling resources with other companies involved in your joint venture.

While one partner can effectively split the cost of marketing with your business, those with truly limited advertising dollars can sign on with more than one JV partner to reduce marketing costs even further. This approach offers the biggest bang for your advertising dollar by granting you maximum exposure to potential customers with little up-front costs involved.

Finding Cheap Tools

Online marketing offers a virtual plethora of advertising options, which range in cost from very pricey consultants to free tools you can easily learn to use on your own. Social marketing outlets like Facebook and LinkedIn are excellent options for expanding your company exposure with little or no cost to your business. Creating a blog also doesn’t cost much money, but can be a good way to establish yourself as an expert in your industry and market your company to potential customers.

You might also find that your JV partners have experience with particular advertising tools and are prepared to share their knowledge with you, especially if you can return the favor with expertise of your own in a different area.

Joint ventures are an effective marketing method, whether you have a little or a lot of capital to bring to the table. Research potential partners before you approach them to find out how your knowledge or resources could complement their own business offerings. Learn to use online marketing tools cheaply and effectively to enhance your public exposure. With a few handpicked JV partners at your side, your online marketing efforts are sure to bring a good value for your initial advertising investment.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Expense, Exposure and Profits

Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking that the more often they can get their business name into the public eye, the more sales they will make. They spare no expense to provide their business with exposure, although high advertising costs can often put a business into financial trouble.

While exposure is an important component of marketing, it is not the only tool available. The right kind of exposure will ensure your profits increase, and this means encouraging customer confidence at the same time you are familiarizing them with your name. Joint venture marketing is tailored to building customer confidence at the same time it increases exposure by linking your business to another company the customer already knows and likes.

Multiple Marketing Channels

Customers gather their information from many different venues today, so the more venues you can use effectively, the better results your advertising efforts will reap. However, advertising in a variety of venues can be a costly endeavor – often more costly than many small businesses can afford.

The best solution is to partner with another business to share the cost of advertising so you can reach more customers in a variety of venues for less money overall. You can work together to produce website content, share back links and invest in tools like autoresponders to produce the best results for the least amount of money. Joint ventures allow you to stretch your advertising dollars so you get the biggest bang for your marketing buck.

Targeting Your Advertising

Your newspaper advertisement or website links might be seen by hundreds of individuals a day, but only a small fraction of those people might be legitimate potential customers. Advertising agencies understand that it’s not just about maximum exposure; it is more about getting your business name out to the people who are most likely to buy from you.

Joint ventures are perfect for this effort because related businesses with a similar client base usually work together for maximum impact. This means that the customers that head to your JV partner will be more likely to buy from you as well. You get targeted advertising without spending the big bucks for professional market research.

Joint ventures offer low-cost marketing options that reap high-impact results. By partnering with related businesses to share advertising costs, you attract a targeted market base for a lot less money. The ability to build customer confidence quickly through your JV partner means bigger sales and healthier profits with minimum advertising investment involved. It is no wonder that so many businesses of all sizes are turning to joint ventures to boost their bottom lines today.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

With so many areas of our life pulling at our focus, how can we maintain a consistent and outstanding effort with a joint venture? Doesn’t your JV require your full effort as well? However, sometimes we lose sight and forget why we formed a JV in the first place: to make money and be more successful in business.

Evaluate Your Feelings

You can improve your JV efforts. If you have felt any of the following in regard to your JV, then you are not realizing your full potential, or are unaware of the full potential you can give to making your JV a success:

• Over stressed

• Health challenges

• Feeling of futility

• Imbalanced

• Isolated

Here are three simple things you can do to leveraging your highest effort and give an inspired performance in your JV.

Create a Compelling Vision

What was the reason you formed your joint venture? To make more money? To gain additional business contacts? To tap into an underdeveloped market segment? You need to go back and look at your JV documents and business plan. What is the purpose? If you just review your vision, you can get back to the place that made it exciting.

Don’t have a vision written down? Now’s the time to do so or improve on what you already have. A vision needs to be compelling. “Make more money” is not a compelling vision. “Earn six figures in the next fiscal year with a global marketing effort” is more like it. Make sure your JV vision is compelling enough that it gets you excited every day.

Tackle Challenging Situations

One thing that can really get you down is dealing with tough situations. However, haven’t you felt great and gained a sense of accomplishment when you last tackled and overcame a challenge?

Don’t let tough situations get the best of you. You can feel inspired when you succeed. Approach challenging situations with a goal to tackle one small thing at a time. Break it down into smaller steps. Then check off one step at a time and soon you realize the overwhelming situation is manageable. And always remember to give yourself a pat on the back with a small reward when you complete a challenge.

Tap into Your Creative Abilities

Nothing gives a more inspired performance than when you are creative and productive.  Practice brainstorming more often. Lay out multiple scenarios and solutions to a problem. Give yourself permission to come up with seemingly crazy ideas. That is where you find yourself thinking outside the proverbial box – when you allow yourself to think of innovative and creative solutions outside the norm.

Sometimes you just need to breathe life back into your JV performance. Don’t let yourself get a stale attitude toward your joint venture. Remember what you’re working for. Get that sense of accomplishment. And allow yourself to be creative. You and your JV partner will be thankful for it.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Triggering Psychology for Sales

Picture this situation: I recently was at the grocery store standing before an aisle full of different brands of green beans. There must have been 10 or more options, all with different price and packaging. As I stood there scratching my head trying to determine which can would have the best tasting green beans, I found one brand with a simple marketing line: “Picked fresh from local farmers and canned the same day for freshness”.  I remember picking greens beans fresh from my grandma’s garden when I was a kid and enjoying a tasty meal that same evening. I chose that brand because I wanted the same kind of freshness, despite the fact it cost 20% more than the basic generic brand.

This example illustrates why your JV product must differentiate itself from the competition. Consumers are indecisive. Help guide their choice by giving them a reason to buy your JV product. It doesn’t even have to be a proverbial grocery list of reasons. But simply highlighting a few simple benefits can help solidify a consumer’s decision.

Reasons Your Customers Buy

Here is a small list that is by no means complete regarding why your customers buy.

• Price – Some people will always base a decision on price. However, that doesn’t mean your product has to be the cheapest. You could promote that your product costs less than the leading competitor. Or you could charge a premium, but give a good reason why your JV product is worth it.

• Quality – Consumers like quality. Be sure that your product is manufactured or produced using quality and durable materials. Or if you offer a service, make it the best quality service and be sure to explain why it’s better than the other company.

• Innovation – Something new always attracts customers. Highlight how your JV product is innovative and can solve their problems better than standard products seen on the market today.

• Warranty/Guaranty – People also like to know that you will stand behind what you sell. Offering a warranty on a product or guarantying satisfaction can provide them with the impetus needed to buy your product.

Make sure your JV product or service stands out from the crowd. If you want to see your profits expand, then take the time to provide the reasons why customers should buy your product.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

How Wal-Mart Entered India with a JV

In 2009, Wal-Mart started doing business in India for the first time. However, the Indian Wal-Mart is not the typical Wal-Mart retail superstores you see in most every small, medium, and large city in America. Rather, the retail giant formed a joint venture in 2006 with Bharti Enterprises, Inc., one of India’s leading business groups.

For the last three years, they have found a way to do business in India that complies with the strict government foreign-business investment restrictions and does not compete with domestic retailers. Rather than be an everyday retail store, the new Indian Wal-Mart is a wholesale business catering to the specific needs of vegetable vendors, hospitals, restaurants, and hotels, operating under the name BestPrice Modern Wholesale.

Wal-Mart is a world leader in consumer marketing and product logistics. Even you can take lessons from Wal-Mart’s India presence. Here’s how:

Find The Right JV Partner

First, Wal-Mart had to find a retail leader in India with a good reputation. Through their combined efforts, Wal-Mart and Bharti Enterprises were able to form a working business entity.

Your efforts to find the best JV partner with a high reputation for quality and service are vital. If your goal is to enter new markets and larger market segments, a JV with another reputable business can aid your efforts to succeed quickly and more efficiently.

Jostle Your Paradigm

Wal-Mart is known worldwide for its large retail stores with low prices on popular consumer products. However, that paradigm would not work in India due to strict government non-competing laws on foreign businesses. Therefore, a new wholesale business paradigm was designed to help Wal-Mart play into the non-retail sector of India’s business economy.

Your JV entity and structure may need to change the way it normally does business. If you’re a retailer, you may need to work wholesale only. If you provide consumer services, you may need to change to a business-to-business format for your JV to succeed. Stay open to business paradigm changes.

Beat Competition Through Stealth

Of course, India is familiar with the Wal-Mart name, and it has a large controversy as a foreign business trying to steal customers from local retailers. Thus, along with changing to wholesale business, they changed their name to BestPrice Modern Wholesale.

If you are looking to beat competition, you and your JV partner can work under a new business name and entity that can succeed at penetrating a higher market share. Of course, this requires market research and marketing strategies so make sure to carefully evaluate this decision.

Your next JV may be the right formula to thrust your business into new heights. With the right JV partner and strategies, you can find ways to make your business work in new areas that were previously impenetrable.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Responsibility of Human Cooperation

Psychological studies have shown that when individuals act only for themselves, they tend to make decisions based almost solely on emotion. A key factor in a successful JV is cooperation, which requires each partner to focus not only on his own needs and wants, but his partner’s as well. When someone else may be affected by a decision, we as humans tend to act more rationally, rather than seek to maximize our own benefits.

What this says is that your involvement with a JV can help you make better decisions when someone else’s well-being is also at stake. The power of cooperation is the leverage needed to get group members to contribute their highest efforts for the collective benefit of the group.

Improvement of Information Processing Capabilities

As mentioned, when you make decisions that may have an impact on others, you will tend to be more rational. We as humans are emotional creatures. And emotions can sometimes lead to irrational behavior, especially when it comes to competing with others for resources.

However, if you pool resources and share in a common goal with a joint venture partner, you will tend to take in more information and process the information more thoroughly on a non-competitive level. In essence, your shared culture develops a better processing system for mutual benefit.

Better Behavior Makes a Better Person

Cooperation for mutual advantage is evidenced in basic society. We have developed societal regulators who help make the laws that benefit society as a whole and have enforcers who make sure that no one benefits at another’s expense. This is the entire basis for the term “civilization”. We have become better people and improved society by not remaining barbaric or savage in nature.

The same goes for you as an individual. You can improve your personal emotional and cognitive maturity with the decisions you make for the benefit of your JV. Your financial situation can improve with the pooling of resources and cooperation you get with your JV partner. In addition, you will feel more compassion and enter a more rational psychological state when you know that your decisions are benefiting both you and someone else. So go ahead, have that bagel and make better decisions today.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Accounting for joint ventures is just the same as for any other business. Revenues and expenses must be accounted for, and statements must be prepared to help in making future business decisions for the JV. The only difference is the process. However, it’s important to provide each partner with a complete reporting of all JV related accounting transactions.

Separate Joint Accounting System

The business model you choose for your JV may predetermine your accounting process. If you and your JV partner have agreed to form a separate entity such as a corporation, LLC, or Limited Partnership, you will need to create a separate bookkeeping system for that entity. This is important not only for profit sharing purposes, but for government reporting for tax purposes as well.

Separate Ledger Account

In many cases, a simple joint venture is created between two business owners and the accounting system can be assimilated into one or both owners’ existing systems. For instance, if your JV is the type that simply cross promotes each others’ business, or sells a package deal of both your products, you can simply keep track of the income and expenses related to the JV in your own accounting system, and share the results with your JV partner at the end of each month.

To do this, you can create two separate temporary accrual ledger accounts called “Joint Venture With X Income” and “Joint Venture With X Expenses”. Within these ledger accounts, you can record all purchases you make on behalf of the joint venture, and record the income you receive from related sales.

At the end of each month or fiscal quarter, you can make adjusting entries to close these accounts. For instance, if you have agreed to split profits 50/50, simply make two closing entries in the “Income” account, one with half the amount going out in a cash transaction to your JV partner, and the other half going to your own sales ledger account. Expenses can be closed the same way.

What Type of Accounting System?

Most businesses use an automated accounting system via computer software. Popular software packages such as Peachtree or QuickBooks offer easy accounting processes and user-friendly ways to create new accounts and even new entities for complete and separate JV bookkeeping.

You could also use a spreadsheet application such as the popular MS Excel to keep track of expenses and revenues. A spreadsheet will allow you to easily make charts and graphs.

However, don’t forget about the age-old handwritten ledger book. If your joint venture is a simple cross-promotional type of agreement, the way to keep track of bookkeeping may be to simply make manual entries in a ledger book. This method has worked for thousands of years and you can make it work for you too.

Accounting is important for the financial reporting of a JV business. Keep in mind accounting methods when you form your joint venture entity, and make sure you have a way to keep each JV partner fully informed of all financial transactions.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

An online business has a practically unlimited amount of potential customers. Anyone around the world with a computer and a modem can access your website. For some successful online businesses, they have tapped into a good portion of that market and have millions of customers and/or subscribers. But did they do it alone? Not likely.

The only way to access so many Internet users is to get the word out about your online business. And online joint ventures can do just that. Here are some of the ways that have made prominent online businesses successful:

• Affiliate Program – Find other online businesses that are successful and drive a lot of traffic. Talk with the website owner about joining together with an affiliate program. As an affiliate, they agree to market your website and product with a special link. Any time that a visitor clicks that link and buys your online product, service, or subscription, then the affiliate receives a portion of that sale. Usually about 50% is the norm for affiliate profit sharing. But with potentially hundreds of affiliates, that could translate into thousands of new customers for you.

• Database Sharing – Your website depends upon getting information to customers and potential customers. However, you do not have the numbers of subscribers you need to grow and build a huge online empire. Try a joint venture with other website owners who have large databases of customers. Perhaps for promoting their website or marketing their product, you can ask for access to their databases to help build your customer contact list.

• Reputation Building – The little guy always struggles to get noticed and respected. But if you are worthy enough, try forming a joint venture with another online website that has the popularity and reputation for delivering quality. Simply by being associated with a reputable website, you automatically gain respect and an endorsement as well.

• Co-Authoring – Is another website owner popular for providing helpful and useful information? Try to form a joint venture where you can both co-author an online brochure or guide for your customers. He gets exposure for his website and you get a great endorsement from someone who is known to deliver quality.

Online businesses have proven that they can thrive in a weak economy. It’s important, however, that an online entrepreneur not try to go it alone. Seek the proper joint ventures and watch your traffic and sales grow.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

A great JV idea is like an acorn: it is unfilled potential until it is planted, watered, and finally grows into a new and majestic oak tree. The next step in getting the word out about your JV is to plant that seed and give it some water.

Here are some ideas that can get your JV information to new customers and clients:

Blogs – Form a blog with your JV partner. You can start a blog for free. You and your JV partner can trade writing short blog posts that promote your JV business. Also, get a following from other blogs to get traffic to yours. You might also ask about writing guest blog posts for other blogs to help promote your JV.

Articles – There are many websites that want your articles. Some will even pay you.  Write informative articles related to your industry and JV to publish throughout the web.

eZines – Many websites specialize in subscription ezines. In addition, many online businesses create their own ezine for their customer database. Talk with one of these about writing a helpful article for their ezine and get your business noticed by their customers.

Website – Don’t forget about the possibility of a separate website for your new JV. It can simply be a well designed website that is search engine optimized (SEO) and provides information to potential customers. Or you may go full speed with Flash animation and an online shopping cart to sell more business.

Press Release - A well-written press release to local or regional media can help get the word out about your new JV. Especially if either you or your JV partner has a prominent role in the region to begin with, a joint venture can pique a reporter’s interest to write a more detailed interview.

Email - The nice aspect about forming a JV is that you already have two established businesses with marketing lists.  Join up your databases and send out a promotional email to your joint customers about your new JV. Offer special deals to get them to try your new JV product or service.

Advertise – Don’t forget the traditional route of promotion – advertising. Create ads for print, radio, TV, and even online advertising such as pay per click or pay per call. Research the best venues for your target market and spend the money to promote your new JV. Remember, you are splitting the costs, making advertising more affordable to both parties.

Your newly formed JV doesn’t have to sit stagnant while you try and build a new customer base. Take the initiative and get the word out about your new JV business.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.