Many start-up businesses right now have several people at their helm. Joint ventures are very popular among younger businesspeople and those who are putting up their very first business. And why so? Perhaps because a joint venture affords people with a host of benefits that are just too good to refuse. Here are some of them:
1. You need expertise
You can’t know anything. One of the best reasons for opting for a joint venture as opposed to doing it on your own is the need for another person’s expertise. For instance, if you want to start a T-shirt business but you do not know a thing about a T-shirt, the best way to start the business is to partner with someone who knows the business. You can learn from his or her expertise and start the business that you want. It beats having to enroll in some sort of T-shirt workshop.
2. You need the money
Some people opt for having many business partners because they do not have enough money to start the business. Remember that starting any kind of business takes a lot of money and if you are young and fresh out of school, you will not the have that amount of money sitting idly. Thus, you can partner with several other people so that you can pool your money together and raise enough money for the business.
You can even find partners who will finance the business while you do all the work. These are called the silent partners or the financiers of the operation.
3. You need a cushion
Going into business can be frightening and some people feel better if they have people who will cushion their fall. In fact, some do not even care if they lose a lot of money just as long as they lose it with other people. Failure, after all, appears better and is easier to accept when shared with a lot of people.
4. You need to have less risk
This goes back to the subject of money. Although some people have the money to risk, they do not want to risk everything. Thus, they look for partners who will share the risk with them. When there are many of you in a business, the amount of money that you need to initially invest will be smaller and more manageable.
5. You need people to do the work
When you are alone in the business, you will need to take care of it 24/7. This is not for people who are also holding full-time jobs and are just doing the business on the side. Having partners means that they can take over for you or you guys can come up with a schedule where each can take turns taking care of the business.
6. You need more input
Thinking of marketing gimmicks for your business or selling tactics on your own can be hard for the brain to do. Thus, you need more people to do the thinking for you.
Your decision to take part in a lucrative joint venture could truly help bolster your business. Such an initiative is normal and strategic especially these days when competition is just so intense and resources of companies get very limited. If you aim for your business to attain success, you have to approach entry into a joint venture positively and in the appropriate way. If not, your business endeavor would end in a disaster. Not all joint ventures succeed. That is why before you get into one, you should consider the following important guidelines.
First, be sure to select or pursue the right business project. As a manager or business owner, you should be able to look at the big picture. You should be strategic and logical at the same time. Before entering any joint venture agreement or effort, be sure to choose the right projects or endeavors to take. The cardinal rule is to choose a specific project that would undoubtedly and surely succeed in the long run. Your prudence and good business sense would help you assess proposed projects. Your management skills and analytical expertise should help you assess whether a project you are eyeing would take you to success or to failure.
Second, choose the right companies or people to stick with. Before joining a joint venture, it is wise to first know who or which firms are into the endeavor. It is always advisable to properly choose the right venture partners. You should not get into a joint project with just about anyone. As a guide, the right joint venture partners are those that uphold similar goals as yours. Such firms or people should be reliable and trustworthy enough. Finally, be sure to choose partners that would obviously be able to do things that you practically could not do. Joint ventures consisting of two partners are logically much easier to manage, although ventures with more participants could be more massive and capital-rich.
Lastly, be sure the terms of the joint venture you are joining are very clear and specific. Be sure you and all your partners know precisely what should be expected from each other with regards to the endeavor. You should all share the same goals at least for the joint venture. Every business in the project could take individual and different corporate goals but at least for the joint venture, you should agree to stick to common project goals.
Be sure there would be clear division of labor and of revenues. You should think not just of the advantages of entering into a joint venture but also of the efforts you should provide to help make the efforts work. Your joint venture should not be the sole focus of your business. As you get excited with the project taken, be sure not to neglect your own company’s basic goals and requirements. Your joint venture could have its own managers so that its owners need not spend time fully on the initiative.