Joint Ventures

A joint venture or JV is a term used to describe two businesses working together for mutual benefit.
A good example is when Disney release a new movie. Often they do a “JV” with Burger King whereby Burger King includes a small toy figure or a set of glassware from the upcoming Disney movie with their kids meals thereby adding value to their offer, and Disney receives massive publicity through the Burger King network of restaurants.

In your business, it is quite feasible that you could have suppliers or wholesalers promote you to their customers as a thank you gift. You would bring the benefit of helping their customers grow their business thereby growing the wholesalers reputation and business.

A JV is basically a joining together of two organizations or businesses as partners to produce greater business outcomes through the pooling of time, talent, resources.

A few more examples could be:

Two companies in the same or similar industries pool research and development funding, activities and efforts to achieve greater results than each conducting such activity alone.
Companies combining their core competencies together under one masthead or marketing campaign to combine efforts, while providing for each one’s specialties.

A key to any effective joint venture is the ability to recognize the mutual value of both parties throughout the term of the agreement.

These may even have to be prescribed and documented legally, to avoid any perception of collusion or undue activities between participants.

Often, it is when reality doesn’t match the prescribed that joint ventures fail to be successful. A joint venture may have an active life, and after a certain point, the need to conduct such is no longer effective use of time, talent and resources.

Budget: $250 - $1,000 per month