A joint venture is a partnership between 2 or more people (companies), where all parties contribute money and resources and share in the profits. Before you jump into this type of business relationship, it is important that everyone has a high level of trust for each other.
Strategic Alliance
A strategic alliance is a less risky form of a joint venture. In the strategic alliance, 2 or more people (companies), share resources, products, information, etc?. But, each company remains a separate entity.
Honestly Rate Yourself
Before you decide if you want to have a joint venture or a strategic alliance, you have to take an honest look at your business. You need to assess how much of a help you can be to other businesses. The best way to do this is to rank your business status from 1 ? 10.
Some of the areas to thing about are:
1. How many customers do you have?
2. Do you have over 10,000 newsletter subscribers?
3. Do you have a successful marketing plan in place?
4. Is your website ranked high in search engines?
5. Do you have a high Alexa ranking?
Based on these qualifications, rank yourself.
Which type of partnership is best for you?
Now that you have ranked yourself, you know where you stand. What you need to do is search around the Internet for businesses who rank within one point of you in either direction. This means that you are looking for someone with the same Internet status as yourself.
If you have ranked yourself at a 5 or below, your best option is a strategic alliance. In this alliance, you find mutual associates who are all helping each other, but, not cutting into each other's profits. This can only help you in the long run.
If you have ranked yourself above a 5, a joint venture might be the best case scenario.
The greatest advantage of being on the Internet is that you can have many businesses. So, if you already have clout, you can enter into many different joint ventures with people who are at your rank.
