Advantages of Joint Ventures

A joint venture is business association with two or more parties merging resources for a particular purpose or project. Setting your business goal/s is the first step when entering a joint venture. Your goal may one of the following: expanding a marketing coverage, sourcing out information and business links, building credibility with a specific target market, or accessing new markets that is hard to aim in a solo business. After you have set your goals, you should look for a trusted business co-participant who shares a common goal. Third step is exchanging business concepts with your chosen co-participant. Fourth step is securing the joint venture by written agreement. You need guidance of a legal professional guidance to do this. Here are the following advantages of joint ventures:

1. Access to new technologies - If you want to enter into global markets and have a prosperous business, access to state-of-the-art technologies is very important. Joint ventures can provide a thriving or growing business with right new technologies that a solo business cannot develop due to costs or other resources constraints. Investing on new technologies offers risk but if a purchase is based on well-thought planning, failure can be avoided.

2. Cost reduction – Costs of production, distribution, technology, transportation, and other needed capabilities can be reduced with joint ventures. It is much easier to focus on product or service enhancement when you don’t worry so much about exceeding and impractical costs. If this is the case, you are most likely to expand your business eventually.

3. Provide participants the opportunity to learn - Forming an alliance allows the participants to work with other businesses in the same or related industries. This provides participants with the opportunity to learn from each other's successes and mistakes.

4. Sharing risks - Joint ventures allow participants to exploit new opportunities. To be successful in a project, participants must have rapport and open communication. The very important role in sharing risks is the square root rule which means the success of a particular project depends on the risk preferences of the venture participants.

5. Improves market credibility, penetration and access - All businesses struggle at the start in building acceptance, penetration and access within their target market. Joint ventures allow customers to have trust and confidence on a particular project. It also helps attract more customers and improves coverage.

6. Lesser chance of your partner becoming a competitor - Since your fellow participant in a joint venture alliance have similar goals, interests, and business perspective with you, merging resources upshot to lesser chance of competition when it comes to the particular project.

7. Better market feedback - When a business is able to provide state-of-the art technologies, better market coverage, enhanced credibility and penetration, customers are able to give feedback more. Joint ventures are healthy alliances that help a business understand better their market. By allowing you to focus on developing your strengths, joint ventures provide the ability to respond more quickly and effectively to change. In some cases, joint ventures also allow you to open up to global opportunities.

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Five Things You Have To Consider When Opting For A Joint Venture

Joint ventures are great ideas for business but it is not without its disadvantages. Some fail while others crumble against the weight of the discord. So before you opt to go into a joint venture, here are some things that you have to consider in order to make sure that you will have a successful one.

1. Your partner
Your partner must be somebody or a company who you trust and believe in. If you are thinking of partnering with a company, research also on the owner as well as the man who is running the business. You will need to deal with these guys if you ever push through with the joint venture. The potential partner should also be able to go with the vision that you have for your company.

2. Their contribution
Another important aspect that you need to look into when starting a joint venture is the contribution that each partner will have for the project. The contributions should be made clear at the start of the project and should be written on paper if need be and signed by each of the partners. That way, everybody is made aware of their roles, thus minimizing the potential to slack off from their duties. It is also good to include in the document that if you ever slack off, any of the partners can be kicked out of the partnership or their shares can be lessened.

3. Exit strategy
There should also be something in writing until when the partnership will run. Remember that joint ventures are temporary but they can be in long term. It is good to have a specific date or period of run and then an option to extend for all parties. This will be a good way to ensure that everybody who is staying in the joint venture is still happy and is not just staying because the clause said so.

4. What the companies offer
Before you go around making an offer for a joint venture, make sure that you have thoroughly researched the company or the person that you want to be partners with. Check what they have to offer and make sure that they are the best in the field or that they can offer the product, technology or service that you need. Remember that you are only seeking the partnership because of that missing element and it is vital that you make sure that the missing element is really there.

5. Properties
When two companies go into a joint venture, they will be combining some of their assets. Make sure that the properties that each of you will be bringing to the table is equitable. It is not only in the number of properties but also the value attached to each one. If the contributions are not the equal among the partners, make sure that you talk about it and put them into writing. The sharing of profits may depend on the contributions of properties. The bigger the contribution, the larger the percentage of your profits.

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Joint Ventures And What You Should Know About It

Joint ventures are important in business. Getting into one is a way for most companies to make the most of their resources without having to risk much and raise a lot of capital. This is especially true for young companies who are just starting their operations and are still testing the waters.

But as much as it is one viable idea for businesses, it is not always beneficial. In fact, out of the many who attempt to get into a joint venture, only a few manages to really survive the first five years. This is not because of the “joint venture” per se but because the partners or the partner companies are incompatible.

That is actually the first rule that you should know when opting for a joint venture. Just because a company fits your needs-criteria, it does not mean that it is already a perfect fit to you or your company for a joint venture. You see, a company may provide the service, the product or the technology that you need for a project but if they are not a company that you trust, partnering with them may mean suicide for you. There are a lot of smaller companies who have gotten eaten up by big companies because they made the mistake of getting into joint ventures with those industrial sharks.

Choose your partner well. preferably it should be someone or a company that is similar to you in stature or if ever slightly smaller or bigger. Partnering with a big company may give you instant access but it can be a problem for you in the long run. The partner should also trustworthy and whose work ethic coincides with how you do business. If you find a company who is comfortable in testing the laws and you can’t, it will be a disaster. It is better to not start the partnership at all than to bail out of an agreement.

Another important consideration is to make sure that everything is made into writing. That way, you can be sure that everybody will be doing their part. It is not impossible for people to slack off especially when they know that another partner can take over their responsibilities for them. This can be a huge problem and may create discord among in the group.

Another vital thing that you have to look into is the profit sharing and the contribution of each of the partners to the enterprise. This is perhaps the most important aspect of the joint venture because this is after all what all these companies are after. Although the partners are primarily giving something to the joint venture, some will have more contributions than others. It is important that you check all these and make sure that you have the profits and the compensation distributed to the partners fairly.

Take note, the word is fairly and not equally. This means that distributing the profits equally to all partners is not the way to go. It should be distributed to the partners according to their contributions to the joint venture.

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Why a Joint Venture?

Between a joint venture and a single proprietorship, a joint venture wins hands down when it comes to popularity points. Many people start their business in a joint venture especially the young ones who are just testing the market. Just what is it with joint ventures that people prefer them more to single proprietorship?

For one thing, a joint venture means that you have partners on your side who will care about the business as much as you will. This reason is enough for some people especially those who just want somebody by their side to help cushion the blow in case it does not become a success. There is after all easier to accept that you and a partner failed in a business than you failing alone.

Another benefit that joint ventures have that is very attractive to young people who are starting their business for the first time is the fact that there is less risk involved. When you have partners, you will need to invest less money and also less time. You will also not be responsible for the whole company. If you are fresh out of college and you do not have the money to invest, having a partner who will raise the other half of the capital is important.

Some people also go for joint ventures in exchange for something that they are lacking. For instance, people who have the idea but not the expertise can partner with someone who is knowledgeable in the industry to make the idea come to life. Someone who has the money but do not want to do all the dirty work can partner with someone who do not have the capability to finance it but have the knowledge on how to make it work. These people are called the financiers and the industry partner respectively.

Some people partner with others in exchange for a service. One will become the brains while the other is the operation. Others seek partners by virtue of their contacts and connections with agencies. With that person on board, selling the products will be easier. The same goes with those who seek partners purely for their citizenship as with foreigners who want to start a business in a foreign land.

Joint venture can be a success provided that clear parameters were set at the start of the business and that the two partners have the same work ethic, work personality and vision for the company. Ideally, they should also be able to complement each other work wise. For instance, one can be good with numbers while the other is good with the design. One will take care of the administrative while the other works on the creative. This way, each will have a contribution to the team and therefore preventing discord between the two or among the partners.

Another important criterion is of course trust. The two partners must be able to have faith in the other. They should also be able to reach an agreement and both must know how to compromise if they want the partnership to work. 

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Why Big Business Firms Form Joint Ventures?

Nestle SA and Colgate-Palmolive formed a joint venture to develop and sell candy that can produce plague and clean teeth. IBM and Lenovo Group also formed a joint venture. IBM sold its PC Division to the China-based company that would make the latter the third world’s largest PC maker. Skype Software of Denmark and Tom Online of China developed a joint venture to distribute a simplified version of Skype's VOIP. Is joint ventures business hype or a way to achieve business strategies? Here are the reasons why many big business firms form joint ventures:

1. To develop new products - Examples of functional confectionary products are gum and candy that have health and beauty benefits. Sales of these products are growing for about 6 percent each year which is twice the growth rate of standard gum and candy. Nestle SA had no functional confectionary products prior to its joint venture with Colgate-Palmolive. Cadbury Schweppes, PLC's Adams, and Wm. Wrigley Jr. dominate the functional confectionery segment.

2. Allow companies to improve communications and networking - Kathryn Rudie Harrigan of Columbia University says that in today's business environment joint ventures are most appropriate to topple scarce resources, rapid rates of technological change, and rising capital requirements.

3. Effective way to enhance corporate growth - Strategic partnering like joint ventures are very important to enhance corporate growth. Eli Lilly host partnership training classes for their managers and partners. Starbucks recently joint venture with China's President Coffee and opened hundreds of new branches in China. Eli Lilly and Starbucks are just two of the 10,000 joint ventures formed annually.

4. Globalization - A major reason why firms are using joint ventures as a means to achieve business strategies is globalization. International joint ventures are very common today; one good example is Walmart's successful joint venture with Mexico's Cifra. Such alliance indicates how a domestic firm can benefit immensely by partnering with a foreign company to gain a global presence.

5. Technology - The Internet paved the way and legitimized the need for partnership and alliances. Corporate growth cannot happen without the help of state-of-the-art technologies.

How can a company determine if a joint venture is the best business strategy to pursue? Here are six guidelines:

1. When synergistically combining unique advantages like closed ownership of a privately owned company and access to stock issuances as a source of capital of a publicly owned company results to enhanced corporate growth, access to new technologies, greater market feedback and more long-term positive consequences.

2. When a joint venture provides the opportunity to reduce risk.

3. When the distinct competencies of participants complement with each other well.

4. When projects are profitable.

5. When two or more firms have difficulty in competing with larger firm.

6. When there exist needs to introduce a new technology quickly.

Other recent joint ventures not mentioned previously include Wachovia Brokerage and Prudential Brokerage. In the U.S. today, firms are acquiring foreign companies and forming joint ventures with foreign firms, and foreign firms are also acquiring U.S. companies and forming joint ventures with U.S. firms.

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What are the elements of a good joint venture?

Joint ventures are not always successful. This can be hard to imagine especially when it promises a lot of benefits for all concerned. There is less risk. There is sharing of resources. There is more people to get ideas from. There is help around. Generally, it is like having another you working towards a goal.

Joint ventures can be entered into by two or more parties depending on the need. Often, joint ventures are created in order to produce a product or realize a project that will need different resources and these resources cannot be provided by just one person or company. Think about it as organizing an event. To plan the party and make it a success, you need a good caterer, a good party planner, great sound system, decorations and stage set-up. Each of these companies provide expertise that you cannot provide. When these people or companies come together, each putting their own products, technology, service or expertise on the table, that is what is called a joint venture.

There are several vital elements to a joint venture and you need to look into each one to make sure that it will be a success. 

The first one is the partners involved. Who will be the partners in the endeavor? Do you know them? Have you researched their personal background and company history? If it is a company, have you reviewed its performance and its current CEO or its leadership in general? It is important that you know these things about the partner that you will be seeking. A joint venture can fail when two incompatible partners come together. 

The next element is the contractual agreement. This is established so that the partnership, the goal, its duration and the contributions of each will be put into writing. This minimizes confusion and other potential problems in the future. Discord will also be avoided because people will know what their role is. 

 What are the elements of a good joint venture?
Another element is the purpose and duration of the contract. Joint ventures are not forever although it may seem like it. It can be long-term or short-term. Often, joint ventures do not last long, often along the duration of the project. Some though especially those who have products to sell, continue for years and years until a partner decides to back out of the contract or refuses to extend the contract. It is advisable that the duration should be two to three years after the “creation period” to give time for the product to get into the market. 

Partners in the joint venture need to put into writing how long the partnership will last and if there is a provision for extending the contract for another period of time. This should be established at the start of the partnership. This way, everything is clear and each partner knows for how long the venture will be. 

Lastly, there should be the joint property interest, which states which properties are shared and will be distributed to the partners in case the venture is dissolved. This states the percentage of the joint property that each partner will get depending on their initial and continual contribution. 

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How to Convince Other Companies to Accept your Joint Venture Offer

Your company could be aiming to jumpstart or roll out an important project but you just could not easily do so because of the significant risks involved. Furthermore, your business may not have sufficient capital and technical expertise to carry on the endeavor. To be able to pursue your goals, you should form a joint venture with other companies, which should be willing to support and take part in your business initiative.

It may not be that easy to persuade other firms to get into an agreement to form a joint venture with your business. To be able to make the task less daunting and more successful, you have to follow the following tips and guidelines to make your joint offer to other businesses more interesting and more irresistible.
First, highlight the win-win situation your proposed project could bring about to partners. Make other companies understand about the practical and logical benefits that they could gain upon agreeing to get into the venture. You could also explain why you are determined to pursue it. Be honest to tell them that you aim to gain more revenues.

Do not produce very lengthy joint venture proposals. Remember the basic rule in business writing: Keep your message short, simple, and direct to the point. Managers and owners of other companies could also be too busy to spend many minutes browsing through your formal joint venture offer.

Create an impression that you are a peer instead of a sales person. It helps to write a joint venture offer in a personal but detailed style. Making the proposal appear more personalized would do wonders. Do not shock the other companies or try to impress them through your showcase of technical knowledge and expertise. They may not fully understand some of the jargons and technical terms you use. As much as possible, make the copies more comprehensive but easily understandable.

Highlight your proposal to do much of the efforts in the venture. Prospective joint venture partners surely would appreciate it if you would assure that they would be required to do less work. The less work the proposed project requires from them, the greater is the possibility that they would agree to become your joint venture partner.

Do not chase only the major players. You may be surprised at how capable less popular and smaller firms could be when it comes to managing and operating your proposed business project. It could be discriminating not to take seriously the minor and smaller businesses in the market. Smaller and minor players could provide you with more resources and expertise than the giants could do.

Tell them how your proposed joint venture could help their own customers and clients. All companies could not say no to projects that would make their loyal and important customers’ lives easier and more enjoyable. This way, you could also actually help them provide much better services to their clients. Such a strategy is important in building trust in your joint venture.

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What You Need To Consider When Choosing A Joint Venture

When you are putting up a business, one of the main things that you have to decide on is whether you can do it on your own or partner with other people. This may seem such a no-brainer but don’t be fooled because this is one of the most important decision that you need to make in your life. Partnerships with other people may seem a good idea but in the long run they can also be a headache especially when you don’t get along well with your partners.
If you can’t decide and you need help choosing, here are some of the things that you need to consider when “venturing” into a joint venture.

1. Do you know your partner well?
One of the worst things that can happen to you when starting a business is to get a partner who will only be a burden to you. And trust me, there are plenty of cases like this in the world of business. Some were even long time friends back in the kindergarten, decided to put up a business when they were fresh out of college and then ended up hating each other because of the business. This is why some people choose members of their family to be partners with and this is also why some people do not.

Before partnering with anybody, make sure that you know your partner well. Do you have the same work ethic? Do you have the same drive? Do you have the same vision for the company? Can you trust him or her with your life? These are just some of the questions that you need to ask before you can really decide.

2. Do you need the money, expertise or the extra hand?
If the basic concept of the business is your idea, it is recommended that you put up the business on your own instead of seeking a partner. You only need a partner if you need a person’s expertise in the field or your money is not enough to raise funds for the business. A partnership is also a good idea for people who have full time jobs and are only doing the business as a side job. They need the partner who can help them run the business.

If you do not really need any of these three, I would advise you to start the business on your own because there will be less headaches.

3. Can you work with a partner?
Some people work well with others while others are complete disasters when it comes to dealing with other people. Examine your personality and see if you are cut out to be in a partnership. This means that you will not be boss and will have to compromise. It’s like having a relationship. If you can be in a partnership, then choose someone who can also be in a partnership. Check also how you guys work together and how you can be complementary to each other. 

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