When I first heard these claims, I too was a skeptic. After all, I’ve been building highly successful businesses for nearly two decades and thought that I had seen and heard it all. If nothing else, it sure feels like I had, until I met a young man who showed me something new.
Marc Goldman is, at just 31 years of age, the founder of Goldbar Enterprises, a small e-commerce business located just outside in New York City. With no money, no business experience, a new wife, and mountains of debt, he decided that he would take a different approach to building his business.
He had no interest in the traditional ways of building a business because he needed results fast and he literally had none of the traditional pieces of a potentially successful business in place.
He didn’t have a product. He didn’t have a list of prospects. And he didn’t have a dime to start with. In fact, he tells me that he was actually deeply in debt when he decided to start his business!
In just 9 years, Marc and his wife, Terry, have built quite an impressive enterprise all through one form of marketing known as Joint Venture Marketing. Starting with less than nothing, they now sell up to $30,000 in products in a single day.
I was so impressed at their success with joint ventures that I decided to share their story on a “sold-out’ conference call. I asked Marc o speak about joint ventures and how he successfully promotes his very hot-selling e-book, “Joint Venture Secrets Revealed” (www.mastermindsecrets.com/jvsecrets.htm)
Marc’s big secret is that he has created many joint-venture agreements over the last 9 years with people who already had what it was he needed to build his business. When he didn’t have a product to sell, he found somebody with a hot-selling product that he could offer. When he didn’t have a prospect list to market to, he partnered with people who had already built a large prospect list and would be willing to joint venture with Marc.
In just 9 years, Marc has become the expert in creating win- win joint ventures. And, according to Marc, “Anybody can get started with joint ventures even if they have no money, no products, and no prospects.” Here’s how you can start creating your own joint ventures to build your business fast.
Start by taking a quick inventory of what you already have. For instance, you may already have a product, or a good list of prospects. Perhaps what you have to start with is nothing more than a burning desire to build a successful business, and that is by far the most important piece of all.
Once you are clear on what pieces you already have in hand, make a new list of what’s missing. In other words, to create your business the way you want it to be, what else are you going to need over and above what you now have?
Maybe it’s product, or a big list of prospects, or maybe you’re in need of some operating capital. Whatever it is, write it down. If it’s money you need, write down how you will invest the money. Will you buy advertising, a new computer, will you use it build your web site. Whatever it is, write it down.
Finally, think about what you would be willing to give up in exchange for getting what you need to build your business. For instance, Marc needed to reach large numbers of prospects without having to spend money he didn’t have. He decided that he would be willing to give up 50% of his profits to anybody who would provide him with access to a list of qualified prospects.
When he approached his merchant account provider, who already had a list of thousands of small business owners (his target market), they accepted his offer and in just over 90 days Marc had 2,500 people paying him $29.95 per month for his Internet-based membership site.
His marketing costs were zero. He was willing to give up 50% of his profits to get what he needed, and he was able to create many similar joint venture agreements with other companies with big lists. His sales continue to skyrocket without him investing anything in his marketing!
This is just one example of how you can create profitable joint ventures. The key to making a joint venture (JV) work is that everybody involved must win. Now before you go running out to ask somebody to mail your ad to their list, you must do some homework to find out as much as you can about your potential JV partner and what they might need before you even approach them!
Money is a great thing to start with, but it’s not always going to be the best thing you can offer. Sometimes a service you can offer will be worth much more to a potential JV partner than money. I’ve often engaged in JV’s where I’ve exchanged my services for other services or products if they were things that I needed to take my business to the next level.
Now if you don’t have a product to sell, find somebody who does and who is not marketing it to its full potential (this should take you about 7 seconds!). Then offer to share in the profits with the product owner. There are literally millions of products out there that never see the light of day because their creators are masters of their craft, but simply don’t understand marketing!
Once you’ve got a product to offer, look for JV partners who already have established lists of prospects that they already contact regularly either by e-mail or snail mail. Then look to have them send your advertising message to their list under their name.
I really love to market electronic products in this way because each sale is virtually 100% profit so there is a lot of room to share the revenue with my JV partners. Products like software, e-books, e-courses, live seminars, teleconferences, etc. cost little (or nothing) to produce yet bring in very high profits.
Think outside the box. Think bigger than you would normally. And be prepared to provide real value to your potential JV partner by doing your home work and finding out what their needs are before you approach them.
When you do approach a potential JV partner, call them rather than sending an e-mail message. I must receive at least 100 or more JV requests a month and virtually every single one of them goes directly into the trash because they are coming to me via e-mail from people who have no idea who I am or what I do!
Yet, the JV agreements I do follow through on typically come from a person picking up the telephone and asking me personally to work with them. And those are the JV’s that make the most money for both of us.
To learn more about Joint Ventures, I would highly recommend that you get a copy of Marc’s new e-book, “Joint Venture Secrets Revealed” by visiting this web site now: www.mastermindsecrets.com/jvsecrets.htm.
Now you know that you can be successful in your own business, starting with nothing at all, what are you waiting for? Go to it and be outstanding!
Robert Imbriale is an internationally recognized Internet
Marketing Expert and the creator of “Motivational Marketing.” He
conducts many live webcasts and teleconferences for participants
around the world. To find out more about Dr. Lant and his
webcasting service, which is now available as a monthly service,
visit http://www.ultimatewealth.com/webcast
