A sound joint venture marketing strategy includes an entry into social media. Millions upon millions of people sign on to social websites every day. Are they going to find you? At the very least, you should have a strategy and presence on the most popular social websites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. However, Google has entered the social media arena with their new “Buzz” social platform. Here is why you should get on board as well.

Create a Google Account

Your JV business should have a Google email account. Even if it uses a domain email (i.e.: info@yourbusinessname.com), you can set up a free account on Google’s Gmail system. Ideally, you would want something like “yourcompanyname@gmail.com”. That email account can then be used as your Buzz account.

Start Following People and Businesses

Right now in its early stages, Google Buzz is much like Facebook was when it started. It focused mainly on people and individual networking. However, Facebook has expanded to become a networking hub for businesses. A business can set up a “fan” account and collect followers just like an individual.

Google Buzz is already growing in popularity, and businesses are taking advantage of the additional social networking opportunities from a reliable host. Start building your Buzz network. Those you follow get notification and can follow you back. Thus, the more you follow, the more likely you’ll get a following in return.

Post Creative Content

A status update once in a while will not build a loyal following. However, using the tools available at Google Buzz, you can promote your JV in creative ways. Write blog articles. Take colorful product photos. Produce high-quality video content. All these can be seen or viewed easily in your status updates.

Get Recommended

The nice thing about Google Buzz is that it uses the same technology Google uses for its Adwords links. Google Buzz takes a look at the content that gets the most attention and brings it to your attention first. You can get the most relevant updates from your contacts and vice-versa.

Also, Google Buzz looks at the type of content you post and read. It will make recommendations to you based on your usage. This is also good news for your JV business. The more your JV Google Buzz accounts gets noticed, the more likely it will be recommended to others, and your network can grow without you lifting a finger.

Social Media SEO

Google now is using Google Buzz updates in their search results. The items you post to your Google Buzz account can affect your SEO. Use it wisely. Post keyword-rich status updates and blog posts. Use keywords for your photos and videos. The more relevant your Google Buzz posts are, the more likely it will get noticed in search results.

It was inevitable that Google would enter the social website market. Make good use of your social media sites, and include Google Buzz in your mix. It could improve your JV SEO and overall Internet presence.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Forming a joint venture can be wildly successful, and it can also become a headache. Joint venture partners come in all shapes and sizes. And though most entrepreneurs and business owners are professional in their conduct, many are still difficult to deal with, and personality conflicts can arise. So what can you do to help assure a sound relationship with your JV partner?

Take heed of advice from Cesar Millan, also known as the “Dog Whisperer”. Cesar has become the leading expert in dog psychology and dog rehabilitation. Although his strategies are aimed at canine “pack” instincts, his psychology can work well for joint venture partners as well. Here are some examples:

Calm-Assertive Energy

Cesar advocates that all dog owners display calm-assertive energy. An owner should show a dog that he or she is the pack leader using compassionate and calm methods. Yelling, nervousness, and anxiety are not good qualities of a good calm-assertive leader.

This tip doesn’t mean you have to set yourself apart from your JV partner as the “pack leader”.  Nor does it mean one of you must become the “calm-submissive” type that will obey the commands of the leader.

How this can benefit you and your JV partner is that you both display assertive behavior without becoming emotional. Energy is calm, and both are in control of all communications and tasks.

Set Rules, Boundaries, and Limitations

Cesar teaches that dogs must have rules, boundaries, and limitations to know how to respond to different situations. Your JV is just the same. Both you and your JV partner must set rules, boundaries, and limitations so you both are clear on your roles and responsibilities.

For instance, can you contact your JV partner any time of day? Do you have permission to access your JV partner’s facilities? And likewise, does your JV partner have permission to utilize your equipment? All this and more need to be pre-determined before the JV goes into effect. Your rules, boundaries, and limitations will help you and your JV partner know exactly what to expect from each other.

Clarify “Issues”

An unstable dog is unclear about its role. This causes anxiety, aggression and fear. Cesar Millan teaches that a dog must trust his owner to be a pack leader and know its role in the pack.

Likewise, you and your JV partner must know your roles. Who will perform the marketing? Who will keep the books? Who’s in charge of production? Clarify all these types of issues and you will have a more successful JV “pack”.

Achieve Balance

Ultimately, you want to achieve balance with your JV. Much like Cesar advocates for dog owners, balance creates a harmonic, productive, and happy life. Set and know your limitations and boundaries. Set up roles for you and your JV partner. Let Cesar Millan’s experience with canine psychology teach you similar lessons in JV psychology. All elements should be balanced so both parties are happy with the effort, as well as the outcome.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

What I’m about to share with you could seriously change your financial future in a positive way…

Wait let me rephrase that.

What I’m about to share with you, directly led to over $250 million in sales for one of my clients in less than 11 months.

Okay, I don’t expect you to believe me, and I know that’s a bold statement so let me give you little background.

I’ll also fill you in on my latest marketing project (these are the same tactics that I used in creating the $250 million in sales for my client) that I’m working on with Mark Joyner, the legendary marketer and business building expert.

I’ll keep this short as possible while explaining this very powerful, “integrated” way of marketing yourself, your idea or your existing product or service.

As you know, I specialize in doing joint venture deals. I connect supply and demand chains, create new relationships, products and services and ethically use underutilized assets of other people, companies, networks, etc as distribution channels to create, automated profit centers.

I know that’s a mouth full, and it may sound confusing, but stick with me.

A little background first…

You see, leveraging existing relationships and trust of other people can literally cut years off of the time that it would take you to create these relationships and trust networks by yourself.  It’s one of the primary tactics that top level marketers and  entrepreneurs, from one-man startups to international corporations have used to launch and expand their businesses for the last 200 years.

If you can tap into these types of existing relationships (and I’ll show you how),  the time it will take you to start earning more money from your business (or start a new one) will be reduced by weeks, months and years. This is a proven fact that I personally witnessed week in and week out since I (unknowingly) started doing joint ventures back in 1989 at the will age of 19.

You’ve been on my list, RSS feed or read by regular blog posts, so you know that I try to push out high-quality, joint venture based information on a regular basis to give you proven ideas, tips, tactics and strategies that I’ve personally used to create millions of dollars for my clients over the years. Hopefully, I’ve earned your respect and most of all your trust in directing you towards being more profitable in your business using joint venture marketing techniques.

Okay, so maybe you know this already. You know about the power of leveraging other people’s underutilized assets. You’ve heard how joint ventures can quickly turn into profits. But, I’m willing to bet that you have not successfully executed a joint venture relationship as of yet.

Let’s take this one step deeper. There is a subcategory to doing joint ventures that allowed me to “integrate” my clients services directly into the existing sales process of another company for no upfront, out-of-pocket costs and with very little risk. In fact, the entire process was set up with a phone call and one face-to-face meeting.

So let me help you take the next step and introduce you to the specific way of setting up profitable joint venture deals through a process called “integration marketing”. In short, integration marketing literally allows you to integrate or insert your existing product or service into the existing sales process of a related product or service.

Integration marketing techniques have been used by some of the world’s most famous companies including Microsoft, McDonald’s, HP and Wal-Mart,  but don’t let that intimidate you or send you down the ” this won’t work for me” highway. It works just as well for small start-ups and  entrepreneurs at home in their pajamas. The same tactics apply regardless of the size of your company. It works if you are one man or woman show or if you manage a complex international corporation with thousands of employees.

My latest project has connected me with the legendary marketer, Mark Joyner. Mark has written an entire book on the subject of integration marketing. He’s taken the concept and broken it down into bite sized, easy to understand concepts that make it easy to understand and apply these integration marketing tactics to your own business. He’s even come up with a method based on “predicted math” that you can use to ensure the highest probability of success when you apply these integration marketing methods.

My next post will give you specifics of how you can start increasing your profits  using these integration marketing techniques.

How can you double your profits with a joint venture? Just ask Watsco, Inc.! In July of 2009, the company completed a joint venture transaction, and by the end of the year, their 4th quarter net income doubled from the previous year. The earnings information was just released in February 2010 and has sent the company stock soaring.

How Watsco Doubled Earnings

What did Watsco do to provide such a jump in their revenue? The company capitalized upon the demand for more efficient air conditioning and heating in the U.S.

Watsco is a Florida-based company that specializes in the distribution of heating and cooling products and equipment. A joint venture was formed in 2009 with Carrier Corporation, a leading manufacturer of air conditioners and furnaces. The JV was intended to increase the market position and add new product lines.

They succeeded.

How the Joint Venture Worked

Watsco determined that there was a need and potential demand for replacement cooling and heating systems, especially in the Sunbelt region of the U.S. Thanks to U.S. government tax incentives for installing more energy-efficient appliances, homeowners started demanding these products be installed before the tax incentives expired. Watsco heard the call and responded.

The joint venture allowed Watsco to expand their distribution across the country, as well as expand their market base from mainly contractors to general retail outlet stores. It also provided working capital to expand its business and develop new products to fit the needs of the market.

The End Result of the Joint Venture

The result was extraordinary. By operating from 505 stores in 34 states and serving over 50,000 contractor customers with over 4,500 employees, Watsco’s new Carrier Enterprises LLC trumped the competition.

However, the new LLC doesn’t just sell the Carrier brand appliances. Thanks to the Watsco distribution contacts, it also built a strong product line up of premium HVAC products, all of which are built with the latest energy efficient technology.

This synergistic approach to market demand was successful. By taking a keen eye to potential market demand, Watsco’s strategic alliance with the Carrier brand and outlet stores filled a niche. Just in the 3-month period from October to December 2009, the joint venture saw an 82% increase in sales of energy-efficient products. Total Q3 revenue for Watsco increased 68% to $563.6 million and ended with a net profit of $7.1 million. That is a 54% increase of net profits from the same period in 2008!

What You Can Learn from This Case Study?

What can you glean from Watsco’s success? Take heed of their strategy:

• Watch for consumer trends. Markets constantly change as do demand for particular products.

• Find the niche. Watsco saw the potential niche for energy efficient products thanks to consumer demand and government tax incentives.

• Find the right and most strategic partner. Watsco partnered with the popular Carrier brand of heating and cooling products. This helped increase Watsco’s potential distribution channels and increased exposure to other quality brands.

This is a great example of how a joint venture can result in synergistic results. Though you may not have the same profit results, a strategic joint venture can help you capture new markets and see an increase in your sales.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? Anyone who has sat down for a job interview has probably been asked these questions. However, have you actually sat down and truly analyzed your weaknesses?

Weaknesses may appear to be strengths. For instance, a perfectionist may consider his need for superior craft, design, or process an asset, when in actuality; it hinders his progress and prevents forward momentum. By carefully determining where your weaknesses are, you can work toward improving them, or using them to the advantage of your business or your JV business.

As an example, during your JV efforts, you find that your marketing strategy for billboard advertising is not what you expected, but your online marketing is showing results. As a response, you and your JV partner modify your strategy to reduce billboard advertising and focus more on online SEO searches and pay per click advertising. This helps to generate the most out of your marketing dollar and improve sales.

The same holds true for your own weaknesses. You might determine that something is not working as well as you’d like. However, by modifying your behavior or capitalizing on a weakness, you can improve your own personal achievement.

Write It Out

The first thing you must do is take some time to write out your weakness. This is not the time to be over-confident and deny that you have any. Consider what hinders your progress. Are you a procrastinator? Do you have trouble with authority and taking directions? Are you a slow typist? Any of these could be a weakness that prevents you from getting work done. Be honest and list what you think are your weaknesses. Then ask others as well.

Determine the Impact

What do your weaknesses cost you? Does your procrastination cost you time and money? Does your problem with sharing authority prevent decisions? Knowing how your weaknesses affect your external outcomes is important to know before you can begin working on internal changes.

Dedicate Yourself towards Improvement

Now that you know what you can improve, and what happens if you don’t, you must dedicate your efforts toward improving that weakness into an asset. Were your communication skills determined to be a weakness? Take writing and speech classes. Procrastination an issue? Read books on organization today (don’t put it off!), or take a local community center class on improving organization and motivation skills.

Capitalize on Weaknesses

With your work set before you, you can set a goal to capitalize on your weaknesses. Take the classes. Face your fears. Focus on improvement. And don’t forget to measure the results. When you can measure your improvement in certain areas, then you know you are on the right track to turning your weaknesses into assets.

Remember, there is strength in your weaknesses. You merely need to crash through the blocks of doubt and denial, and focus on changing behaviors.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Today’s business building quick tip: 1/30/2010

Building your business using joint ventures or integration marketing is a great way to attract new business. By using joint ventures as a strategy to building your business you can acquire new customers quickly, easily, and for a fraction of the amount of most other marketing tactics.

Building your business using joint venture marketing tactics is a low-cost, low-risk method that the vast majority of your competitors are not using. Yet, building your business through joint venture relationships is sometimes a miss understood strategy, yet it can be truly powerful and add new, profitable customers and a quick amount of time.

Building your business with joint venture marketing is all about creating mutually beneficial relationships with other business owners that offer laterally associated products and services that are related to yours, but not competitive.

By tapping into other business owners underutilized assets, such as distribution channels, sales forces, telemarketing efforts, direct mail outs, e-mail lists and existing website traffic pools, you can integrate your product or service into an existing distribution channel that already has the trust, credibility and awareness that will allow your product and service to penetrate through typical barriers of traditional marketing and advertising.

One of the first steps towards creating a joint venture is to define your ideal client or customer and create a persona of all the things related to your ideal client. Once you define these characteristics, your ready to start thinking about who already has an existing relationship with your ideal persona.

To find out what’s next in today’s example, give me a call at 949-209-6800 for a free, no obligation strategy session to build your business using joint venture and integration marketing tactics.

To your success,

Christian

Joint ventures are very common - and in fact, more common than you might think. Particularly, JVs are quite prevalent amongst big business. Oil and gas companies are common allies when it comes to forming joint ventures for drilling purposes. Electronics joint ventures, such as Sony Ericsson, fuel innovation and global access to untapped markets.

Here’s a look at why big businesses form JVs. Do you see a similarity to your needs? Most likely you do. Learn from the global corporate giants and get an idea of how you can form your own JV right in your own city, state, region, or even on a national or global scale.

Internal Reasons to Form a JV

• Spreading Costs - You and a JV partner can share costs associated with marketing, product development, and other expenses, reducing your financial burden.

• Opening Access to Financial Resources - Together you and a JV partner might have better credit or more assets to access bigger resources for loans and grants than you could obtain on your own.

• Connection to Technological Resources - You might want access to technological resources you couldn’t afford on your own, or vice versa. Sharing innovative and proprietary technology can improve products, as well as your own understanding of technological processes.

• Improving Access to New Markets - You and a JV partner can combine customer contacts and together even form a joint product that accesses new markets.

• Help Economies of Scale - Together you and a JV partner can develop products or services that reduce total overall production expenses. Bring your product to market cheaper where the customer can enjoy the cost savings.

External Reasons to Form a JV

• Develop Stronger Innovative Product - Together you and a JV partner may be able to share ideas to develop a product that is more competitive in your industry.

• Improve Speed to Market - With shared access to financial, technological, and distribution resources, you and a JV partner can get your joint product to market faster and more efficiently.

• Strategic Move Against Competition - A JV may be able to better compete against another industry leader through the combination of markets, technology, and innovation.

Strategic Reasons

• Synergistic Reasons - You may find a JV partner with whom you can create synergy, which produces a greater result together than doing it on your own.

• Share and Improve Technology and Skills - Two innovative companies can share technology to improve upon each other’s ideas and skills.

• Diversification - There could be many diversification reasons: access to diverse markets, development of diverse products, diversify the innovative working force, etc.

Don’t let a JV opportunity pass you by because you don’t think it will fit in with your own small business. Small and big companies alike can benefit from the reasons listed above. Analyze how your company can benefit internally, externally, and strategically, and then find a joint venture partner that will fit with your needs.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Joint ventures can provide both partners with tremendous success, but even the best intentions can go awry. One example of an off track joint venture involves online marketing giants eBay and Craigslist.

In 2004, eBay and Craigslist entered into an agreement whereby the two companies would try to expand more into global markets. However, the joint venture soon stagnated to the point where eBay was trying to market the 28.5% share in Craigslist to other companies, and Craigslist was fighting to get it back.

The biggest problem with this joint venture is that the two companies obviously had completely different intentions and goals. Craigslist wanted to retain authority and management of its own operations, but learn from eBay about larger online classified operations. eBay wanted to use their share in Craigslist to better compete against Google in the online classified industry and maximize profit potential in Craigslist operations. Although both companies had a shared intention of expanding into bigger global markets, their alternative intentions soiled the relationship, and they are now in litigation to end the JV.

Looking at the original intention of the JV, it was a good one. However, there are things you can learn to prevent such a tragedy from occurring in your own JV. Here are some things to consider:

Write Out the Intention of the JV as a Mission Statement

Before your JV goes “live”, you and your JV partner need to know exactly what is expected from one another. Are you looking to have access to technology while your JV partner needs help in reducing expenses? Or perhaps you both are looking to enter into bigger national markets by combining forces?

The mission is critical to ensuring that you and your JV partner will not have disputes over the overarching goals.

Explicitly Write Out the Partner Responsibilities

What will you be contributing to the JV? What will your JV partner contribute? Who will manage the accounting books? Who will handle distribution?

All of the facets need to be clearly outlined in the beginning. You don’t want to have a finished product ready, but find your JV partner reluctant to distribute it appropriately. Know who is responsible for every step of the joint venture.

Shelter Your Proprietary Information

eBay used confidential Craigslist information and techniques to form its own “free” online classifieds, called Kijiji. Craigslist did not want another competitor, especially one that was using its own technology and industry secrets.

Although you may agree to share certain proprietary information to develop a new product, be careful what information you do share. Keep your proprietary information private. Remember, you are still in business for yourself.

Define the Exit Strategy

eBay and Craigslist are still in a lengthy and expensive dispute on how to dissolve the joint venture partnership. You can avoid legal litigation by defining exactly how your JV will dissolve if things go wrong, as well as if things go right.

Joint ventures don’t have to end badly. Knowing all expectations and responsibilities will help you and your JV partner get the most benefit and profit from your JV efforts.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

We all want to perform better. Our jobs, our personal life, our marriages - all this and more require our full attention and focus in order to be successful.

With so many areas of our life pulling at our focus, how can we maintain a consistent and outstanding effort with a joint venture? Doesn’t your JV require your full effort as well? However, sometimes we lose sight and forget why we formed a JV in the first place: to make money and be more successful in business.

Evaluate Your Feelings

You can improve your JV efforts. If you have felt any of the following in regard to your JV, then you are not realizing your full potential, or are unaware of the full potential you can give to making your JV a success:

• Over stressed

• Health challenges

• Feeling of futility

• Imbalanced

• Isolated

Here are three simple things you can do to leveraging your highest effort and give an inspired performance in your JV.

Create a Compelling Vision

What was the reason you formed your joint venture? To make more money? To gain additional business contacts? To tap into an underdeveloped market segment? You need to go back and look at your JV documents and business plan. What is the purpose? If you just review your vision, you can get back to the place that made it exciting.

Don’t have a vision written down? Now’s the time to do so or improve on what you already have. A vision needs to be compelling. “Make more money” is not a compelling vision. “Earn six figures in the next fiscal year with a global marketing effort” is more like it. Make sure your JV vision is compelling enough that it gets you excited every day.

Tackle Challenging Situations

One thing that can really get you down is dealing with tough situations. However, haven’t you felt great and gained a sense of accomplishment when you last tackled and overcame a challenge?

Don’t let tough situations get the best of you. You can feel inspired when you succeed. Approach challenging situations with a goal to tackle one small thing at a time. Break it down into smaller steps. Then check off one step at a time and soon you realize the overwhelming situation is manageable. And always remember to give yourself a pat on the back with a small reward when you complete a challenge.

Tap into Your Creative Abilities

Nothing gives a more inspired performance than when you are creative and productive.  Practice brainstorming more often. Lay out multiple scenarios and solutions to a problem. Give yourself permission to come up with seemingly crazy ideas. That is where you find yourself thinking outside the proverbial box - when you allow yourself to think of innovative and creative solutions outside the norm.

Sometimes you just need to breathe life back into your JV performance. Don’t let yourself get a stale attitude toward your joint venture. Remember what you’re working for. Get that sense of accomplishment. And allow yourself to be creative. You and your JV partner will be thankful for it.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.