Far too often the small businesses and start-ups that I meet are so focused on why they can’t do what they want (usually its one of more of no money, no time, no expertise) that they forget to look at how they might be able to actually execute their business ideas.

Sure the proactive ones have thought about writing a business plan to get some funding to maybe be able to afford to buy the skills, but they seem to precede every sentence with “If we can get some funding…” or “If only we were able to…”.

What amazes me is that few ever seem to consider partnering or creating a joint venture with another business that can provide some of the resources. A joint venture (often referred to as a JV) is the cooperation of two or more individuals or businesses, each agreeing to share profit, loss and control, in an enterprise.

Here are some thoughts on ways that a joint venture could help your business:

• A joint venture can be used as an alternate to giving away equity in your main business, instead your business and the “investor” form a new joint venture company to develop and market your business idea.
• A joint venture could allow you to exploit assets that the other company might not be making the best use of. For example Scott over at Self Made Minds wrote about how you could create a joint venture to develop the value of a domain portfolio in making a six figure sum on a budget.
• A joint venture could allow you access to a customer list that’s perfect for your business, much reducing you marketing costs.
• In some cases a joint venture is the only way to establish a presence in a foreign country.

So next time your business spots an opportunity but you don’t have the resources to directly exploit it, look for a suitable business and see if you can establish a joint venture.

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