Hello. This is Valerie Vauthey speaking. I am the CEO & Founder of the fastest growing coaching company in North America and Europe: MyPrivateCoach.com

I would like to share with you a few of my experiences regarding business and more specifically with Joint Ventures.

I have started, grown, and sold FOUR Joint Ventures so far and I just started a new one. Out of the first four JVs, 3 were a great success and 1 was a failure (though I did not lose a dime, let's say I just did not make money).

Looking back at what made the JV successful, I think I can now reasonably well understand why one went astray and did not generate the forecasted revenues.

The first JV I ever started was a high-tech company which applied the artificial intelligence concepts to financial markets. Because I was not a techie person, the critical part of this JV was to find a 50/50 partner who would be the techie side of the business. I would be the sales and CEO side of the business.

This is the #1 CFOS (Critical Factor of Success): Finding the right partner. The right partner is the one who brings what you do not have and are not able to acquire easily. This requires a high-level of self esteem as one has to accept his or her limits. The right partner is also somebody you know well. Not a person met at a fair or on an online network and with whom you only exchanged a few emails. It is easy to get excited when we meet somebody online and find that we share a lot of elements but always do your homework and learn as much as possible about the other person before jumping in the bath as we say in French. If you do not find the right partner, then your JV is dead before even having started! What's the worst that can happen when you choose the wrong partner? Well, you can be mislead. And this is easy to do! Since this partner knows things you don't! You can also be lied to when a partner who is supposed to bring a sales pipeline or access to hundreds of thousands of people, reveals him/herself as a nice speaker with nothing in the basket (another French expression ;o) One of the mistakes I have made and from which I have learned is that I used to believe my partners and follow them blindly. One time, I was approached by a potential partner who seemed extremely well connected and whose role would have been to spread the word while I would be the captain on board, the visionary. We did have a vision...but the millions of contacts? never materialized! That's ok. We will all make a mistake here and there. As long as we learn from them it is a lesson of life and we will remember it.

So remember:

choose a partner you know

preferably choose a partner who has experience

your partner should have an experience and a skill set you do not have

your partner should have access to a network of people you do not know

choose a partner who can prove what he/she says when it comes to sales pipeline and large distribution lists

#1 CFOS Good Example: To start my latest JV, I chose Kimberly Wells, one of our great coaches on board at MyPrivateCoach. I have the vision. She has the skill set. We are totally complementary. The vision was to start an online boot camp company attractively priced at 99 cents a day. I had known Kimberly for quite a while. We had had time to exchange and discover each other! After 6 months of brainstorming and work, we launched www.30dayBootCamp.com and we started selling our first bootcamps within days.

#1 CFOS Bad example: Two years ago, I started a website with a person I barely knew but who made me believe he had access to literally millions of addresses. Needless to say, these addresses did not exist. Now that I know how hard it is to build a meaningful subscribers list, I know why! I wasted my time on this but no money. Maybe my female intuition was talking to me while I slept! It still qualifies as a failure to me.

The #2 CFOS in a JV is timing and vision. People who start a JV tend to be in a hurry. They want to succeed yesterday as opposed to tomorrow. A JV is not a 'regular' company where you have a CEO who drives the team. In a JV, as commonly understood today, both partners have technically the same power. Because both parners can pull the company at the same time, it is important that your sense of timing be the same. Do you want to make 1 million within the next 6 months? Does your partner want to make 10 millions within 12 months? Do you want this to be a side business? Does he/she want this to be HUGE company? As you can see, if you do not have the same perception of things (vision and timing) you are doomed to failure.

So remember:

choose a partner who has the same grand vision about what the business should

become (a side-business or the next Microsoft)

choose a partner who thinks like you when it comes to timing: when do you want

success to become true?

#2 CFOS Good Example: With Kimberly Wells on www.30dayBootCamp.com, we have the same vision. We want to become the reference when it comes to bootcamps and online self help. We also have the same timeframe as a reference: we are giving ourselves 12 months to meet full success!

#2 CFOS Bad Example: With my not-so-successful JV, we had a major difference of perception when it came to the vision and of course to the timing. I had another company to take care of, I did not have the same sense of urgency as this person had. These two major (and should I say 'critical') differences collided and we stopped working together.

This leads us to another point: how much time do you have?

One important point when you start any company for that matter, is the TIME issue. This will be our #3 CFOS. One common cause of JV or busines failure in general is the lack of time or a poor time organization. If you are planning to start a JV on the side while taking care of your family, a time-consuming job and a intensive social life, chances are you will not succeed. Does this sound tough? tough love maybe! But it is critical that you allocate all your energy and time to your new business venture. A new endeavor requires your full attention. What about finding a balance between your personal life and your business? I personally believe that there is no balance to be found in the first few months you start a business. YOu need an understanding spouse and family environment and go for it. Work hard and do not listen to those who sell seminars and expensive teleclasses trying to make you believe you can become rich and famous without working hard. A key reason for failure is giving your time away to other people or projects. Be focused! ONLY ONE NEW BUSINESS AT A TIME. Don't you worry. As soon as your business takes off the ground thanks to your hard work, you will be able to re-establish a nice personal/professional balance.

So remember:

you need to focus on ONE project at a time to be successful

you need to have ample time to start and grow your business

do not look for life balance when you start a business. It is very hard tomaintain and will be an energy drainer

do not spend your time and money on onl ne programs which do not offer tne-on-one support

#3 CFOS Good Example: You start a business like my last JV (www.30dayBootCamp.com) while you are conducting another business. You allocate clear time slots for this venture. YOu write them down as busy time and never schedule anything at that time. For 30dayBootCamp, I allocated more time at the beginning than now of course. But I always sticked to my resolution when it came to time management. Now, this JV has taken off so I have reduced my time allotment for this project but I still stick to an organized pattern.

#3 CFOS Bad Example: My not-so-successful JV was a victim of this CFOS. I simply did not allocate enough time and resources in general to this project. Maybe because somewhere deep deep inside me I did not believe in it.

So, suppose you have found the right partner, you share the same vision, the same timeline and you can allocate the same amount of resources... What's still missing to make this JV a big success? You still need: a great product, a target market and a great networking ability (or enough cash in the bank to hire a great publicist!). Would that be enough? Well not even. YOu see, having the best partner on earth, the best product and a market waiting for you is not even enough.. According to venture capitalists, on a scale from 1 to '10

<-- Previous | Next -->

If you found "How to Make a Joint Venture Successful" interesting then check out our other :

Parking Facts and Other Articles

Parking.gs

Interesting :