5 Real Joint Venture Success Stories You Can Learn From

by Weaver Marira · September 20, 2012

In previous articles, I’ve given you all the information you need to create great joint ventures of your own – and even given you some actual ideas for them! But, in this article, I’m going to go even better than that! I’m going to run though some case histories. That’s right, real life examples of successful joint ventures that entrepreneurs just like you and I are running right now …. just to prove to you how simple yet rewarding JV’s really can be.

So let’s get started …..

JV Case History One:

Ronald R. is a skilled and respected marketer. He is the founder and publisher of his own successful business magazine. His magazine publishes information on small business opportunities, both online and offline.

Ronald Says ….

Joint Ventures can be one of the quickest and most enjoyable ways to earn a lot of money. For example, five years ago I was learning how to build websites. While I was getting pretty good at creating websites I wasn’t that good at finding things to sell on them!

One day I bought a bus. opp. product. During the purchase I exchanged e-mails with the publisher, and got to know him a little. I asked him if anyone was selling his materials online. He said no!

That was a golden opportunity! My usual approach would have been to buy his products wholesale and resell them. But instead I suggested a JV. He would supply his products, good name and customer base and I would build the website, maintain it and help market it.

Eventually I became the official online source to sell his products. My percentage of sales was 50%, so I made far more money than I would from just reselling in the conventional way. Pleased with my success, I started approaching others with a similar JV proposal. Within a short time I had a half dozen similar and profitable JV’s going.

Then I came up with a ‘super JV’ idea! One of my existing JV partners was thinking about launching an Internet consultancy service where people would pay him for his expertise on a subscription basis. (He had tried it before, and he got 100 people to pay him £2,000 each.)

But he didn’t think he had the time and expertise to set it up and run it online. So, I suggested we do it as a JV! He would provide the expertise and potential customer base etc. …. and I would do all the technical work to set it up and run it. Then we would split the profits.

The results? In just the first month we brought in over £30,000 in memberships!

I Say ….

Ronald’s case history shows very well what is so good about JV’s: One partner supplied a product or service and the other provided the credibility, goodwill, customers and clients.

One party may have taken years of hard work and spent a fortune in advertising and marketing for them to establish their business online. But the party with the product or service can capitalise on the other party’s credibility and customer base in order to succeed (and profit) in a very short time!

JV Case History Two:

For more than ten years, Bob S. has been advising individuals, executives, entrepreneurs and managers on how to improve their sales and profits. He actually made a million early on in his career then plunged to virtual bankruptcy …. before building up his fortune again.

Bob Says ….

I run websites serving two distinct customer groups – personal development enthusiasts and those who are interested in starting small and home based (SOHO) businesses.

With both sites I have developed proven sales processes that close the sale very well. So if I send properly targeted traffic to them we always get sales!

I’ve now done joint ventures with all my sites. Here’s how :

Personal Development Enthusiasts

I have a JV partner who has a very successful business selling products to the same customer group. Our products are complementary but not competitive. In our latest campaign he sent a standalone e-mail to his list of 27,000 people.

He took a piece of proven sales copy which I wrote for him, added his own endorsement to introduce the copy and then added a personal message at the end.

The result after two months was 3,546 visitors, 170 sales (a 4.7% conversion rate) and $45,000 in sales!

Very profitable for him. Very profitable for me. And all it took was clicking on a button to send one e-mail.

That’s the power of having a good list, a good relationship with that list, effective sales copy – and doing the JV to a properly targeted audience.

Small and Home-Based (SOHO) Business Enthusiasts

With this market, I’ve done JV’s similar to the one described above, to sell a specific product – and also to sell a telephone seminar.

In this case the price point was $297 for the product and $377 for the seminar. In a recent JV for the product an e-mail was sent to a list of 18,000 small business owners.

The result, after two months, was 1800 visitors, 180 sales (a 10% conversion rate) and $53,460 in sales! In a recent JV a seminar a JV standalone e-mail went out to 6,000 targeted prospects on the list of another partner. The result was 1,200 visitors, 60 sales of the seminar and $22,620 in sales.

Simple, quick, easy and profitable. And again, the result of having a good list, a good relationship with that list, effective sales copy, and doing the JV to a properly targeted audience. Proof that JV’s really do work!

I Say ….

Bob’s JV’s illustrate four characteristics that every successful JV should have :

He only JV’s with people who have complementary products, not competitive ones.
He looks for partners who have a properly targeted audience.
He looks for partners with a responsive list and a good relationship with that list.
He provides effective sales copy for his partners to use (and endorse).

JV Case History Three:

Martin F. is a successful Internet marketer. His techniques and resources are used by successful Internet companies around the world.

Martin Says ….

I’d like to tell you how myself and a partner of mine, David B., JV’d to create an extremely successful opt-in e-mail list building service. Essentially it’s a kind of co-registration or pay per subscriber service. This system is used by many successful e-mail marketers to increase the size of their opt-in e-mail lists at low cost.

After discussing the project with David, we brainstormed some ideas and agreed a JV. The arrangement was that I would provide the marketing, the website and the merchant account to collect the payments. David would provide programming and traffic.

It was originally started under the name of List Builder, and was a big success from the start, growing steadily ever since! In fact, it’s been so successful at times that demand has outstripped supply. We have customers who we simply can’t provide with our e-mail leads or subscribers fast enough …. and some of them have been with us almost since day one!

To begin with, all traffic for generating opt-in leads came through David’s free feedback form services. However, it wasn’t long before even these high traffic sites couldn’t meet the demand. So we’re now approaching other quality high traffic sites to buy ad. space from them.

Our network of websites is now worldwide and approximately 50% of the opt-in e-mail leads and subscribers we generate are from other countries. (This is great for many types of e-mail lists.)

Very soon we’ll also be able to create e-mail lists that are geographically targeted by country. Of course, such carefully targeted leads are more expensive than non-targeted ones. But they will be extremely valuable for selling to marketers who need these kinds of lists.

I Say ….

Martin and David partnered up to provide an in-demand service to a booming market.
They played off of each other’s strengths and brought different abilities to the JV. Which made it an instant winner, resulting in impressive monthly sales. A true win/win JV!

And a very lucrative one too – apparently this service grosses just under $15,000 a month – and has sometimes reached $30,000!

JV Case History Four:

Rob W. is an advertising copywriter and an established eBay seller.
Rob Says ….

Despite what many people seem to think about the ‘mysterious‘ world of joint ventures, participating in them does not have to be complicated. In fact, much of the time they can be quite simple.

One example of an easy, yet rewarding JV is one I discovered in a market that is often overlooked for JV’s – eBay!

For several months, I was buying products explaining marketing techniques both for my own use and for resale. I would buy up cheap but good quality videos, books, and tapes – and then sell them for several times what I bought them for on eBay.

As my skill on eBay grew so did the time I spent online studying who was doing what, and what was and was not working. I tested what I was doing, tracked my results, tweaked things and before long I had my own successful formula for eBay selling of these products.

I also studied what my competitors were doing. I noticed that, depending on the week I listed my items, there could be several other people selling the same thing. The interesting thing was people were often buying from me for 600-700% more …. but some of my competitors didn’t get any bids at all.

That’s where I thought of doing a JV!

One of the suppliers I bought from was always prompt with delivery, packaged his
items well, sold quality products and was efficient when I e-mailed him. So, I suggested a JV: I sent him a proposal explaining that I had an established track record on eBay. And I asked him, if I could sell more of his products there, would he be willing to share some of those profits with me? In other words, would he like more money for no extra effort?

He agreed, and we arranged to come together and split up the work to cater to our own strengths. I do all the marketing (which usually involves writing a sales letter once and using it over and over again), come up with the marketing ideas, place the listings, do the admin. and collect the money. My partner (Jim) does the fulfillment (mostly duplication and shipping). We both share the customer database that we accumulate.

With this JV I’m making a good profit, doing work I like and building up my experience – without buying or handling any products. My JV partner avoids doing the selling – which he wasn’t that good at – also works 90% less while making 300% more money!

I Say ….

Rob’s interest in marketing led him to eBay – which in turn led him to a great marketing JV! By using his talents Rob was able to beat his competitors even though he was charging more than them. In his search for more products to sell he found a great prospective JV partner – his supplier. Instead of going head to head with his supplier and becoming a competitor, Rob decided to approach him with a JV offer where each could work to their strengths and make more money too. A perfect JV!

JV Case History Five:

Jack M. is a successful businessman and motivational ‘guru’. His DVD audio course is a best seller and has sold in 42 countries. He is an established conference and seminar speaker. As a venture capitalist he invested millions in new start-up businesses.

Jack Says ….

Having done six major joint ventures over the last 15 years I have learned that doing a JV is one of the best things you can do if you don’t want to become an expert in the subject area itself! Ignorance is not bliss, and a JV partner can bring the expertise needed to a deal and have a major incentive to make it happen too.

In every JV I have done I haven’t needed to invest any money!

One JV earned me over $750,000 in 12 months – and another earned me a monthly income of about $1,000 a day! Prior to doing JV’s I never made any money from the Internet. I paid a lot of money for fabulous websites but never made a penny from them!

I learned that if you can’t get people to your website it won’t matter how great it is. Also, if you do manage to get someone to visit your site and it doesn’t sell anything you make no money no matter how good it is.

So I went looking for a JV partner to help me learn how to do marketing on the Internet. I had great products that were very popular and always sold well at my seminars. He had the skill to market them on the Internet. When I found one of the top Internet marketing experts around I suggested the idea of working with him on a JV basis.

It worked very well! We made over $60,000 from sales on the Internet. Since then I have sold many thousands more of my products, and expanded my sales to 42 countries.

What did all this cost me? Absolutely nothing! Just a reasonable percentage of the sales my partner created.
I Say ….

Jack had been extremely successful selling his products at seminars, but when it came to online marketing he realised that he needed help. So, he approached an Internet
marketing expert with a JV proposal. His JV partner immediately saw the profit potential of Jack’s product line and was glad to partner up with him. Jack brought his high quality, proven, profitable products into the JV and his partner brought the specialised expertise needed to market them successfully online.

The results: $60,000 in the first month and thousands in sales every week since. The JV partner earned an agreed percentage of the sales and Jack was able to expand his business into the global marketplace. And (as with all the JV deals Jack does) he didn’t have to spend a penny of his own on upfront costs!

Have you had a Joint Venture Success Story would like to share with us? tell us about it in the discussion forum