You Need A Partner: Taking A Look At Joint Ventures

When you're an entrepeneur with an idea, it can be sometimes very difficult to get it off the ground. You may be short on resources or don't have the know-how to implement your brilliant plan. Bu don't give up yet! Most businessmen in your position usually manage to go ahead with their big ideas by going into joint ventures. A joint venture is a limited form of partnership where two business entities come together to form an independent undertaking. This is mostly done so that the risks involved when starting a new business are highly reduced and that resources would be used to maximum efficiency.

Joint ventures also provide a lot more than spreading around the risk between partners and enable efficienct resource management. There are several other reasons why joint ventures are formed. Here are some of them: 

a) Better market penetration: having an established partner in the target demographic or location is a great boon for those looking to increase the sale of their wares. The usual arrangement is that one partner uses its already in place selling infrastructure to distribute the other partner's products.

b) Geographical considerations: Global companies are always looking to lower the risks of entry into a new country. This is why joint ventures with home-grown corporations are usually the rule when an international company is first getting into the local market. These companies benefit from the unique knowledge their partners have about local market conditions and laws. They also allow for them to utilize beneficial laws that only apply to native citizen's of that country via their association with their partner. The local partners benefit by acquisition of foreign know-how and access to international assets that can help support them in the marketplace.

c) Company development: Sometimes a business just needs to grow – however, as anyone can tell you, expanding a company can mean quite a few growing pains: lack of funds, knowledge, and people. A joint venture can help a business develop the safe way – it diversifies its holdings without a large amount of risk, employees are trained by their contact with their counterparts, and it helps restructure the company for even larger growth.

Now, with all of those advantages, you're probably interested in starting up a joint venture yourself. However, you'll have to do a bit of self-evaluation. Ask yourself if you can operate smoothly with a partner out of your sphere of control and whether you are willing to give your all to a partnership – hesistant participation and being a control freak are two ingredients to a catastrophic relationship, whether they be in business or personal life.

The next thing you should look for is the perfect partner – know what you're looking for and do your due diligence; background checks are your friend and help you avoid unscrupulous people who'll just take advantage of your relationship. The next thing is to come up with a joint business plan and to have a lawyer draw up the papers.

Joint ventures are actually pretty easy to understand and are a great help fo any developing company. So go out and look for a partner!
