Joint Ventures - How Much to Charge

How much should you make from a Joint Venture? 10%? 20%? 50%? Should it be of the net or gross profit or off the top? How do you decide? This is an important consideration, especially for people who are used to paying peanuts and those who are used to accepting a few crumbs. Entrepreneurs who understand business and profit are more likely to pay and demand reasonable commissions.

For example, when people attend a DollarMakers Joint Venture Broker Bootcamp, I pay the referring Members up to 50% in commissions! My cost of putting an extra chair into a Bootcamp and a few extra cups of coffee and donuts, plus a workbook, is negligible. I can afford to be generous. My DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum Members earn thousands in commissions every month. But if I was selling computer hardware, with a profit of around 6%, I could afford to pay such a generous commission. Large profit margins demand high commissions; real business people understand that. And there are other ways to reciprocate, other than financially – but that’s a subject for another newsletter or the Bootcamp.

A realtor approached me with the typical offer: “Send me a buyer or a seller and I will pay you $75 for a completed sale.” So you get $7,000 and you expect me to accept $75? Are you kidding me? I’ll take 50% of the realtor’s commission or no deal. Am I being greedy? No – I pay 50% and so can they. If you don’t ask, you won’t get. Desperate realtors will not agree to this, but the smart realtor who has built in multiple JV back end sales into every transaction will jump at the opportunity. 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. It’s business they would never have had. When you show them how much business that one deal can generate over the years and the Marginal Net Worth of a customer, they might see the light. If they don’t, send them on a JV Bootcamp!

Most entrepreneurs don’t understand their acquisition cost, attrition rate, profit margins, back end value or Joint Ventures. That’s why they feel they have to grab every up front cent they can. When they understand the big picture and they want to create increasing, multiple streams of passive income, they will become generous in their referral fees and commissions. I personally don’t accept anything less than 20%, but it all depends on the big picture, margins, reciprocal consideration and value. Remember the big picture and demand to be paid a fair amount or walk away. There are many opportunities out there but very few people who understand Joint Ventures, so you can call the shots.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

Joint Ventures - Whom to Deal With?

One of the most common questions I am asked at the seminars, talks and Bootcamps I present, is, “But, Robin, how do I find people to Joint Venture with?” Good question, of course. In a world where a good website and business brochure can make a bank robber living in his dog’s kennel smoking weed look like the CEO of a Fortune 500 business, we have rightfully become skeptical, even cynical. We are wary of the scam artists and wanna-be’s out there. We don’t want to refer our trusted clients and friends to losers.

That’s why we started the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum. Good people were invited to join and they invited their best people, and so on. And now that people from all over the world are applying to join, we insist they agree to adhere to our Code of Ethics and we watch them carefully. Any deviation and we unceremoniously kick them out. Unlike many “Networking Groups” that would accept Hitler if he paid enough, our fees are so low and our benefits so high that we can afford to be, and are, very selective. So that is one way to find good Joint Venture Partners: simply join the Forum!

Another way to find good Joint Venture partners is to start with your N.E.E.R. relationships – your Naturally Existing Economic Relationships – people whom you know and trust and have done business with in the past. People who are referred to you by trusted friends and associates are more likely to turn out well. And if you follow our guidelines, you will initiate those JV’s with no money, no time and no risk. So you can walk away when things don’t work out or the JV partner deviates from the agreement, as some, I assure you, will.

Always remember that there are people out there who will agree to anything to grab a customer and make a quick buck. Desperate people do desperate thing. So you should choose successful people – not the trailer park type who lives on welfare and can’t afford gas, whom you want to help; you’re not a social worker. I have tried that and it cost me money. Find winners and visionaries. And make sure to manage the relationship and the JV – it takes attention and monitoring to make it work well. And the more they know about JV’s, the more likely the JV is to succeed. For example, DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum Member who has attended the Joint Venture Broker Bootcamp is more likely to succeed than one who hasn’t.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

Joint Ventures - Don't Sell Your Time

When you sell your time, you sell your life. You might as well be a slave or a mercenary – or an employee. You cannot get rich selling time unless you’re very highly qualified or a rock star or film star. That’s why most consultants and coaches experience peaks and valleys - “chicken or feathers” – their income is seasonal and they work harder and harder for less and less.

When I meet with my Joint Venture Forum Members, I always tell them that they should have each Joint Venture they consider fit within the following parameters: “No time, no risk, no cost, win/win.” That doesn’t mean a Joint Venture won’t take time to set it up, or a little expense up front – it simply means that ideally, the JV should run like a money machine, without your presence or time. The idea is to utilize and leverage underutilized resources and create links as a broker would. You get paid a percentage of resulting business. You link supply with demand and piggy back distribution and advertising.

The average consultant or employee (a consultant is simply an employee with many bosses) doesn’t realize that his hourly rate is not what he actually earns. When you look at your real profit, you should also consider what your freedom is worth to you. Are you free to do what you like, when you like? Are you free to go skiing or hiking when the weather permits, or when a boss permits? Are you really like a child in a classroom who has to ask permission to go to the little boys’ room? How much is time with your family worth to you? What will you sell it for? Do you really want to have a boss decide whether or not you’re allowed to take your wife on holiday or go fishing with your friends? How old are you, anyway? Maybe it’s time for your personal Independence Day.

Other peoples’ time, money, resources, equipment, expertise and access is freely available to smart JV experts. We don’t have money problems; we have thinking problems. Let us understand that we don’t have to sell our time. Fire that boss, once and for all. Fire your consulting and training clients like I did. They don’t deserve you. You family and loved ones deserve you. One phone call can earn a good JV broker more than the average employee earns in a month or more. Attend our Joint Venture Broker Bootcamp and find out how you can have all the time and money you want.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

The Joint Venture Analogy

Imagine my doctor sending out an e mail to all his patients, offering them a discount on hip replacements for November. Or the Network Marketing lady who walked into my seminar in a hotel in Abbotsford and announced that, after looking at the palm of my hand, I was deadly ill and needed her supplements. She added that this would also make me financially secure, implying that I was not financially secure. She had never met me and was not even a part of my seminar audience!

This is not all that uncommon – attend most “Business Networking Events” and you will find a bunch of self-employed salespeople thrusting their business cards at each other and proudly broadcasting their “Elevator pitches” to all and sundry, whether they want to hear it or not. They might as well go from door to door selling brushes to people who don’t need them or want them.

Joint Venture experts have an entirely different approach; they are like my doctor. He sits quietly and asks questions and listens to me. He examines me. He does not tell me about how smart he is or how many babies he delivered last week. He does not regale me with the benefits of dealing with his practice. He LISTENS. He finds out where it hurts and reads my file. And then, like the good South African doctor he is, he prescribes the solution to my specific problem. He doesn’t have to sell me or convince me or persuade me. And I gratefully take his advice.

Joint Venture experts build bridges, create solutions and solve problems. And they get well paid for it. They don’t work for nothing. They are Capitalists and they understand business. They know that we get paid in direct proportion to the value we create. They don’t sell time, either – they simply link us up with the solution we seek and need. If the MLM lady above had taken the time to ask me many questions and show a genuine interest in me, she might have found that I was in search of a solution for some physical qualm, in which case I might have asked her to sell me the solution in the form of her product. But her desperation, arrogance and ignorance denied her any chance of ever doing business with me. Fortunately, not all Network Marketing people are like her!

Let us understand the power behind Joint Ventures by taking the time to become sincerely interested in the other person and forget about what we want. Zig Ziglar said, “You can get anything you want out of life, IF you’re prepared to help enough other people to get what they want.”

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com

The Joint Venture Mindset

Frank Schroeder was one of the most successful insurance salesmen I ever met. He owned two Porches and two sets of electric drums and lived like a king. We did some business together and I asked him what the secret to his success was. And at this point I must digress. I have sold insurance very successfully in Canada and in South Africa. I no longer sell insurance; I specialize in Joint Ventures. But I have found very few insurance salespeople who share Frank’s philosophy or his success. Many of them have very strange labels and titles that they have concocted for themselves in order to disguise the fact that they sell insurance, yet they should be proud of their important work. And they are so focused on selling that they are proof of the self-fulfilling prophecy syndrome. But let us not waste time discussing what we should not do.

Frank was living proof of the power of what I call “The Joint Venture Mindset”. As far as I can recall, I will try to put his approach in his own words: “Robin, I always tell people right up front that I sell insurance. That builds trust and credibility right away. And I NEVER try to sell anything on the first visit, or even the second visit. In fact, I often don’t ever try to sell insurance – they ASK to buy! Why? Well, I focus on finding out all about my prospect. I ask many questions, make copious notes and make it my business to try and help them in any way I can, either by giving them referrals, advice or contacts, but this has nothing to do with insurance.

The more I work on building value and helping them, the more interest I show, the more they open up and share. I find out all about their hopes, dreams fears, failures, successes, beliefs and hobbies. I share things about myself. I build relationship. I help. I care. And you know what, Robin? THEY bring up the insurance subject and they buy. I never have to sell. I never have to close. I give them information and solve their problems. I don’t use jargon and I don’t play games. You know me – what you see is what you get. If I don’t feel comfortable with the prospect, I leave and I won’t sell them insurance. If they don’t need insurance, I won’t sell them any. And I have more referrals than I can handle. I forget about what I want and myself and I prove myself a friend.”

That’s why we started the Joint Venture Forum – our members share this mindset and work on relationships and problem solving. They don’t focus on selling and they know that they can do business outside of their chosen field. And they are very selective whom they choose to work with. Together, we can do amazing things!

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com