Weighing the Pessimists and the Optimists

Though many business owners have a pessimistic outlook, they are sadly correct. And unfortunately, it is the pessimistic ones who will bail out and cut their losses and save what assets they can before losing everything. It is the pessimists who say that things will not improve and complain about how business should happen.

However, the business owners and JV partners who succeed are the ones who remain optimistic and take charge of their psychological mindset of doing business in a downturned economy. While ten years ago business owners and executives were reading books about squashing the competition and making millions, now bookstores’ shelves are cleared of books about sustaining through tough economic losses and simply keeping business alive.

The fact is that it is the optimist who will survive the current economic crisis, and not only survive, but thrive. The optimist in a JV looks for what is going well in their venture, and what is likely to improve, and then focuses energies to keep the right business elements navigated through the muck and mire of a raging economic whitewater rapid. The optimist also is aware of economic change and realizes that the JV business process much change with it.

Ways to Stay Positive

What can you do to remain optimistic through this tough economic climate?

• Don’t Panic – Level headedness and patience must prevail in order for your JV to survive.

• Listen to the pessimists – They will likely reveal what is true about slower economic times. By listening you can discover what not to do.

• Keep the outlook positive – The optimist knows that a recession is only temporary and that they are a natural progression of business evolution. As history has shown, things will improve.

• Always focus on your strengths – Doing what works best for you and your JV is the key to keeping your JV alive and thriving.

• Analyze good and bad – Evaluate the difficulties of your JV and try to discover whether it is due to consumer panic and fear, or whether it is a normal cycle of economic swings.

• Look for ways to improve – Your JV’s success through economic recession depends on your ability to find ways to improve and do business during tough times.

So how will you approach your attitude in order to wade through the economic climate? Will you be pessimistic and give up hope? Or will you face the raging rapids and find the silver lining along the cloudy path?

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

@treypennington Hey Trey! Thanks for the shout out!! in reply to treypennington #

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A JV is much like a partnership. But instead of managing all aspects of a business from deciding office location to hiring staff to capitalization, you and your JV partner are in charge of a specific “venture” which incorporates the strengths of both businesses. The venture could be as simple as cross promotion in each others’ retail locations or as complicated as forming a new business entity which will be the origin of the JV deal.

Thus, depending on how complicated your JV is, you will need a way for decisions to be made that will help business process along smoothly and efficiently. Here are some possible decider formations:

Choose One

Do you or your JV partner have extensive managerial experience? It may be possible that one of you is more suited to making final decisions. Extensive years of managerial experience can be beneficial in making sound business choices regarding staffing, marketing, financing, budgeting, inventory control, production, and any other category related to making a business successful.

If you have developed a JV relationship with someone with this kind of extensive decision-making experience, you may want to let all final decisions be deferred to wisdom and experience. This is not to say that you’ll be left out of the decision making process. Your input and opinion should be valued by your JV partner and should always be considered before making decisions.

Make Joint Decisions

If you and your JV partner work well together and have similar managerial backgrounds and experience you may find that you can come to joint decisions on all issues. This means that cooperation abounds between you and your JV partner and you are able to come up with and discuss options. No one person has final authority, but you both may take a stand on a particular issue. Though you may have differing opinions, it is important that both JV partners are able to make a case and present supporting arguments for their reasoning.

Divide Decisions Based on Expertise

If your JV requires a number of decisions, such as accounting, marketing, staffing, etc., you may want to divide the decision making process to the one with the most experience in that category. For instance, all accounting, finance, and capitalization decisions may go to the CPA, while the marketing, promotion, and sales decisions goes to the one who is the outgoing “salesperson.” This may be a good way to capitalize on each of your expertise.

JV decisions may be few or plentiful. But with the right method of decision-making, your JV will have the road paved for a smooth ride.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Mistakes are the seeds for improvement. No matter how well founded our theories are, mistakes are the key to finding the perfect and best solution. The same goes with a joint venture. You may find a great JV partner and develop an exciting business idea, but no matter how sound your business plan is, you’re likely to encounter mistakes. However, should mistakes be considered failure and grounds for giving up? Absolutely not.

With that said, how do you improve upon mistakes and errors of judgment? Not every decision we make will work perfectly. You and your JV partner may have decided to promote your JV business idea through a local trade magazine but with disappointing results and at a high advertising cost. However, once the results are in, you can meet to discuss other options that may work better.

Here is a four-step process of improving from mistakes:

1. Recognize and Admit the Mistake – Take time to review results of an attempted strategy. Or if you’ve been going along at status quo, keep your eyes open for irregularities that may result from poor decisions. You’ve heard the idiom that there’s no use beating a dead horse. Don’t continue with a strategy that doesn’t work just because it was your best idea. Admit it was the wrong choice.

2. Glean Valuable Info from the Mistake – With any JV business strategy and action, you always want to find ways to improve. Mistakes can offer the best educational advice on how to improve. Analyze both the positive and negative reactions to your failed JV business strategy. You can discover things that were great about a choice, as well as learn what not to use again or what needs improvement.

3. Formulate New Ideas – Now it’s time to improve. What was it that made your JV strategy or action fail? What worked well? You may discover that your packaging needs improving or the choice of distributor was the mistake. Joint venture and business strategies are a process.  Edison didn’t make 3,000 mistakes. He discovered 3,000 ways not to develop the incandescent light bulb.

4. Move On – When you have analyzed your mistakes and formulated new plans, move forward and try to get it right. Put your new JV business plan into action and wait for the next results.

Your JV, like any business, requires a method of constant improvement. Take time to review the mistakes you or your JV partner have made, and with the right attitude of learning and improving, you will make your JV a success.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Your joint venture is no different. What did you do today that promoted your JV product or service? What will you do tomorrow? What strategies have worked? What strategies need to be changed? Time for reflection can help you make the right JV decisions and move forward with confidence in your strategy.

What is Reflection?

Reflection is simply time to relax and get your brain out of its fast-paced, rat-race mindset, and analyze. In all our daily business activities, we tend to make decisions quickly and reactively. Someone calls – must answer it, talk, and make a decision or tell him or her “you’ll get back to them”. The copier broke – must call the repairman. You accountant needs budget answers – must give the answers or tell them “you’ll get back to them.”

See how fast business can be? You need the time to think about the small things so you will be able to “get back to them” and move forward with your business and JV strategy. Stopping to take a moment can give you clarity and the ability to think clearly to make the best decisions based on your past performance and what is in store.

How to Reflect

So how do you incorporate reflection in your busy daily life?

• Find a quiet, calming place - Being able to think and analyze in a quiet place is a better atmosphere for clarity and positive thinking. Find a nice coffee shop.  Perhaps it’s your back porch overlooking the sunset. The place you reflect is the key to getting good thinking done.

• Keep notes – When you sit down to reflect, do you know what you need to think about? Keep a small notebook like Moleskin with you at all times where you can jot down notes and ideas to think about later.
• Write it in your schedule - Sometimes you just need to create time for reflection. Write the time in your daily schedule and stick to it.

• Take time at the beginning and end – The best times to reflect are at the beginning and end of the day. Take a short while to reflect on what you need to accomplish today after you wake up. Then, at night take a while to mull over what you have accomplished and how you could have made better decisions.

• Make it a part of business strategy – And finally, with any JV business strategy, you must make time to review how a strategy is going and what needs to be changed to make it more successful.

The time you take for quiet reflection is time well spent. You will be able to make better decisions and be more confident in the decisions you make.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

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Knowing a bit about the psychology of persuasion can help in swaying a JV partner to your ideas. First you need to know what kind of decision maker your JV partner is. Here are the main types of decision maker types that are found in executive positions around the world.

• Controllers – This type of decision maker is the pushy, take-control type who wants it their way. Usually it’s because of insecurity that they are less easily persuaded. They need cold, hard facts, logic, and an analytical style in order to persuade them. Don’t be ambiguous with this type. Keep your persuasions clear and to the point.

• Thinkers – This type may be tougher than Controllers to persuade. They, too, need cold, hard facts, and lots of them. They like to think and analyze each decision, and they may take a while to do so. Give plenty of information for this type to chew on if you want to persuade them to your thinking.

• Charismatics – Charismatic businesspeople are the enthusiastic type who makes a decision and carries through with it whole-heartedly. They like balance and enjoy choosing the course of action that is familiar with past experience. Give plenty of information to this type as well, but also lean arguments toward their past successes to get a positive persuasion.

• Followers – This type of decision maker is adverse to risk. They like to know that something has worked in the past before they try it themselves. Facts aren’t so important as examples of previous success. Give them a good, sturdy platform to jump onto if you want them to follow you.

Now that we are familiar with decision making types, how do you actually create an argument for your JV partner? Here are some helpful techniques in building your argument:

• Display the need – Each decision maker type needs to know that a decision has to be made. Create a need for your course of action, such as more income, reduction of expenses, bigger market-base, etc. Include the facts and previous success of your plan as needed to help

• Choose the right words – Remember, you need to use the proper words according to your JV partner type. Charismatics like enthusiastic and positive words. Thinkers like intelligent and logical words. Followers need to hear words like responsible, cautious, and proven.

• Call to action – Once you’ve made your presentation or argument, you need to get them into a frame of mind that requires decision. Tell them your beliefs and why you are convinced of a course of action, and ask for their support.

Persuasion is like an art form.  Good salespeople know the art of persuasion well. If you are in a position that requires persuading a JV partner in a course of action, take heed to how you will formulate your action based on the decision-type he or she is. Good luck!

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

The Importance of Good Relations

Your business relationships outside your own business or JV are important. Why? Where do you get your raw materials? Who services your technology and equipment? Who delivers your product from your warehouse directly to the customer? Your JV depends upon many other businesses for success. Don’t you think it is worthy to spend time developing those business relationships as if your continued and future success depends upon it?

A simple rude or berating comment can sever a good business relationship. Who wants to work with difficult people? Your supplier may decide there are better pastures in which to make sales. Or your distributor may suddenly find that there is “no more room” in his warehouse for your product. Keeping your business relationships sharp and well nurtured will keep your business alive and thriving.

5 Ways to Stay in Good Favor

How does one continually develop good business relationships and keep a smooth flow of business going?

Listen – Always listen to the people from other businesses. They have specific policies and procedures they need to follow to keep their business alive just as you do. Listen to them if they have a problem.

Talk to the right people – Sometimes you need to talk to a decision maker rather than the person answering the phone. It is not uncommon that at times you need special consideration or a modification of their business practice to get what your JV needs.  Don’t talk to a brick wall that goes by the book. Talk to the business owner or manager who may be able to get special consideration for you.

Be persuasive – Sometimes it takes a sales pitch to get a new business relationship going or to get special consideration as noted above. Avoid being belligerent or demanding.  Using persuasion and kind words can go a long way to helping your relationship and developing success.

Empathy – Sometimes other businesses need things from you. Just as you may need something or special consideration from other business, this is the time you need to be empathetic and listen to the person on the other end of the line or in your office. Putting yourself in their shoes can help you make the right decision.

Use Professional Behavior – And finally, you will be appreciated and others will want to work with you when you use professional behavior. That means not yelling into the phone when you don’t get what you want. It means returning phone calls. It means following through on a request or letting a person know you need more time. It boils down to common courtesy. Be courteous, and you will always have good business relationships.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

It is the business strategy of many business owners to simply go with the flow and react to business, rather than be proactive with a plan. Once a business is up and running, it seems there’s more to deal with than just growing the business, like irate customers, lost shipments, and a landlord who wants to increase the lease. Reactions must be given to these types of business problems, but it’s no excuse not to work on a strategic plan to move the business forward.

Rather than set up a JV and become reactionary to it, here is a simple 6-step business strategy that all business owners should follow and can easily be integrated into your JV.

1. Target Market – Who is your target market? You will know what service your joint venture is going to perform or product it will sell, but you must state your target market and know whom you are selling to.

2. State the Goals – Here is where you must know where you are going before you start the journey.  Your JV business goal or goals are the target in which you want to hit at the end of the journey. Goals can be short-term or long-term, and should include both. For instance, before your ultimate goal of reaching $100K in sales, you must get your marketing, production and distribution aligned. Those would be short to medium goals that need to be stated.

3. Determine a Budget – Once you have a target market and goals, then it’s time to start thinking of a budget. No action can take place if you don’t yet know how to pay for it.  Figure if both you and your JV will contribute $XX dollars to the budget, or if you will raise the money other ways. Ultimately you need a figure on how much you will spend on expenses such as marketing, production, promotion, etc.

4. Formulate and Implement an Action Plan – Here is where you and your JV partner form the smaller, step-by-step actions to reach the goals. Determine who will take what tasks and go to work.

5. Test the Results – At some point, you need to see how your plan is working. Pick a time, say 1 month or 3 months, in which you and your JV partner will look at the data and analyze how your plan is working. What works great? What action didn’t produce the expected results?

6. Form a New/Updated Plan – From the results of your original action plan, you will now know what works, what doesn’t, and what could work better. Re-form a new plan and implement it.

Now you have a simple JV business strategy that can work for you. The key is to always be progressive and have a strategy for improvement in order to reach the goals you set.  Good luck!

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

@giambini1969 Hey Amy! Thanks for the nomination and recognition! in reply to giambini1969 #

A HUGE thank you to all of you who have sent me birthday wishes! I truly appreciate all your kind words and thoughtfulness!! #

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