SUCCESSFUL JOINT VENTURES Some successful joint ventures from very small to substantial. See if something here sparks your imagination. Loaned to us by our sister site - The Bi-Weekly Raise Money For Your Business Without Asking Your Bank Manager Page.

1     Frederick, who lives in Houston, Texas, teamed up with John, who lives in Holland, by communicating over the internet. Together, they worked out a plan to help a New York City tour operator increase his tour business. All work is being done on the World Wide Web, and all conversations and 'meetings' accomplished by e-mail. 2     Brian owns a book store. The weatherman at a local TV station wrote a book of local weather statistics. Brian called the manager of the TV station and offered to do a co-operative promotion with the station. They placed the weatherman's book in Brian's store, even had the weatherman do in-store appearances, which resulted in promoting the store's locations for the appearances, in addition to promoting the radio station and the book. 3     Joan owns a successful donut shop. She bases her advertising entirely on trade. She gives boxes of her high-quality donuts to select radio stations for daily giveaways. In return, they speak highly of her donuts on the air. It's not unusual to hear a morning DJ go on and on about how wonderful her product is. She has a rock solid reputation in the community as a result. The cost? A few boxes of donuts that might be surplused anyway. 4     A veterinarian, Elizabeth, wrote a personal note to all her clients advising them that Companion Petstore was having a sale with super discounts on all items. John, the petstore owner, agreed that Elizabeth could offer her clients a further discount when they presented one of Elizabeth's business cards. In return, John promised to place one of Elizabeth's brochures in every bag at the checkout counter. 5        Theo owned his own Trading Card and Comic shop. He catered mostly to school-aged children, and like so many small businesses, inventory was a problem in the beginning. But Theo was a serious collector of sports memorabilia, himself, and decided to joint venture with some of his collector friends. He offered them a share of the profits from buying and selling baseball and other trading cards they had financed. Theo bought cards in case lots with money from the investors and sold the cards in his comic and card shop, then shared the profits when they were all sold. 6     Delores owned Flowers and More, and counted a number of businesses amongst her regular customers - funeral homes, wedding organizers, and so on. As these businesses had grown, so Flowers and More grew.    Now, Delores needed a second cool-storage unit to handle the extra demand. Her bank would not agree to finance it, even though the extra equipment would increase sales and boost profitability. What was she to do?        This creative florist offered her larger customers a 15% discount if they would give her advance purchase orders for the floral arrangements they were going to buy from her anyway. They agreed. She took the advance orders to a finance company that helped her purchase the cool cabinet she needed. 7     Jean loved animals. She wanted to start a pet-walking service. When pet owners went on vacation, many did not like to leave their animals in a regular kennel, so this businesslady offered to visit her customers' homes several times a day to feed the cat, walk the dog and so on. She thought this would be a business that did not require any up-front expenditure.     She soon found out that people were reluctant to let a stranger have access to their home and possessions while they were away. So Jean approached an established kennels with a joint venture proposal. She would offer the service under their name, pay them a commission for every pet cared for, in return for the kennels putting up the money for a surety bond to protect the customers. The kennels agreed. They were able to expand their business by providing a service to customers they would probably have lost anyway, and this enterprising lady got started in her own business with no financial outlay. 8     A Used Car Dealer, Sam, obtained his inventory of used cars from auctions. He made his purchases with money from private investors. These investors were promised a 50/50 share in the profit from selling the cars to the public. This was a wonderful joint venture deal for everyone - the dealer had his inventory financed at no interest; the investors had their investments fully secured by the cars; and they were also able to double their money in a very short time with relatively little risk. 9     Denise, a Realtor, has her own real estate program on local talk radio. She has arranged for sponsors to pay the fees charged by the radio station. Denise might have provided her time for free, to gain the exposure, and let the station sell advertising time. For the Realtor who has less drive, appearing regularly as a real estate expert on someone else's show can be just as effective. 10     An enterprising baked goods manufacturer had grown his company by securing good, solid business supplying supermarkets with fresh-baked breads and cakes, and had recently landed a contract with a chain of bakery outlets. He needed new equipment to supply this increased demand.     Mr.Baker was buying approximately $10,000's worth of flour every month, and this would increase to $15,000- $16,000 per month - nearly $200,000 per year! He approached his favorite supplier with a joint venture proposition. He would sign a contract to purchase $800,000's worth of flour over four years if the supplier would provide the $40,000 needed for the new equipment.     The supplier agreed. The deal gave the baker free equipment, amounting to a 5% discount on his flour purchases - $40,000 / $800,000 = 5% - and the flour-supplier landed a locked-in, long-term customer. Both were very happy. (Actually, the supplier didn't put up $40,000 cash. He used his good credit to purchase equipment for Mr.Baker and made monthly payments for it, out of the money Mr.Baker paid him for the flour!)     What sort of joint venture partnering can you think of to develop your business?

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