Forming an online business partnership can bring enormous benefits, but it is not without some obvious risks and downsides.
Entering into a joint venture, either online or offline, shouldn’t be undertaken without some serious thought and consideration. It is important to weigh the pros and cons to determine whether or not this is the right thing for you.
Pros
- Double the brain power
- Sharing the initial start up costs
- Problem sharing
- Upkeep of Motivation, Focus and Momentum
- More contacts and areas of expertise
- Learn as you progress
- Have someone to expand on your ideas
- Can take a holiday
- Learning the art of compromise – compromise is a life skill that can be a definite asset in tricky situations.
Cons
- The risk of having your ideas stolen
- Having to trust your finances are safe
- Half the profits
- Having to ask permission before changing anything
- Not having complete control over a project
- Learning the art of compromise – It is difficult to realise that just because someone has a different way of doing something, it doesn’t mean it won’t work.
How to enter into a Joint Venture with confidence
Having weighed up all the pros and cons and you are still confident that a joint venture is the way forward, your business partner should preferably be someone of good repute who has followed this path (successfully) before, and that you know to have solid business skills.
Third party Legal advice should be sought and a contract drawn up to finalise all the small details such as who is responsible for what, how profits are to be shared, what to do if the business doesn’t show any profit in a certain time frame, what happens if one party wants out, etc.
It is really important to remember that even relatively small amounts of cash can completely change a person’s personality.
I have personally witnessed the success of a business turn a brother against brother. Plus, how many times do we see on the news that even the most respected pillars of society have run off with the Church’s new roof funds!
Or just jump in and take a risk!
Every once in a while you just have to take a blind leap of faith and hope you are doing the right thing!
I know I work better when I have someone to bounce ideas off, and a joint venture somewhere along the road was always going to be an option for me. I have to admit, even with my impulsive nature, that I’m a little surprised with how fast my online money making journey has changed direction.
A few weeks ago I was plodding along quite happily with my various blogs, busily bending over backwards with my continued quest to please the mighty Google.
Quite by chance I started a thread in a forum (zzz profits) run by Chris Moe, asking who would invest in a joint venture and why. That question lead to a few private messages being exchanged between Moe and myself, with me proposing a readymade article store. Moe expanded that idea and the creative juices started to flow from there.
A couple of days later BlogMunchies.com was born: not only an article store, but also a complete blog management and guestposting service.
Had I kept the initial idea to myself as I normally would, it would either still be rattling around in my head or I would be the owner of “The Article Arbitrage”, a basic WordPress site with not much to offer!
Right now I’m proud to call myself the co-founder of BlogMunchies.com, offering a professional blog management service to both newbie bloggers and existing businesses alike.
The really crazy bit? This business has formed completely via private forum messages, email and shared documents, but somehow it has just worked.
How it works
After drafting up a rough document on what tasks we can undertake and what we would prefer the other to do, it has really been a whirlwind of finding freelancers, site design, starting a blog to support the site and brainstorming advertising campaigns.
So far Moe has had the lion’s share of work to do, as I am not very technically minded and couldn’t really help with the site design. I will be the one undertaking the day to day management once we are up and running, allowing Moe to take more of a back seat, supervisory role and finally being able to finally get back to his other businesses!
Would I do it again?
In a heartbeat! I’m not recommending this kind of online venture for everyone, and you certainly shouldn’t go around propositioning random strangers in forums! But, I’ve gained so much in the last few weeks. I’ve built confidence in my own abilities, learned new skills I never thought possible and learned to take the bull by the horns and seize every opportunity that has come my way – even scoring a guest post on Famous Bloggers!
Blog Munchies is ready to go full steam ahead, and I’m both excited yet nervous looking forward to what this new business will bring.
Is this a case of nothing ventured nothing gained? Or a fool and his money are soon parted? I don’t know, but I’d love to come back and keep you updated (if I’m not too busy)!