Joint ventures are important in business. Getting into one is a way for most companies to make the most of their resources without having to risk much and raise a lot of capital. This is especially true for young companies who are just starting their operations and are still testing the waters.
But as much as it is one viable idea for businesses, it is not always beneficial. In fact, out of the many who attempt to get into a joint venture, only a few manages to really survive the first five years. This is not because of the “joint venture” per se but because the partners or the partner companies are incompatible.
That is actually the first rule that you should know when opting for a joint venture. Just because a company fits your needs-criteria, it does not mean that it is already a perfect fit to you or your company for a joint venture. You see, a company may provide the service, the product or the technology that you need for a project but if they are not a company that you trust, partnering with them may mean suicide for you. There are a lot of smaller companies who have gotten eaten up by big companies because they made the mistake of getting into joint ventures with those industrial sharks.
Choose your partner well. preferably it should be someone or a company that is similar to you in stature or if ever slightly smaller or bigger. Partnering with a big company may give you instant access but it can be a problem for you in the long run. The partner should also trustworthy and whose work ethic coincides with how you do business. If you find a company who is comfortable in testing the laws and you can’t, it will be a disaster. It is better to not start the partnership at all than to bail out of an agreement.
Another important consideration is to make sure that everything is made into writing. That way, you can be sure that everybody will be doing their part. It is not impossible for people to slack off especially when they know that another partner can take over their responsibilities for them. This can be a huge problem and may create discord among in the group.
Another vital thing that you have to look into is the profit sharing and the contribution of each of the partners to the enterprise. This is perhaps the most important aspect of the joint venture because this is after all what all these companies are after. Although the partners are primarily giving something to the joint venture, some will have more contributions than others. It is important that you check all these and make sure that you have the profits and the compensation distributed to the partners fairly.
Take note, the word is fairly and not equally. This means that distributing the profits equally to all partners is not the way to go. It should be distributed to the partners according to their contributions to the joint venture.
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