Like a lot of prospective JVers are you racking your brains trying to find fantastic, original ideas for them? Does it keep you awake at night? Do you spend days trawling the Internet …. searching every corner of the globe for that perfect idea?
Well you don’t have to!
Because the best ideas could be closer than you think!
They could be right there in your own backyard …. so to speak.
Start by looking at the products and services you use yourself. Or even just those you have thought about buying. Think about the companies or other organisations that are in your own local area and what they sell, whether you use them or not. These could be the perfect products, services and contacts for an incredibly successful JV project.
All you need to do now is link those ideas up with the right partners.
Imagine for a moment you’re a golf nut. Maybe you are. Say you play in every spare moment you get. Say you’re passionate about refining your skills, and trying out every new technique or gadget that comes along. And say you’ve just discovered a great set of twelve American golf coaching DVD’s that you can buy the distribution rights to for next to nothing …. yet sell on for £10-£15 or more a copy.
You’ve probably thought of targeting a number of websites used by other golf nuts for a JV offer. But the slight snag is that they’re already selling products similar to your coaching DVD’s. Sure, they might still be interested, but it’s not the pot of gold you’re looking for.
So what could you do? The solution is simple. Think much closer to home than websites that might be based on the other side of the world. Look in your own backyard. What about setting up JV deals with golf clubs, pro shops, driving ranges or even equipment wholesalers? It really could be the perfect opportunity: A great way of targeting eager enthusiasts and buyers. Extra income for the club or whoever – and an extra service to their members or customers. And of course a great business deal for you.
So try striking up a deal in your own backyard first. Then, assuming it succeeds, you can roll it out to the rest of the country. Even the rest of the world.
And that brings me to another important point that applies to every JV deal: Go where the money is. If you’re selling fairly pricey, high quality golf coaching DVD’s you don’t want to try pitching them to the customers at your local council’s pitch-and-
putt course. No, you want to pitch your offer to the more upmarket, posh golf clubs. Places that attract people who will shell out £100 on coaching DVD’s as easily as most other people buy a chocolate bar. Sure, go down the pitch-and-putt course and you might shift one DVD in a weekend. But set up a deal to offer them to the members of The Royal St. Fancytrousers Golf Club (or whatever) and you could sell hundreds of DVD’s in just a few days – and maybe thousands over a few months.
Think of the numbers of affluent, keen-to-play-better golfers at your local smart golf club or driving range. Then think of the numbers all around the country, or even in other countries. Not only is that a direct link from your own backyard to thousands of customers. But every single one of them probably has great loyalty to their club. So a JV offer will carry a great deal of weight indeed.
And here’s another great benefit to you of this kind of ‘backyard’ strategy: It doesn’t matter one bit if your prospective customers aren’t Internet shoppers …. or don’t even have a computer. Using this method you get to expand your customer group out to, potentially, millions more customers other than those who spend most of their time surfing the net.
Of course – a quick caution – it won’t always be that simple. Nothing worth doing ever is. You need to be quite subtle about setting up such a deal. You need to pitch the proposal in such a way that it looks like the club is providing a service to their members, not exploiting them. And you will certainly need to push the benefits of the product to the end buyers just like any other sale, rather than just relying on the special relationship they have with the club.
Another important point I need to make here: When you use this route choose your JV partners quite carefully. Make sure that the people who will represent your product are not only enthusiastic about the deal but ethical too. There’s no point doing a deal with a golf club secretary who doesn’t have the slightest bit of interest in your product and who will only endorse it in a lacklustre way. Or one who only sees it as a way of milking more money from their members. Either way it just won’t work. With this type of route not only your product and your business but you yourself will loose out in the long term. As with every JV deal it’s very important to only choose partners who are as passionate and professional as you are.
Of course, maybe you have no interest whatsoever in golf! Maybe you hate it with a passion. I doesn’t matter. But I am sure you can see that the exact samebackyard principle could be rolled out to any other sport, any other hobby or interest or, ultimately, any other product or service you care to mention. Whatever you’re interested in, whatever you buy, whatever is going on near you – that could be a great original idea for your next JV.
