Key Steps to Dream Business Success

How to Be and Get Dream Partners for Success: Secret #26 Leverage Joint Ventures

“Joint Ventures are in, and if you’re not utilizing this strategic weapon, chances are your competition is, or will soon be, using this to their advantage…possibly against you!” Valerie Orsoni-Vauthey. If the number one way to build your business is to grow your mailing list, the number one way to grow it quickly is to employ joint venture strategies. Simply explained, a joint venture is when two or more parties agree to promote each other to their mailing lists. In some cases, the goal is to simply broaden the audience reach and grow a list, while in other cases, the joint venture may be a sales pitch in which the partner receives an affiliate commission on sales made from the mailing.

Either way, cross promotional joint venture ideas are an inexpensive way to reach more people, grow your list, gain credibility and increase your sales. Who should you partner with for a joint venture? Typically, the ideal partner has a common target market, but does not offer that market the same thing that you do. Your services should be complimentary, but not competitive. A dance studio that offers dance classes may want to partner with a company that sells dance leotards for example. They have a common audience, but serve that audience with different services or products. A personal trainer that teaches yoga classes may want to partner with a chef that teaches healthy eating to their common audience of health conscious women. What types of organizations offer services that are complimentary but not competitive in your case?

Another factor for choosing a partner is your mailing list size. If you have a list of 300 people, you need to find someone with a list in that general range. A person with a list of 5,000 won’t get a fair response from your 300 as you would from theirs. So, look for opportunities to partner with people who have similar list sizes. If you are smart about choosing the right partner, you can increase your list by a significant percentage in 24 hours with a joint venture. I have increased my list by more than 100 names overnight with this strategy.

So, how often should you joint venture? As often as possible. Starting out, you should find someone to do a joint venture with once per quarter, then once per month. When your list size grows to over 1,500 people you should be doing 2 per month and when your list is in the tens of thousands, you can do one every week.

Remember that this strategy is about partnership. So, make sure that you know who you are partnering with and that they share the same values that you have for your clients. Do your homework. You are not looking for one night stands here, joint venture partners are partners after all. As you grow your lists of joint venture partners, you become part of a support team that will have immeasurable benefits. These partners will promote you beyond the initial joint venture and you will promote them.

Get partnering and start growing!

How to Be and Get Dream Partners for Success: Secret # 25 Be the Only One

“Each one of you has something no one else has, or has ever had: your fingerprints, your brain, your heart. Be an individual. Be unique. Stand out. Make noise. Make someone notice. That's the power of individuals.” Jon Bon Jovi. Last week I was in one of those stores that had the large jungle gym for kids. There was one of those big bins filled with plastic balls for kids to jump in. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of them in that bin. Now, imagine that each of those balls represents someone who does something similar to what you do. Let’s say you call yourself something like a Business Consultant, or a Life Coach, or a Writer. There could literally be thousands of balls representing people who do those general things. OK, so now, imagine that you represent one of those balls too. And, all of the balls are blue. Everyone’s balls are blue and your ball is blue. How on earth would someone find your ball in that bin?

What if your ball was the only red ball in a bin of blue balls? Do you think people would be able to find your ball then? The uniqueness of your ball color would certainly help. Even though you may do something similar to hundreds or thousands of other people, you really do it differently. In order for your ideal target market to find you, you need to be unique enough for them to notice you.

One way to separate you from the pack is to come up with an “Escalator Tag”. An escalator tag is your unique job title. I call it that because if you do it right, you will get a prospects attention in the instant that it would take to pass someone going the opposite way on an escalator.

Which would get your attention more: a Nonprofit Consultant or a Nonprofit Doctor; a Wellness Coach or the Personal Nutrition Guru; a Small Business Advisor or the Dream Partner Catalyst? Not everyone is going to like your unique escalator tag. But the ones that really want to work with you will. They will notice you and seek you out. Don’t worry if everyone doesn’t like that you are the Virtual Ringmaster. The one’s that do like it and get it will be the people that become your customers.

Marketing in this economy is hard enough. Why make it more difficult for your potential clients to find you in the bin of similar colored balls. Stand out, be unique and help your ideal customer find you.

Want to know how to create your escalator tag? The process is simple but not easy. Brainstorm a list of the biggest words you can think of that describe what you do, for whom in the most specific way, your biggest value and the ideal outcome that you hope for your customer. Play with the words on the list, making sure that you come up with the best metaphors to describe them. Come up with 2 or three words from the list that really get at your core purpose. Ask your closest friends and clients to help you, as this is somehow easier for others to do for you than it is to do for yourself. Keep working it until you think you have it. If you want help with this ask me in the comments box and I can talk with you more about the process.

No one does what you do exactly like you. Help your potential customers see that. Be the only one!

How to Be and Get Dream Partners for Success: Secret # 24 Set Outrageous Goals

“You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.” Steve Garvey. At a recent Redwood Sisterhood breakfast, I challenged the ladies to set an outrageous 90 day goal. What is an outrageous goal? It’s a goal that is so challenging, yet doable, that it nearly makes you want to throw up with anxiety. Why would I want you to nearly throw up with anxiety? Because stretching yourself to just beyond where you think you can go makes you get there.

Even thinking of a goal like that can be scary. Think of what you could do in 90 days. Here are some things that can be done in 90 days if you stretched yourself and put your mind and muscles into it: You could: create a CD product, write an ebook, put up a new website, start a blog, deliver a keynote address, teach a teleclass, start a radio show, design a webinar, create a newsletter, invent a new product, plan a retreat, launch a new business, write a business plan, create a joint venture opportunity, write or publish a book, hire a new support staff person. Pick any one of these things, or choose something completely different. But, challenge yourself to an outrageous goal.

“Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.” David Joseph Schwartz.

The reason that we don’t accomplish much is that we don’t challenge ourselves to accomplish much. Do you believe that you could achieve one outrageous 90 day, or one year goal? Of course you can. “Crystallize your goals. Make a plan for achieving them and set yourself a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination and disregard for obstacles and other people's criticisms carry out your plan.” Paul Meyer

If you really want to achieve your outrageous goal, make sure that you tell a dream partner. They will help you to be accountable to it and support you in it. Just saying it out loud increases its likelihood of happening. With the right support, you can achieve more than you may think that you can.

Remember too that your goal must be challenging, yet doable. An outrageous goal is not an unreasonable goal. Setting the bar too high may lead you down the road to discouragement. Setting a 90 day goal of becoming a millionaire by winning the lottery would be unreasonable. Make sure that your goal is something that you can do and something that you have control over.

What is your outrageous 90 day goal? Share it with a dream partner today and get going on it! Share it with me and I’ll give you a free 30 minute consult on how you can accomplish it. Just ask me for it!

How to Be and Get Dream Partners for Success: Secret #23 Get out of your Comfort Zone

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” ~Abraham Maslow. On vacation last summer, my family was planning a parasailing adventure. I was planning to sit in the boat and watch them go up. I am afraid of heights, so it just seemed too scary for me. That morning, while I was sitting by the pool, a lady in her 70’s was sitting next to me. We got to talking about parasailing and she said that she had just gone the day before at it was such a thrill. I asked her if she was scared and she said that she was, but it was just something she wanted to do. She chose to go out of her comfort zone to experience something new; something that she had never experienced before, for the sheer memory of it. Wow. If she could do it, I could do it. So, I did.

I was surprised that it wasn’t that scary after all. I had worked myself up to expect that the experience would be much scarier than it actually was. For those of you who are afraid of heights, there is no sense of falling at all when you parasail, just a slow, steady climb. The view was spectacular. We saw things that you just don’t get to see otherwise. And, I did make a special memory.

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” ~Brian Tracy. I’m glad that I chose to go out of my comfort zone to try something new. Getting out of your comfort zone will be scary and uncomfortable, but you will experience something or learn something that will strengthen you.

“If you're in a comfort zone, afraid to venture out,
Remember that all winners were at one time filled with doubt.”
Author Unknown, from My Comfort Zone

What is that thing that you know you should try or do to move closer to your dream that is holding you back? Maybe you should learn more about internet marketing, or make more follow-up calls. Or maybe it’s putting up that website or asking someone to collaborate. You know what it is. Choose today to go out of your comfort zone. You will be blessed by it!