The Easiest Way I Know of to Make a Ton of Money

One option was to set up a branch office in Bonn and hire a local person to manage it and someone else to translate the materials into German. It would be an investment of a few hundred thousand dollars and a considerable amount of time. The risks would be great, because we didn’t know anything about that local market. Another option was to call up my friend HG and say, “Hey, how would you like to sell our copywriting course in Germany?”

We did the latter — the joint venture — and, in less than a year, this joint venture has already produced hundreds of thousands in profits. Next year, it will do better. And, as time goes on, we’ll probably add more products to this joint venture and someday perhaps increase the profits into the seven-figure range. There are two reasons why I’m happy we decided on a joint venture.

First, we didn’t have to spend a penny. We contributed a product and the sales copy we already had and they supplied the cash, the translations, and the marketing know-how. Second — and this is probably more important — we increased our chances of success dramatically by partnering with a business with a proven track record of marketing in Germany.

Overall, it’s been a very good deal for both of us. We are making a lot of money without doing any extra work. They, too, are making money and have increased the stability of their business by having another product. Since we are both pleased with the results, we are talking about doing another product — our graphics course, perhaps — next year. Here are a few more examples of how profitable joint ventures can be: Between 1997 and 2001, AB’s company generated more than $11 million in sales as the direct result of one joint venture. He started off by publishing an electronic news service for computer-bulletin-board system operators.

As his business grew, he got the idea of doing a trade show for his readers. Since he knew nothing about trade shows, he did a joint venture with a business that specialized in them. They got him space at the Sahara Hotel and Casino and, on very short notice, attracted nearly 100 exhibitors and more than 600 attendees. Although the first trade show didn’t make money, AB didn’t lose any either because his joint-venture partner put up the money as well as the expertise. And as time went on, it became very profitable.

Another joint venture AB entered into — selling turnkey website design and hosting packages to a customer base of 150,000 buyers — resulted in sales of as much as $60,000 in orders every day. And JA used the joint-venture format to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bullion coins in the 1980s, tens of millions of dollars worth of newsletters in the 1990s, and many millions more in business-information products since then. He likes to use joint ventures because he says he “doesn’t know how to run an actual business” — and even if he did, he adds that he wouldn’t like doing so.

You should think about how a joint venture could fit into your plans. Do you have a product that someone else can help you sell? Do you have cash or marketing know-how that you can use to help someone else with a product? I’m going to talk a lot more about joint ventures in the future. (I can’t believe — quite frankly — that I haven’t talked about them before.)

If you are already sold on the idea and want to study joint ventures in a serious way, take a look at Joint Venture Secrets Revealed, a comprehensive program to make this a profitable part of your business. I’ve looked at their material and find it solid, serious, and sometimes inspiring. Click here: http://etr1.jvsecretsrevealed.com.