Question: What was your first successful JV, and what were steps you took to make it successful?

Hello. This is Valerie Vauthey speaking. I am CEO & Founder of fastest growing coaching company in North America and Europe: MyPrivateCoach.com

I would like to share with you a few of my experiences regarding business and more specifically with Joint Ventures.

I have started, grown, and sold FOUR Joint Ventures so far and I just started a new one.

Out of first four JVs, 3 were a great success and 1 was a failure (though I did not lose a dime, let's say I just did not make money).

Looking back at what made JV successful, I think I can now reasonably well understand why one went astray and did not generate forecasted revenues.

The first JV I ever started was a high-tech company which applied artificial intelligence concepts to financial markets.

Because I was not a techie person, critical part of this JV was to find a 50/50 partner who would be techie side of business. I would be sales and CEO side of business.

This is #1 CFOS (Critical Factor of Success): Finding right partner. The right partner is one who brings what you do not have and are not able to acquire easily. This requires a high-level of self esteem as one has to accept his or her limits.

The right partner is also somebody you know well. Not a person met at a fair or on an online network and with whom you only exchanged a few emails. It is easy to get excited when we meet somebody online and find that we share a lot of elements but always do your homework and learn as much as possible about other person before jumping in bath as we say in French.

If you do not find right partner, then your JV is dead before even having started!

What's worst that can happen when you choose wrong partner? Well, you can be mislead. And this is easy to do! Since this partner knows things you don't!

You can also be lied to when a partner who is supposed to bring a sales pipeline or access to hundreds of thousands of people, reveals him/herself as a nice speaker with nothing in basket (another French expression ;o)

One of mistakes I have made and from which I have learned is that I used to believe my partners and follow them blindly. One time, I was approached by a potential partner who seemed extremely well connected and whose role would have been to spread word while I would be captain on board, visionary. We did have a vision...but millions of contacts? never materialized! That's ok. We will all make a mistake here and there. As long as we learn from them it is a lesson of life and we will remember it.

So remember:

• choose a partner you know
• preferably choose a partner who has experience
• your partner should have an experience and a skill set you do not have
• your partner should have access to a network of people you do not know
• choose a partner who can prove what he/she says when it comes to sales pipeline and large distribution lists

#1 CFOS Good Example: To start my latest JV, I chose Kimberly Wells, one of our great coaches on board at MyPrivateCoach. I have vision. She has skill set. We are totally complementary. The vision was to start an online boot camp company attractively priced at 99 cents a day. I had known Kimberly for quite a while. We had had time to exchange and discover each other! After 6 months of brainstorming and work, we launched www.30dayBootCamp.com and we started selling our first bootcamps within days.

#1 CFOS Bad example: Two years ago, I started a website with a person I barely knew but who made me believe he had access to literally millions of addresses. Needless to say, these addresses did not exist. Now that I know how hard it is to build a meaningful subscribers list, I know why! I wasted my time on this but no money. Maybe my female intuition was talking to me while I slept! It still qualifies as a failure to me.

The #2 CFOS in a JV is timing and vision. People who start a JV tend to be in a hurry. They want to succeed yesterday as opposed to tomorrow. A JV is not a "regular" company where you have a CEO who drives team. In a JV, as commonly understood today, both partners have technically same power. Because both parners can pull company at same time, it is important that your sense of timing be same. Do you want to make 1 million within next 6 months? Does your partner want to make 10 millions within 12 months? Do you want this to be a side business? Does he/she want this to be HUGE company? As you can see, if you do not have same perception of things (vision and timing) you are doomed to failure.

So remember:

• choose a partner who has same grand vision about what business should become (a side-business or next Microsoft)
• choose a partner who thinks like you when it comes to timing: when do you want success to become true?

#2 CFOS Good Example: With Kimberly Wells on www.30dayBootCamp.com, we have same vision. We want to become reference when it comes to bootcamps and online self help. We also have same timeframe as a reference: we are giving ourselves 12 months to meet full success!

#2 CFOS Bad Example: With my not-so-successful JV, we had a major difference of perception when it came to vision and of course to timing. I had another company to take care of, I did not have same sense of urgency as this person had. These two major (and should I say "critical") differences collided and we stopped working together.

This leads us to another point: how much time do you have?

One important point when you start any company for that matter, is TIME issue. This will be our #3 CFOS. One common cause of JV or busines failure in general is lack of time or a poor time organization. If you are planning to start a JV on side while taking care of your family, a time-consuming job and a intensive social life, chances are you will not succeed. Does this sound tough? tough love maybe! But it is critical that you allocate all your energy and time to your new business venture. A new endeavor requires your full attention. What about finding a balance between your personal life and your business? I personally believe that there is no balance to be found in first few months you start a business. YOu need an understanding spouse and family environment and go for it. Work hard and do not listen to those who sell seminars and expensive teleclasses trying to make you believe you can become rich and famous without working hard. A key reason for failure is giving your time away to other people or projects. Be focused! ONLY ONE NEW BUSINESS AT A TIME. Don't you worry. As soon as your business takes off ground thanks to your hard work, you will be able to re-establish a nice personal/professional balance.

Anonymous Submission

Genuine opportunities for advancement are rare in company where I work. Frequent job postings appear on strategically placed bulletin boards, according to company policy.

It's easy to tell when there's been a new posting. There's an almost constant group of onlookers, examining paperwork as if it were Holy Grail. You can hear them whisper ----who left? Or was this a new position? Who could qualify? Who would apply? Would they get hired? If they did, would it be a promotion or a lateral move? Was this a genuine career opportunity or a placeholder job?

Pass by human resources and you'll see one or more of "fast-trackers" at information counter. Members of this group apply for any and every job posted. It doesn't matter to them whether they are qualified, talented or experienced in required area - as long as potential salary is higher than their current rate. If there's no salary posted, they go on info-gathering missions and interrogate anyone who might know - on quiet, of course. If it looks like a step up, they apply. Some have made switch successfully, for a while, at least. It's usually not long before they're spotted scanning job board again, searching for new career opportunities.