Last night, Rika and I enjoyed “The Sinatra Project” with Michael Feinstein and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum Theater in Vancouver.

Rika booked this a long time ago since she knows I love Sinatra’s work, and it was a great evening. Feinstein is amazing.

The orchestra was a wonderful -

Joint Venture Analogy

Many people see Joint Ventures as an alternative to other income sources.

They compare brokering Joint Venture’s with real estate investment or MLM or having a job, or running a retail business, whereas Joint Ventures is an all-encompassing, overriding, umbrella philosophy that includes all other income creators. Like the orchestra.

The conductor is the Joint Venture philosophy. Each musician is a different moneymaking activity – a different dollarmaker.

1. The drummer could be retail,
2. The saxophonist could be MLM,
3. The violinist could be real estate – you get it.

The Conductor

Notice that the musicians keep their egos in check. They fit in to the bigger scheme of things. They play when it’s appropriate. The strategist would understand this, and the engineer would liken it to a PERT diagram. As a Joint Venture expert, YOU become the conductor, by:

• delegating,
• directing,
• motivating,
• organizing,
• encouraging,
• creating

– you’re the general, as opposed to the broke, self-employed, egotistical salesperson – the soldier.

How Everyone Benefits

Our motto in DollarMakers is “Together, we do amazing things” – it’s a synergistic approach to wealth creation – everybody wins, based on their contribution. Joint Ventures create value. If  a musician refuses to play, shows up late, does a bad job, stops contributing, or let’s his ego get out of hand, he gets fired.

“You can’t serve two orchestras.” Zig Ziglar said, “You can get anything you want out of life, if you help enough other people to get what they want.”

As each musician contributes, produces, hones their skills, and improves, the whole orchestra benefits.

Win/Win Cooperation

The different musicians represent your Joint Venture partners. You are the conductor.

If you’re really smart, you will strive to “keep things in the family” and create “overlap” – Feinstein and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is a case in point. Musicians shouldn’t be in competition with each other. The higher their IQ, the more likely people are to understand the value of overlap, loyalty, vested interest, strategy, and philosophy.

The underlying philosophy in the orchestra is the love and understanding of music, and the way an orchestra works. Common goals, and a common philosophy – the real mastermind in action.

Setting High Standards

Finally, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has very high standards, as does DollarMakers.

Choose your Joint Venture partners very carefully, and cut non-producers and game players loose quickly.

Years ago, I was chopping wood for a barbeque. I wore sandals, and stupidly supported the wood with my foot.

Bang!

I chopped right into the tip of my front toe. The only thing that prevented me from cleaving the entire toe in half and limping for the rest of my life was my sandal.

Idiot.

At the emergency room, they injected directly into the quarter-inch wound before sewing it up. Ouch!

I no longer chop in the direction of my feet.

A New Respect Gained

I was preparing for a camping trip to Ponta Do Ouro in Mozambique in the summer of 1972. (Don’t go there now, unless you like the idea of landmines – you might lose more than a toe…) As I packed my VW minibus camper, I carried my snub-nosed .38 Astra Special revolver on a sleeping cushion. As I stepped up into the back door, the loaded gun slipped off the pillow, hit the bus’s floor, and went off.

Since the windows and other doors were closed and a bullet was definitely fired, it can only have passed between me and the inside of the one door – a very small space – a close miss, if ever there was one.

Stupid.

I learned an important lesson and gained a renewed respect for guns.

Limit Risk and Costs

I have met more conmen, shysters, and outright thieves in the past twelve years than I ever thought possible.

And with governments fast going the way of outright socialism and banks and the taxman collaborating to put the squeeze on business owners, we live in an increasingly  dangerous business world. It’s time to grow up and realize that we are at risk, and that we need to limit our risk.

Avoid it All Together

When I tell people to do business with no cost and no risk, I mean it.

I know a fellow with a giant ego and a small IQ who regularly sought to differ with me on this point. I have seen him lose a lot of money, since he doesn’t understand how to avoid risk and cost. If he did, he wouldn’t lose so much money in his harebrained schemes, or work with thieves.

Knowing how business works, and understanding the odds, the risks, and the fact that there are a few dishonest people around, makes it necessary, if one wishes to get rich, to avoid risk and costs.

It’s Easier Than it Seems

1. Use leverage and existing resources instead of paying for new ones. Work strategically and don’t rely on any one source of income.
2. Pay for results, not promises.
3. Be VERY careful whom you associate / do business with. Remember that people can change for the worst – easily and quickly, so be prepared for that.
4. When you smell a rat, RUN. Cut bait. Delete. Immediately.
5. Test people in many ways to make sure they are still loyal and honest. Be a detective.
6. Don’t disclose the identities of your Joint Venture partners.
7. Triangulate deals – don’t sell your own products and services.
8. Align yourself with people who share your philosophy – don’t link up with mystics, socialists, environmentalists, or reverse racists.
9. Don’t trust government or work with government or their agents.
10. Operate with no overhead – lean and mean. Expect the best and prepare for the worst. Spread your income and diversify.

Joint Ventures allow one to operate as above, and the older and wiser I get, the more I appreciate the power and sophistication offered by the Joint Venture systems I use.

If you’re carrying a gun, make sure it’s not pointed at you.

The PBS television show I watched described how a couple in New York City closed their coffee shop because of the recession.

In some cases, closing down a business that is running at a loss is the right thing, however in many cases, a business can be saved instead of being closed down, especially if there are leases and penalties and further losses to be incurred by the closure.

There is a little-known way to redeem a business and move it back into profitability.

How can one turn a business around without incurring additional costs and risk?

Turning It Around with Joint Ventures

We’re talking about a blood transfusion here, not a brain transplant. But then it does take a different way of thinking to rectify this frightening situation.

“You’ve gotta know when you hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and know when to run” is right.

But it’s good to know that most entrepreneurs are unaware of the most valuable, lucrative option available to them – Joint Ventures. Thousands of businesses could be saved with Joint Ventures.

Leverage Your HIDDEN Assets

Instead of focusing on what is drowning us, like insufficient sales and customers, high overhead, bank loans, and so on, let’s focus on what we DO have:

• hidden assets,
• resources,
• relationships,
• credibility,
• access,
• a database,
• inventory,
• location,
• a brain and a work ethic – these are qualities that are seldom found…

we have far more than we don’t have. We might be rowing our boat along with breaking back and blistered and bleeding hands, while we have access to a seventy horsepower outboard motor we’re not even aware of…

Create 100% Profit Without Cost or Risk

Business is not about selling more cups of overpriced coffee and muffins. It’s not about getting more customers. It’s not about increasing sales and cutting costs or feeling important – it’s about NET PROFIT.That is the true purpose of business: To make the maximum after-tax profit, as fast as possible, with the least cost, risk, time, effort, and frustration.

Joint Ventures allow one to leverage existing resources, access and leverage the resources of others, and create multiple additional income sources – fast – all at 100% profit, with no cost or risk, and little time.

Discover Your Existing Resources

How can the coffee shop owner leverage existing resources? He starts thinking about what OTHER people want – his customers, people who are not his customers, his vendors, his competition, the public, tourists… Then he starts solving problems – linking supply and demand, like a broker or middleman, and getting paid an ongoing commission on all the resulting sales. Zig Ziglar said,

“You can get anything you want out of life, if you’re prepared to help enough other people to get what they want.”

Enter Joint Ventures.

Create Income and Increase Value

The coffee shop owner can Joint Venture with the hair salon who is also in the financial doldrums. When a customer indicates an interest in buying jewelry, real estate, or finding a cab, Ka-ching! When his vendors need help with their problems, when someone is looking for a good printer or needs renovation services – all of these are income opportunities.

The coffee shop owner can use Gift Certificates to create income and increase value, work with tour guides and dentists, and set himself up as a go-to guy that gets stuff done.

He is literally surrounded by lucrative Joint Venture opportunities, and he’s right in the middle of New York City. He has the gold mine, and I have the shovel.

Reality Check on Small Business Joint Ventures

In fact, someone who really understands Joint Ventures would never open a coffee shop to begin with. But that’s why most of the owners of small and medium-sized businesses operate at about ten percent of their potential profit, and why they work too hard, too long, and risk too much, for far too little.

For more information on the power of Joint Ventures visit us at www.jvwidom.com, – we have solutions.

Hard Workers

Some people work hard pumping water in the hot sun, filling buckets with it, and carrying it to another location, where they sell it to their customers.

They work too hard, they sell their time, they have very limited potential, and they are terrified of their competition. They are, essentially, controlled by their customers.

These are: the self-employed, broke salespeople / laborers who call themselves entrepreneurs.

Real Entrepreneurs

Few people have guts to tell it the way it is. Robert Kiyosaki, in this incredible video, says things like,

“Four things make 90% of the people poor: taxes, inflation, debt, retirement plans.”

And then he provides solutions. He says,

“America will become a third world nation – rich and poor. That’s it. Tell me something money does not affect. Most guys are just wimps. Pussies. Cowards. They don’t have it. so they should get a job. It takes discipline. Most people would like to have a great body like Charles Atlas, but they’re at Burger King wolfing down a Whopper with fries. I don’t know how you can expect to get anything you want without some degree of long-term commitment. Quitting is the easiest thing to do. That’s why most people don’t make it. Everybody has doubts and fear of failing. But look at Tiger Woods or any great athlete: when the going gets tough, that’s when they turn into geniuses and most people turn into wimps. Get off your butt. If you want to be a mechanic, you go hang out with mechanics. If you want to get rich, hang out with rich people.”

3 Things You Need to Succeess

When it comes down to it, you need three things to succeed in business:

Too many people have jumped aboard the Mediocrity Train and caught the viral Excusiologist Flu that came sweeping in with the recession.

Everything gets blamed on the recession, from halitosis and hiccups to oversleeping and body odor. People make excuses for lethargy, low sales, their dogs’ fleas, and failing to stop at traffic lights.

ENOUGH!

Contrary to what the media is feeding you, not everyone is suffering during this recession. And YOU don’t have to, either.

Is it “Nature or Nurture”? Michael Shermer, talking about his excellent book, “The Mind of the Market”, said,

“Since I was a teenager, I’ve been a libertarian. I noticed that there are not so many of us and that most people find us a bit strange. Most people have a hard time with the idea of so much freedom in the market place. Now, why is that? When I started applying evolutionary thinking to the process, thinking about folk intuitive notions of things and why people get so many areas of science wrong intuitively, it began to make sense to me. With folk astronomy we have an intuitive notion that the world is flat, celestial bodies revolve around the earth. That’s the way it feels. The planets are wondering gods that determine our future.”

We all know that due diligence only goes so far, yet we still need to do the best we can to avoid hooking up with the wrong people.