As an immigrant myself, I understand the hopes, fears, dreams and unique problems faced by immigrants, no matter where they are in the world. Immigrants often face challenges that only other immigrants can understand. Often their qualifications are not accepted or they have no local experience, so they accept whatever they can get. Having worked with hundreds of immigrants, I know how hard it is to start all over again.

Common Barriers to Success for Immigrants

• Immigrants don’t always understand the culture in their new home.
• They might be afraid of risking their savings.
• They often don’t realize just how different things are in this new world.
• They sometimes face racism, xenophobia and people who take advantage of their vulnerability.
• They want to be accepted and blend in to their new environment, but it can be very strange and difficult.
• Money problems can lead to loss of self respect, shame, relationship problems and withdrawal.
• I know of a number of immigrants who ended up divorced from their spouses, their dreams crushed.
• Others lost their savings and will have to work until they die.

– UNLESS THEY FIND AN ALTERNATIVE.

Joint Ventures is the Alternative You’ve Been Waiting For!

The good news is that any immigrant, in any country, can use Joint Ventures to create an income fast, with no money or risk, no database, no business experience and no connections or support system. Just like I did. You don’t need money, reputation or inventory. As long as someone else has it, you can access and leverage it, if you know how.

My Story

When I got to Canada, the condominium agent didn’t want to rent me an apartment because I was new in the country with no track record or credit record here! Talk about starting over. I got a friend of mine, the head of the US Peace Corps for Southern Africa, to send them a testimonial. That worked. Ridiculous, but that’s what many immigrants face. You can’t get a job, because you don’t have “Canadian experience”. Chicken and egg. But I didn’t want a job – I didn’t need one!

Free Yourself

You don’t need to accept a minimum wage job or drive a cab or kowtow to some idiot boss. You can create multiple streams of income and financial independence using Joint Ventures. Don’t buy a business. Don’t get a job. Get smart. Use Joint Ventures.

What Brokers Do and You Can Do Too

Joint Venture Brokers leverage other peoples’ money, credit, reputation, resources and access. The money they earn is 100% profit. And they get all the tax breaks that any other business gets. They don’t sell time, they take no risks and they carry no overhead. They can live in a cardboard box and use a pay phone. They don’t have to sell anything. All they do is link people up with businesses supplying the products or services they want and need, and get well paid for it – win/win/win. They have a JV mindset and build bridges between supply and demand.

Anyone can do this. Immigrants have the courage to leave their comfort zone, home and friends, security and support system. They are courageous. They richly deserve the rewarding world of Joint Ventures.

This short article is intended to impart and share a Joint Venture Mindset that can liberate us from restrictive assumptions and perceptions.

Chances are You’ve Been Hoodwinked!

Entrepreneurs have received many messages in the past that have had the cumulative effect of hoodwinking us. We have put blinders on by accepting certain “Solutions” from the Gurus.

The purpose of an Entrepreneur is to make after tax profit. We use business as the vehicle. But we heard that we need to be “focused” and that we need an “Elevator Speech” and similar concepts that can effectively lock us out of tremendous wealth opportunities.

Just Connect Problem to Solution

When I visit my doctor, does he immediately suggest a special on hip replacements or hair implants? Does he urge me to consider a heart transplant, perhaps, (early bird special) without even examining me? No. He looks for problems and then suggests solutions, and I buy every single time. Does my doctor need to specialize in orthotics to prescribe orthopaedic footwear? No. He refers me to someone who does that. He doesn’t need to be an anaesthetist or a surgeon in order to offer me that service. He examines me, asks me questions, LISTENS, and offers solutions. He doesn’t talk about himself.

Why Networking Meetings Don’t Work

Go to any “Business Networking Meeting” and you’ll find dozens of wanna-be entrepreneurs, usually self employed salespeople, who thrust their business cards at you, talk at you, pitch you, and then leap up to enthusiastically deliver the pre-digested, pre-packaged, boring “elevator speech” that they paid someone who lost their job and now calls themselves a “coach” to create.

Everyone is there to sell, sell, sell.

And while they’re giving their elevator speech, what are the rest of the people at their table doing? They listen long enough to decide whether or not the speaker will buy their product or service and then promptly lose interest. They’re waiting to give THEIR speech. You know this is true. Just look at the audience – they’re bored stiff. Everyone is there to sell, sell, sell.

Perhaps it’s time to reconsider things.

When you go back to your office, you send e mails to all the people you met at the “Networking Meeting”, saying how nice it was to meet them. Most of them don’t even return the e mails. And so it goes. Everyone is out to sell, everyone is only really interested in themselves, and nobody gives a damn about you or your amazing business, flashy brochures or scintillating elevator speech. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider things.

See, it’s not about you at all.

Nobody cares about your packaging, website, qualifications or incredible accomplishments. Most people whom I meet that insist on telling me about all the things they have accomplished, are simply HAS BEEN’S. I don’t care hat you did in the past. I want to know what you will do in the future, because that’s where we’re going to live! People don’t care about your qualifications – they want to know one simple thing: “What can you do for ME?”

How about this elevator speech?

“My name is Robin Elliott. My job is to help you achieve your business goals with no money and no risk. I would like to find ways to apply my rather extensive resources, contacts, skills and connections to your business challenges and help you to achieve your goals – at no charge. To see if you qualify for this service, call me.”

The Right JV Mindset:

I’m like a plumber coming to fix your problems at your home. You don’t care about my background or how many kids I had. You just want your problems solved.

My contacts and Joint Venture Partners are my Tools.

I walk in to a meeting with a toolbox full of really great, professional, honest, competent, experienced and trusted business associates and all their products and services. I don’t care which tools I use – I will always get paid for my services. I don’t have to have a business or products or services of my own in order to solve your business problems because I understand business. I have been doing this for 19 years. I look for the problems, discuss the solutions and introduce you to the person who will apply those solutions to your business. And I will get paid by the people whom I refer to you, while I’m at home with my wife and everyone else is working hard, creating multiple, diverse, passive income streams for me.

Joint Ventures:

• If you know John needs what Paul is offering, you introduce them and get paid. You’re a middleman, a tollbooth, a facilitator. You connect the right people.
• And when a few people have a common goal and wish to share their skills, resources and abilities, you can help them form a syndicate or a team.
• If someone has excess resources, underutilized inventory or assets, you can show them how to optimize their resources through Joint Ventures.
• You can facilitate the sharing of sales staff, employees, distribution, advertising space, retail space, warehousing, transport, skills, reputation, access and databases. And get paid for the value that you create.

Most of the Joint Venture stuff out there is related to internet marketing and affiliate programs. But most businesses are more interested in real time, real money, real people and touch-and-feel business. The internet is great and we all use it, but there needs to be balance.

The KEY

The key to successful Joint Ventures is to find the RIGHT PEOPLE. In fact, if there were twenty good people in a room, and all we did was mastermind, brainstorm and create Joint Ventures for five days without leaving that room, we would all double our wealth.

It’s hard to find good people who will honor their commitments, do what they say, deliver the goods and take responsibility. It’s not easy to find honest people who will pay you and reciprocate.

That why I started the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum.  www.jvwisdom.com

One of the most important aspects of the Joint Venture Mindset is that we don’t need to, and in fact shouldn’t, “Sell” a Joint Venture proposal.

Avoid this Poor Play

Last night I attended a “Networking” meeting where the Membership Services Manager walked up and asked me outright why I didn’t join their Chamber of Commerce. She showed no interest in me, my business, my problems or my interests. She was simply out to hard sell everybody she could.

When I indicated that I needed to see how joining that Chamber would benefit my particular business, she proceeded to reel off the “benefits” of joining. She is not someone to approach for a Joint Venture. She is egotistical, arrogant and stupid.

Make the Smart Move

If this “Manager” was intelligent, she would have listened carefully to me and asked herself a few simple questions:

• How many people could Robin introduce to this Chamber?
• How many people does he influence and who are those people?
• What is his ‘Hot Button’? What does he really, really want?
• How can this Chamber bring him massive, unprecedented value?
• How can I best present this option to him, in a win/win scenario?

If she had listened carefully, she would have learnt that I have many DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum Members and that many of them might consider joining her Chamber, and that many of her 1,400 Members could join the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum and attend our Bootcamps, which could make her a substantial amount of money (a lot more than she earns at the Chamber). She would have found out that I can put her in front of a lot of prospective Chamber members via my talks, e-zines and seminars.

When to Walk Away

When someone doesn’t understand the value you offer them, walk away. If you have to sell it, the value is not perceived. Either you have to:

1. Describe it better,
2. Listen better or
3. Realize there is no match and walk away.

But you shouldn’t try to persuade someone to Joint Venture with you.

They should eagerly accept your no cost, no risk offer – that will mean they’re committed and serious. If both Joint Venture parties are excited, enthusiastic and passionate about the Joint Venture, it will probably work very well.

The Joint Venture Mindset

You have to kiss a few frogs to find a prince, you know. But you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. Some people will never understand the Joint Venture mindset – get used to it, don’t take it personally, and remember what smart salespeople say:

“Some will, some won’t, so what? NEXT!”

Rats!

Years ago, a pilot was attempting a world record long distance flight. He was nearing the end of his journey and was two hours away from the next airport and his final target, when he heard a frightening sound. He heard the distinct sound of a rat gnawing at something. The adventurer knew that this could spell disaster; the rat could chew through his control lines or the fuel line, and cause him to crash into the mountains below!

At first he started panicking, but then he started thinking about a solution. At last it came to him: rats can’t handle high altitudes! Don’t ask me how he knew that, but his knowledge solved his problem. He started climbing higher and higher, until the gnawing sound ceased. The rat had died from the high altitude. When he landed his plane, he found the dead rat.

Three lessons:

1. You can panic or you can think. There is a solution for every problem.
2. Knowledge without action is useless. Had the pilot not flown higher, knowing about the solution wouldn’t have helped one iota.
3. Bad things don’t last in the high altitude of high ideals, lofty goals and soaring aspirations. Rat ideas die where eagles soar.

What’s Rubbing Off on You?

Evidently a Jerry Seinfeld TV comedy show recently featured a scenario where the valet who parked Jerry’s car had very bad body odor. When Jerry and his friend got into the car, the BO stuck to their clothes and resulted in her boyfriend rejecting her because she smelt bad! When we mix with negative, pessimistic people, their attitudes tend to stick to us like BO and sabotage our success. But when we mix with positive, enthusiastic people, that motivation rubs off on us as well and we achieve our goals even faster.

Your thoughts determine your attitude, your actions and the result you experience. Manage your thoughts and your input and soar with the Eagles!

I heard a story on the radio recently about two interesting men. One was the king and was extremely obese. He ate continually and was so fat that he couldn’t even get through a door. He was deposed by the second man, who had a room built around the former king, with normal windows and a door that wasn’t locked. He told the large man that he could leave anytime he wished, but at the same time he supplied him with four huge meals every day. Of course, the fatty couldn’t resist the food, so he never escaped his own prison.

Is Your Captivation Enriching or Depleting You?

In our world today of “Sugar and Spice and Everything Thrice”, self-discipline and frugality are seldom found. We complicate our lives, create prisons of debt and illness and miss out on the finer things of life. My wife Rika, and I were walking along the beach at Indian Arm on a lovely summer day when we saw some kids lying on a huge blanket, playing with their hand-held Game Boy computer games. They could have been talking, swimming, boating, fishing, playing ball or just enjoying nature’s incredible beauty. The Game Boys captivated them.

Set Yourself Free

My prison guard could be television, food, drugs… but it is my own choice to be in jail.

• Simplify, cut back and get back to basics, lean and mean, sober and clean. Anything that you think you NEED, controls you and imprisons you.
• Set yourself free.
• Use your resources to create a happy, healthy and contributing lifestyle.
• Take stock of your choices and project the consequences. Enough small choices lead to great consequences. Enough spider webs can be as strong as steel cables.
• We always have a choice, and it’s never too late to change.

Try This:

Set a goal to get up 20 minutes earlier every day and exercise, read a self development book, pray, meditate, or just take a brisk walk. In a few weeks you will see a difference. Create success habits.

Norman Lear said,

“Life is made up of small pleasures. Happiness is made up of those tiny successes. The big ones come too infrequently. And if you don’t collect all these tiny successes, the big ones don’t really mean anything.”

One of my wise mentors told me about the time he needed the advice and assistance of a well-known business expert. This expert charged very high fees and produced amazing results.

He was well known and very busy. My mentor was convinced that he could never afford the fees required, however he is a highly motivated and courageous entrepreneur, so he approached the business expert with the following proposal, which I think may be of value to you, should you wish to use it.

“I can’t afford your consulting fee, but I have a way to pay you even more. I have a solid business and, in return for your consulting, connection to your contacts and training of my salespeople and employees, I will happily pay you a generous percentage of my increased profits. I will pay you every single week, and my books will be open to you. You can spend as much or as little time as you like working on my business, as I am paying only for results. It is easy to track sales and results in my business so you are not at risk. Yes or no?”

Well, the business expert took a good look at the business, made a few adjustments to the tracking process and then accepted my mentor’s proposal. Sales skyrocketed and both my mentor and the expert made serious money. Eventually, the business expert accepted shares in the business.

Remember: Everything is for sale.

Everyone has his or her price. Everything is negotiable. It’s not always about money. The best words to use are, “What will it take?” And, it’s easier than you think. If you don’t ask, you won’t get. I once heard of a man who owned a car dealership, who gave a business guru a car in return for his services!

When next you tell yourself that you can’t afford something, think again. There is always a way when you think out of the box. We don’t have money problems; we have thinking problems.

We’ve come along way since the “hard sell” and the manipulative closing techniques and tricks that used to work so well, so long ago.  Salespeople face a far more sophisticated, self-centered market today. New markets and new challenges require a new approach.  Things that used to work, don’t work anymore. Adjust or die.  The new business environment demands a mindset that is a step ahead of the competition.

Used to be…

We’d “pitch” the prospect and then close hard and keep on closing, ignore objections, force our products and services down their throats and trumpet loudly as we swaggered back to the office clutching a check.  Never more, Miranda; never more.  Try that approach these days and you’ll end up driving a truck and showing off the watch you won for “Best Salesman in 1979”.  Join the has-beens.  No.  Times have changed.

The Correct New Approach

The good news is that it’s really not hard to do.  The correct new approach not only increases closing ratios and retains customers, it cuts attrition and leads to massive increases in referrals.  The solution is Joint Ventures.  By creating unprecedented added value and talking only with people who are ready, even eager to talk with you because of the Joint Venture platform you’ve created, closing ratios can skyrocket. Strategists work ON their business, while tacticians work reactively IN their businesses.  Think more, work less, close more.  Be VERY selective.

Partnering up with the right people creates a funnel that attracts, qualifies and sells automatically. Credibility, trust, value and access can be created fast and effectively through Joint Ventures.  Sales are the logical and inevitable result.

Years ago, I was a Hotel School trainee hotel manager in a high end resort hotel in South Africa. I was working as a chef in the kitchen when the owners imported a chef from Germany. Klaus became a good friend, and we worked at many hotels together. Later, when I was a Food and Beverage Manager with Holiday Inns, I hired him as an Executive Chef. Klaus immigrated to Australia years ago.

He was all about quality.

One day Klaus found out that I played squash, so he asked me to teach him. We popped down to the local sports store in the town fifteen miles away, and I will always remember the way Klaus purchased his equipment. “What equipment do I need?” he asked the store clerk.

“Give me the best and most expensive of every item, the best shoes, socks, racket, balls… only the best. If you don’t have it order it, Get it. Get is soon.”

I was surprised, and asked him how he justified this large purchase, given that he was a new player and might not even enjoy the game, or be any good at it. I’ll never forget his response.

Words of a Winner

“Robin, I am the best chef, and I will be the best squash player. I use only the best equipment in the kitchen, I use the best ingredients, as you very well know, I produce the finest quality, and I got the best training. I am the best. In everything I do, I go for the gold – the best. Why would I buy anything less than the best? I go all the way. I go big. I don’t compromise. Ich bin nicht ein Affe (I’m not a monkey.) Let’s be the best squash players!” Klaus always went all the way, he never compromised, and he insisted on the best. He reminded me of the hero in The Fountainhead. I learned a lot from Klaus, and I will visit him in Australia. If you’re reading this, Klaus, “Yeah, Mazamba!”

Don’t tentatively test the water with your toe – throw yourself into the deep end. Believe in yourself. Go for the gold. Push the envelope. Be the best. Go big. Set and maintain your own high standards, fly in the face of convention, and you will have little competition.