As a small business owner or business development executive there are several things to remember to do when establishing new joint venture marketing business partnerships. The following is a list of critical items to be conscious of when building business partnerships that will make sure your business finds the right partners and mutually beneficial business deals that maximize the opportunities and results in growing your company. All business partnerships have their positive and negatives, however as a business executive it is critical that you understand the risks and areas to focus on to reduce small problems from turning into deal killers.

Top 5 To Do’s When Building Business Partnerships

1. Research - It is nearly impossible to build successful business partnership without doing a considerable amount of market research and analyzing the business of potential partners. Failing to adequately understand a prospective partner can only lead to future problems. This could be something as straightforward as not having access to the right client base or simply being a mismatch culturally. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to spend the time and resources to research the opportunity fully.

2. Examine Customer Base - Before finalizing a partnership that promises to give your brand or products access to new customers, request customer demographic data and information on a couple of their key customers that can be cross referenced.

3. Meet in Person – In-person meetings with the executive management of the potential business partner is always better. While most communication can occur in the traditional forms of email and phone calls, it is best to ask for an in-person meeting very early on in the process when determining whether a business is a good candidate for a partnership.

4. Develop Performance Based Incentives - Depending on the nature of the business partnership that you’re creating, compensation can come in many different forms. Packages that include revenue shares and/or bonuses will ultimately reap more rewards compared to partnerships that do not include performance based incentives for growing the partnership. Be sure to include methods for compensating specific team members as some will be capable of selling more than their peers. You may also want to offer bonus incentives to the sales team as a whole for their combined efforts.

5. Hire Experts to Eliminate Errors - Small business owners need support in executing successful partnerships and maintaining focus on existing customers and product development. Enlisting outside support will ensure the partnership is built properly. Hire a lawyer that can provide a partnership template that can be used for drafting the agreement between the two companies. Using a template will reduce legal fees when forming future partnerships simply by having a lawyer finalize and sign off on any adjustments to the template with each new partner.

You may also want to find a business consultant that specializes in joint venture marketing partnerships. These consultants will save you valuable time by identifying new partners and making first contact. Hire the right consultant and you can get your foot in the door with your dream business partners and have their expertise at your disposal required to draft a partnership agreement that will ensure a profitable business relationship.

Keep these ideas in mind the next time you are in charge of building a business partnership and you will be much more likely to align with the right partner, in a mutually beneficial relationship that can be put together in a relatively quick time frame.