Create a Mastermind- Create Overlap.
Many of us have read, at least part of, Think and Grow Rich. Napolean Hill taught us how to set up a mastermind with other smart successful business people to brainstorm with and create strategy for our businesses. There is a famous story about a certain Mr. Firestone and a Mr. Ford (among others) who were in a mastermind together. Some of the creative ideas that made the Ford Motor Company the Microsoft of it's day came out of this mastermind.
I'm not talking about a $500 per month membership with people that you don't know. And I'm not referring to an on-line group of anonomous "experts". Your mastermind should be a group of people that you respect, trust, and best of all, are more succesful than you in some areas. Read Think and Grow Rich to make sure you structure your mastermind correctly.
Okay, that was the set-up. Now, let's talk about overlap. The real strength of a mastermind is having a number of businesses having a vested interest in your business. Vested interest in my world means they are sending you business or in some way, adding to your bottom line. You, in turn, are also reciprocating with that business by adding value. This is all tracked and value is paid for in some way. Imagine, if in these economic times, you had 10 businesses with a real legitimate vested interest in the success of your business! How much more secure would all of your businesses be?
This could include sharing advertising costs, piggy-backing in your marketing by sharing tradeshow booths, hard-copy newsletters, etc. It could be promoting your businesses to each other's databases, by offering added value, free offerings, etc. This just makes sense! We call this overlap. I AM LOOKING TO BUILD OVERLAP WITH SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES WHO GET THIS.
This is how I currently do business. When I find a reliable, honest, hardworking business person who understands this, I look to build as much overlap between our businesses as possible. This owner essentially becomes a partner in my success, and I in his. I find it interesting. I approach people on Facebook, for example, (and after checking out their business in their profile and thinking it might be a business I want to send business to) and I say something along the lines of "I checked out your website and I think your business and mine may have a fit. Check out my website and let's talk."
A lot of people never contact me back because they think I am another smooth talking, bait-and-switch salesperson, trying to sell them my product. That really isn't what that is about. As altruistic and naive as it may sound, I really am looking for businesses that I can add value to. Do I want to profit from that at some point? Absolutely! I am a capitalist, after all; but I only get paid for adding value. I expect to get paid for results, not promises!
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Go forth and Joint Venture!
Patrick Giesbrecht
Joint Venture Broker
