We’ve all heard the adage that 1 + 1 = 3.
Nowhere is that more true than when two complementary entrepreneurs come together to create something bigger than what each could do individually.
In addition to that beautiful feeling of somebody holding the torch with you on a new project, the right partnership can help you: get known, grow your list, make a bigger difference, uplevel your visibility, expand your expertise, all while having fun and making great money!
If that sounds good to you, you might want to consider putting into place one or more of my three favorite partnership strategies:
1. Affiliates
Affiliates are colleagues who function kind of like your commission sales team. So if you have a launch coming up, a teleclass, book, telesummit, or event, your affiliates promote you to their list communities and get a commission of each sale they make, which is usually tracked by affiliate links.
These arrangements are great for each party:
If you’re the launcher, you make more sales, of course, but you also get more known and uplevel your visibility when affiliates present you as an expert to their lists. It’s a chance to help people you may not have reached otherwise.
If you’re the affiliate, in addition to the obvious cash commission, affiliate relationships are sometimes reciprocal, so the person you promote today might help promote your next launch. Also, by exposing your list to the launcher’s expertise, you’re adding value to or rounding out what you offer.
2. Guest promotions
This is where you’re interviewing someone or being interviewed during a telesummit, other virtual event, or even privately to the interviewer’s list.
If you’re the guest and you’re taking the opt-ins, you can grow your list and make sales. In addition, you’re getting known where you weren’t known before, and there’s a transfer of credibility to you from the host. The recording of your interview can also be a great source of content to use later, if your interviewer agrees.
As the interviewer, you get to offer something of value to your campus while making an affiliate commission and, with a telesummit, establishing yourself as a leader in your industry.
3. Joint Venture Partners
This is when entrepreneurs with complementary strengths put their heads together to create and launch a project. My early products Get Started Speaking and Simply Irresistible were created with joint venture partners.
For both partners this arrangement offers the greatest potential rewards—all of the benefits listed above—as well as the greatest risks. You have to make sure that you choose your partner wisely, because the transfer of credibility can work for or against you. You also have to work out the money sharing fairly, as well as talk through how the new, shared intellectual property can be used by each of you.
For example, my Get Started Speaking and Simply Irresistible ventures worked out beautifully, but there’s a course I led with a partner long ago that you’ll never get to experience the value of, because I didn’t know at the time the importance of talking in advance about what would happen to the baby after it was born. So after my JV partner and I taught an amazing course together, I was never able to package and sell it, because that partner wouldn’t agree to it. Ouch.
The truth is, with all three models, discussing your expectations upfront is critical. If you do that, and keep your eyes open, however, partnership can be a powerful path for expanding your reach and your bank account while having tons of fun.
In fact, here’s an opportunity if you’re ready to jump into this income stream. You can become an affiliate of ours. Click here to get your feet wet.