If you haven't started your own niche business yet because you haven't got a product, here's a business where you don't need one - Joint Venture Brokerage.

As a Joint Venture Broker you don't need your own product, customers or a mailing list... All you need to do is learn how to locate complimentary businesses, introduce them to each other and negotiate a deal with them. For doing this you get a percentage of the sales.

How It Works

If you're not familiar with this niche business, let me give you a couple of examples to illustrate how it works:

Example One :

1. A has a product which he wants to get to the market but no list to mail to.

2. B has a list which targets just the right market for A's product

3. The Joint Venture Broker introduces A to B and sets up a deal for B to promote A's product to his/her list.

4. A and B both share the profits from sales of the product.

5. The Joint Venture Broker takes a percentage of the sales for setting up the deal.

1. A and B have successfull products which compliment, but don't compete with, each other e.g. Poodle Clipping and Poodle Training.

2. Both A and B want to expand their businesses but don't want spend anything on new products.

3. The Joint Venture Broker introduces A to B and sets up a deal for A to promote B's product to his/her list and B to promote A's product to his/her list.

4. A and B share the profits from sales of each others' products to their respective lists.

5. The Joint Venture Broker takes a percentage of the sales from each for setting up the deal.

The great thing about brokering Joint Ventures is they don't have to be limited to just two parties. As a Joint Venture Broker you could set up deals which encompass multiple businesses and multiple products with each paying you a percentage.

Ideal Brokerage Opportunies

The ideal brokerage opportunities involve linking together business owners who haven't realized the profit potential that exists between their respective companies, and who possess little to no knowledge on the true benefits of joint venture arrangements.

As a JV Broker in this situation you come in as an educator, mediator and facilitator between the two or more parties involved.

Depending on the resources available to each business, you could also make some extra profits by performing additional work necessary to the venture. For example, assisting with web page design, copywriting and so forth. Bringing these skills to the project can add an extra measure of security to your role as the middleman.

Getting Paid

You get paid for your time and expertise in hammering out the details of the venture and helping to make it work. For this you take a percentage of the sales so you need to make certain that you know when and how you will get paid.

Although most business people are ethical, there's always an outside chance that the businesses you bring together could try to cut you out of the deal once they realize what they're sitting on. It is therefore in your own best interests to ensure that all the details of the deal are laid out in a formal legal agreement.

The sort of thing your agreement should include is the respective contributions and expectations of each party involved in the deal, the respective duties and obligations of each in running the enterprise and how and when each of you are to be paid. In other words dot all the i's and cross all the t's of the deal.

(You can find Joint Venture Agreement Legal Forms at www.ilrg.com/forms/jointventure.html and numerous other places online, but I would strongly suggest you seek professional legal advice on your early deals).

Joint Venture Brokering is a highly versatile business which can be run on a part or full time basis and produce significant profits for those who take the time to learn the necessary skills and apply them.

Copyright 2005, Andr Anthony Niche Market Know-How