Partnering and networking with other companies is critical if you want to increase your profits. Many online marketers regularly practice JV partnerships. However, many people don’t use them effectively for local business. Here are two ways to do it:

1) Cross promotion

If somebody buys a product from you, offer them a discount at a related business. The other company would then do the same for you.

That way, you could each capitalize off each other’s business, and get new customers. This is a perfect example of a JV partnership that benefits both businesses involved.

You probably don’t want to do this with a direct competitor. However, if there is a complementary business to yours, this is a great way to boost both companies’ profits.

For instance, if you are selling skis, you might offer your customer a discount at a site that sells ski trips. They would do the same for their customers. This way, both businesses can potentially benefit from the same customer, and possibly have a client for life.

2) Up sell

“The money is in the backend.” Just about every great marketer makes most of their money after the first sale. It’s much more difficult to continually find new customers than keep selling to somebody who’s already bought from you.

So after you sell something, you can offer the customer a more expensive product from another company. You would then get a chunk of that sale.

This is known as “affiliate marketing” in the online world, and it’s one of the best forms of backend marketing. This way, you don’t have to continually come up with new products yourself, you can just take advantage of what other companies are selling.

So how do you find joint venture partners?

One of the best strategies is to either go to local seminars, or join a networking group in the area.

The bottom line is, don’t believe those who say that you shouldn’t work with other companies. Many believe it will hurt their business if they refer customers to other companies.

This isn’t the case.

Not only will you boost your profits, and your customers will come to trust you more if you recommend them to other great products. Just make sure you really believe in whatever product you refer them to. If you recommend them a product that won’t help them and just increase your profits, they will stop trusting you.

The bottom line is, your customers are not going to do business exclusively with you. Therefore, you might as well take advantage of their other purchases. If you aren’t using JV partnerships you are missing out on profits.