When you head into any type of joint venture partnership, a written contract is a must. This document will protect your interests and the interests of your partner for as long as the partnership is in effect.

Some business owners are intimidated by the prospect of designing a joint venture contract, especially if they have never had experience with legal documents before. While you can hire an attorney for this purpose, you can also easily design your own agreement by keeping these key components in mind.

Purpose

The first component to put into your JV contract is the purpose of the joint venture. You and your partners should head into this agreement with similar goals in mind, and these should be clearly spelled out in your contract. The method by which you will achieve these goals should also be carefully outlined, ensuring all parties head into the agreement with full knowledge of what their responsibilities will be.

Benefits

Most JV partnerships are formed because each entity hopes to benefit from the agreement in some way. For newer businesses, this often means obtaining email lists and link traffic from a larger, more established company. Bigger companies usually enter into a JV partnership because they can reap commissions on the sales their partners make. No matter what your benefits will be, list them fully in the contract so no one is disappointed by the outcome of the agreement and no disputes arise after the fact.

Strategy

This is the process that will be utilized by both companies to achieve their goals. It will provide the brass tacks of the marketing concept that will be used to promote all the businesses involved. It may also involve the specific responsibilities each company will have to ensure the final outcome takes place. Since unrealized expectations can be the source of many lawsuits, make sure your expectations of one another are realistic by outlining them precisely in your contract.

Time Frame

Many JV partnerships are set for a specific amount of time and come complete with a due date when the partnership will terminate. Even if you want your partnership to be more open-ended, it is a good idea to agree on a date when you will revisit the agreement to ensure it’s still working for the benefits of all involved.

By providing a specific timeline for your JV partnership, you give all partners the chance to bow out of the agreement if it is not sufficiently beneficial. If the partnership is going well and you want more time, you can renegotiate your time frame when the initial deadline arrives.

JV partnerships are legally binding ventures, and the right contract will make all the difference in protecting your interests and offering an out if the agreement does not work. Whether you choose to hire an attorney to draft an agreement for you or use a template you find on the Internet to draw up your own, the contract is the key ingredient to a successful joint venture.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

To some degree everyone tends to get that feeling of dread when handed a huge contract to crawl through. Some of us suck it up and read it all, others scan and often the majority have grown so weary that they’ll just sign and agree straight up. When you sign that contract thought, do you ever take aminute to think about it from the business perspective?

Trust me I understand that it’s not the most glamorous subject in the world but that’s also why it’s so important. Not everybody is talking about it, apart from maybe lawyers but they are in it for the commission. When you are acting as the consumer it’s all too easy to dismiss the contract, however once you step into the world of the business owner it becomes unavoidable (or at least it should do).

One of the very first things you should be doing with any project you decide to undertake is, create a contract so that all the parties involved have an understanding of the agreement. Here are just a few examples of the times you will almost definitely need a contract on the web or otherwise:

• Freelance Projects – When taking on a freelance project the specifics will obviously fall back to whichever area you work in.
• Joint Ventures – In this case I’m discussing the kind where you work in co-ordination with another party to create a product or provide a service etc.
• Affiliate Relations – Whilst promoting other peoples products you will have almost definitely come across “affiliate agreements” so when it comes to paying affiliates the situation is no different.
• Selling Products – You will obviously have the initial exchanging of money but you will also need to think about things like return policies. The kind of contract you’ll require on subscriptions and recurring payments is likely to be even more in depth.

Now don’t get me wrong, that was by no means an exhaustive list but you will find that all of these different situations require a contract of some sort. While for many of these a contract is best left to the professional, if you can’t do that you definitely shouldn’t skip this step. At the very least you will want to create a basic contract touching on things like the scope, payment terms, deadlines and responsibilities for all parties involved.

Contracts can save you hours of unnecessary work, unhappy customers, failed business ventures and even protect from you in the case of a lawsuit. With a bit of luck once the contract is signed and out of the way you won’t need to refer to it. However when the sh!t hits the fan (WTSHTF) it’ll be your ass that’s covered.