We need to know what's going on in our businesses if we intend to follow Michael Gerber's famous advice and "work ON our businesses, instead of IN our businesses". The biggest enemy of objective analysis is EGO. We want to be right, we don't want to admit to our fears, mistakes and failures, and we want to look good. Gary Player said, "Sales is Ego; Profit is Reality." He's right. Successful entrepreneurs forget about popularity, being politically correct or their own egos. They are self confident and strong and they measure the bottom line. Successful Joint Venture Brokers are objective, proactive and fast moving.

Joint Ventures are the most effective business tool available. They allow us to build massive profits, overnight, with no money or risk and very little time, by leveraging existing resources. After 18 years of Joint Venture experience, I have come up with a few questions we should ask ourselves and standards by which we should measure whether or not to accept or institute or continue with a Joint Venture.

1. Is this the best use of my time and resources, or do I have a better alternative? (If another alternative is better, cut bait.)
2. Am I spending my own time, money and resources, or am I using other peoples' time, money and resources? (We should use other peoples' resources.
3. Am I acting as a salesperson / hired gun? (If so, walk away immediately.)
4. Is this deal as good as I thought it would be? Is the other party doing what he or she said they would? Am I still comfortable with this, or should I drop it?
5. Is this win/win and does every party benefit, or is someone being taken advantage of?
6. Are my partners ethical, honest and professional?
7. How can I add a back end, further leverage this situation, increase profits and/or distribution, or sell the deal?
8. Where can I learn more about Joint Ventures?
9. How can I meet better JV partners and find better deals? (My NetWORK determines my NetWORTH).
10. Are my resources being optimized? Do I have underutilized resources?