A JV is the entity created when two businesses, individuals, companies or other legal entities enter into an agreement. The joint venture benefits both parties by combining skills, customer bases, capital or other products or services.

The concept behind a joint venture is obvious if you have a product to sell. You would simply want to find a partner who could help you increase sales. Maybe you would look for someone with an established set of regular customers who could sell to them for a portion of the profit. You might also find someone who sells a product that offsets your own to sell together in a package. In this scenario, it's clear that both sides benefit from the partnership.

If you do not sell a physical product, seeing the potential benefits of entering into a joint venture can be more difficult. If you aren't selling widgets, you are most likely selling a particular skill or service. If this is the case, you will be approaching potential partners in the role of "dealmaker."

The first step is to find a company with a product that suits your skill set. For example, if you're great at marketing and you know how to make money online, look for a company that needs help in those areas. Comb the Internet for excellent products with weak advertising. Look over all available aspects of their business, such as their website, order forms and other sales materials. Think of ways you can improve them.

Once you've figured out what you can offer, determine what you want in return. Use this information to develop a good proposal to present to the company. If they accept your joint venture proposal, be sure to take all the important steps in creating the JV, like writing a business plan, joint venture agreement and exit strategy.

Another way to enter into a joint venture when you don't sell products is to partner with someone who wants to sell their products through your business. Stocking the shelves of a conventional store is costly and difficult, but when you are part of a joint venture, your partner provides all that for you.

Joint venture marketing, or JVM, is a new trend that has become popular with the growth of the Internet. JVM partners obtain free e-products, like e-books and e-zines that they then sell on their websites.

Many e-products are available for free online. Many of them are Private Label Rights or Master Resell Rights products, and that means that they are ready for distribution when you download them. They come fully loaded with graphics and packaging -- all you do is add your contact information so people know where they got it. Then you can add them to your site and offer them for sale.

The benefit to you, as the small business owner, is offering a product on your site, and the benefit to the creator of the product is free advertising. You might also have an agreement that the product's provider receives a portion of the sales of the package on your site.

There is also a growing crowd of people joining what are known as joint venture collaborative pools online. These groups of Internet marketers' policy is: "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine." They all advertise on each others' sites, thereby giving each other access to everyone's visitors and customer base. If you joined one of these groups, you might add a link on your site where a customer could sign up for an email list or newsletter in which members of the collaborative would advertise. These subscriber boxes help to build a large subscription list -- which means more potential customers. Plus, any e-products you sell can include your ads and links as well.

Regardless of whether you have products to offer, joint ventures are an excellent way to increase your profits and build a solid customer base. When entering into any JV, make sure you understand all aspects of the venture -- what's expected of you and what you expect of your partner.