Joint venture vs simple partnership
A joint venture usually requires forming a whole new company instead of just executing a simple partnership plan. While others pitch pooling resources to present a deeper consulting practice, the model often makes independent consultants suspicious. The main fear is that instead of growing the business, you are simply giving your network away for someone else to mine.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Forming a simple partnership plan instead of creating a whole new companyDid this help you?
- 2Subcontracting works where brand pooling does not: named clients stay yours, work flows one direction, and the rate card is agreed before the first referral.Did this help you?
- 3Ask who signs the SOW with the end client and whose entity invoices them.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My question is, has anyone done this? How is it different to a simple partnership plan and not having to do a whole new company ??”source ↗
“Twice in the last 6 months I’ve been pitched the ‘let’s pool our resources and networks, then present as more diverse and deeper practices than we would be operating as the independant consulting practices we actually are’. Raises my neck hairs.”source ↗
“Curious to see if anyone has been successful at this model, if it grew their businesses, or if it just gave your networks away to someone else to mine.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 9Can you actually make a living owning a retail store?
- 2How do you figure out what a business is actually worth?
- 14Should I register a business before making any money?
- 2How to value a competitor acquisition or client list deal
- 3Is enterprise software support actually worth the cost for small teams?
- 7How do I find a trustworthy business partner and avoid split mistakes?