For some a joint venture or strategic alliance may sound like the territory of a Fortune 500 company. In truth, your venture might be as straightforward as teaming up with another company on a marketing campaign, licensing a product you've developed, or collaborating with a colleague on a children's book.

Let's Work Together

A joint venture is an association of two or more individuals or business entities who combine their resources to accomplish a specific objective. A strategic relationship (or alliance) is an arrangement in which two or more separate organizations combine resources to advance their respective businesses. While the two forms have overlapping characteristics and the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are notable distinctions between the classic joint venture and the classic strategic alliance:

Written Agreement

It's advisable to have a formal agreement - preferably written - to govern your joint venture or strategic relationship. Contracts among parties working together go by many names including collaborator agreement, joint venture agreement, and consulting agreement. Regardless of what you call it, your agreement should answer the following questions:

- who are the parties to the agreement and what is their relationship to one another,
- what is the term of the agreement,
- what are the duties and obligations of the parties,
- who will own the intellectual property produced through the arrangement,
- how will the business be managed and who will control it,
- who is responsible for expenses, and
- how will profits be divided or what payments must one party make to the other.