Your ultimate goal is to create profitable long-term JV relationships
, not one-hit wonders. It may take you a while to click with the right partners and make things work the way you want them to, entrepreneurs being the way we are; sometimes, two or more strong personalities just find it difficult to deal with each other over the long haul. As one of my colleagues puts it, in joint ventures, people always get worse. If something starts out bad, it'll get worse; if something starts out great, it'll become good. That's a sobering thought, and while it doesn't apply to every JV relationship, it's something to keep in mind before you get too far into a deal.