Deal Making 101

I love making deals.  I am a born negotiator and am always looking for ways to bring people and businesses together.  For me, it is all about creating something totally new and unexpected. 

The best deals are the ones where both parties get it and are courageous enough to step into the unknown.  For the most part, these deals just happen as if they were always meant to be.  The harder I have to work to make a deal happen, the worse it usually turns out to be.  Which brings me to the fundamental premise underlying all transactions I work on:  make sure the other side gets what they need.

For creative business owners, the tendency is to think mostly about the immediate and obvious return in a deal for your business and not what value will be created for the other side.  Without walking in the shoes of your potential partner and what you can do for their business, you can’t fully understand the leverage the deal will bring you beyond the deal itself.  Which, of course, brings me to the larger point:  the best deals set the platform from which you can leverage your business into larger, more diverse deals.

Vera’s perfume deal is a great example.  It established her potential as a lifestyle brand which opened the door to her licensing empire.  Same can be said with Phillippe Starck and Baccarat.  His design took the centuries old crystal manufacturer and gave it edge.  The Baccarat deal was a big piece in establishing the strength of his brand in hotel and residential design.  And not much has to be said about what the Kmart deal did for Martha or Target for Isaac.

Lest you think that what I am talking about applies to large, international deals, think about Emeril and Rachel Ray, the first time they each appeared on the Food Network.  Everything starts small.