Become a licensing expert.
A lot of people believe, consciously or not, that in order to bring an idea to market, that idea must be their own. It doesn’t. Licensing is an enormous industry. If you want to tap into it but aren’t especially creative or imaginative, consider becoming a licensing agent. The reality is that a lot of great ideas are never turned into actual products because the inventor can’t sell anyone on the design or concept. The idea stays just that: an idea. But if you’re able to master the licensing game, you don’t need to come up with your own ideas.
There are two sides of the licensing equation. On the one hand, more and more companies are looking for outside ideas. Open innovation has proved beneficial, if not necessary, in today’s fast-paced world. On the other hand, there’s no shortage of creative intelligent people with great ideas. Someone is needed to bring the two sides together. If you have a background in sales and like working with people, if you pride yourself on making things happen and communicate well, this may be the job for you.
Understanding how licensing works and how to play the game are skills too few inventors possess. That’s where you come in. Licensing agents address the needs of both parties and seek to make sure their interests are met. Because of their expertise, licensing agents can make deals happen that might otherwise break down due to poor communication.
If you want to get into licensing but aren’t creative, why not try out being the connector?
Stephen Key is a successful award-winning inventor who has licensed
over 20 products in the past 30 years. Along with business partner
Andrew Krauss, Stephen runs inventRight,
a company dedicated to educating inventors about selling their ideas
and the skills needed to succeed. You can listen to the weekly radio
show on inventing. Get In The News, list your invention to have media
outlets find you for news stories.
