One Simple Idea - Stephen Key

[oldscool]

Stephen I want to ask the tough questions that noone will ask you because they are either intimidated, or, just scared.

Q:What have you actually made as a product licensor?

Rephrase. What is your main source of income? Is it lisencing, or, is it sales from backend of your book, teaching what you know, and, those teaching products.

N:You can PM me answers for private discussion if you need to.

Q:How many products have you actually had go to market in your 30 years of licensing?


I am not concerned with how much your students that you teach have made. I want to know how successful have you yourself actually been doing this.

From what I understand in the business of receiveing royalties the person who liscence their product don't seem to get very rich. The person who does the marketing, and, controls the money gets rich. No one I know of has ever made it to forbes list as a licensor alone.


In your book you talk about NOT owning a business, yet, coaching, speaking, teaching workshops, and, your $1000 inventright product package, is a business. You're in business right now!

Being an information marketer seems to be the consistent theme to wealth from my observation.

 

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[AcquireCurrency]

Stephen I want to ask the tough questions that noone will ask you because they are either intimidated, or, just scared.

Q:What have you actually made as a product licensor?

Q:How many products have you actually had go to market in your 30 years of licensing?


I am not concerned with how much your students that you teach have made. I want to know how successful have you yourself actually been doing this.

From what I understand in the business of receiveing royalties the person who liscence their product don't seem to get very rich. The person who does the marketing, and, controls the money gets rich. No one I know of has ever made it to forbes list as a licensor alone.


In your book you talk about NOT owning a business, yet, coaching, speaking, teaching workshops, and, your $1000 inventright product package, is a business. You're in business right now!

Being an information marketer seems to be the consistent theme to wealth from my observation.

Stephen has licensed over 20 products himself - Heres an article I just found inventRight - Successful inventor Stephen Key helps you bring your invention or product idea to market through licensing.

I ordered One Simple Idea a few hours ago, and it should be here tomorrow morning!

@Stephen: Would there be any major differences in the process of licensing a product if I'm from the UK?

 

[oldscool]

The book was a good read.....20 products? I have heard different numbers thats why I am asking him directly.

@Stephen please refer to my previous question.

 

[Emo6126]

Thank you so much Stephen, I did mean NDA (just realized I wrote DBA....which is something else I am working on)

this cleared up a lot for me.

It is great to actually speak to the author of a book I loved.

Your book along with Fastlane has really made an impact on me. For a while now I have been looking for something to do with my life and my creativity. Your book has helped me find that path that I have been looking for..............Thank you so much

 

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[Bill M.]

In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits | Magazine

This is a great article and spot on our topic. Enjoy!

 

[Boston3432]

Just ordered this book two days ago. Eager to get it this week and start in on it.

 

[Likwid24]

It explains in the book how he made most of his money and how many products he got to market. There is a lot of money in licensing if you have the right product. Your not going to make it on the Forbes list but then again, how many people really do? If you don't make the list, does that mean your not wealthy????

 

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[StephenKey]

OldFool, This is not a tough question and it's a fair one to ask. My main source of income is from my Spin Label. Click here to see my website: Spinformation The Spin Label won two Edison Awards in 2011 with Accudial and SoYu Natural Teas. The Accudial product also won Product of the Year in Canada this year. It's also rolling out to the US and worldwide soon. I am on the board of directors of Accudial. This has been my main source of income and I am still filing patents on it after 15 years.

I am going to try to give you a complete list. It's been 30 years so I will try my best.

1 - Applause - A line of hand puppets called Up, Up and Away. They had smiley faces. A line of 6 puppets.
2 - Applause - Fast Food puppets. You can see that on my website. Hamburgers, Taco's, etc. 6 Puppets.
3 - Applause - Musical instruments. They made sound. 6 Instruments.
4 - Applause - Graduations owls - 3 different sizes.
5 - Applause - Graduation elephants. - 2 Sizes.
6 - Applause - Plastic Darts that said stuff like "Stuck on you". Called Sweet Darts. You can see these on my website. 8 Darts.
There are a few more that I don't remember. These were with the gift an novelty industry. I have talked about this before. Very short lived products. No protection. They are not inventions. This industry did not require patents.
This was way to much work and I probably only made about $80,000. This was about 25+ designs that were licensed.

Worlds of Wonder - Hatty Surprise. Big hats on little dolls that opened up. $15,000 advance. Product never went to market. No protection. No an invention.
Class Act - School supply company back in the 90's. Did Food Flight for them. Lunch bag that folded up and could be used as a frisbee. Never came to market. They paid me a $10,000 advance. Patent was applied for because it functioned but because they never brought it to market they abandon the patent.
Class Act - Cool Pals - Characters that went into your lunch pail to keep your food cool. $10,000 advance, never went to market.
Class Act - Rotating pen and pencil sharpener - Paid advance but never went to market.

Boy, I didn't have a lot of luck there did I. It brought me in about $35,000 +/-.

Pop Up 3D Hat. $15,000 advance, but never made it to market. This was in the early 90's. I can't remember the name of the company.

Ohio Art - Michael Jordan Wall Ball - Finally another one came to market. Sold for 10 years. Sold in Wal-Mart and other mass retailers. Even on a Wheaties Box.
First year $100,000 in royalties. TV Commercial. Finally making some real money. They also did other famous basketball players in multiple sizes. It was about $300,000 +/- in royalties total.

Trudeau - Disney Cups and Canteens - Sold for 5 Years in world wide Disney stores and theme parks. 10 Different designs and sizes. Ohh, Now I am making some money. This item was patented. $150,000 + in royalties for these.

Spinformation Rotating Labels - On such products as Rexall Sundown Herbals (over 70 SKU's), Jim Beam DeKuyper Pucker, Nescafe Coffee, Accudial, Kock Chicken, Big Sky Water and more. 400 Million units sold. 13 awards, 12 patents. Licensed with Coca Cola in Mexico. 15 Awards world wide, 13 patents and 5 patent pen dings. Numerous trademarks. The majority of the patent portfolio was paid for by the licensee.

HotPicksUSA - Unique Guitar Picks. Brought to market myself. Worlds largest selection of guitar picks. Best In Show award 2 years running at the NAMM International Music Show, largest Music show in the US. Sold over $1 Million the last year I had it. I sold this business 4 years ago.

Twist N Chill - Spinformation product launch with Disney, Cars and Hannah Montana. Spring 2009. 9 Cars, 9 Hannah Montana bottles. This was a small US launch.

I am sure I have forgotten a couple products along the way but it has been 30 years. There have been a lot of hits and misses. Some of these were great products some were crap.

So, yes, I have made millions of dollars collecting royalties.

One Simple Idea is selling extremely well. It is being translated into three different languages right now. You are not going to get rich on selling a book. I found my voice over 10 years ago by speaking. I set up InventRight with Andrew Krauss, that runs the business. A lot of people wonder why I bother with the education. Watch the video here to learn why. InventRight is a very personal company. We work one on one with each student. It's not scalable.

To summarize, yes, I have had a lot of students make a lot of money. Some make a nice income. Licensing is more of a lifestyle. Like any business it takes a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck.

If you would like to take a closer look at my products, take a look here.

Any other questions please feel free to ask.

 

[StephenKey]

Your very welcome.

Thank you so much Stephen, I did mean NDA (just realized I wrote DBA....which is something else I am working on)

this cleared up a lot for me.

It is great to actually speak to the author of a book I loved.

Your book along with Fastlane has really made an impact on me. For a while now I have been looking for something to do with my life and my creativity. Your book has helped me find that path that I have been looking for..............Thank you so much

Your very welcome.

I'm the king of typos myself, so no worries on the DBA/NDA thing.

 

[oldscool]

I applaud you for answering Stephen and you have earned my respect. I think I have been swayed, and, will become a student. Even on the $1000 product.

P.S. Thanks for actually having the GUTS to answer. All too often I see the so called expert avoid the real questions.:welldone:

 

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[StephenKey]

It explains in the book how he made most of his money and how many products he got to market. There is a lot of money in licensing if you have the right product. Your not going to make it on the Forbes list but then again, how many people really do? If you don't make the list, does that mean your not wealthy????

I agree. Licensing is not get rich quick.

Licensing is a great low risk way of selling your ideas without mortgaging your house. For a very small investment in maybe a PPA and a sell sheet, you can play a really big game and let your licensee (company you rent your idea to) do the work. They manufacture, market, advertise, risk all their money(not yours) and place the product in all the stores where they already have distribution. That's a beautiful thing!

Licensing is not for everyone.

However, I think if more people knew about the opportunity, a lot more people would be licensing their ideas.

 

[StephenKey]

Just ordered this book two days ago. Eager to get it this week and start in on it.

Let me know if you have any questions after reading "One Simple Idea". Enjoy the book!

 

[oldscool]

It explains in the book how he made most of his money and how many products he got to market. There is a lot of money in licensing if you have the right product. Your not going to make it on the Forbes list but then again, how many people really do? If you don't make the list, does that mean your not wealthy????

i don't just read books to gather information... i read it elsewhere.

Those who control their money make it on forbes list obviously. I was basing my information on the lack of clarification. The reason why I asked Stephen directly without others answering for him.

 

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[Likwid24]

i don't just read books to gather information... i read it elsewhere.

Those who control their money make it on forbes list obviously. I was basing my information on the lack of clarification. The reason why I asked Stephen directly without others answering for him.

I'm just saying, you don't need to be on forbes list or any other list to be wealthy.

 

[Suhaib Alam]

i order my book on amazon but they are being gay and the delivery has been delayed.

i got this book as i have a new innovative energy product which i want to licence out.

i just got a few question for you stephen, you said tim ferris was your student but where was it that he did licencing, according to the 4hww he had his product and ran the business himself and than sold it, where did he do the licencing part, or did he have some other product licenced which he never mentions in the book.

 

[Suhaib Alam]

also i have a question about my product, as its a energy product and an electrical one. a lot of research and development hasnt gone into it and it was just a university project so as its a energy producing product it can be dangerous as its not a totaly finished product and will require further research and development, will this still be able to get patented and licenced.

 

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[garyfritz]

I had a question for Stephen. In 30 years he's licensed roughly 20 products, and he says you have to have lots of ideas "in play" to get one accepted.

How many $110 provisional patents do you normally spend before you get one that sells? If it takes 100 ideas to get one licensed, that could be kind of a spendy hobby while you hope one succeeds.

 

[StephenKey]

The ultimate in the 4hww approach

i order my book on amazon but they are being gay and the delivery has been delayed.

i got this book as i have a new innovative energy product which i want to licence out.

i just got a few question for you stephen, you said tim ferris was your student but where was it that he did licencing, according to the 4hww he had his product and ran the business himself and than sold it, where did he do the licencing part, or did he have some other product licenced which he never mentions in the book.

I'm sorry to hear that delivery of your book has been delayed. As far as i know, they have plenty in stock. I hope you get your book soon.

Yes, Tim was one of our early students. You are correct, his model in 4hww is to venture ideas and outsource various portions of the process.

With the approach I teach through inventRight with my business partner Andrew Krauss and through the book "One Simple Idea" we teach people to outsource everything.

When you license, they(your licensee) floats the money, manufacturing, advertising and puts the product into all the stores they already have distribution in.

It's basically the ultimate in the 4hww approach to outsourcing. I think that's why Tim included us in his book. Our approach is compatible with his and the lifestyle he talks about in his book.

 

[StephenKey]

also i have a question about my product, as its a energy product and an electrical one. a lot of research and development hasnt gone into it and it was just a university project so as its a energy producing product it can be dangerous as its not a totaly finished product and will require further research and development, will this still be able to get patented and licenced.

First, since you worked on it at university, you need to make sure you can own the idea. That would be dependent on the university's policy's.

It sounds like you might need some money to prove out your idea. You could get someone to work for equity that is technically knowledgeable in order to figure things out.

As far as protecting it, you may need to further define the technology before you will know what you want to protect. Or, you may already know now. There is no way I could answer a patent-ability question without knowing what the idea is. You might want to consult a patent attorney.

 

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[StephenKey]

I had a question for Stephen. In 30 years he's licensed roughly 20 products, and he says you have to have lots of ideas "in play" to get one accepted.

How many $110 provisional patents do you normally spend before you get one that sells? If it takes 100 ideas to get one licensed, that could be kind of a spendy hobby while you hope one succeeds.

Yes, you do need to work on a lot of ideas. Success in licensing is a numbers game.

However, if my goal was to just sell a lot of ideas, i would have just stuck to novelties. If i did that, I'm sure I could say I've licensed hundreds of ideas by now. The problem with that is that novelties don't make much money and quite often only sell for a season or a couple years.

So i got out of novelties.

I'm now in packaging. Most of my time is spent on my spin label invention that can be licensed and is being licensed into many different categories. I wanted to sell volume and see my products in as many stores as possible. With my spin label I can do that. It's on products and containers around the world.

I get that 30 years, 20 products question quite often. I hope my answer helps.

You can check out my spin label here
Spinformation - Add 75% More Space To Your Label. An Elegant Alternative To ECL's - Expanded Content Labels


With regards to your PPA question, I can't say. That all depends on how good your ideas are and if you make a sincere effort to take action and license them. $110 to say patent pending for an entire year is dirt cheap. How many businesses can you start for $110.

Many of my students have licensed their first idea, however don't count on this. I had one student who licensed his sixth product over an eight month period. If he had done what most people do and spend $8k on a patent and $5k on a prototype, he would have never gotten to his sixth idea to license it.

He was able to get to his sixth idea because he followed my methods regarding spending very little time and money before getting feedback from manufacturers. He's earned six figures on the deal he closed.

 

[garyfritz]

I absolutely agree the PPA approach is much better than patenting every idea you get. Just wondering how many PPAs it typically takes before you hit a winner. I understand that's a hard question to answer because every situation is different.

 

[Suhaib Alam]

thanks for answering my question, i havnt read the book yet as it hasnt still arived but wanted to know if it just based on USA market as i live in London, UK. will the patent process be the same?

 

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[StephenKey]

I absolutely agree the PPA approach is much better than patenting every idea you get. Just wondering how many PPAs it typically takes before you hit a winner. I understand that's a hard question to answer because every situation is different.

Gary,

You are correct. That all depends on how good your ideas are. We've had plenty of inventRight students license their first idea, however you can't count on that.

If you choose your projects carefully and have good ideas, I would think that after four or five, you would at least get some interest and possibly license an idea. However, your answer is more accurate...... every situation is different. It really depends on the person and the ideas.

-Stephen

 

[StephenKey]

thanks for answering my question, i havnt read the book yet as it hasnt still arived but wanted to know if it just based on USA market as i live in London, UK. will the patent process be the same?

The techniques taught in "One Simple Idea" can be applied to anyone living anywhere. We just had a student in the UK only two months ago that licensed an idea.

-Stephen

 

[Suhaib Alam]

when you say student who are these? people that read your books or do you run classes aswell.

 

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[StephenKey]

when you say student who are these? people that read your books or do you run classes aswell.

My business partner Andrew Krauss and i have been coaching and mentoring Inventors for the last 10 years. Just like in the book "One Simple Idea" we teach licensing. Actually much of what you read about in the book is based on our 10 years of coaching experience in addition to my experience of course.

With the course, we give one year of unlimited phone support. As you can imagine, over 10 years.... we've come across every possible situation an Inventor can encounter and coached them through it. We even help people with negotiations!

Here's a free resource you may want to check out.

We've got a bunch of one hour interviews with our students that have licensed ideas up at http://www.inventRight.com on the right hand side of the home page.

There is no sales pitch for our course in these videos. We feel these interviews are a time for our students to share their experiences and shine, not for us to sell our course. You will learn a lot from these videos and they are totally free!

We just had a pair of Inventors.... Jeff & Mark license their second product a few weeks ago. We will have their interview up on the site next week.

 

[CommonCents]

Stephen, do you have brief information or resources on pitching more of a concept to a very popular TV show? Not exactly a patentable product. It may be something that I'd actually license their brand and go with it. It would benefit them greatly building interactivity and a larger audience. How would I protect the pitch? Probably similar to pitching TV show concepts.

 

[mulberrymuse]

Hi Stephen,

I'm currently reading your book (it's awesome!!) and have started coming up with several new ideas, but just had a couple of questions.

1. You mention that whoever is "first to market" wins. I'm planning on a redesign for a product, but I found that a few poorly executed models of the product are already being sold. However, those items aren't marketed very well if at all (made by small companies), and my designs would have some variations on it. I'm not sure of their patent status. Does this mean it's unlikely that I can license this idea? Or I can't start my own business to sell it and market it better? I guess what I'm getting at is: If there's already something similar on the market, does this mean I have to toss the idea?

2. I'm still curious about the pitching of ideas to companies and how to respond to their offer (if there is one). After you get your foot in the door, do you usually have to travel and meet with them in person for negotiations?

3. Where do I find a WFH agreement or NDA? Do I draft this myself?

4. Lastly, if my design has to do with packaging, would I pitch my idea to the large company (Johnson&Johnson, etc) or the manufacturer that actually makes the packaging?

Sorry for all the questions! I just started looking into this 2 days ago so everything is still new to me. Also signed up for your presentation with the NYC IAM in September. Can't wait to learn more and thanks so much for any help or advice!!

 

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[Arno]

Hi Stephen,

I read your book and with MJ's book it's definitely the best business book I read in a long time! I hope you can help with two questions I have.

- I currently have an idea for a product I want to license or manufacture. But I''m still not sure which way to go. Is it an option to do both, so on a small scale start manufacturing and marketing the product and parallel to this process start license-talks with companies? Can a part of the license deal be that I myself can also market the product, or is this really unusual?

- In your book it's mentioned that the best way to go is to start presenting your ideas to companies that are not top on your list, that way you van practice your speach etc. Can a situation occur that multiple companies are competing for a license? and is that something you take into account in negotiations? (I agree that this is a real 'sunny day scenario' , let's hope I get there!

thanks for all your comments in this thread, really helpful.

 

[StephenKey]

Stephen, do you have brief information or resources on pitching more of a concept to a very popular TV show? Not exactly a patentable product. It may be something that I'd actually license their brand and go with it. It would benefit them greatly building interactivity and a larger audience. How would I protect the pitch? Probably similar to pitching TV show concepts.

The techniques i teach can be used to pitch everything from dog toy's to medical devices. Even business methods and of course technology's can be licensed.

However pitching a TV show is another animal. Many of the principals Andrew and I teach could be applied to pitching a TV show. However I'd really advise you to get advice form people who have successfully pitched TV shows before in order to get the best advice.