One Simple Idea - Stephen Key

[StephenKey]

You're welcome! That's an interesting question. In the past, I've recommended joining a startup for those who want to learn about product development. That's how I learned a lot, fast, when I was just getting started. If sketching appeals to you, you'll certainly be able to make use of that. These days so much work can be outsourced affordably; really, go with what you want to learn. CAD is great, but you really need to have an understanding of manufacturing for it to be worthwhile. Being able to sketch your ideas would be powerful! Thanks for tuning in.

@StephenKey

I want to truly thank you for the amazing work you have done with your books, with invent right and your many youtube videos. I have been searching for a while jumping from idea to idea for a business to focus on and I believe whole-heartedly I have found it in invention and licensing.

I would say I have a fair idea of the trials and efforts required going forward but also would like to ask a question:

In your experience what skills would be the most desirable to learn to succeed in this?

Example, sketching, graphic design, sales, etc. Currently, I am considering learning sketching. I also know full well how difficult this will be going from skill level Zero to a sufficient skill level to make it.

I have considered outsourcing this to freelancers, but I think that it might be necessary to have a base level that freelancers can then improve upon. At least... enough to get my idea across clear enough in a sketched format.

It would make the process of bringing ideas to life much quicker I think, even if what I sketch wouldn't be what is on the sell sheet.

Do you think it is worth learning to sketch?
Or would going directly to CAD be more valuable?

 

[Walter Hay]

Interesting synchronicity , I met the inventor of this thing on my vacation (on the way home is when I discovered I had stephens book on audible never listened too)

I could put you in touch with her id youd like walter , maybe you could pick her brain.

A few things she mentioned , at one point walmart was interested but she didn't like the deal.

Sharktank wanted her on but a friend cautioned against it.

She does commercial sales and wholesale now and seems to be doing alright.

Did you know someone blind who died in a fire walter?

Thanks for the link to her site. What a great product. It is evident that she thought outside the box, and came up with what was a high tech solution. The idea itself was simple, but the execution was brilliant.

By studying the site I was able to work out the steps she went through to get it to the point of being marketable and I congratulate her on being able to navigate those steps.

One of my biggest problems is that when people think of inventions they think of products, but in the case of my safety system the product is almost incidental. The product is an essential element but would be nothing without the process of installing the product in the manner I describe to make it useable by a blind or visually disabled person. It is non technical and could be installed by unskilled labor.

I have a manufacturer capable of producing the product at low cost.

Someone whose blind relative died in an apartment fire because she couldn't find the exit told me about it years ago, and that prompted me to work out a solution.

Walter

 

[Graves]

I really don't know how this book got five stars. It reads like an article that's stretched out to the length of a book.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[StephenKey]

I'm also reading this book. I have a very unique idea in the toy category that I have not seen done. It would be easy to make and with the right toy company I think could be huge. I've done the patent searches, etc.

Thinking about getting a nice artist rendition of the concept. Trying to get a handle on what it would cost to make, I would think it could be easily incorporated into existing production lines.

Hello Aspire4More,

Toy's are a difficult category to license, but when they go big, they can go really big.

Just make sure to emphasize a market search (looking at similar products out there) and seeing how your product both competes and fits in amongst existing products.

What is in the marketplace is usually a better indicator for what will be successful than what has been patented.

Enjoy the book.

 

[StephenKey]

Yes, you can both license and manufacture!

Hey Mr. Key! It's nice to see that your in this forum and actually answering questions and giving advice. I'm actually almost done with your book. I was a little skeptical about it first but it came highly recommended by a few people in this forum. Now I wish I read it sooner. Even though I have pretty much done most of what you said such as filing a provisional patent and NDA's signed by people helping with my ideas, though book has been a huge help and has reinforced what I already knew.

I have already started creating a product and my partner and I decided to have it manufactured ourselves instead of licensing. We do have many other products that we will probably try to license down the road. We decided on the manufacturing route for this one for several reasons.

1) it is a very cheap product to make. Right now we are under 50 cents a piece which includes packaging and shipping

2) it is a product for a field that we are already in so we have a decent amount of connections

3) we have the capital available

4) we have what we believe is a good marketing strategy

5) we are determined to get make this product successful

6) we believe it will be a very difficult product to license because it might hurt some of the major paint brush manufacturing companies


If you would like to read a little more about my story and what I have accomplished so far then check out this thread https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/fastlane-millionaire-stories/30969-my-path-fastline.html

Thanks! I hope to hear from you soon and any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

P.S. I'm also thinking about ordering your program.

Looks like you have many of the ingredients for success set up for this project. Love that you have a low price point, existing connections, capital and many other pieces in place to get your project up and running.

I hear from some people that feel they have to choose licensing or venturing. It's not an either or. You can do both.

Actually, the beautiful thing about licensing is that you can get a lot done in 2 - 4 hours a week if you stay focused on the things that get results. My business partner Andrew Krauss and I help our students do this. So even after starting this company, you can still license some other products.

I really like how you layed out the fact that you have all the required components to justify moving forward with this project. I wish you much success and would love to have you a student one day.

 

[StephenKey]

Just found out your coming to Manhattan in September. See you there!

I look forward to seeing you there. Make sure introduce yourself and say hi to me at the event.

 

[StephenKey]

Videos

I've read the book and currently as i type this I'm watching your videos on YouTube. TONS of valuable information through both channels. Hopefully I can be a student of yours one day as I can't afford it right now.

I'm glad you enjoyed the book. Those youtube videos are also at One Simple Idea By Stephen Key .

We also have a bunch of hour long interviews on the right hand side of our home page at inventRight - Successful inventor Stephen Key helps you bring your invention or product idea to market through licensing. with inventRight students that have licensed their ideas. There is no sales pitch for our course in these videos. It's just myself and inventRight Co-Founder Andrew Krauss interviewing our students about licensing their first idea. It's great info and totally free.

We'd love to have you as a student one day. We've been coaching and mentoring Inventors for 10 years, so we aren't going anywhere.

 

[StephenKey]

Stephen, I have not read your book yet. But i just wanted to thank you for taking the time to get out there and engage your users/fans/readers. It goes a long way for both potential customers and previous ones. Glad to have you here, hope you stick around and interact with the community!

Your welcome. Everyone on the Fastlane forum has been great.

 

[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:

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[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]

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!!

Here are some answers to your questions.

#1
Not at all. If you see something similar on the market..........that's a great thing. That confirms people are interested in such a product. If you come to the table with a variation.......that's great. Consumers and companies like to make incremental changes. An improvement to an existing idea is a great way to go!

#2
NO. You will almost never travel to meet with them in person. Phone and email is what I do 99% of the time. I don't have space on how to close a deal, but basically you will ask them questions and gather info to present a deal.

#3
I have samples of WFH and NDA in my course, however don't ever use samples or templates. Have your attorney review anything you use before you use it.

#4
Quite often, you want to go with someone smaller. A contract manufacturer that manufacturers for many companies can be a good way to go. Not enough space to really go into all the details here.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[StephenKey]

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.

Yes, you could sell a different version or the same product into a different distribution channel. There are also other options. It just needs to make sense to your licensee. They wouldn't want to directly compete with you, nor would you want to compete with them.

Yes.......if you have companies competing for your idea. That would be great. You have to be careful about how you handle this. It's a great problem to have ! ;-)

 

[LightHouse]

wow, this is quite the hike in price!!!!

I thought I had bought it but turns out it was still in my cart on amazon.

Now a 30% increase in price...

If $3 is an issue, this may not be the forum for you...

 

[StephenKey]

Stephen: In the case of the guitar picks, you did the business development/marketing. However, in other ventures you just licensed.

What are your most successful licensing students doing from the following options:

1) Licensing only
2) Licensing and marketing
3) Finding people with patents and doing the licensing or marketing for them

Yes, that is correct. I licensed all my ideas and ventured the guitar picks product.

I would say most of our students are licensing their own products. People come to us at many different points. One thing we see is someone that has 10,000 units in their garage and a web site nobody visits. They are frustrate with venturing the idea themselves and decide to go the licensing route. Many say they wish they knew about the licensing route earlier, but it didn't really cross their mind.

 

[StephenKey]

You Can Do It!

Hello Mr. Key, I enjoyed your Google talk and hope others here benefited from sharing it. I look forward to picking up your new book, it's on my Amazon wish list. I also notice you have a good branding thing going on with consistency of image (exact same look in profile pic and Google presentation)... very sharp .

Anyway, I think I "get" most of the concepts in One Simple Idea, such as the benefits of provisional patent applications, calling up the product mgrs, putting together sell sheets... but the one big hang-up that I have is the necessity of getting a handle on the manufacturing costs before talking to potential licensees. For some reason I find it difficult to wrap my head around the process of calling up someone at a manufacturing plant and asking them how much it would cost to make something. Is this a common obstacle and how do people get around/through it?

Twiki,

There are two methods you can use.

The first is the easiest.

Just look at similar ideas. Here's an example. . If you have a new bbq spatula that just has an extra tong. You know they can do it and the additional cost will be minimal. In this case there is no need to do any more research.

On the other hand sometimes you do need to get a quote from a contract manufacturer. In this case you will need to gather your product specifications to give to the contract manufacturer. Use a company name and phone number of course and ask for a nice volume quote. For example 50k, 100k and 250k quantities.

Ask them if they can make it and at what price? You can do it! My students do this all the time and so can you.

Happy holidays!

-Stephen

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MJ DeMarco]

I look forward to picking up your new book,

Stephen,

Can you please tell us about your new book in the recommendations forum? Since many folks here recommend your book (including myself) I think we'd all like to hear about it.

Thanks for sharing your experience here and hopefully we've sent many sales your way.
~ MJ

PS: Please preface the post "as approved by MJ" so it isn't flagged as self-promotional.

Thx!!

 

[Twiki]

If they rip you off and word get's out, inventors would stop sending them ideas and their free R&D department would be gone.

Mr. Key, thanks for the informative posts. I've also thought about another reason why it would not be in these companies' interest to rip inventors off.

Think about it from their perspective --- not as an organization, but as an individual employee of that company, such as the product manager. As an employee, someone like the product manager just wants to do their job, do well and maybe move up in the organization. Are they really going to risk getting their company into some sort of litigation by deliberately stealing an idea that came from the outside, that could easily be documented, PPA or not. Getting your company into a lawsuit is not a good way to impress your boss.

And if they tried to go off and steal an idea as in individual... well then they'd have not only the inventor to deal with but their (former) company to deal with. And if the idea was something that could be well-suited for development by their (former) company, then they've just cut off a prime avenue of getting it to production (plus I'm sure their individual reputation would be destroyed in their industry).

Considering all this, in terms of risk/reward, if I were a product manager in some division somewhere, already inclined towards an "employee" mindset, just looking forward to this year's Paid Time Off and a quiet retirement, the last thing I would ever do is take a chance of running off with someone else's idea that was submitted to my corporation, since it has a significant chance of not paying off at all anyway.

 

[StephenKey]

Stephen,
Nice of you to come back to the thread, and thank you for your very honest replies. Once my current project takes off, I'm signing up with your coaching program.

Andrew Krauss and i have been coaching and mentoring people with new product ideas for 11 years. We'll be here if you ever need our help. We both love what we do. It's great to help people like you who are so passionate about their ideas.

 

[Bigguns50]

@StephenKey !!!

So great you're here.
I have your book. Read it and following it for a product I have.
1st 3d prototype was printed. Design changes made. 2nd print due soon.

AND...I stumbled upon another product and will follow the same process.

No questions....just THANKS !

 

[StephenKey]

HI! Great questions.

1. No, don't send an NDA right away — you have the right idea. A better time to ask the company to sign an NDA is after you have communicated with them, they have seen your sell sheet, they are interested, and they are asking you for more info.

2. In general, no.

3. Good question. Neither are as easy to license as others, but nothing is impossible. I'm going to be writing some upcoming blogs about notoriously difficult arenas to license in — I'll come back later and post. There's a lot of nuance — and no hard and fast rules!

4. I wish I had someone to recommend you! Product scouts are few and far between. Good luck!

Yes — it's hard to license, almost impossible, when there are only one or two companies working in the product category. They don't have any incentive to innovate!

Sounds like you know what you're doing. Good luck!

 

[MattR82]

I was pretty blown away by the quality of rendering done by a graphic design artist on upwork. 10 different examples of my product to get feedback on. All for... 50 bucks

I voted for your book the other day Stephen. Along with the millionaire fastlane it is one of the best books I have ever read - and saved me thousands. Oh my god, I was so close to making some massive mistakes. The two hit combo whenever I talk to people who are interested in business books. TMF and one simple idea.

One thing I have noticed since deciding on attempting the licensing route: I am focussed more on the creative side and am actually thoroughly enjoying myself. I haven't thought about money, or how much I can make from this or that etc. I am discovering my creative side is by far more pronounced than I had ever thought.

Eventually, I still want to learn more about manufacturing though.

 

[MHP368]

On my way back from the yearly sedona vacation I found out I had this on audible under the "not started" tab , purchased it years ago.

I remember as a kid being an "inventor" seemed like such a cool idea. To this day i'll occasionally see some TV ad for Some 19.99 product and slap my forehead "why didn't I think of that?"

So the book lays this out beautifully and I think it adds a tool to your toolbelt , the forum is littered with people who built prototypes / manufactured / spent money on lawyers and the product had no legs - apparently their is a better way.

Also, lets face it - although big picture "who you become" on the journey to financial freedom is a huge benefit but...once you're retired or semi retired I think you may wish all those hours wasted learning SEo and marketing copy etc etc hadn't occurred right? I mean that's the whole point - time's the one thing we can't buy more of so, I'd much rather have 15% of something then 100% of nothing (and be out time and money for the effort)

Still, almost makes it seem...too easy? , not that stephen can be faulted for that, as I said he lays everything out beautifully and he's gotta sell books (and consulting services for this path apparently)

One part is saying a provisional patent is fine because shelf space determines the real winner, in a sense that's probably more true today then it was when this book came out (the speed that products are made and sold) but , malls also don't really have "stores" so much anymore! , commercial real estates in a death spiral (all my local malls and strip malls are like 90% clothing stores, have been for a decade or so)

So who are you licensing to these days? , I guess the same main players abound but with huge online presence, are these companies really that hungry for someone who adds a widget to a knick-knack? , the same problem with idea creation "buy catalogues, checkout websites for new hip stuff, go shopping!" , well , where's the low hanging fruit? its all just inane consumer junk (which is fine I guess, I'll gladly retire early selling consumer junk if I can)

none of this seems like it would need an advanced degree to flesh out

but is this licencees creating this stuff? , it almost looks like you could take pictures of common household products and put them on a wall and throw darts at them. An intern could do that.

Now these look a bit better, but they also seem like you'd need some foundational skills to get that initial idea going, and many of them are private companies or kick-starters

It'd be interesting to see what the landscape is like today for this method, a quick google reveals a bunch of companies that seemingly middle man things (kensaq, inventmyidea, allinoneinvetions) , apparently selling shovels to the gold miners is covered pretty well!

 

[Danzaland]

One Simple Idea follows the idea to license ideas and rent them to medium size companies to take to market. I'm only part way through it, but do find it interesting.

What are the Forum's thoughts on Licensing?

Due Diligence

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[sharky]

I'm currently reading the same book, and about half way through it as well, so far I am finding it to be a very interesting read. Being that entrepreneurs come in all different shapes and sizes, licensing is certainly one way to go about executing and monetizing on your ideas. Knowing that once the deal is signed you have the potential for a passive income stream for quite some time, in the meantime you could be working on licensing other ideas...not a bad way to go.

 

[Likwid24]

I'm have the book now and it's about 3rd or 4th in line to be read. I agree CEbenz, he make's most of his money off his book and his program. Licensing can be fastlane but hopefully you have a bunch of really good ideas because by the time you start making fastlane money from royalties you might not have enough time to enjoy it. I think if you come up with a product that will be very expensive to produce then licensing might be a good idea. If your product can easily be made then you can make a lot more money manufacturing it yourself. It is definitely riskier but also has a much bigger reward.

 

[rexxkai]

Still designing the product and sending sell sheets to businesses. How about you?

haven't started on this path yet... it's always cause i keep postponing it thinking i don't have enough money to license ideas or because of other distractions--(from making coupon book to creating a website)

so now, my plans are to:
1. create a website (if it makes me millions, i will skip to step 3)
2. try licensing some ideas to get a feel which ideas work and which dont
3. bring one of my own ideas to market

either way, inventing a product has been something i have wanted to do since i was in elementary school, but forgot about my DREAMS and BECOMING RICH until finding the FASTLANE-- there was a time in high school when i thought i should just "settle for less" and become an architect and earning a mediocre salary and driving a civic (not a mercedes) and buying a puny house and just going whereever life takes me, not actually RUNNING AND CHASING DOWN MY DREAMS, GOALS, and WHATEVER I WANT IN LIFE

but now IM BACK !!!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Jason!]

Rock on Stephen, awesome having you on here! Was just at Barnes and Noble yesterday to pick up your book. Only a few chapters in so far but I really like it. I agree with what you say about first to market, but I'm trying to figure out how to deal with copycats.

Take Silly Bandz for example; they launched and within a year had dozens of copycats, some that even acquired licensing deals with companies like Disney before they did.

I have a product i created that would be in a similar category. Completely original (but not patentable, from what my IP attorney tells me), targets kids and has a low retail price point. My concern though is that, like Silly Bandz, the second I take it to market I'll be copied left and right.

What would you recommend in a situation like this?

 

[StephenKey]

Thank you for the reply and for being here on the forums.

I "feel" like an expert on the market based on all the toys my 4yr old has! He kind of keeps me up to date and I can tell through him when a toy is really hot. Anyways, I got the idea watching him play with his toys a certain way that he was improvising with the item. Similar to how you describe in the book I though to myself "this can be done much better, and could be made into something really cool".

What's nice is it can be made into several iterations and could be tailored to boys or girls etc. When I think of licensing success in toys I can't help but think about Thomas the Train and the huge sums that must have made for his creator W. Awdry. The toys, movies, books, games, party goods, and on and on. From one simple idea! I can't help but get excited about that.

Yes, you are an expert. And observing play patterns is an excellent way of coming up with new toys.

Keep up the good work!

 

[StephenKey]

hi stephen,

i was just looking at the newspapers today, and i recognized that there has been a local fad going on with a certain product

do you think i should improve upon the fad and license the idea??

or should i not chase fads??

NOTE: it is a LOCAL fad- so should it be worth pursuing?

thanks for your time once again!!

You have to go with your gut if you think something is there. Yes, fads can be a little harder to pull off. Everything need to fall in place at the right time. But if you can pull it off, the payoff can be big.

The great thing about licensing is that you don't need to risk a huge amount of your money and time. If you've only got $110 in a provisional patent application and the cost the make some sort of prototype and sell sheet. What do you have to loose. You only have experience to gain!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[StephenKey]

Your welcome

Thanks!

Your welcome.

I really enjoy educating people about licensing!