License Your Product for Others to Sell
While it makes sense to create and sell products from your expertise. Consider taking it a stage further by licensing your bespoke software, course or business system or any other product created from your intellectual property.
Licensing doesn't just mean you receive a licensing fee and in some cases royalties. Your name and business details are on the product which means every time your product is sold by licensees, you get advertised to their clients as well. By licensing your product, you are able to reach different markets and geographic areas you could never reach yourself through your licensees.
The point is, publishing and selling products created from your intellectual property doesn't just just stop at you selling it to the end user. If it's a proven and successful product or system, there's a good chance that others will want to buy a license from you so they can sell it to their clients.
Don't be concerned about competition, you are the licensor and you dictate the terms of the license. For example; if you don't want them to trade in your geographic area, designate what areas they can sell your product. If you want the sole rights to sell the product in your industry, state in the license they can't compete with you and sell in your business niche.
For a product or system to be appealing to potential licensees it has to have a successful track record. This can either be in past sales or in delivering a desired result. For example, if the product is being sold, what are the sales figures over a specific period of time? If it's delivering a desired result like a training system, what are the performance results from students who underwent the training?
Potential Licensing Opportunities Are All Around You
Marketing Consultant
A marketing consultant has a proven way to generate at least 200 extra leads per month with a 30% conversion rate in their industry. That system can be packaged and licensed to other marketing consultants out of their area of operation or changed slightly to work in different industries.
Business Owner
A business owner develops bespoke software to manage their stock and suppliers more efficiently. As a result, the cash available for their business has increased by 50%. They can use the additional capital to grow their business or trade with more liquidity. The bespoke software now has valuable licensing potential for other business owners in the same industry.
Staff Training
A company develops staff training for a loyalty program that delivers a 40% increase in client retention over 12 months. That training program can be licensed to other businesses in the same or similar industries for similar results.
Successful Course
A proven course can be offered in multiple formats with a resale rights license. Licensees can then sell it under their own name in different niches. The course content can also be broken down to create smaller products like tips booklets, and guides which can be licensed as stand alone products in their own right.
Webinar or Workshop
The content from a successful webinar or workshop can be licensed out to others to present in the same business niche. The content could also be re-purposed for different industries. If the license permits, licensees could sell the workshop content on to their clients in a wider demographic.
Create a Licensing Plan:
Identify and list all your intellectual property into categories
Once you have identified and listed all your IP into categories, they need to be protected. Set up procedures for the recording, filing and safe keeping of all your intellectual property. This is an ongoing process because you will constantly be adding new IP to your business. As such, review and update it at least once a year.
When you have identified and listed all your intellectual property you can look for potential licensing opportunities. Assess what products could be created from your IP or might have already been created. For example; you might already have a successful course or bespoke software. From your categorised lists, could some of your IP be commercialised and licensed for others to sell, sold as products in their own right or even given away to generate leads?
Always Take Professional Legal Advice
Without wanting to state the obvious, always take professional legal advice when protecting your intellectual property and having a licensing agreement written. The additional cost is an investment against the infringement and protection of your intellectual property.
When having a licensing agreement written, be clear about what you want in the license first. For example; areas of operation, minimum sales quotas, any restrictions and support offered. An IP solicitor will know how to advise and protect you within the terms of the license.
Get in The Mind of Your Potential Licensees
When thinking about licensing a product, try to look at it from a licensee's perspective. In a effect, they are looking to license a money making opportunity with your product. If the profit potential is limited, the market is too small to support significant sales or there is no successful track record, why would they buy a license?
A licensee is looking for an instant product to use or sell that will benefit their business almost immediately. As a licensee they don't have any research and product creation costs and if it's digital there aren't even any duplication costs. All they have to focus on is marketing but the product must have a significant benefit for their business. So when evaluating a product for licensing, consider the following points:
Licensing a product should benefit both sides. The licensor benefits from an additional revenue stream and getting their name out to different markets. The licensee benefits by gaining an instant product saving time and development costs for their own business or to sell as a product.
While not every product is a good fit for licensing, it's worth giving serious consideration to licensing information products created from your intellectual property. It could open doors to additional revenue streams you hadn't realised were possible.
For more detailed information on licensing products created from your IP please visit licenseit.uk