The Risk-Free Entrepreneur: The Idea Person’s Guide to Building a Business With Other People’s Money
The Risk-Free Entrepreneur: The Idea Person’s Guide to Building a Business With Other People’s Money
Getting a small business up and running is a daunting proposition. The Risk-Free Entrepreneur teaches readers how to create a million or even multi-million dollar business without committing any significant resources. How? By coming up with an idea for a viable product or service-while other companies supply the marketing, manufacturing, money, and staff. The Risk-Free Entrepreneur shows readers how to spot trends, find the right partners, and structure the deal. This book is for the entrepreneur who wants to own a million-dollar business-without a million hassles.
List Price: $ 14.95
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One Simple Idea: Turn Your Dreams into a Licensing Goldmine While Letting Others Do the Work
- ISBN13: 9780071756150
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Turn your one simple idea into millions—without lifting a finger!
“Mr. Key’s brilliance, wisdom, and insight will make you rich. Buy this book!”
—Mark Victor Hansen, bestselling author and co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series
“Stephen Key has written a book overflowing with the all-important information that inventors need: a step-by-step guide through everything that goes into a successful product introduction.”
—Gary Dahl, Pet Rock® inventor
“A terrific guide for anyone who wants to be a successful entrepreneur.”
—John Osher, innovation guru who created SpinBrush®, Stretch Armstrong®, Spin Pop®, and Quattro® Titanium Trimmer Razor
“Tired of working for corporate America? Tired of living paycheck to paycheck? One Simple Idea can teach you how to add a few zeros to your income. Buy this book and live your dreams now!”
—Kevin Harrington, infomercial king and featured investor on Mark Burnett’s Shark Tank
“Stephen Key turns conventional inventing ‘wisdom’ on its head and clearly outlines how anyone can earn a meaningful income with One Simple Idea.”
—Tamara Monosoff, founder of Mom Invented® and author of The Mom Inventors Handbook and Your Million Dollar Dream
“Whether you are a creator or a connector, this book will help you turn your ideas into a fulfilling, profitable career. Read it and WIN!”
—Patrick Lonergan, former vice president and general manager, Johnson & Johnson, and president/partner of NUMARK Laboratories, Inc.
About the Book:
For as long as you can remember, you’ve had a dream. You’ve longed to see your product idea come to fruition so you never have to work for anyone else again.
Stephen Key has been living this dream for 30 years. The developer of such lucrative products as Michael Jordan’s WallBall®, the Spinformation® rotating label, and HotPicks® guitar picks, he knows better than anyone how to make a great living as an entrepreneur. Key develops ideas for new products, licenses them out, collects royalty checks, and doesn’t look back. You can do it, too. All you need is One Simple Idea.
In this book, Key reveals the secrets that helped him and thousands of his students—including bestselling author Tim Ferriss—turn their creativity into a passive income generator by “renting” an idea to a company, which takes care of R&D, production, marketing, sales, accounting, distribution, and everything else you don’t want to do.
You’ll be amazed at how simple the process of licensing an idea for profit actually is. Key explains how to:
- Keep your ideas safe—without spending time and money on a patent
- Be your own boss—without formally opening a business
- See your product go to market—without footing a dime in expenses
- Make potentially big money—without quitting your day job
The age-old business assumption that ideas must come from within organizations has been shattered. From global corporations to small businesses, companies have become so confident in outside entrepreneurs that licensing is now a 0 billion industry. Businesses need “freelancers” like Key—and you—to provide creative, marketable ideas for new offerings.
With One Simple Idea, there’s no prototyping, no patents, and, best of all, no risk. You can make the system work for you—rather than the other way around.
List Price: $ 22.00
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Start Me Up!: Over 100 Great Business Ideas for the Budding Entrepreneur
Do you dream of becoming the next Richard Branson or Anita Roddick? Are you ready to be your own boss but not sure where to start, waiting for that lightning bolt moment of inspiration to strike? Does the idea of writing a business plan terrify you? Becoming your own boss is easier than you think! Businesswoman and entrepreneur Sonia Williams has done all the hard work for you. In Sonia’s new book “Start Me Up!” you will find over 100 innovative and achievable business concepts and practical advice that will have your business up and running in no time. Some of Sonia’s novel ideas make the most of modern technology; others put a new spin on tried and tested ventures. Sonia also suggests ideas for cultivating your own business nous, including advice on how to spot a trend (and how to avoid fads!), how to identify niche markets, how to write a business plan, how to avoid common first-timer pitfalls, and how to develop your online presence.
List Price: $ 15.95
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The Change Makers: From Carnegie to Gates, How the Great Entrepreneurs Transformed Ideas into Industries
Entrepreneurs, even more than inventors, are essential to American business. While inventors produce ideas, entrepreneurs get things done, build the markets, make ideas reality. But what creative talents do the legendary American entrepreneurs share, and what can you learn from them about business success?
Using lively character sketches and company stories, University of Rhode Island professor and author Maury Klein analyzes how innovators from Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates triumphed over perennial challenges in planning and strategy, production, operations, staffing, and sales-and transformed entire industries. Comparing the retailing acumen of J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart’s Sam Walton, the organizational ingenuity of Standard Oil’s John D. Rockefeller and Citigroup’s Sandy Weill, the imaginative marketing of General Motors’ Alfred Sloan and MacDonald’s Ray Kroc, Klein reveals the art and archetype of successful entrepreneurialism. Moving beyond the clichés, he describes the artistry of great businessmen who build empires and dreams as well as fortunes.
List Price: $ 15.00
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Finally, there is hope,
The Risk-Free Entrepreneur a great read for me for one major reason – I have several great ideas for products and companies but I don’t have resources (mainly money) or the time to pull off the launch. So the ideas remain tucked away in my desk drawer, and I have never acted upon them.
But Debelak’s book gives hope. By using Other People’s Money (he refers to this philosophy as OPM), he immediately shifted my train of thought from how can I launch my own company to what one contact can I connect with at a company that gets me on my way?
Better yet, Debelak lays out good, easy action steps for the procrastinating entrepreneurs. He talks about targeting sales people inside a company with an idea or if you don’t know where to turn, he points out resources such as the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). Upon reading, my initial fear was that despite the idea of Debelak’s OPM philosophy, it still would make for a tough time getting through corporate chains of command, but he offers a great solution of suggesting a “market test” to a potential partner, a pilot of sorts that lowers the risk stakes. The Risk-Free Entrepreneur also offers a good template for setting the expectation of potential partners, as you can then control whether a test market was a success or not.
Debelak gives many examples of real people who have capitalized on the OPM philosophy and also takes you from the idea stage to how to come up with the final numbers for your contract. For those like me, who might be still worried that sharing a product or idea with another company to use “other people’s money” would only set yourself up to have an idea stolen eventually, Debelak gives details on how to avoid this. such as “path to market” presentations on just how many complex details you are taking care of and the value you provide a company to help give them an edge in the marketplace. The book is a quick read, and a good one. It shifted my mind to take my ideas in a direction that I had no idea even really existed.
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|I wish it was better,
I had some pretty high expectations for this book. Unfortunately I did not feel they were satisfied.
The book book seemed to choppy to be really useful. There were a lot of ideas but often they were presented in what seemed to be an incomplete manner.
Ideas such why a provider or marketer would want to do this type of deal were presented. This was good, what was lacking was more information about how to find these types of firms. Better case studies and resources would have been welcomed.
There were many very short case studies tucked into the margins of the book. Longer case studies would have been more useful.
There were some good references tucked into the margins as well. Unfortunately there is no bibliography so to find them you would need to thumb through all the pages. It would also have been nice to have a list of websites all in one place.
I also noticed one case study on a gift card business was also used in an earlier book by the same author. In the earlier book the business was criticized for not having a good business model and was used here as being a good business. That hurts credibility.
The book is cheap enough and does have some good information, so you might want to buy it. I would recommend the book “Go It Alone” as a better book on this subject.
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|A good reference,
I liked this book and got some very good ideas from it. The premise is that you can use other people’s money to start and run a business. Most startup entrepreneurs soon realize that banks are not the best place to get seed money and have to turn to family and friends for financing. This isn’t really new, but most small business books don’t focus on this process. I would of liked to of seen more on structuring deals with investors.
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|An essential guide to getting paid for your ideas!,
I really like this book because it has opened up a whole new avenue for me, and showed me with simple descriptions all the areas where I was doing it wrong. I almost felt stupid that I did not know about provisional patents. I thought the only way to protect your ideas was the traditional patent route, and the 10-20 thousand dollars that route can cost. I did not know that a simple provisional patent, that can be filed for $110 would give me even more protection than a patent the first year I filed it. And that I could get a company to pay for my patent when they license my idea! How can you not love this book?
Stephen Key walks you through the steps of taking your idea from birth all the way through getting some company to send you royalty checks every quarter. You come up with the idea, then follow the steps laid out to getting paid for that idea. You do not need to have really brilliant ideas either. A simple product improvement can be licensed. A manufacturing change can be licensed. A procedure change can be licensed. The list is pretty endless in regards to what you can do. Can you take an existing product, change it slightly, and use it for some other non-related use? Yes you can, and you can get paid to do it!
Here is how this book will help me. I started writing ideas down in a small five inch notebook on may 4, 2004. I date all the ideas, my memory is not that good. I have 7 of these notebooks filled with ideas, changes, upgrades, etc. I take notes on a voice recorder in my car because ideas always pop in my head while I am driving. I know a lot of people get ideas in the shower, but I was on a nuclear submarine a long time ago and got in the habit of taking very fast showers because we can’t waste water. So my shower time is very fast and focused, no time for ideas, but driving really works well for me. The positive side of that experience is that many of my ideas relate to saving resources.
I looked through all 7 books this week. My old thinking told me many of these ideas need an expensive, and time consuming patent. Now that I know about provisional patents I am looking at these ideas in a whole new light. I came across 19 ideas that I can follow up with right now. Then there are many more that need some more thought, and quite a few that are already on the market. Someone that knew how to market them beat me to the punch. That will not happen again.
According to Stephen, licensing is a numbers game. You will not get every idea licensed, it is better to be prolific. With the details he gives in this book I am confident I can research the market, protect my idea, target specific companies, create a “sell sheet” and benefits statement, and approach my targeted companies to start discussing a licensing partnership.
If you have ideas that you think can make money, you need to read this book. I normally read a book once, but I have read and reread many chapters in this book. It is an excellent guide which I am positive will make a difference in my life. I look forward to one day meeting with Stephen and thanking him in person.
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|“Invent Yourself Out Of A Day Job One Idea At A Time”,
One Simple Idea is a practical, real-world guide that will help you take your ideas and get them to market with minimum investment of time and money. It is a great read that motivates the creative genius inside to think outside of the box, dream big, and get paid for it. One Simple Idea is a 5 star book and a steal for anyone interested in turning ideas into cash.
Part 1 focuses on how nice it will be once your ideas pay off and you are earning extra income.
“Find Your Million-Dollar Idea” (Part 2) really kicks off the valuable information in the book. This section offers great advice on what makes an idea valuable and marketable. Key emphasizes simplicity and how small ideas can make big money. While this part is good, I think it’s also the weakest section in the book. Key only offers three creative thinking methods to come up with ideas . . . each just a paragraph long. He focuses on other idea generation methods that are simpler, but creative thinking techniques can unlock tons of great ideas in my experience. Going in depth here would make this book too long, but it would have been nice to include some additional recommendations for idea generation. For a book that is really strong in this area, check out Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition). It makes a great companion to One Simple Idea: Turn Your Dreams into a Licensing Goldmine While Letting Others Do the Work
Also in Part 2, Key gives an “idea litmus test” (70-73) to measure the ideas that you dream up. This is a great tool and a step that could be easily missed.
“Prove Your Idea” (Part 3) offers real world techniques to prove the viability of your idea. The information in this section is easily worth the price of ten copies of the book. Key’s thoughts on prototype development (105-110) remove financial and fear barriers from the inventor’s equation. Using his methods anyone can test markets with a little research and create great prototypes of their invention with minimal investment.
“Protect Your Idea” (Part 4) is the most valuable section in the book. If Part 3 saves the price of ten copies, Part 4 could save the price of a thousand copies. The first chapter details Key’s method of protection through patents. His thoughts on this (not to mention the additional information on StephenKey.com) could save an inventor thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands. Getting advice like this from an entrepreneur is more valuable than advice from a patent attorney.
The second chapter in this section details the best method to protect yourself when presenting your idea to others. Again, the advice is not just theoretical. Key spells out exactly what to look for and what to add to your agreements (133-134).
“Prepare to Pitch Your Idea” (Part 5) details how Key has licensed his products. His two-step method is simple, easy-to-follow, and a great idea. Anyone who has evaluated products of any kind will appreciate his approach. It will give you success more frequently and limit your failures to substance, not style.
“Submit Your Idea to Potential Licensees” (Part 6) details methods to do just that. Key gives techniques to narrow down your list of companies and even includes access to a part of his site that will give you the names of more than 1,300 companies that license products through open innovation (see page 173). Chapter 17 then details what to do once you narrow your list of companies down. Key’s advice on cold-calling is practical and very helpful. This section could easily be applied to a wide variety of businesses. Key has obviously made many thousands of calls over the years and presents methods that will help you secure a licensing agreement.
“Bring Your Ideas to Market” (Part 7) gives a brief overview of how to negotiate and cut your first licensing deal. While there is not enough information in this section to answer all your questions, it is a great start. It is helpful to know what the going rate for royalties on inventions is, and Key does not hold back any information.
Be sure and check out the last two pages of the book for Key’s 10 Steps from Idea to Market (222-223). He references the steps a couple of times throughout his book, and finally gives them all in one place at the very end.
“Appendix: Valuable Resources” is the last part of the book. The only thing better than a great book is a great book that points you in the right direction to learn more. Most of the resources on this page direct you to a section of Key’s website. The advice is valuable, though the page…
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|The Real Deal – Forget Ferris…Go to the Guru himself!,
Timothy Ferris had a huge hit with “The Four Hour work Week”. He almost single-handedly transformed the world of work by creating the concept of working smarter rather than harder into a process that people could at least partially adopt in their own lives. What you may not know is that Ferris began part of that journey thanks to the concepts in this book.
Stephen Key, the author of “One Simple Idea” has been around for awhile…chances are you have personally encountered more than a couple of his ideas. The concept of licensing has also been around for quite awhile but it was only when I saw it put into action that the “click” went off in my own mind. Years ago I knew two people that put together a relatively simple concept during the dot-com era and became overnight millionaires by licensing it out. Neither was especially brilliant and both were fortunate to have terrific timing. This was an era when most of us were simply in awe of being able to earn $1 per word for generating content – to say most of us “didn’t get it” would be an understatement.
A few years later someone else I knew personally was in a position to put this into action and despite a LOT of ups and downs – managed to take a company public. The third time was a charm…it finally clicked but there were still unanswered questions. By now I knew it could be done and have seen first hand three people put it into action. None will be taking on Bill Gates but all have radically transformed their own standard of living and have been in a position to pursue a lifestyle they love. This book finally begins to fill in the gaps.
Wonderful book. Not as much hype as Ferris but a lot more substance.
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|Pretty good, but not great,
As one reviewer pointed out, he should have focused on each man seperatly! It was hard to remember who was who. It is still an interesting read though. Try Masters of Enterprise. It is a more thorough look at most of the same men, and also has some different entrepreneurs like Mary Kay (yes, the cosmetics Mary Kay.)
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|Interesting Compilation,
Few books of this sort are around, so you must give credit to Klein for doing his research. Interesting stories and analyses of two dozen or so entrepreneurs and their various personality traits. Perhaps could be more concise sometimes, but nonetheless good that he went into detail because it was interesting to compare this elite group of business leaders for each of the areas he discusses.
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|Dry and Boring,
The author does go into great depth with his research, but the writing style is academic, dry, and unengaging.
It was difficult for me to get a clear profile of the entrepreneurs profiled in the book because instead of focusing on one at a time, Klein takes one topic (i.e. – childhood), and does a brief synopsis on every single person, before tackling another topic and doing it all over again.
The author also seems to waver between trying to establish a relationship, a common thread, between the profiled entrepreneurs, only to state that there is not set pattern or point out abberations.
A frustrating read.
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