Have you wondered how some people get so incredibly rich? There’s a saying: All you need money to make more money. It’s called leverage.
What is leverage?
Leverage means using a little to control a lot. It gives you the ability to use more than just you. Through leverage, you can effect change much more rapidly. Leverage equals speed. The more leverage you have, the faster your journey to wealth.
A common misconception is that leverage refers only to borrowing money. Leverage is so much more than just borrowed money. You can also leverage intellectual property through licensing.
Leveraging intellectual property means how many times it’s used to generate revenue. Or put another way, how many revenue streams from different market applications or licensing partners.
For example, one of the most visible forms of highly leveraged intellectual property is entertainment. It’s licensed into many product categories such as toys, T-shirts, hats, housewares, domestics, fast food, beverages, and even live shows, creating thousands of products and generating tremendous revenue streams.
Licensing leverage comes in many forms (just like money leverage). Each case has a multiplier effect, meaning each time it is leveraged, it increases its money-making power. In fact, there are 8 forms of “licensing leverage,” and the more of these you use, the more money your IP will generate.
So what are the eight forms of licensing leverage? Well, they are:
1. OPM (Other People’s Money)
2. OPT (Other People’s Time)
3. OPW (Other People’s Work)
4. OPE (Other People’s Experiences)
5. OPI (Other People’s Ideas)
6. OPR: (Other People’s Resources such as production & distribution)
7. OPC: (Other People’s Customers)
8. OPP: (Other People’s Products/Services)
Licensing leverages all these forms. Now you’re probably wondering if I’ll be discussing details about each of these forms of licensing. The answer is yes. But it’s a big topic, so I’m covering each of these in a four-part series starting next week.
Let me leave you with this closing thought on the power of licensing leverage. You have to think outside the box. The key to successfully leveraging IP is knowing what to do with it. You don’t have to know how to develop a product or get it produced. To successfully get the IP into the marketplace, you just need to know how to find the team – the people with the ability and skills.
Henry Ford didn’t know how to build a car. He knew how to find other people who knew how to build a car. And you can do the same thing with licensing. You need the insight and foresight to see the opportunity, own, or have rights to intellectual property and use licensing to leverage the right type of talent to transform the IP into money-making products, services, or technologies.
To be continued.
