Great, problem-solving inventions was the dream that sparked it all. A long-term strategy has successfully turned licensing and royalties into a bigger part of our business, which gives us momentum to develop even more inventions.
When we started Lolle & Nielsen Invention as two young engineers almost a decade ago, the end goal was clear. We wanted to be inventors and make a living solving problems in the real world.
While this mission might sound temptingly simple, it is a long-term commitment in the real world. Hardware takes years of hard work – and a lot of money – to develop, and with licensing agreements it can easily take a few more years for an invention to become profitable.
The good news for the patient inventor is, that licensing turns into a steady and passive income if your product proves itself and gets adopted by the market.
This business vision is still our aim, and luckily, we’re approaching the point where licensing is becoming a significant income stream: Last year around 20 per cent of our earning were made by licensing.
We turn needs, problems and ideas into solution through licensing. This means we depend a lot on strong partners to produce and market our solutions. You can read more about our partnership philosophy here.
The proof is here: It’s working
We’ve always believed in the inventing-mission, and during the years we’ve begun to increasingly believe in the business potential as well. We’ve perfected the business model of modern inventors in order to make projects move faster, and we’ve seen how our first invention created jobs thank to the licensing agreement.
The final proof that the licensing-strategy is working came when it actually started to make the company a steady and significant income. And while the company is still growing overall, the licensing part grows faster than the rest.
To get the proof that our first invention wasn’t a one-hit-wonder is a huge deal. The bigger the part licensing becomes, the more resources are available to reinvest in new, problem-solving inventions – which is where it all started.
Licensing is never going to make up all of our turnover, but 50 per cent is our big goal. We expect the 20 per cent we currently have to grow this year, but there is still a long way to go and a lot of patience needed.
We expect to release a few more licensed products this year alone.