Frequently Asked Questions

Should you start your own business? Does licensing your product make sense? How can you be sure you’re doing your planning in the best way possible? Those are the basic question we seek to address. Not every inventor has the resources or skills to start a company but some products aren’t appropriate for licensing. When an inventor is exploring his or her readiness to commit his time, energy, and resources, it makes a lot of sense to do it right and to create a plan that will create as little risk as possible. This is where we can help by applying our real world and specialized knowledge of new product development commercialization in various industries, as well as sales and market issues, to your situation.

• Not having a plan – or not having much of one. Products don’t sell themselves. You will come up against unanticipated problems or expenditures – but you’ll also find new opportunities along the way and will want to be able to capitalize on them. We assist with your planning.
• Putting the cart before the horse – or in other words, using up resources such as time and money or using them unwisely. Many inventors spend all their money on protecting their intellectual property only to discover a range of other issues that make successful commercialization unlikely. We can help you maximize the likelihood of success.
• Not anticipating the strategies or resources required for developing a new product to the point where the consumer or licensee will consider it viable. We fill that gap.
• Not understanding the appropriate sales route for the new product or understanding pricing. We’ll make sure you cover all your bases.

Pelham West has been on both sides of the table. We’ve been involved with companies bringing new products to market for several years – with both retail and commercial products. We’ve worked with companies as product scouts – and had the opportunity to see what it takes to get a new product produced and marketed successfully. And we are partners in a small manufacturing company that has been successful – and has failed – in introducing new products. Over time we’ve realized that we are in a position to anticipate the types of problems companies can encounter – and we put that experience to work for you. We ask the questions that need answers and we don’t use a one-size-fits all approach.

Define your needs. We are happy to respond to specific questions targeting a particular area of new product commercialization or we can work with you on developing a full-range strategic plan for bringing your product to market yourself or for putting yourself in the best possible position for licensing your product. You may even practice your pitch to a potential licensee with us. If you feel that you are ready to explore licensing, see our section on Product Scouts.

As consultants, we are paid a fee for our services. We make it cost effective to use us as we cut through many of the myths that abound in the world of invention, fill gaps in your experience, and provide down to earth and practical information important to your success. And we promise to work effectively and efficiently with you. We are also very selective in our consulting. We only offer advice and never represent inventors as agents and don not present inventions to companies for a fee.

As product scouts, we have a contract with client companies and are paid by the client when we bring them successful products. This makes our services risk free for inventors – we get paid when you do. However, very few products come to us ready to be shown to potential licensees.

How does Pelham West’s consulting fee compare with other product commercialization consultants? We  continue to explore what our competition charges and what they provide and find ourselves priced appropriately. There is a great deal of free advice available (some of it is quite good) and we suggest you avail yourself of it. We set our fee based on two factors – the specialized knowledge acquired over the last several years and the emphasis on addressing your very specific needs.

As we’ve described above, as product scouts, we are paid by the client.

No, we only work as product scouts for companies that have demonstrated their ability to introduce a new product successfully.

How may I be assured that my concept for a new product or information about my business plan will be kept confidential? We ask that you provide basic (and general) information to us in order for us to determine if your product is in an area in which we have expertise. Depending on the task you are interested in working with us on, we will sign non-disclosure or confidentiality documents. You will also find that because we focus on commercialization of the new product, it is often the case that proprietary information need not be shared.

What other services does Pelham West provide?

We have established relationships with product developers and can connect you with product designers, industrial designers, engineers, electronics experts, prototypers, off-shore manufacturing experts – the whole spectrum of expertise necessary in developing a new product.

We also offer workshops at various locations – allowing participants to learn from others in the process of developing their product.

• Lack of adequate research. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of doing a thorough search for your product. Begin by exploring what is already on the market. Do so by checking retail outlets, web sites and catalogues. Take note of what the product sells for, what the competition to your product is, who sells it, and how the product is sold. Do a thorough patent search – keeping in mind that most products that receive a patent do not make it to the market and that most products that are on the market are not patented. Stay current with what is coming on the market. It’s a small world and it isn’t unusual for us to have very similar products submitted to us by different inventors in a short period of time.

• Deciding to seek a patent first, prior to developing a plan for identifying and development commercial potential.
• Not talking with enough people about the many paths to product commercialization.

We have found, after being involved with commercializing a number of products and after speaking with many successful inventors, that for many products the inventor is better off producing and selling the product him/herself. Although each product is different, two factors are very important to remember when deciding to license or produce the product yourself.

• Access to the market. Many specialty products are sold in commercial catalogs or in high-end retail stores only. An individual can usually commercialize products of this type because there are rarely barriers to being a single product company. Profit margins are much higher; an inventor can often generate 30-40% on an item instead of a 5-6% royalty.
• Cost to produce the product. In many cases, partnerships with job shops or other types of manufacturers can enable an inventor to bring a product to market for less than expected.

Many inventors believe that they need an agent to get their products licensed. Through the years we have met many inventors who have successfully licensed their products themselves. This group of inventors shares a common characteristic: they have done their homework – by making use of all available resources and by talking and learning from the experiences of other inventors and qualified individuals.

There are exceptions to this statement. The toy industry makes use of agents: read The Toy and Game Inventor’s Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Pitch, License, and Cash-In on Your Ideas by Richard C. Levy and Ronald O. Weingartner, if you are not familiar with how this industry operates. You might also find that an agent can make sense if additional development and patent work needs to be done and the agent will pay all the costs in exchange for a percentage of the royalties. This may be your only option if you are severely short of funds.

• We offer consulting services focused on determining the best commercialization opportunities for your invention.
• We offer product development services that can add value to your product or invention.
• We offer workshops on new product and invention commercialization.