The Joy of Owning & Controlling Valuable Proprietary Products

It is perhaps fitting that the first case study shared in this blog should be a recap of how I was first introduced to the concept of locating, evaluating, and then acquiring proprietary rights to products.

Working as an Applied Research and Development engineer, I was accustomed to solving problems, searching for answers to mysteries, dissecting piles of data, and creating action plans to get results.

But, I was about to learn that I would have to start from “Ground Zero” when it came to entrepreneurship and handling a business.

Nothing that I had learned from my personal experiences or from my engineering background had prepared me for what I was about to discover about making money as an entrepreneur.

I Was Introduced To An Unusual Strategy

My journey began when I responded to a direct mail piece that described a business strategy that revealed how to locate, evaluate, and often acquire ownership rights to various kinds of proprietary products.  The information fascinated me and intrigued me such that I was instantly drawn into a near obsession to learn all that I could about this strategy.  And, what made the appeal so much greater was the fact that I was assured that this strategy could be applied without investing money.

Well, I was hooked immediately.  Of course, little voices were yelling in my head. “Too good to be true!  You had better think about this!  Are you nuts or what? How can this even be possible?  Don’t do it!”

Oh yes, I heard those voices. . . loud and clear.  But, I also heard another voice that said, “But, what if it is really true?”  So, I had to find out for myself.  The short answer is – – – It was true back then and is still true today!  But, I am not sure that people are now as willing to take time to apply these strategies in the same way they were back then.  Nevertheless, here is what happened in my case.

I Followed The Strategy  – I Didn’t Improvise At All

I was shown how to search for proprietary products that were in need of marketing assistance.  I chose to search for books, as I was somewhat of a “book worm” and I loved the idea of owning books.  So, I began a serious search to locate anybody anywhere who had a book that needed marketing and that had some potential to generate money.  Quite frankly, I didn’t particularly care what the subject matter of the book might be.  I was told that a book on “How To” nature would likely be best for me, so I kept my focus on those types of books.

By the way, I didn’t have a background or any actual experience in publishing at the time, but I was totally focused on learning whatever I needed to learn.  So, without hesitating, I continued to pursue meeting book authors at every opportunity.

And, after about a month of heavy searching, I received a response to one of my inquiries.  It was from a gentleman who had written a “How To” book and was successfully marketing it via magazine advertisements.  This was a popular way of marketing books at that time.  People sat and read a great deal more than they do nowadays.

Persistence Brought Me Dividends Beyond My Wildest Dreams

Of all of the possible books I could have located, this particular book dealt with the subject of raising bullfrogs and selling them to restaurants.  What a surprise that was for me! Of course, this all occurred in the 1970s but I am told there is still a market even now!

But, when the gentleman told me that he was generating a profit of around $700 per month and had been doing so for about a year – my interest grew stronger.  He was kind enough to supply me with a copy of the book, details regarding his advertising history, etc. so that I was able to verify all of what he had indicated.  The issue for him was that he had simply worked himself into a very exhausting schedule as he was involved with another activity and had “several irons in the fire” including this book.  And, to make matters worse for him, his choice of marketing methods forced him to spend several hours per day opening mail, responding to inquiries about the book, filling orders, etc. and his mail volume was growing steadily.

We had several conversations by phone and exchanged a couple of letters, yet the actual negotiation between us was very quick and quite satisfactory to both of us.  Our agreement was that I would acquire the copyright to the books, the sales literature, and all marketing rights, etc. in return for continuing his promotions with the freedom to market the book via my best efforts going forward.  As part of the agreement, he turned over the ongoing monthly profits to me, such that I would continue his current marketing efforts and expand them as I wanted.  My offer to him in return was to share 5% of my gross sales with him quarterly.  As simple as that, our deal was struck.

Business Relationships Will Be Strengthened When Based Upon Solid Personal Relationships

I worked quite successfully with this gentleman for a very long time – – – about 10-plus years.  We never had a disagreement about anything at all.  In fact, he and I expanded our relationship by him bringing several other authors to me and I was able to arrange similar publishing deals with them based upon his strong recommendation of me to his friends.  The one book enabled me to build a publishing activity that controlled and marketed as many as 14 books and newsletters, all having their ownership acquired by me without any requirement of front money.

The main point of this example is that it all began with my building relationships with book writers.  There were a number of authors who had very nice books, but I was not able to provide them with what they wanted either in terms of front money, royalties, or some other conditions.  In spite of that, I was able to maintain ongoing contact with them for many years.  In some situations, I was able to point them in the direction of other publishers.  Even though I didn’t acquire the rights to their books, I gained a trusted associate and that is always a good result to seek.

Start By Establishing Friendships – Business Relationships Will Likely Follow

As time went on, I expanded from acquiring books to acquiring newsletters.  In time, ownership of software programs led me into business consulting and later into marketing other types of products.

Back then, I had to use “snail mail” to reach people and start conversations.  Telephone conversations were sometimes required, but long-distance conversations were costly.  Yet, the strategy worked and worked very well.

Just think how much easier that initial process would have been for me if I had the use of the Internet, Twitter accounts, Facebook, Instagram, unlimited phone service, and a smartphone always with me so that I didn’t have to wait to return missed phone calls.  It would have been absolutely fantastic!

But, you DO have all of those things and now by reading this blog, you can also learn the strategy.

This article was written by SDK Hunter Consulting Group

About The Author:

Sherman Hunter and SDK Hunter Consulting Group staff consultants provide global moneymaking opportunities and proprietary strategies that quickly accelerate business activity. You may familiarize yourself with these unique concepts by visiting the SDK Hunter Consulting Group blog located at:  https://sdkhunter.com

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