Unlike the athletes who compete in only one sport,
small-business owners have more than one way to win the gold.
Businesses that might not be able to clear an Olympic license on
their own can ride piggyback on a larger company and become its
sublicensee. This allows the smaller company to avoid shelling out
a large advance-and allows the licensee to offer the Olympic
organizing committee a broader variety and quantity of products. In
effect, the licensee can offer the committee one-stop shopping and
gains a big lead in the race to obtain a license.
Olympic committees are noticing the benefits of dealing with
fewer companies. For the Atlanta Games alone, some 25 to 30
sublicensees are handling part-and, in some cases, all-of a
particular product for the big licensees.
"Sublicensing, if done properly, can be a big help to
small, minority and disadvantaged companies," says Victor
Rodriguez. "There are a lot of companies that have become part
of the Olympics [through] sublicensing that otherwise would not
have been able to do so." Rodriguez is president and co-owner
of Alpha-Omega, an Atlanta company that creates and applies graphic
designs to blank T-shirts, sweats, caps and other items for Hanes
and Hanes Her Way.
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"There are a lot of opportunities for sublicensees that can
do graphics or do part or all of a job," adds Darby Coker of
the marketing arm of the Atlanta Olympics.
Entrepreneurs interested in sublicensing future Olympics should
contact the merchandising division of that city's organizing
committee. (U.S. entrepreneurs will have more opportunities with
Olympics taking place here than abroad.) Find out what sublicensing
programs already exist within each product category. If none exist,
get the list of big licensees that handle products you're
interested in (most of them were probably licensees in previous
Olympics), and try contacting their sublicensing program
directly.
While the Olympic organizing committee signs off on all
sublicensee contracts, individual licensee companies manage all the
arrangements. And since those licensees are generally already aware
of companies they would like to work with as sublicensees, it's
up to the small-business owner to make his or her company
known.
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