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Bags To Riches How to sell more product with less effort

By Don Debelak

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Cassie Quinn was fed up. The 28-year-old mother of one was sickof digging through her diaper bag to find things. "Whycan't someone design a diaper bag so all the little items areeasy to find?" she thought. Then she thought, "Whycouldn't that someone be me?"

The Spokane, Washington, inventor sketched her concept on paper,produced a prototype, enlisted the help of an invention marketingspecialist, and ended up licensing her idea to Kalencom Corp., aNew Orleans company that sells baby accessories. In late October1998, Kalencom introduced Quinn's product with much fanfare atthe Juvenile Manufacturers Product Association convention inDallas.

Juvenile Products Development Co., the marketing company thathelped Quinn land her licensing deal, gets a 2 percent monthlyroyalty for its efforts. Quinn, who still works part time at atravel agency, collects a 5 percent monthly royalty. All in all,it's a pretty good payoff for Quinn's willingness to act onan idea thousands of other mothers have probably had.