Licensing Your Product If you've got a fab product but need help selling it, look into licensing.

If you have a brilliant business idea that you want to launch quickly and profitably, consider licensing your idea to an established company. But don't take it lightly--licensing can be complex.

First, make sure your creation is proprietary. "If you have a patent [or are in the patenting process], or you have some other way of making it exclusive, then your course [toward] licensing will look a little better," says Richard Stim, author of Profit From Your Idea: How to Make Smart Licensing Deals, and an attorney specializing in licensing and intellectual property. Check out the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and PatentCafe for information on patenting your idea.