Make it yourself
You arrange manufacture, hold the stock, find the buyers and carry the risk. You keep the most control and, if it works, the most of the margin. It also asks the most: money for tooling and a first production run, time to sell, and the patience to keep going when sales build slowly.
License it
A company that already makes and sells similar products pays you, usually a royalty on each sale, for the right to make and sell yours. They bring the factory, the distribution and the customers; you bring the idea. For many inventors, licensing is the best option: less money at risk, and a partner who already knows the market.
It works best when the idea is clearly different, when you can show it works, and when your protection is in order before you start talking to licensees.
Sell it outright
You sell the idea, and any protection on it, for a single payment. It is the quickest way to a result and the lowest risk, in exchange for giving up any share of future sales.
Export it
Some products have a bigger market overseas than at home, or a market that is easier to reach. Export can sit alongside any of the other routes: making for export, licensing to an overseas company, or selling into another market through a distributor. It brings its own costs, rules and freight, so it needs its own sums.
Choosing between them
- How much can you afford to spend, and to lose, before the product earns anything?
- How much of your time can you give it, and for how long?
- Is there a company that already sells to the people who would buy it?
- How easy would it be for someone else to copy?
The answers usually point to one route. The next step is to test it with the people who would buy, make or license it, before the money goes in.