One Simple Idea for Startups and Entrepreneurs: Live Your Dreams and Create Your Own Profitable Company Hardcover – November 12, 2012

Stephen is not only a very nice guy but also very helpful. I am a wanna be product designer and have used the lessons in this book to move me along to success. While it hasn't happened yet (it's an incredibly tough and competitive racket) each pitch I make gets me closer to success. Before this there was no real road map to how to license products. Many books gave some information but seemed to have ulterior motives (ie: go to their website, buy their sales lessons, etc.) This is not to say that Stephen doesn't have a website and classes, but this book does not lead you to them. It spells it all out for you and I can't reccomend it highly enough!

Stephen has taught me that keeping your idea simple is the best way to invent and start a business. If you are looking for a book that is no nonsense and gives you clear and SIMPLE instructions for venturing this is it! The book is an easy read and Stephen keeps it entertaining.

I was suspicious of the abundant reviews of this book either on the same day or a day apart so I automatically thought they were bogus. I still decided to get this book just because I am launching a new product for retail and it's completely out of my marketing forte.I have to say that this book is quite good. It's easy to read, especially from the beginning when the author, Stephen Key, talks about how he got started designing, creating, and selling products through retail channels. It made for an interesting read.I think he started irritating me when he would talk about a success story (coincidentially there were many women success stories in a row, which is fantastic) then mention a sentence about how they survived cancer. There were a couple of such stories and, although the success stories themselves were inspiring, why mention that they had cancer out of the blue when it didn't have anything to do with their successes or the story about their product? It didn't make any sense.Then he goes onto talk about patents and how they are mostly useless, especially in the early time of your business. I do agree with this just because there will be so many design changes by the time you get a prototype that it's too costly and time-consuming to get a patent on a product that will ultimately be different, even slightly, by the time your first "model" or prototype is created. Plus copy cats will change your design very slightly and trump your patent with their rip-off model of your product anyway, especially if it becomes a hot seller.But...for something that the author doesn't believe in, it's like the guy continually wanted to talk about patents seemingly forever in the book. I'm not sure if this was to fill space or what. For something that he articulated that is mostly a waste of time and money, especially in the beginning, why keep talking about it page after page after page? This is where I started losing interest which was about 2/3 into the book.Shortly thereafter, he goes on and on about having a business plan. I've found business plans as mostly useless and I'll agree with MJ Demarco who wrote  The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime.  (a highly recommended book, by the way) who also can agree that business plans are a waste of time to put together unless you are seeking out venture capital.I really did like what Stephen Key had to say about trade shows and learned a lot. In fact, I got more out of his short section on trade shows than many of the other books I have solely on the topic of trade shows. One small part I did disagree on about trade shows is that he stated you won't be able to get a list of the attendees of a trade show. This is incorrect and misleading. I just signed up for a trade show for wholesalers and I'm getting the complete listing of attendees to send mailings to before and after the event. So, I don't know if he's talking about trade shows for consumers or what he's talking about but to throw out a blanket statement and claim that no trade show offers the contact information for the attendees is false and irresponsible on his part. Even the other book I'm reading right now on topic of trade shows (which is highly recommended, by the way, if you're doing a trade show soon) called  Trade Show in a Day: Get It Done Right, Get It Done Fast! , the author says that not only do you get mailing lists of the trade show attendees before most shows but also talks, at length, about how to do a multi-step mailing to these prospects before the show starts. So, I think it really sucked that Stephen Key not only doesn't talk about this marketing tool but misleads people into believing that you can't even get a listing of the prospects/attendees going to a trade show beforehand when really you can get these lists provided that you're registered as a booth exhibitor.I did like how the author covered the process of retail distribution, especially through wholesalers, because it's very difficult to find a book ANYWHERE that covers how to distribute your product via retailers by contacting buyers, going to trade shows, etc. For that reason, I highly recommend this book just because you won't find this information elsewhere. I didn't like how he mixed consumer-direct sales at the end (i.e. doing radio commercials or using television commercials to sell your product...huh?) when the whole idea is to sell to small, medium, and large retailers or wholesale distributors and not selling consumer-direct (which sucks since I've done it for years) via direct marketing channels.I do love how easy this book is to read. I really love Stephen's writing style because it's quite engaging, interesting, and makes it extremely easy to read through the entire book in a few hours. I also like how easy he makes the process seem and how he motivates you into knowing that all it takes is ONLY ONE simple product idea with kick-ass packaging to make millions (even billions) of dollars. I don't think there's another book out there that can simplify, motivate, and effectively explain exactly what types of simple products to sell and package and exactly how to do it.In his updated version, I'd like to see him correct the stuff I mentioned above (especially about the trade shows) and maybe showcase some much bigger types of products that were truly a One Simple Idea such as 5-hour Energy Shot and others out there that ended up being much bigger, highly successful operations with literally one simple product that went wild in the marketplace.

Stephen Key has once again delivered a book packed with real life advice and countless suggestions for any business owner (in this case, the book is tailored toward those who want to sell products rather than license them). I learned a lot from his positive and negative experiences while running a guitar pick company, as well as from the comments and suggestions offered by many others who share their stories about their businesses. Just the section on what it was like to become a vendor for a huge US retailer was worth the investment in the book for me.

Got home from work last night at 10pm to be welcomed by Stephens new book. Read until 3am and could not help but think while turning every page what a valuable work it was. I only wish Stephen had brought this book out sooner, it would have saved us from "learning the hard way" on many of the steps outlined in the book. The chapter covering Retail is extremely useful and has made me re-think our approach. Will be ordering further copies for my business partner, friends and family. Thanks Mr. Key :)

Stephen Key knows what he's talking about. His story, the InventRight team, its all good stuff. Hope to put it to good use one day soon. Still working on my ideas. Good reading. Need to re-read this holiday season again. Hope you enjoy it as well. - This book was slightly different as more for me as a professional inventor and product developer. Anyhow, had to read both for comparisons sake.

I only needed to read a couple of chapters to get the information that I was looking for. I had already accomplished what was contained in the first several chapters. Good links to current information available on the internet were made available in those chapters I needed.

When I got this ... I put it aside because the last thing I wanted is to do is StartUp a business ... I am more of a License It (Stephen's other two books) and go on to the next invention ... Heard him at San Diego Inventors group and Orange County Inventors Group ...and said there is more to Stephen Key than I thought so have been going through it ... Even got an great idea from the book, I want to take to Book Market

Pour mon fils qui est étudiant . Très bon livre encourageant la jeunesse à aller de l’avant.

Must have book!

This is a great book and I loved the concept - made lots of notes and enjoyed reading the book and have started to apply some of the concepts to my own work and hope to have something to license.Thanks for the great book.

Very basic, no new information, very disappointing. Do not recommend.

One of the best investments I have ever made🕸