Stop Starting Businesses: How To License Your Work To Businesses That Already Exist

Why Starting from Scratch Is a Slow and Risky Move

There’s a certain pride people take in saying they “built it themselves.”

And while there’s nothing wrong with creating something new, starting a business from scratch is almost always the hardest, slowest, and most capital-intensive way to succeed.

You’re not just building a product, you’re building a brand, a funnel, a sales engine, a customer service system, and a backend infrastructure. All of it has to work perfectly for the business to become profitable.

That’s why the failure rate for startups is so high.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, around 20% of new businesses fail in the first year, and roughly 50% are gone by year five.

Even if you have a great idea, executing it from zero comes with massive overhead, months of uncertainty, and a high likelihood of burnout.

But there’s another way to play the game.

Instead of building everything yourself, you can sell the rights to something that already works, something you’ve built once, and let others do the heavy lifting.

That’s where licensing comes in.

And if done right, it’s one of the most scalable, efficient ways to make money without starting over each time.

What Licensing Rights Actually Are, And Why They're Valuable

When you license something, you’re giving someone else permission to use your intellectual property in exchange for a fee.

That could be a brand name, a product, a process, a digital course, software, a training system, or even marketing materials.

The key difference between licensing and selling is control. When you sell something outright, you lose ownership. But when you license it, you keep ownership while getting paid over and over for others to use it.

Think about music artists who get paid every time their song is played in a commercial.

Or McDonald’s licensing their brand and system to franchisees, who run the restaurants but don’t own the brand.

This model works in small business too.

If you’ve built a high-performing landing page, a proven ad funnel, or a coaching curriculum that drives results, you can license it to others in your industry who want to skip the trial and error.

You don’t have to reinvent yourself to scale.

You just have to package your system in a way others can use, and start collecting recurring payments from the people who benefit.

Unlike building a business from scratch, licensing is front-loaded work with long-term upside.

You create once, get paid many times.

And your income scales with every additional licensee, not with every hour you work.

Why Licensing Scales Faster Than Ownership

The main problem with building a business from scratch is that you have to scale everything at once.

More growth means more marketing, more fulfillment, more support, and more people. Every additional customer adds strain to your system.

But with licensing, that’s not your burden.

You don’t need to hire staff, manage customer support, or expand infrastructure. The licensee handles that.

Your only job is to maintain the asset, and possibly improve it over time.

That’s why licensing scales faster than ownership.

Instead of running a business with 10 different systems to manage, you can focus on one thing: making your licensed asset better and getting it into more hands.

And unlike service businesses, which usually hit a ceiling due to time constraints, licensing keeps growing without adding more hours to your week.

The other benefit is diversification.

When you sell licensing rights to multiple people in different industries or locations, you’re not reliant on one business model.

Even if one partner underperforms, the others still generate income.

In this way, licensing gives you leverage, distribution, and protection, all without the complexity that comes with traditional growth.

How to Create Licensable Assets From What You Already Know

You don’t need a massive company or a decade of experience to create something worth licensing.

What you need is a result.

If you’ve built a process that works, whether it’s for landing clients, onboarding customers, running Facebook ads, or selling physical products, you have something that can be turned into a licensable system.

Start by asking yourself:

• What’s something I’ve created that consistently works?

• Can someone else apply this and get a similar result?

• What documentation or tools would they need to make it work?

Then package it.

That might look like a PDF guide, a swipe file of email templates, a video walkthrough of your systems, or a bundle of deliverables that saves someone 100+ hours of trial and error.

The goal is to make it plug-and-play.

If someone can buy your system, follow it step by step, and get a tangible result, congratulations, you have a licensable asset.

From there, decide on your structure.

You can charge a flat fee for lifetime use, a recurring fee (monthly or annually), or even a revenue-share if your asset directly drives sales.

There’s no one-size-fits-all model.

But the value of licensing lies in one core idea: people will pay to skip mistakes.

And if you’ve already figured out the solution, they’ll happily pay you to borrow it.

How To Get In Front of Decision-Makers and Close Licensing Deals

Creating a licensable asset is the easy part.

The harder, and more important, step is getting it in front of the right people.

The biggest mistake people make here is relying on cold LinkedIn DMs and expecting deals to land in their inbox.

It rarely happens that way.

LinkedIn is saturated, most inboxes are ignored, and unless you have a mutual connection or serious authority, you’re just one more pitch in a sea of them.

Here’s what works better, platforms that enable real visibility, credibility, and connection:

• Industry Facebook Groups: Especially niche B2B or agency groups. These are active and personal. You can give value, get feedback, and build relationships fast.
  

• Slack Communities: Paid or invite-only Slack groups (e.g., for marketers, agency owners, or SaaS founders) are curated, focused, and full of serious operators.
  

• X (Twitter): Still highly effective for B2B if you post proof, mini case studies, and systems. It builds inbound interest organically.
  

• Reddit (under a real persona): You can dominate niche threads if you speak directly to a pain point and offer insights without selling.
  

• Podcasts + guest appearances: Either start your own short-format show or guest on industry shows. Use each episode to teach a framework. That builds authority faster than ads.
  

• YouTube (if you’re willing to commit): Break down your asset visually. Show proof. Use calls to action in your bio or comments to invite licensing conversations.

Now here’s a clear, example-based step-by-step system to get your first deal.

5 Steps to Get Your First Licensing Deal

1. Identify your ideal licensee.
Look at who is already trying to solve the problem you’ve cracked.
Example: You built a paid ads SOP that helped you scale a local gym. Your ideal licensee? Other gym owners or fitness marketers already running ads but struggling with results.

2. Join where they hang out.
Skip cold email for now. Go where they ask questions and share wins.
Example: Join a Facebook group for gym owners and a Slack workspace for fitness marketers. Spend a week observing. Look for posts about ad problems, funnel issues, or wasted spend.

3. Show up with value, not a pitch.
Drop a mini breakdown or screenshot of your results. Offer free insights first.
Example: “Here’s the funnel that brought in 42 high-ticket leads in 14 days. If you run ads for gyms, I’m happy to send the breakdown, DM me.”

4. Move to DM, vet, and suggest a fit.
Only talk deals if there’s a mutual win. Don’t sell to anyone unqualified.
Example: “Sounds like you're running into the same issue I did. I’ve licensed this system to two gym owners already. If it makes sense for your model, happy to walk you through it.”

5. Offer a test deal with clear terms.
Make it frictionless to start. Offer flat-fee, 30-day access, or rev-share.
Example: “Let’s do a simple 60-day license. I’ll onboard you with the full ad system. You keep 100% of your sales. If it works, we can talk long-term.”

The BMM Takeaway

Every business owner wants leverage.

But most chase it by adding more complexity, more products, more people, more risk.

Licensing flips that model.

It gives you leverage by letting other people scale your asset for you.

Instead of building a new business from scratch, you build one asset that earns in multiple places.

And the best part?

It rewards experience, not popularity.

You don’t need to be a celebrity, influencer, or million-dollar brand.

You just need to solve a problem, and package the solution in a way someone else can use.

That’s how licensing turns insight into income.

And why it beats starting from zero.