Pat Yates is the President and Owner of Happy Feet Slippers, a novelty business providing high-quality, comfortable house shoes for the entire family. The slippers garnered nationwide attention after a 2014 appearance on Shark Tank, where he struck a deal with Robert Herjavec. Since then, the company’s grown into a multimillion-dollar e-commerce operation. The deal led to licensing agreements with DreamWorks, NCAA, NFL, and Disney. By 2015, he formed a relationship with Mark Daoust, the Founder of Quiet Light, where he now serves as one of the broker’s mergers and acquisitions advisors.

In this episode…

Happy Feet Slippers started as a kiosk retail venture over 25 years ago. Today, the slipper company is a global success thanks to an appearance on a popular TV show. Soon, more opportunities followed when the founder, Pat Yates, signed lucrative licensing deals with prominent brands. Although licensing helped elevate his company, the experience was the start of a new lesson in business for the seasoned e-commerce entrepreneur.

If you’re an established business owner interested in licensing your products, Pat advises doing your research first. To license a product involves giving another company rights to your intellectual property to produce and sell. Leveraging license agreements has benefits, such as passive income, brand recognition, and acquiring new customers. On the contrary, there’s a risk of intellectual property theft, losing control of your brand, colossal licensing fees, and profit loss.

In this episode of the eComm Breakthrough Podcast, Josh Hadley interviews Pat Yates, President and Owner of Happy Feet Slippers and Business Broker at Quiet Light, to discuss the complexities of licensing. Pat talks about protecting your brand, his various licensing partnerships, and the steps to acquire licensing. Pat also switches gears to discuss mergers and acquisitions, offering sage advice on exiting a business.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Josh Hadley on LinkedIn
• eComm Breakthrough Consulting
• eComm Breakthrough Podcast
• Email Josh Hadley: [email protected]
• Hadley Designs
• Hadley Designs on Amazon
• Pat Yates on LinkedIn
• Email Pat Yates: [email protected]
• Quiet Light
• Happy Feet Slippers
• Happy Feet Slippers on Amazon

Special Mention(s):

• Kevin King
• Howard Thai on LinkedIn
• Roland Frasier on LinkedIn
• Rich Goldstein on LinkedIn
• Licensing Expo
• Loom

Book Mention(s):

• The EXITPreneur’s Playbook: How to Sell Your Online Business for Top Dollar by Reverse Engineering Your Pathway to Success by Joe Valley
• Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game by Walker Deibel
• The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen

Related Episode(s):

• “Kevin King’s Wicked-Smart Tips for Building an Audience of Raving Fans”
• “Mastermind Level Strategies From a Former Top 50 Amazon Seller With Howard Thai”
• “Seven Acquisition Strategies to Scale to Eight Figures and Beyond”
• “How to Double or Triple the Value of Your Business With Intellectual Property (Ip) Protection”