Now that the project partnering agreement was signed, John and Peter decided they wanted to monitor it to ensure compliance. In the agreement they had established a prejob conference. They invited all the subcontractors to this meeting and explained how they would measure the success of the agreement. They were interested in knowing if there were any violations of the terms. They were also interested in knowing if there were any subcontractors who consistently violated their agreements. So they created the chart shown below.
John and Peter agreed to review the chart with all the subcontractors twice a year during the course of the three-year project. The first piece of work completed was the demolition and removal of an old abandoned structure. They met after that segment of the project was completed to see how well the subcontractors involved were complying with the agreement.
As the chart shows, the demolition and removal segment was not without violation, but the one minor infraction appeared to be due to an oversight rather than intentional. Both Peter and John felt the matter was handled appropriately and decided this was not a violation of their trust. Both thought the project partnering agreement was working well and agreed to continue to monitor the results. John made a comment that seemed to sum up their success so far: “Although we’ve just started the project, we’re already a week ahead of schedule because the demolition
and site cleanup went so smoothly.”
Another option that many independent inventors are choosing nowadays is to license their inventions for royalties. This is a method of choice for many inventors for lots of compelling reasons. Once a product is licensed to a manufacturer, that product will automatically have a place on the planogram of the retail stores where the manufacturer places goods. The manufacturers handle all of the responsibility for producing the product, selling it to retailers, bookkeeping, etc. The licensor (the inventor) goes to his mailbox and collects his royalty checks at regular intervals, usually quarterly. The inventor’s time is entirely his own to spend creating other moneymaking new products or in whatever way he chooses.