Licensing may be your better strategy when the barriers to entry for services and products that use your invention are large. Licensing is a good strategy in case your strengths and interests do not include building a business.
Invent Early, License Later
A typical strategy for patent help companies is always to invent early after which license later. Inventors designed to use this tactic presciently find the best solutions to problems years before their peers. They file for and receive patent protection for his or her inventions, and then wait.
Years later, businesses discover those solutions, and incorporate them to their services. Normally a wide array of businesses and industries will adopt an answer, and colorize it for you to their particular needs. However, they're still obligated to cover the patent holder with the solution. The patent holder profits by owning the answer a long time before it is widely adopted.
Invent, Sell, License
Other inventors choose to actively promote the adoption and licensing of their innovations. They notice that you will find often multiple viable answers to a problem, and seek to encourage the adoption of the solution.
The very first requirement on this method is filing that least a provisional patent application. Otherwise, potential licensees cannot be certain that you own the answer you're selling them. Provisional patent applications are comparatively cheap to file for, and still provide per year of protection to your idea as you explore its commercial viability.
The subsequent requirement in actively licensing your invention is always to produce a viable solution that may save the licensing party money, even though in addition they pay out the comission. Actively licensed ideas have typically moved at night idea stage, and will include prototypes and test data. Your licensee has to be capable of seeing how you can quickly and profitably adopt your invention.
Finally, to learn from a licensing deal, you need a realistic valuation of the economic good thing about your invention. With out a convincing valuation, organizations are often unwilling to invest in appropriate royalties.