In 2006, BIG spun off Inventor's Workshop, a company devoted to offering innovative products through retail and advertising specialty channels. BIG continues to work with Inventor's Workshop, licensing innovative products to them.

In retail, the focus is on developing and offering products to businesses that sell the following categories of items: office supply, toy, and specialty gifts. Items would be sold in office supply stores, grocery/supermarket, and specialty gift shops. They should be unique and appeal to mainstream consumers.

In ad specialty, IW is seeking inexpensive products that can be branded with a marketing message to promote goods or services. Generally, these products are inexpensive--under $1 to produce--because they are frequently giveaways. They also must have broad appeal, appealing to large target markets--such as healthcare professionals, financial institutions, insurance agencies, etc.--or the public in general. Often they are a desktop/office supply item or something that would be used on a daily basis.

What's NOT of interest: items that

• Offer little or no innovation
• Require extensive and expensive product development
• Don't have general consumer appeal
• Require a lot of explanation of how they work
• Have a very short life
• Are delicate or hard to ship