So, a little light bulb inside you head has lit up and you are struck with the notion that you invented something. You are not sure yet how practical your idea is at this time, but something tells you that this might be the. Big break you were hoping to find. What you do next and how you approach your next steps is really important and will either lead you on to glory or will doom your undertaking. The steps that I will outline a little later might seem unnecessary; however I want to guarantee you that in the end you will be happy that you took my advice.
Before we proceed with the discussion, I might like to provide a few words of wisdom. While dealing with your idea you will come across those who will criticize your work and try to discourage from forging ahead. A few of the Inventhelp Inventor will likely be deserved and must be taken into consideration. When you see which a valid point is raised that you simply never thought of before – the greater off you are. It gives you possibility to pause and view your idea from another perspective (or angle). However, you may also encounter a so-called destructive criticism that is certainly not based upon any facts.
When you discover ways to separate these two, you will be better of. My advice for you –
– Don’t be afraid to question professionals, since the majority of experts is one-track minded and oblivious to other things
– Don’t be scared to challenge other people’s ideas, uphold your principles and stay firm
– Don’t hesitate to find out that your own idea is faulty. Pause, make corrections, re-analyze and move ahead
When you are able to market your idea, you will have to cope with large corporations. Stay in mind that the larger the company is, the greater bureaucratic it really is. Many big companies lose focus and frequently hire employees that are either not qualified to do the job, or just not thinking about whatever they are doing. If you come across these people that are attempting to cause you to feel insignificant (and your idea unimportant and impractical) don’t get discouraged from this – then you will likely be more satisfied dealing with smaller company which is more focused and ready to take risks!
Step One – Remain Focused and Clearly Document Your Idea
This step has huge benefits, because –
1. You will clearly define your idea/invention
2. While documenting your idea, you may find ways on how to expand your invention
Always try to put on paper what it is which you invented – precisely define your idea, its purpose, limitations and audience. If you cannot precisely define your idea, then which means that you should have a step back, re-analyze your thinking and simplify things. The most frequent error that folks make at this point has ended-complicating their idea. A fast example will clarify this point:
Case Study 1
John K. has an idea concerning how to improve Automatic Knife Mechanism. While laboring hard on his invention, John K. produces technical drawings and decides that his future product will take advantage of the addition of extra items – a scissor along with a screw driver. However, the addition of these products helps make the Invent Help larger and heavier. In order to make knife lighter, John K. goes back towards the drawing board – he compromises his original, Automatic Push/Pull mechanism design in try to accommodate unnecessary extra features who have nothing to do with his unique design. By taking away features from his original design, John K. makes his final design very pedestrian and it also lacks in originality.
Within the final analysis, John K. should have stopped right before making any changes to his original Automatic Knife Mechanism and asked himself these – am I better off using the original mechanism or with pedestrian mechanism that has extra features? Are definitely the additional features even necessary?
The above mentioned example clearly illustrates the subsequent – give attention to your original idea and ignore additional, superfluous features that might muddle your vision. Additional features will come into play later, when you clearly described and shaped your invention.
Step Two Exploratory Stages – See whether your idea is exclusive
Once you’ve documented your idea, you should begin thinking about the following – how unique is my idea? In order to respond to these questions, you should perform some legwork and hit your neighborhood library and internet. Until you allocated a substantial amount of your finances to Patent Lawyers, who can perform the research for you personally, you may be happier doing initial research alone. Why? Since you may discover throughout your exploratory searches that your design is not really unique and stay away from from paying Big Lawyer fees. A note of caution – don’t get discouraged if you determine that this idea much like yours already exists and already patented. The fact that someone arrived at the similar conclusions as you, just a bit bit earlier is nice – you do have a competition! Competition is good, level of competition is healthy! Carefully examine competing product, even bring it apart, if required. Figure out what differentiates your idea from competitor’s, its limitations and just how successful was another individual (or perhaps a company) with marketing it. When you can see, you can actually gain knowledge from mistakes of others, avoid their mistakes and forge ahead fully aware of competition and their limitations.
Step Three – Product Safety Considerations
Whether you opted to produce a baby product or some kind of household appliance, a unique care ought to be consumed in describing potential hazards associated with the aid of your product or service. For instance, should you invented a brand new toy intended for small children, try to generate the list of parts that can potentially harm your little customers. Keep in mind that numerous people, unfortunately, disregard exploitation manuals. Determine what can or may go awry using the operation of the product and determine ways on how to improve product safety. The questions that you simply may ask yourself would be the following –
1. Am I using proper materials?
2. Maybe the part which has by far the most hazards ought to be redesigned?
Try to come up with a comprehensive list of parts that can be potentially hazardous and fix your design before you start marketing your products or services. You may consider this step as unnecessary, but let me warn you – most marketing companies will need you to describe all Safety measures of the idea, and also you might save a bit of time by doing preparations beforehand.
Step 4 – Demographics and Determining who can Make Use Of Your Product
Ones you have a clear picture of your product and you also worked out all nuances of product design, make an effort to determine that will make use of product, when and where. Try to consider these questions –
1. Exactly what is the age bracket of target market?
2. Is my product designed for Men, Women, or Both?
3. Where and once can it be applied?
Correctly answering these questions will allow you to properly market your product and remain up to date with competition. Additionally, knowing solutions to the aforementioned questions will allow you to in putting finishing touches on your own product. How? Should your product is ideal for children, then it ought to be bright and colorful. Additionally, in case your product is made for cold climate, you need to avoid marketing it in locations where it’s hot all year long.
It is quite likely that the item is tailored for certain industry (as an example, agricultural); then think of people who will manage to benefit the best from your invention! If your product is designed to work with specific soil or crops, then you should target geographical region rich with desired characteristics. As one can see, this step demands a thorough research, planning and leg work; the rewards, on the other hand, will be payoff rewarding!
Step 5 – Produce Full or Small Scale Style of Your Products Or Services
It is extremely important to produce a working model from your idea. Why? Having a real-life type of your idea (or even a scaled-down version from it), will help you to –
1. Identify its limitations and provides you a chance to re-think some elements of your initial design and make necessary corrections
2. Boost your final design
In addition to the previously discussed items, the final model will allow you to psychologically. There is not any better feeling then so that you can physically see and touch the development of your personal mind! The fact that you are touching the actual-life type of your final design provides you with positive psychological boost comparable to no other you’ve experienced during design process, motivating you even more to succeed!
The simplest way to approach this method is to try and draw on some paper the final version of your own product, the way you see it at this particular point over time. Your drawings should show one last idea/product under different angles, in a 2-D and three-D. The photo might not pretty because not most of us have the necessary drawing skills. However, this drawing task can help you immensely solidify your design and pin-point items which you still need to work on. Additionally, I strongly suggest which you generate your initial product prototype from clay or some other material which is readily available. Why? As this prototype along with initial drawing will allow you to explain your idea to technical individual that, in turn, will transform your design into highly technical engineering drawing.
When you prepared your model, try to find out what materials should go in into construction of real-life product. Will your product be build of plaster or metal? If metal, then what kind of metal – is it aluminum, copper or some kind of alloy? When you determined the necessary materials, estimate production cost as the price that you’ll charge to your product depends on the production price of every person unit. You don’t need to be 100% correct at this point with your material selections, but it’s great to know what materials should go into production of your product so that you have a ball-park figure on the final expense of your products or services.
Step 6 – Estimate Cost and Gross Profit
When you determined who will use your product and where (or perhaps your product’s market), it really is time to think “big” – attempt to work out cost/benefit analysis of your own product. Below is really a case study –
Mary A., a homemaker with three little children, designed a plastic bottle holder for babies and small toddlers. Her bottle holder was designed in a manner that it would hold both bottles, spoons and bottle caps. Mary A. created numerous drawings of her product and with the help of her husband managed to generate a full-scale version of Inventhelp Patent Services made from clay. Before involving an engineer, Mary A. estimated that her product will be made entirely out of plastic. The estimated production expense of 1 bottle holder is $3.00 (we presume that the manufacturing plant is situated in China and shipping pricing is already factored in into the estimated production cost). Mary A. did comparative shopping and determined that other kinds of Baby Holders are selling around $15 dollars. Additionally, Mary found out that three local baby stores each serve 1000 shoppers per day (including online purchases); furthermore, each stores requires a 40% commissions per each purchase – meaning that $6 pays as being a commission towards the store for each and every $15 purchase. Mary A. immediately figured out that her total profit will likely be $6 per each bottle holder ($15 – $6 – $3). Presume that certain third of shoppers in each store have either babies or toddlers who still need bottle holders (approximately 330 consumers per store), Mary A. can generate profit in the quantity of 330 X 3 X 6 = $5940.
Step 7 – Product Marketing
Correct marketing plan is totally necessary to the success of your idea. Partnering with marketing company that you can trust and rely upon pays big dividends within the long run and must not be overlooked. What in case you know about marketing companies? The majority of these companies are split into two groups (I am going to give them a call groups A and B) –
1. Group A: These companies claim that they have specific knowledge and inside connections in a broad range of industries. As well as been expensive, many companies that are part of this group are charged with fraud and inventor should carefully consider who they are working with. Within the best case scenario, you could potentially lose all your money and valuable time; in worst-case scenario, along with losing money another person may benefit from your invention (unless, of course, you had been fortunate enough to patent it!!)
2. Group B: These firms give inventor complete freedom in marketing their idea. Inventors choose things to say while focusing on emphasize areas that they believe are most pertinent for their invention. I would personally like to point out IdeaJets website (www.ideajets.com):
IdeaJets is a marketplace where people with ideas and companies who hunt for sharp minds meet. As well as helping you get a right partner who can enable you to realize your ideas and dreams, IdeaJets also brings inventors in touch with other ambitious people to cultivate and promote the culture of inventiveness and success. You can meet your fellow inventors using IdeaJets messaging system or perhaps in Forums. Hopefully, by sharing ideas and opinions, users might view their inventions or ideas in a new light, refine and re-define these to further improve their chances to succeed. Since right now, IdeaJets is entirely free!
Conclusion and some Final Thoughts:
As one can see, it requires a lot of patience, preparation and perseverance on behalf of inventor to achieve success. The biggest thing is always to not get discouraged by the existence of competition and potential rejections. As I mentioned inside my article, levels of competition are good and healthy. Should your competitor is enjoying a great success with the product much like what you’ve developed, then this means that the merchandise that you are concentrating on has great potential. Carefully examine competitor’s product and figure out its weaknesses or vulnerabilities. This, of course, presumes which you finalized your initial design, figured out each of the kinks and produced a full-scale (or scaled-down) version of your product. As soon as you know enough about competitor’s product, carefully study your market and demographics – this will help in designing online marketing strategy specifically tailored towards your product. Placed on paper and document all your findings because you may forget some details later on and recognize that the info you painfully need is gone. In general, try to incorporate all your findings xqvfcq to cost, market and demographic analysis into Business Plan and store it in a safe place! Many businesses you may attempt to work or partner with will require that you produce Business Strategy documentation. Without having one will force one to produce Business Plan documentation almost overnight and this is not an easy task. My suggestion to you – begin working on the Business Strategy from the start and stay away from from having sleepless nights! As well as a final word of wisdom – don’t be scared to become over-confident, because confidence and belief in one’s own powers are a fantastic recipe to success!