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How To Get Started With Your First Invention
How To Get Started With Your First InventionSo, a little light bulb inside you head has lit up and you are struck with the idea 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 looking for. What you do next and how you
approach your next steps is extremely 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 assure you that in the end you will be happy that you
took my advice.
Before we proceed with the discussion, I would like to offer a few words of wisdom. While working
on your idea you will encounter people who will criticize your work and try to discourage you
from forging ahead. Some of the criticism will be deserved and should be taken into account. If
you see that a valid point is raised that you never thought of before -
the better off you are. It gives you opportunity to pause and view your idea from another
perspective (or angle). However, you may also encounter a so-called destructive criticism that is
not based on any facts.
When you learn how to separate these two, you will be better of. My advice to you -
- Don't be afraid to question professionals, because most experts are one-track
minded and oblivious to other things
- Don't be afraid to challenge other people's ideas, stand by your principles and be
firm
- Don't be afraid to discover that your own idea is faulty. Pause, make corrections, reanalyze
and move ahead
When you are ready to market your idea, you will have to deal with large corporations. Keep in
mind that the bigger the company is, the more bureaucratic it is. Many big companies lose focus
and often hire employees who are either not qualified for the job, or just not interested in what
they are doing. If you come across these folks who are trying to make you feel insignificant (and
your idea unimportant and impractical) don't get discouraged by this - chances are you will be
better off dealing with smaller company that is more focused and willing to take risks!
Step 1 - Stay 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 that you invented - precisely define your idea, its purpose,
limitations and target audience. If you cannot precisely define your idea, then this means that you
should take a step back, re-analyze your thinking and simplify things. The most common error
that people make at this stage is over-complicating their idea. A quick example will clarify this
point:
Case Study 1
John K. has an idea on how to improve Automatic Knife Mechanism. While laboring hard on his
invention, John K. produces technical drawings and decides that his future product will benefit
from the addition of extra items – a scissor and a screw driver. However, the addition of these
items makes the final product larger and heavier. In order to make knife lighter, John K. goes
back to the drawing board – he compromises his original, Automatic Push/Pull mechanism design
in attempt to accommodate unnecessary extra features that 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 lacks in originality.
In the final analysis, John K. should have stopped right before making any changes to his original
Automatic Knife Mechanism and asked himself the following – am I better off with the original
mechanism or with pedestrian mechanism which has extra features' Are the extra features even
necessary'
The above example clearly illustrates the following – focus on your original idea and ignore
additional, superfluous features that might muddle your vision. Extra features will come into play
later, once you clearly described and shaped your invention.
Step 2 Exploratory Stages – Determine if your idea is unique
Once you’ve documented your idea, you should start thinking about the following – how unique is
my idea' In order to answer these questions, you will have to do some legwork and hit your local
library and internet. Unless you allocated a large amount of your budget to Patent Lawyers, who
will do the research for you, you will be better off doing initial research by yourself. Why'
Because you may discover during your exploratory searches that your design is not unique and
save yourself from paying Big Lawyer fees. A note of caution – don’t get discouraged if you
determine that the idea similar to yours already exists and already patented. The fact that
someone came to the similar conclusions as you, just a little bit earlier is good – you have a
competition! Competition is good, competition is healthy! Carefully examine competing product,
even take it apart, if necessary. Determine what differentiates your idea from competitor’s, its
limitations and how successful was another person (or a company) with marketing it. As you can
see, you can actually learn from mistakes of others, avoid their mistakes and forge ahead fully
aware of competition and their limitations.
Step 3 - Product Safety Considerations
Whether you decided to produce a baby product or some type of household appliance, a special
care should be taken in describing potential hazards associated with the use of your product. For
example, if you invented a new toy designed for small children, try to come up with the list of
parts that can potentially harm your little customers. Keep in mind that many people,
unfortunately, disregard exploitation manuals. Determine what can or may go wrong with the
operation of your product and determine ways on how to improve product safety. The questions
that you may ask yourself are the following –
1. Am I using proper materials'
2. Maybe the part that contains the most hazards should be redesigned'
Try to come up with a thorough list of parts that can be potentially hazardous and fix your design
before you start marketing your product. You may think of this step as unnecessary, but let me
warn you – most marketing companies will require you to describe all Safety features of your
idea, and you might save yourself some time by doing preparations ahead of time.
Step 4 - Demographics and Determining who will Use Your Product
Ones you have a clear picture of your product and you worked out all nuances of product design,
try to determine who will use your product, when and where. Try to ask yourself the following
questions –
1. What is the age bracket of target audience'
2. Is my product designed for Men, Women, or Both'
3. Where and when can it be used'
Correctly answering these questions will help you properly market your product and stay abreast
of the competition. In addition, knowing answers to the above mentioned questions will help you
in putting finishing touches on your product. How' If your product is designed for children, then it
should be bright and colorful. In addition, if your product is designed for cold climate, you should
avoid marketing it in areas where it’s hot all year long.
It is very likely that your product is tailored for certain industry (for example, agricultural); then
think of those who will benefit the most 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 requires a thorough research, planning and leg work;
the benefits, on the other hand, will be payoff rewarding!
Step 5 – Produce Full or Small Scale Model of Your Product
It is extremely important to create a working model off of your idea. Why' By having a real-life
model of your idea (or a scaled-down version of it), will help you to -
1. Identify its limitations and gives you a chance to re-think some aspects of your initial
design and make necessary corrections
2. Enhance your final design
In addition to the above mentioned items, the final model will help you psychologically. There is
no better feeling then to be able to physically see and touch the creation of your own mind! The
fact that you are touching the real-life model of your final design will give you positive
psychological boost equal to no other you’ve experienced during design process, motivating you
even more to succeed!
The best way to approach this step is to try and draw on a piece of paper the final version of your
product, the way you see it at this point in time. Your drawings should show your final
idea/product under different angles, in a 2-D and 3-D. The picture might not be pretty because not
many of us have the necessary drawing skills. However, this drawing task will help you
immensely solidify your design and pin-point items that you still need to work on. In addition, I
strongly recommend that you generate your initial product prototype from clay or any other
material that is readily available. Why' Because this prototype along with initial drawing will help
you explain your idea to technical person who, in turn, will transform your design into highly
technical engineering drawing.
Once you prepared your model, try to determine what materials will go in into construction of reallife
product. Will your product be build of plaster or metal' If metal, then what kind of metal – is it
aluminum, copper or some type of alloy' Once you determined the necessary materials, estimate
production cost because the price that you’ll charge for your product will depend on the
production cost of each individual unit. You don’t have to be 100% correct at this stage with your
material selections, but it’s very good to know what materials will go into production of your
product so that you have a ball-park figure on the final cost of your product.
Step 6 – Estimate Cost and Gross Profit
Once you determined who will use your product and where (or your product’s market), it is time to
think “big” – try to work out cost/benefit analysis of your product. Below is 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 such a way that it would hold both the bottles,
spoons and bottle caps. Mary A. created numerous drawings of her product and with the help of
her husband managed to produce a full-scale version of her product made of clay. Before
involving an engineer, Mary A. estimated that her product will be made entirely out of plastic. The
estimated production cost of 1 bottle holder is $3.00 (we presume that the manufacturing plant is
located in China and shipping costs are already factored in into the estimated production cost).
Mary A. did comparative shopping and determined that other types of Baby Holders are selling
around $15 dollars. In addition, Mary found out that three local baby stores each serve 1000
shoppers per day (including online purchases); in addition, each stores requires a 40%
commissions per each purchase - meaning that $6 is paid as a commission to the store for each
$15 purchase. Mary A. immediately figured out that her total profit will be $6 per each bottle
holder ($15 - $6 - $3). Presume that one third of all 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 amount of 330 X 3 X 6 = $5940.
Step 7 – Product Marketing
Correct marketing strategy is absolutely essential to the success of your idea. Partnering with
marketing company that you can trust and rely upon will pay big dividends in the long run and
should not be overlooked. What should you know about marketing companies' Most of these
companies are divided into two groups (I will call them groups A and B) –
1. Group A: These companies claim that they have specific knowledge and inside
connections in a broad range of industries. In addition to been expensive, many
companies that belong to this group are accused of fraud and inventor should carefully
consider who they are dealing with. In the best case scenario, you could potentially lose
all your money and valuable time; in worst-case scenario, in addition to losing money
someone else may benefit from your invention (unless, of course, you were lucky enough
to patent it!!)
2. Group B: These companies give inventor complete freedom in marketing their idea.
Inventors choose what to say and focus on emphasize areas that they think are most
pertinent to their invention. I would like to point out IdeaJets website (www.ideajets.com):
IdeaJets is a marketplace where people with ideas and companies who search for sharp
minds meet. In addition to helping you find a right partner who can help you realize your
ideas and dreams, IdeaJets also brings inventors in contact 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 in Forums. Hopefully, by sharing
ideas and opinions, users might view their inventions or ideas in a new light, refine and
re-define them to further increase their chances to succeed. As of right now, IdeaJets is
completely free!
Conclusion and some Final Thoughts:
As one can see, it takes a lot of patience, preparation and perseverance on behalf of inventor to
succeed. The main thing is to not get discouraged by the presence of competition and potential
rejections. As I mentioned in my article, competition is good and healthy. If your competitor is
enjoying a great success with the product similar to what you’ve developed, then this means that
the product that you are working on has great potential. Carefully examine competitor’s product
and determine its weaknesses or vulnerabilities. This, of course, presumes that you finalized your
initial design, worked out all the kinks and produced a full-scale (or scaled-down) version of your
product. Once you know enough about competitor’s product, carefully study your market and
demographics - this will help you in designing marketing strategy specifically tailored towards
your product. Put on paper and document all your findings because you may forget some details
later on and realize that the data you painfully need is gone. In general, try to incorporate all your
findings related to cost, market and demographic analysis into Business Plan and store it in a
safe place! Most companies you will try to work or partner with will require you to produce
Business Plan documentation. Not having one will force you to produce Business Plan
documentation almost overnight and this is not an easy task. My suggestion to you - start working
on the Business Plan from the very beginning and save yourself from having sleepless nights!
And a final word of wisdom – don’t be afraid to be over-confident, because confidence and belief
in one's own powers are a great recipe to success!
Robert p. Stewart
www.ideajets.com
support@ideajets.com