Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!: Make Your Million-Dollar Idea Into a Reality (10 page)

Ignorance is never a good excuse for stalling. You can get any information you need if you’re willing to do the research.

You have all the information at your fingertips that you need to get your invention made. If, then, I could figure out how to get my prototype made when my only resources were the business
pages and whatever books I could lug home from the library, today you can use the Internet to find a reliable prototype maker, as well as manufacturer, packager, sales rep, or any other resource you need. It is worth the time and effort to educate yourself as thoroughly as possible about every aspect of your business, from design to manufacturing to packaging. Absorbing all that knowledge will be instrumental in protecting yourself from being taken advantage of and for negotiating the best deals possible.

MAKE OPPORTUNITY WORK FOR YOU

Before devoting myself full time to my organizer, I had worked with a woman named Georgia, and a day or so after finding out that there was polystyrene and injection molding somewhere in my future, Dan and I attended her son’s wedding. We didn’t know anyone there, but we looked forward to a fun evening. I was midway through my appetizer and deep in conversation with the neighbor to my right when I felt Dan firmly tap me on the hand. I turned to him to see him grinning broadly. Leaning in, he said, “You’re not going to believe this.”

“What?” I replied.

“Guess what every person at this table does?”

“What?”

“They’re all plastic injection molders.” He grinned with a Cheshire Cat smile. “That guy over there,” he pointed across the table, “is a toolmaker. And these other guys here? Also injection molders. But guess what? Georgia’s husband owns an injection molding factory about twenty minutes away from us.” Unbelievable! What we needed had just fallen into our laps.

I love that anecdote because I’ve always believed in karma and destiny. I needed an injection molder, and there I was at a wedding where everyone at my table was in the plastic injection mold
business. Georgia and I had talked often, but her husband’s profession had simply never come up, so I had no idea what he did for a living! It was a brilliant stroke of luck, and I was grateful for it. But even if I had never gone to that wedding, I would have eventually found every person sitting at that table. I would have hunted them down and introduced myself and explained why they were going to want to do business with me. Success takes doggedness!

A few days after the wedding, I visited the tool-making shop with my drawings and prototype in hand (we’ll cover what to look for in a manufacturer in
Chapter 8
). I wanted to get a general idea of what it would cost to make the earring organizer so that I could start to think about pricing. The owner took me on a tour of his shop, helped me understand how everything worked, explained to me what tools I would need to make my product, and gave me a quote. Then I went to the injection-molding factory and had the same tour and conversation there. I found out that it would cost me $120,000 to make the three molds necessary to manufacture my earring organizer in the United States.

Ten thousand dollars had been a hefty sum to pay for my prototype. But $120,000 was eye-popping. And that was just for the tools. I knew I was still going to have to pay for graphic design, packaging, inventory, and other expenses; I was going to have to take out a bank loan to get this done. But I wasn’t daunted. I did what my dad always taught me to do—I thought, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?” Answer: It won’t work out. But I had a plan in place, and I was determined to make it work, so I forged ahead.

Now, in the short amount of time it took my prototype to be made, I had created a questionnaire. And as soon as the prototype was ready, I had taken it and the questionnaire to the streets of Chicago to conduct some thorough market research. The results confirmed what my innate instinct was screaming at me, which was that I had hit upon an idea whose time had come.

PROTOTYPE TO-DO LIST:

Finalize the dimensions of your product.

Research the materials you will need to create it. Talk to industry professionals to get recommendations.

Contact at least two designers so you can compare bids for a CAD design.

Get the names and locations of at least two prototype makers so you can compare bids.

Confirm that your prototype maker will sign a nondisclosure agreement.

Learn from the advice these professionals give you along the way.

4

RESEARCH YOUR MARKET

“Forget mistakes. Forget failure. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day.”

—W
ILL
D
URANT

It’s so easy for inventors to get carried away in their enthusiasm. With every new idea, we are convinced we’ve created an amazing solution to a big problem, or that there is a hole in the market that only our invention can fill. But sometimes, if we’re not careful, we can misjudge the market. Sometimes the problems that make us want to tear out our hair are simply mild annoyances to others. Sometimes our solution is more problematic than the problem it’s trying to solve. All entrepreneurs are passionate about their product. However, there’s passion, and there’s delusion. Market research can confirm that your invention warrants the first, and it can save you from the latter. It’s the reality check on your unbridled enthusiasm and ambition.

Market research can also help you avoid making one of the most common mistakes of new inventors, which is to manufacture
a product even before getting a single order. This is a terrible idea. Inventors who fall into this trap usually think they are being models of preparedness. They think that they are going to get hit with a tsunami of orders, and they’re taking proper precautions to make sure they can fulfill them. But ordering product before receiving orders isn’t an example of preparedness; it’s one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make. First, you’ve put yourself on the hook to pay for all those units, even though you have no guarantee of revenue. Second, you now have the additional burden of paying for storage. Third, when you order your inventory too soon, you’re wasting the money you paid for your prototype because you’re undermining one of the main reasons you got it in the first place—to conduct your market research. Placing an order too soon with a manufacturer has ruined countless inventors. Avoid adding yourself to this unfortunate list, and conduct your market research rigorously. Done properly, it will add substance to your pitch and to your claim that millions of customers are just waiting to get their hands on your invention.

Your market research will focus on three primary areas of interest:

• First, you will want to know as much about the competition as possible. Are there other products out there like your invention, and if so, who makes them, who buys them, and how well do they sell?

• Second, you will want to be informed about the consumer market in general. What is the state of the economy, and how is it affecting consumers’ spending habits? What’s on trend right now?