Modern Inventor

I have been a professional inventor for 10 years, and one thing I have learned is that practically EVERYONE is an inventor. More often than not, when I tell people what I do for a living, they tell me about their “million dollar idea” that they have been nursing for months or years, just waiting for the right moment to unleash it on the world and reap the riches of their brilliance, if only they knew what to do next. Which, of course, leads directly to the question, “what should I do next?” A question I have tried to answer more times than I can count.

There’s no easy answer to this question, since every product idea has its own idiosyncrasies, and every inventor has different skills and means. However, today I will share with you a few simple steps you can take to move your idea closer to reality, starting with some wisdom gained from my experience as an inventor to try and help you avoid disappointment.

So first, the pieces of wisdom:
If your only interest is to nurse your idea in order to convince yourself that you are brilliant and you never plan on testing the idea, by all means, nurse away. You’re a genius. On the other hand, if you plan on starting to spend your hard-earned cash exploring your idea, you need to be realistic. There are 4 things you should know:

1. There’s no such thing as a “million dollar idea”, which implies that the idea itself is so valuable that it can magically turn into money, without any work being done, if you could only find the right person to tell it to! That’s a lovely idea, but the reality is that there are only million dollar executions of ideas, and the execution part usually involves LOTS of work. Making money from inventing is hard work!

2. Making money from ideas is actually a pretty expensive game, and as a general rule, the greater the potential reward, the greater the cost to monetize the idea. Even the simplest invention is going to cost thousands of dollars to even get the opportunity to find out for real if your product will sell. More complicated ideas can cost tens of thousands to develop. Before you begin on the journey to develop a product, you should make a realistic evaluation of your means to pursue your ends. Get professional advice, from a design firm, patent lawyer, or inventor like myself, on what your idea might cost to develop.

3. Avoid “invention services” firms. These are almost always scams of one sort or another. They will take your money gladly, but provide very little help in actually succeeding with your product, and have extremely low success rates. There’s no such thing as easy money.

And

4. Most ideas, even the good ones, don’t make money, often for reasons having nothing to do with the quality of the idea. Obviously, a well-considered execution can improve your chances of success, but there are so many factors at play, even the best executions can fail to make a return, so never risk more than you can afford to lose, financially, or more importantly, emotionally.

I don’t mean to sound negative, there is an upside to the inventing game as well. I just don’t want you to waste your money following your dream with illusions of how “easy” it’s going to be. On the other hand, a successful product can bring in residual income for years, and if the product is a mass-market product, like the PowerSquid, those residuals can be quite substantial.

So, if having considered these points of wisdom, you are still set on proceeding, here are the first 3 steps you should take to bring your product closer to reality:

1. Search: In an earlier post, I wrote about Googling your idea as the very first thing you should do. To reiterate, Google it. And then Google some more. Check to see if someone else has beat you to the punch.

2. Consult with a designer (Like Trident, or you can look at Core77.com’s design directory, Coroflot, for a directory of design firms) to find out what developing your idea would take, financially and effort-wise, and get an honest appraisal of how realistic your idea is. You also want to get their opinion of the market-feasibility of your product. Listen with an open mind. You don’t want to waste your money, and do not ignore good advice. If someone says something you don’t want to hear, instead of dismissing it, first say to yourself: “Maybe they are right,“ and give an honest appraisal of their feedback. You should be able to get this feedback for free. Talk to several firms of different sizes to get a range of options.

3. Consult with a patent attorney. The first consultation should be free. They will advise you as to the patentability of your product and what your options are for protecting your idea. They will not usually tell you if it is worth patenting your idea. That is a decision you will have to make. This consultation will give you valuable information as you consider your next steps, where you will begin spending money if your choose to proceed: a professional patent search and analysis and potentially a provisional patent application.

4. Evaluate the risk/reward equation for your invention. Not all great ideas are economic opportunities. Sometimes the cost to develop an idea, combined with the risk it won’t work, outweigh the potential reward. Other times the market is just too small. Should you choose to proceed, there are several ways to monetize your idea, falling into two main categories: licensing and manufacturing. The details of these is a topic for another time, but the path you choose dramatically affects your costs, and therefore the economic equation. Licensing is usually the best option for the independent inventor.

Now that you have some information from your searching and consultations with designers and lawyers, you can make an informed decision about whether to start spending money on your idea or just go back to nursing it and knowing that you’re secretly a genius and that if only you met the right person, you could be rich.

So, in answer to the question, what should you do, the answer is, first, be realistic, and then 1) search, 2) consult a designer 3) consult an attorney, and 4) evaluate your invention for economic opportunity.

Follow these steps, and you should avoid disappointment and bring your vision closer to reality.

For my first post, I’d like to answer the first question that people always ask me when they come to me with an idea: what should I do first? The answer is: Google it! And then Google it some more! Most people come to me with an idea they say is unique, and they are positive that “there’s nothing out there like it.” When I ask if they’ve searched, they always say they have. I say “OK”,”let me do a quick search.” Often, in 2-3 minutes I find their exact idea out there. Why? Because they have searched only very superficially, not actually wanting to find their idea already on the market. They think they have a “million dollar idea” and don’t want to find out that their one idea is really an also-ran. Of course, this doesn’t matter if all they want is to think that they are a genius, without actually planning on taking any action. But if you want to start actually pursuing your idea, and start spending money, then you better make sure you know what’s already out there.

When doing your search on Google, you should do MANY searches, not just a couple. And you should go through at least 5 pages of results for each search. You need to try every word combination that might lead to a similar product, and you need to try and think and search like someone who would be shopping for a product similar to your invention. This process may, in fact, reveal your idea already on the market, or it may confirm that it isn’t. Regardless, it will help you know what else exists in that product category space, and may help you refine your idea and perfect your innovative angle. If you do find your idea out there, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are out of luck. Execution is the key to success, and maybe you can out-compete the incumbent with a better product, marketing plan, distribution system, or other competitive edge.

The bottom line is that you need to know what’s out there if you are going to start investing real time and money, and you don’t want to put your head in the sand and hope you’re right.

After you complete your Google search on the web, your work isn’t done. Next you need to search the patent database to make sure your idea isn’t someone else’s patent, even if there isn’t a product out there. This can be done at the Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov) or several other places on the web. I usually use Google’s patent search (www.google.com/patents). I’ll cover this topic in greater detail in a later post. Good hunting!