The Inventor's Mind

When inventing a product it is important to track down the high quality feedback. Always Be open to
input all along the way, at every point in the invention process, you want to get open feedback from every member of your team. It is very easy to fall in love with your own invention (especially if you’re like me!) and fail to see something very obvious right in front of you. Make sure that you aren’t missing anything and that your reasoning stands up to scrutiny. This goes for your business plan as well as your product design and marketing materials. Track down the highest quality feedback you can find. Don’t be afraid to ask a high-powered individuals you meet at a trade show to be a part of your advisory board. I have found that people are flattered to be asked for advice, and it is a good way to gain access to other contacts. Make sure all your advisers understand the confidentiality of your invention project (and maybe sign Confidentiality Agreements). Don’t be defensive. Your goal is to win, not be “right”.
It is also important to note that when you ask people for feedback, they almost always come up with something. You are asking them to, so they feel obligated to contribute, whether or not they have a real improvement. At the end of the day, you need to take responsibility for the final reslults of your invention, so don’t let anyone talk you out of anything you feel strongly about. The invention still need to stay true to your vision. Of course, you need to be open to being wrong, as well, and willing to change in light of some quality input. It’s a fine line to walk as an inventor
Another form of feedback you’ll want to make sure you are getting is financial, both during the development stage and after you start generating revenue. Establish budgets for all of your invention activities and then compare your actual expenses (and incomes) to your projected expenses. That way you can make sure costs aren’t getting out of control and have guidelines to help you make decisions about what to spend money on and when. If you then decide to “break thebudget”, at least you know you are and have a good reason to do so.

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.