Free Success Strategies

Strategies For Success

FIND A BETTER WAY

Dream up a "BETTER WAY" to do anything. Try to solve a problem that you are having with something at home or at work, look and listen to other people complaining about problems they are having, stop and think of a simple way to solve their problem.

WRITE IT DOWN

Always write ALL of your thoughts down. Draw a sketch of how it might look, write down any ideas that come to your mind (Don't be afraid that it is silly or stupid). Even if it seems like an obvious solution, write it down. Sometimes these are the best ideas. The act of putting the idea on paper is very important because it breathes life into a thought. Once you have taken an idea and written it down it becomes real, it is now tangible, you can touch it, mail it, look at it in a different perspective, you can show it or even patent it.

A good analogy might be to think of an idea like the different stages of having a baby. The relationship between an idea and writing it down is like the relationship between making love and getting pregnant. The patent work of an idea is like the nine months of the baby developing. When you get to the manufacturing it's like the delivery, and the marketing and sales is like watching your baby growing up.

AVOID NEGATIVE PEOPLE

Don't tell negative people, "reality stoppers" your idea. Positive people and negative people surround you, learn to share your dreams and ideas with the people that can dream with you. The right people can help motivate you and share your vision and even help you expand your ideas. Negative people can and will always have something nasty or cynical to share with you no matter how subtle it is. This can squash your energy, and ultimately your idea and dreams. If you have these people in your life try to stay away from them at least when your feeling creative. Many times it's hard because they are family members or friends. Lock yourself in the bedroom, go to a quiet restaurant, sit alone and work on your ideas and dreams. Go to the library, or a park, whatever makes you feel safe and away from them. This is your time to reflect on your ideas, your life, your goals and dreams.

BEWARE OF THE “CAN'T” SYNDROME

Listen to your subconscious thoughts, you will most likely hear yourself saying, "I CAN'T" do this. Whenever you here yourself say "I CAN'T", stop and analyze the thought then TRY it. See what happens when you live out the reality of trying it, instead of living out the defeated illusion of "I cant do it" You will be surprised what can happen in your life if you just try it!

PATENT DISCLOSURE

Once you have come up with an idea (or several) and written it down and sketched it on paper, send it to the patent disclosure program. This does not give you patent rights but it does give you the date of conception in case you need to prove it later. Never share your idea with anyone until you have done a patent disclosure. It's only about $10.00. You can get this information by calling the US Patent and Trademark Department at 1-7O3-3O8-4357. You must still pursue a patent application to get any patent rights. You will want to run around and tell everyone your idea but you need to think of why you're telling them. Are they going to bring any thing to the table that will help you or is it for a little stroke of the good old ego? If it's the latter, save it for later. There will be plenty of time to stroke the ego when you're rich and famous.

DO RESEARCH IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD STORES

If you have a good idea now it's time to go shopping everywhere that might sell your product. You need to look everywhere! Look in trade magazines, product catalogs, the Internet, etc. You need to see if someone else has your idea before you put to much energy into it. If someone has already marketed it, don't get discouraged. This just means you're a genius but you got started on this idea to late. Keep looking for new ideas. If you don't see your idea being sold then it's time to get to work. If you see a similar idea that is successful but yours is a little different or better, you're still in the game.

Take a note pad with you when you do your shopping. Write down any new ideas you get along the way. Many times it's several different products put together that will become your final project. Write down all the manufacturers of any products that are in the same line. These manufacturers might be manufacturing or marketing your invention in the near future.

PATENT SEARCH

If you're convinced that your idea is not being marketed its time to do a patent search. You can do this yourself (there is a list of public libraries in the free patent information section of this web site) I tried it once. It was mind boggling for me but then again I never liked the library too much (and now I remember why). I decided after about two hours I would gladly pay my patent attorney about $500 to $800 to have it done. The search should only take about two weeks (yes it will be the longest two weeks of your life).

Once you have the search complete its time to meet with a patent attorney and make a decision on weather the idea is different enough from the prior art to apply for a patent. I will say that most of these most attorneys are honest, but use your common sense when you're making these decisions (You can surly shop around and talk to a few of them to get a feel for weather you have a chance of attaining a patent). The patent application can cost between $1,000 (for a basic design patent) and up to $4,000 (for your basic utility patent) and more if its a complicated monstrosity you've created.

A design patent (in my layman words is just what the thing looks like, the design of it)

A utility patent (in my layman words) is what it does, how it helps people, how it works, how it is better than prior inventions etc.

IT'S TIME TO TALK TO A LAWYER

At this stage you have to have a lawyer anyhow so make him or her earn their money and explain the difference. After about two hours of listening to my patent attorney try to explain my invention I wanted to jump off a bridge, so don't get discouraged. There may be a stage that you have to shake you head like you understand a little of what they're saying, write the check, say a little prayer, and hope he knows what the heck he's talking about. I will say the patent office and patent attorneys have a different language. It's kind of like trying to read the Old Testament written in Yugoslavian.

PATENT PENDING

If you submit a patent application you can put patent pending in your prototypes, finished products and literature. Always remember you may not need a patent to sell your product. Some good ideas can be marketed as soon as you think of them. Your patent attorney should be able to guide you on this as well. When you come up with a name for your product put a (TM) after it to let people know it is your trademark. Later if it is successful you may want to spend money to get it registered. If you made it this far with an idea you're way ahead of most people! Actually if you wrote your idea down on a piece of paper your ahead of most people.
NOW YOU HAVE A "PATENT PENDING" Its time to move into the manufacturing stage.

GET MONEY

At this stage you may need to get some money. There are as many ways to raise capitol, as there are good ideas. You can ask dear old Mom and Dad, deplete your savings, get a loan, borrow it from some friends, etc. The way I did it was to start a corporation and sell shares to my friends. You will need a lawyer to put this together, but it should cost less than $1000 dollars. I was able to sell less than half of my company to around 30 people and raised about $100,000.00. You would be surprised how many people you know will put up a few thousand for a good invention.

MAKE A PROTOTYPE

Every different idea will have several approaches to how you can get your idea made or manufactured. First, try to make a prototype. Do what ever you can to get one made. Carve it out of wood, have your kid make it out of papier-mâché, or even go buy a bunch of similar products, take them apart and piece together a prototype. This will get you an idea of what it takes to make one. If its made out of plastic you will need to go to a plastic injection molder and get prices, if it's metal go to a machine shop. Go to everyone you can think of and soak his or her brains. Take notes! They will all have a better way to get it made. If it's a kite, go to a kite shop and get the name of the manufactures. If its a toy, go to "Toys R Us" and get the manufacture name then get on the phone or get in the car and call or go see them and see what it takes to get the product made. If it comes in a bottle call the other people that are selling other things in a bottle. Many people will give you help if you're not a direct competitor and if you ask where to get the materials or where they get their products made.

TAKE A PHOTO, MAKE A FLYER

The next step is to put together a flyer. Take a photo (or get a professional to do it for a couple of hundred bucks). Write down all the benefits of the product. How it works better than the competition, dimensions etc. Put together any information you can and go to your local typesetter or printer and tell them what you want. (Shop this around or try to get a referral from a friend. My last flier cost me about $250.00 for 2500 pieces and I had bids of $900.00, that is with me supplying the photo and artwork.) At this stage you may not want to make a zillion of them, because you will probably have to do them over when you realize you forgot your phone number, you may want to change the wording when your mom finds 36 typos in it. But this will get you to the trade show or will help you present it to a distributor or a company that may want to buy or license your patent.

MAKE A VIDEO

You may want to make a 3 to 5 minute video if you have the funds. (They say the cost is about $1000 per minute) I went out a bought a "high 8" camera for less than $1000 and shot most of it myself. There are also digital video cameras for around $1000 that have great quality. You can take all the shots and take it into a video place to have it edited. This way you can use the camera at Disney World or keep the box and give it to grandma for Christmas. She won't be able to figure out how to run it but you'll be the talk of the family for the great gift :). When you need more video shots for your next invention, you can just borrow the camera from Grandma.

PRESS

Get yourself, as the inventor, in any newspaper you can. Put together a one-page press release that talks about how you thought up the idea, your struggles etc. (This sounds complicated but write what you can and put PRESS RELEASE across the top of the page). It has to be a story about you, not the product. If it looks like you're trying to just promote you product only, they will send you over to the ad salesperson. You will have to refinance your house to take an ad out the size of the article they will write about you. Send them a photo of you holding your invention or standing next it. Once you get one story, make copies and send it out with every thing you do. It lends credibility to you and your baby, (I mean you and your invention). Try to get on the local TV news. If you can, blurt out how they can get your product buy accidentally mentioning that you have free information on your web sight at www.yourURL.com .

DEFINE YOUR MARKETING APPROACH

Now you have your product (prototype) and a flyer to hand out. It's time to figure out where you want to try to market it to first.

#1 you can sell it to the end user (public) by going to a trade show, the Internet or mail order catalogs etc.

#2 You can sell it directly to a retail store like K-mart, Home Depot, Walgreen's etc.

#3 You can sell it to a distributor that will sell it to the retail market and/or the end user (the public).

#4 You can take an ad out in a trade magazine. Almost all business trades have one or two magazines. Beware of the cost of these ads. Many times the ad will cost you more money than the product would bring in, but you should get real sales from real people, and you'll start to get product awareness in your industry.

One way to get a distributor to pick up your product is to tell them you want to pay for an ad and put them in it as your distributor. It's a little costly but its one way to get the distributor to commit to your product. You must always show the distributor how he can make money with your product. For example tell him you're selling the product now for $29.90 (SUGGESTED RETAIL}. (it would be nice to show a bunch of sales if you have them) And the distributor price is $14.90. Show them a better margin of profit then they normally make. Let them know where you are going to advertise.

GO TO THE TRADE SHOW

Go to a trade show! This is where you meet everyone you will need to know to market your invention. P.S. You can also go to trade show conventions before you get this far just to see the competition etc.) A trade show is simply hundreds or even thousands of people that have gathered in a location to meet, go to seminars with all the updated technology, and to see the trade show vendor (that's us). We are the vendors with all the new ideas on the market. The trade show has people that want to buy your product. The people walking around and the people that can help you market and sell your product {the other people in the trade show booths). I could go on for hours about trade shows but they're all different and every person you meet is a potential sale or a potential distributor for your invention. Going to the trade show is a must.

* Don't just sit in the booth get out and talk with any one you can you will learn something new from everyone you talk to. After your first trade show you should have enough homework following up on leads, sending out samples, trying to get sales to keep you busy until the next trade show.....

YOU HAVE HIT THE 'NO TURNING BACK ZONE'

At this time your in the stage I call the "no turning back zone". If your making some sales and people like your invention. You may have already quit your job or your spouse is waiting for the new car or house that you promised when you spent the vacation money on the pretty color flyers or the airline tickets to fly to the convention. The bottom line is that you should have a good idea by now if your going to be able to sell the product if and when you get distribution.

SELL, SELL, SELL

Now you must use every bit of energy you have every day to sell your products. Keep talking to distributors. Find out who's selling similar products on the Internet, contact them, and send a video and samples to every one in the world that might be able to sell your product. Keep going to trade shows, home-shows, send a package to QVC. Go out in your hometown and drop off samples to stores that might sell the product on consignment go to the neighborhood swap meet and sell, if it's possible Get your product in front of real people when people like it get testimonials. Show other potential clients the testimonials, they lend credibility to you and your invention.

Keep shooting for the big hit, but don't give up on the little sales. The onesy's & twosy's keep you alive until you get a big distributor, or you get K-Mart, Home Depot or Walmart etc. to pick it up. There's nothing like getting the big hit. Once you set up the big account all you have to do is (walk to the fax) get the purchase order, (walk to the phone) call your manufacturer and tell him how many to send, then (walk to the mail box) and get the check.

PERSISTENCY

Nobody can sell your idea like the inventor. You are the person with the passion for the Concept, people will pick up on your excitement. Even if you have to work a real job during the daytime, don't give up. You can make phone calls during your lunch hour. Keep sending out those letters and videos. KEEP MAKING THE LITTLE SALES, BUT ALWAYS KEEP SHOOTING FOR THE BIG HIT! JUST WHEN YOUR ABOUT TT GIVE UP, TRY HARDER, MAKE ANOTHER PHONE CALL, SEND ANOTHER LETTER, CALL A (POSITIVE) FRIEND AND BRAIN STORM DIFFERENT WAYS TO APPROACH THE MARKET. Remember you don't have to be a sales man you just have to have a good idea and the passion and persistency to push it into the market.