Knowing that there would not be a tape sale, he mentioned that he had an invention. I asked what it was and he replied he could not tell me. I enjoy helping others realize their dreams so I gave him several realities of starting a business or bringing an invention to market.
The first misconception is that you have the best idea in the world and that you can not tell anyone about it because they are going to steal it. The reality is that you may very well have a great idea, but telling people about it allows you to talk with potential customers about what they would want. And they may save you from wasting years of your life and tons of money on a bad idea.
Another reality is that it takes a lot of passion time and money to bring something to market. Most people do not have all of those attributes and many are not as passionate about your idea as you are. If your idea is so easy to replicate that just by mentioning it they can beat you to market... there is no barrier to entry and even when you bring it to market you can be quickly and easily taken over by people with more money time or passion.
So make sure that there is key differentiators to your idea, something that makes it unique, and that there are attributes that are not easily duplicated. Most of your friends or colleagues will not want to spend $50K on special tooling to make your product so that could be a barrier to entry. However it would not be wise to tell the industry leaders or companies (that would be your competition) what you are planning. Again they have more passion (they are already in the market) they have more money, and they have existing market share. So there is a point where you should keep things close to the chest. Don't go out telling everyone exactly how you will make it, but telling them the idea, and seeing their reaction is good. Ask people what they would pay for such a thing.
If your idea is revolutionary and something you need to educate your customers about, it will take longer to get market share. That means more time marketing spending money and not making any money. Be prepared to lose everything you have, everything you own to make your idea a reality. You can say this will not happen to you because I am smart, I have money, I have connections... but in the end that will just delay the inevitable. If you talk to most successful inventors, you will hear that they had huge hardship before things got good again. I was one of those people who said it would not be me, I had a nice 4,400 sf house worth over $750,000 about half of which was equity, I had other Real Estate that added to my equity. I had savings from years of making over $100,000 per year. I had two degrees from a good business school, one in Advertising Management and one in Marketing. I started my first business when I was only 10 years old, and was in sales most of my life. So I thought I had this thing beat! Needless to say 2008 was a huge reality check, I gave up my old income to devote the time needed to build my business. The market crashed and I was not able to sell that house, I lost $400,000 in Real Estate because I no longer had the income to cover the payments. Our savings went into the tooling, inventory materials and marketing. We had sales so things seemed like they would pick up and start paying us instead of us paying to keep afloat. For the first two years we still were growing, and still did not have any debt... Well the savings was gone so we started to borrow some money to pay for marketing front the materials and pay for some other large expenses. Today we are still growing, some weeks we make good income but then we have a bust week and it is all gone again.
Unlike most people who can go to work, and be paid for their efforts or time. Being a business owner or inventor everyday is an expense, leased space, electricity, phone... all of the stuff needs to be paid. Even when you make a sale you need to buy more stuff to make another product so you can do it again another day. Having come from sales it was not far different, but the risk and expenses are a lot more than being a sales person. A sales person is selling a known product, not trying to carve out a market for their invention. I remember vacation time, sick pay and benefits, now I offer those to my employees but never have a day off and never get paid for every hour I work.
If your invention is a deviation from something already available you may have an easier time than trying to tell people why they need a $65 rock, but the competition can take you out faster and easier. So everything is a give and take and should be considered before taking any step. You always need to look forward, learn from the past and when you make a decision do it. There should be a good reason to do or not do something so don't waste time and money changing your mind all of the time. If you receive feedback or evidence that you made the wrong choice (it will happen) then think about everything again and make another choice. Nothing just happens, you make it happen so don't waste time complaining about what happened.
By now you are wondering why people try to invent things or start new businesses, well the answer is simple for me. I love what I do, I have learned a lot about what is important and what is not. In the end hopefully it will all pay off. The harder I work now the more likely I am to reduce the time when life sucks in the middle. I am living the American dream, I had an idea, I built it into a product and have been building a market for my product. I am not anyone special, I was not born with a trust fund, I am just a regular guy like you. I am building my product in the USA, and make it from US materials, and am creating jobs here. I not only give income to my suppliers, but as a manufacturer I add another product to my vendors product line and increase their odds of making a sale. I also have had the fortune to be able to offer a job to an ex US Marine who now assists in manufacturing. This all makes me feel good, I like knowing that I am keeping money flowing in our economy. I love having a product that I made, it feels better than when I just shuffled paperwork. Yeah I made more money but I never had anything to show for it.
One other pitfall I have seen is that people spend too much time and money trying to make prototypes before making sure the product is viable. Don't spend 5 years perfecting your idea, just go to your garage, shop or whatever and put together something yourself. It will not be perfect, but you should be able to see the flaws immediately, see the things that increase complexity and therefore add the most to the cost. You can also think about what makes your invention different and better. It was after I had made my prototypes that I finally went to a designer to have specific parts designed and made. I could have wasted all my savings trying to design it first, but by having a functioning prototype the design was fast, it worked and cost a lot less. I actually went to my first trade show with my prototype, I was into the trade show for over $5,000 I met with the largest industry leaders all with a prototype that I made in my garage. It was not perfect, but then my potential clients (vendors) could tell me what they cared about, what they wanted different all before I had paid for a design or made it perfect. This was also good because I could feel out pricing before I fixed the costs to manufacture the product.
After telling the tape sales person all of that he kept saying don't tell me that, and he still refused to tell me the base idea of his invention. Oh, well not everyone listens. I know how hard it is to tell people about your invention, I was there myself. Yes you should be cautions but if you never tell anyone about it you will never sell it.
Another thing to consider is how you manufacture the product, if you ship it overseas to be made, you no longer have control over the process. Your design may be compromised, leading to your competition duplicating your product. No matter where you make it this could happen, so just be careful who you get in bed with.
I congratulate all of you who have ideas, I commend all of those who make the idea into a reality! Just remember that you are jumping on a crazy roller coaster and in the end it could end up good or bad, enjoy the ride as much as you can. Don't be scared to give everything up for a dream, if no one took risks life would be boring and technology would not be nearly advanced as it is. Did the first astronaut think it was the smartest and safest idea to strap himself inside a missile? Probably not, but look where it has taken us.
If you are already halfway down the roller coaster of life and business, keep your focus on what is important. Don't get hung up on the fact that your life may have been easier before you started this, just keep plugging away. Some days will just suck, that is life. You may think you finally hit bottom, then it gets worse, that is life hang in there and make the best out of it.
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