Every day there are hundreds of weird and wonderful gadgets that get invented around the world. They say that necessity is the mother of all invention and that saying doubtless rings true with a lot of today’s inventors!
Most people invent something to fix an existing problem in today’s modern world. Take clothes storage, for example.
Someone invented plastic storage bags for clothes. People can just suck the air out of them using a conventional vacuum cleaner. The result: more clothes can get stored in the same volume of space.
Is innovation your middle name? Perhaps not, but if you’ve invented something you might be wondering what you should do next. You’ve come to the right place because, today, you will learn just what to do!
Don’t patent until you need to do so
A lot of inventors assume that they must patent their ideas before they can tell anyone about them. But what those inventors don’t know is that it’s not a top priority! Here’s why:
- Patents are expensive. It’s not uncommon to spend at least $5,000 on a single patent for your invention in the United States;
- Patents are slow to arrange. A lot of research needs to get carried out to find out if someone else invented the same thing as you. That research often takes several months before a patent is granted;
- Your invention might not be desirable. Just because you have spent a lot of time and money on your invention doesn’t mean it will be attractive to the masses.
When you have a working prototype, don’t be afraid to use a few trusted individuals as guinea pigs for your invention. The idea here is to gauge how popular or useful your invention is. For example, a cheap and easy to use water sterilizer is useful for places where there is poor water quality. A faucet that sings to you in the morning might not be useful to most people!
Be smart when bringing your product to market
Let’s say that your product is both useful and desirable to a lot of people. How do you bring it to market? You could set up your own company to manufacture and distribute it, but that takes a lot of time and money. It’s also a hell of a gamble if things don’t go according to plan!
The smart way would be to target companies that already have a customer base perfect for your invention.
Launch a kick-ass website
The Internet is a global marketplace. Most people will go online to do some research on a new product before they buy it. That’s why you need an amazing website that will make them get their credit card out in just thirty seconds!
It’s crucial that you let a pro handle this side of things for you. For example, a friend of mine was telling me about some positive Today’s Growth Consultant reviews. TGC is one of many consultancy firms that can help you to build a revenue-generating website.
Don’t forget to set up an effective social media campaign too; after all, you want people to spread the word about your awesome invention.