Finding the perfect career that makes more money is a lifetime goal of many people. As an inventor, you can accomplish your dreams by creating “your perfect product” and trying to pitch it to companies and people who will buy it.
People often think of inventors as odd folks who are chasing their tail. The truth is, you need a strategy plan in order to get your dreams to fruition. Sometimes inventors are too busy thinking about their idea to actually sit down and plan something that could sell. This is just a fatal error that many inventors never get past, but hopefully you can implement the tips to get yourself out of that rut.
Planning for the market
People have unmet needs as consumers, and that is one reason people buy things. As an inventor, you also act as a marketer, and a product developer, since you need to ascertain what consumers want. You also need to predict what businesses may need. One way to do this is to familiarize yourself with the industry you hope to enter. You ought to know that the toy industry is very difficult to break into and the timeline may take months. Don’t expect to call in September and get your product to market in November.
Inventing takes time, and you should try to predict trends in the future and even a year or two ahead of the market. If your product is sufficiently advanced, and is years ahead of the marketplace, you may not be able to sell it right now as well. Your job as an inventor is to think before you start inventing, because there may not be a need for it. You can check with family and friends to see if your idea has viable interest. The best way to check for interest is to do actual product marketing research, using surveys and other methods. Pretend that you’re selling your idea to the board of a company. They will want to know why they should pick up your project, oversee its development, and try to sell it in the grocery store. Companies will usually do their own market research ahead of you, so they already know but want to hear your research anyways.
You can also try to work with other companies in the industry you’re inventing for. Sometimes people will tell you directly what you should improve on, and what companies are looking to market.
Protection of your property
Once you have created something that is tangible, you can go ahead and try to protect it with things like patents. We would not be able to give legal advice, since everyone’s situation is different. You can protect your invention in many ways. Oftentimes, however, the common theme of protecting your idea is the initial cost needed. Sometimes it can cost in the tens of thousands to patent an invention, as well as a period of years. There are better ways to go about protecting your invention, rather than rushing out to patent it right away.