Here are suggestions inventors need to do or understand when it comes to inventing if they want to be successful.
1. Understand that inventing is a business. Treat it as one.
2. Do some research on your idea before submitting it to a company. Don’t tell them “There’s nothing like this!” By spending 2 minutes on the web they find several articles exactly like yours.
3. Understand that each company has a different method and time frame for reviewing submissions. Do not send a proposal in the mail on Monday and call them Tuesday at 8:30 am to find out when they will send you a contract. It’s a simple task to ask the company you are submitting material to for review “What is your normal turnaround time for reviewing submissions?”
4. Don’t marry your product and be totally against changes to make it marketable.
5. Put your contact information on every article you send them. Don’t make them guess who smells it.
6. Do not send unsolicited prototypes. Let them know that a prototype is available upon request. A company cannot be expected to pay for shipping every unsolicited prototype it receives.
7. Understand that every idea is not a million dollar idea. Yes, there are million-dollar ideas, but they are not the majority of ideas. Be realistic in your expectations
8. Realize that everyone who rejects your idea is not stupid.
9. Don’t send a 20-page explanation of your product. Be concise and clear in your sell sheet. If it takes more than two pages to explain your idea, you have a problem.
10. Know who you are sending your presentation to in the company. Don’t assume they’ll sort it out for you if you just send it to the company.
11. Not having an idea/plan of who to contact to license your product before spending the money on a provisional patent. A large number of inventors pay for a provisional patent, knowing that they do not have the money for a full patent and have not researched who might be interested in licensing it. They spend 6 months of the year looking for company contacts, which means they only have 6 months to try to get some interest before their time runs out. They had no intention of paying for a patent and now they are forced to either drop it or pay for a patent. If you do it right, you have all your 12 months to find a company.
12. Be patient and don’t call every other day asking if your product has been checked. They may be on vacation, sick, or very busy. They are not sitting and just waiting for their package.
13. Don’t assume that the person reading your sales sheet will magically know all the selling points/benefits of your product that you missed. Example: What if your idea revolves around fishing and they don’t fish and don’t know anything about it?
14. Keep a concise record of who you contacted at the company and what you sent them. Several Inventrs send packages and two days later they couldn’t tell you what they sent or to whom. The person from that company calls and he struggles to remember who this person is as he talks to them on the phone.
15. When communicating with a business, remember that they own the business, not you. Write your letter to the company from a realistic perspective, give them real facts, not what you want them to be. Don’t write your letter in a threatening tone or from the point of view that they are crazy if they reject you. Don’t fill your letter with information they don’t really need, like how you came up with the idea, how long it took you to build your prototype, etc. They only care if it will make them money. DO NOT USE THE PHRASE “My idea is worth MILLIONS!!!” Let them decide for themselves what it’s worth.
16. Don’t send prototypes to companies that don’t work and tell them “I’m sure you can fix the bugs.”
