In recent blog posts, I have described a variety of reasons why inventors often fail. So now, let’s look at reasons why inventors succeed.
Today’s topic: Key to Inventor Success – a Clear Goal and a Plan B
New inventors struggle with many issues most notably: what is the best path forward for my product? There is no perfect answer to this logical question. I recommend that inventors should consider either one of two key marketing paths:
• Licensing the product and being paid a royalty on sales
• Building a business around the product – manufacture, package and market it yourself
Below are two earlier blogs I did regarding the two above paths:
Having a clear marketing goal and path is important because it shapes your actions going forward and should be aligned with your capabilities – financial and otherwise. Let’s look at how this clear goal/Plan B can work.
Your clear goal is to license your product and collect royalties.
You chose this path because you do not want the headaches of manufacturing and you cannot afford to manufacture the product yourself.
Plan B is to fund it through a Kickstarter campaign.
If the goal is to license, then you need to have some clear ideas of manufacturing costs and the companies you approach will want to know approximately what that cost would be. Also, this goal shapes your actions as you will follow on by researching in depth the potential licensee companies – their current product lines and how your product could fit in as a nice complement.
If your licensing efforts seem to have ground to a halt or hit continuous barriers – then Plan B should be followed.
In this case, Kickstarter is ways to have others fund the cost of an initial manufacturing run – reducing your risk. Kickstarter campaigns are very low cost (you need lots of work and due diligence, but minimal capital). Assuming your campaign hits its funding target or, better, exceeds it, you are off to the races. Nothing says you must manufacture anything beyond your Kickstarter commitment.
So, having Kickstarter as Plan B in this case, is great because it is excellent for social media and advertising in general. Assuming all goes well and you manufacture enough to fulfill your Kickstarter commitments, there is a good chance you either might obtain funding for ongoing manufacturing or you might get greater interest in licensing. Either option would be good for you.
Stay tuned!