Inventing for the Rest of Us » inventors

Find What People Want – Conduct an Idea Survey

Bryan Daigle — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:03:45 +0000

Before your creativity comes into play and forces you to invent something unique, a piece of advice to you: always keep in mind that it is absolutely essential to know what the market wants before you go on inventing something. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way in the past.

To know what your market wants, you need to conduct a market survey. However, before you start, prepare a list of questions to ask your target market customers. Here are some examples to get you thinking:

• Will they buy your products? If so, how much will they pay?
• How would they improve the product?
• What are the problems that you face and want them solved immediately?

An experienced inventor once told me he would sit outside his grocery store and ask passers-by the above questions.

Another inventor told me he would approach people in the area of the store where his product would be found, and survey people. Here was his trick; he would tell them he was doing a survey for his friend’s invention so the person being surveyed was more likely to tell the truth (rather than avoid hurting the inventor’s feelings).

Try some of these techniques and develop your own process. The most important thing is that you have a process for surveying customers.

- Bryan Daigle
President & Founder of ideatango.com – the #1 site for inventors & invention ideas For more good info & advice, check out the official IdeaTango Blog

The Basics of a Business Plan – A Must for Savvy Entrepreneurs and Inventors

Bryan Daigle — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:52:52 +0000

After speaking with many investors, entrepreneurs, and consulting startup guides left and right, here are some key things that are critical to include in your business plan:

Cover Sheet

a) Mission
b) Long Term Vision
c) Short Term Vision
d) Description of Services
e) Marketing Plan – who are your customers and why do they want your product/service
f) Marketing Strategy & Execution
g) Competitive Landscape
h) Market Research
i) Go-to-Market Execution Plan
j) Management Team & Personnel
k) Financials for 3-5 Years
l) Executive Summary – do this last but put it first

The earlier you are in your business, the more important are your vision and strategy. As you mature, your execution strategy will become more important than anything else.

Some investors will also look for other documents including: capitalization tables, detailed financial projections, breakeven analysis, balance sheet, marketing materials, inventory list, resumes, etc.

Whether or not you decide to bootstrap or get funding, thinking about these items ahead and during the startup will help put you on the right track.

- Bryan Daigle
President & Founder of ideatango.com – the #1 site for inventors & invention ideas For more good info & advice, check out the official IdeaTango Blog

Yankee Invention Expo, etc.

Bryan Daigle — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:04:41 +0000

Dear Blog,
I’m sorry I have neglected you over the past few weeks. I know you’re very reasonable but I just wanted to let you know I didn’t want to hurt you. It’s just that with my online community for inventors and their invention ideas, IdeaTango.com, we were launching a new, and much improved version of our web site. If you don’t believe me, go to IdeaTango.com right now and you’ll immediately see the difference. Our team was very excited to get this out.
I realize that’s not enough to help you forgive me, but in addition to IdeaTango, I was helping launch another company, InventWise. At InventWise we’ll provide inventors with market research, cold hard facts, that will help them prove the viability of their product. It’s a fantastic group of people, and we’re all driven by a desire to deliver credible, independent research. Normally maybe launching a new IdeaTango.com wouldn’t be enough to keep me from you, but our InventWise team also had to launch a whole COMPANY in a period of a month (web site, team, 800 number, services …). Luckily we had a running start with the experienced founders, but starting a company in a month is no less than an amazing feat. And we did it.
I know what you’re going to say, this isn’t good enough. But let me stress that we were limited by a hard deadline, the Yankee Invention Expo in Waterbury, CT October 11-13th. We had no option to do all this before then. if you don’t believe me, you can go see pictures from the invention show.
So I hope you understand and can forgive my absence. Lucky for you not only will I be writing to you, but also Lisa Lloyd, our wonderful, and successful inventor partner. I hope we can have what we had before.

Bryan Daigle