Inventing the future
Got an idea for a new product? Here's what to do first...
Don't do nothing!
If you seriously believe your new product idea might be a winner, check it out. Research doesn't need to cost a bean, if you look in the right places. Sitting on an idea is a drain on your energy. Either move your idea along, or decide to set it aside.
Write it down
While the idea is in your head, it may feel clear to you. But there's nothing like writing it down as a first test of whether
a) you're serious about it
b) you are clear enough about it to do some further research.
Check its originality
You'd be surprised how many people I come across who have an idea, but haven't actually "Googled" for it. In a matter of seconds you can find out if your product idea is already for sale. Most often it is. You've saved yourself bags of time straight off.
Even if you don't find it on the market, someone may have patented the idea already, especially if there's something innovative and technical about it. This excludes you from doing anything with it. You can do a quick patent search yourself on the Intellectual Property office's website www.ipo.gov.uk . No need to pay anyone to do it for you in the early stages. If you need help checking the databases, the Business & IP Centre at the British Library in London has great advisers, workshops and one of the best collections of IP information in the UK, available for free www.bl.uk/bipc
Check out the competition
Again, get online to find out what's out there already. You may not find exactly your idea on offer, but bear in mind that competing products are ones that CUSTOMERS see as providing them with the same benefits. If yours isn't compellingly, uniquely different in some way that customers recognize as useful, you're going to have a tough time breaking into the market.
Sum up your idea in a few words
Sounds easy. But one of the hardest things to capture is the essence of your own product idea in one sentence. Don't say anything about HOW it works, DO say what's different and important about it. Pinning down your unique customer proposition starts to breathe life and power into your idea.
Explore your routes to market
Are you going to sell your idea through existing retailers? Or by yourself on the web? Is there strong enough Intellectual Property (IP), such as a patent, in your idea that you will be able to license it to manufacturers or distributors to do the legwork of taking it to market? Will these middle men even want to supply your idea, or will it upset their applecart? Many great ideas fail to get to market because too little advance investigation has been put into how they will reach the customer.
Check in with yourself
Are you really up for developing the product and taking it to market? Just what do you want out of it? A future business? A secondary income? Just the satisfaction and fun of it? And just how much time and money are you prepared to put in, given that there aren't pots of gold available to help most new product ideas get off the ground?
Follow trails to success
Before you go on to making a simple working prototype, and then paying money to protect a patent or register a design or your trademark, it's a good idea to check out how other people have developed their new products and taken them to market. Most often the real-life stories tell you far more than any amount of generic business advice ever will.
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