Top Niche Ideas

A patented invention – although very commonly obtained by large companies – can change an individual inventor’s life when it’s first obtained. Aside from the initial excitement and feeling of accomplishment that comes from a first patent, an invention can promise a new, potentially lucrative way to make money. An inventor can end his or her relationship with the patent immediately by selling the patent to an organization who can capitalize on the idea easily. This decision can reward the inventor with a very large, immediate bottom line. However, the inventor that wishes to build a company out of his invention could watch it turn into an empire.

Before the entrepreneurial inventor can watch his or her company grow, he or she has to put its foundation together, which is anchored largely by a business plan. A business plan will define what it is one is looking to sell, how he or she is going to sell it, pricing guidelines, marketability, and definitions of how the business will be structured. If you aren’t far from getting that patent and need to know what is in a business plan, continue reading.

Part One: The Executive Summary
This is the first section of your business plan and probably the most important. In this section, you will describe the fundamentals of your invention and how you plan to build a business around it. In addition to stating the purpose of your business, this is a place of summary, where you can outline the rest of your business plan so that it makes the presentation easier on readers. It’s likely that if you have successfully patented a novel item, then you will gather the interest of venture capitalists. They’ll be most intrigued when seeing this executive summary.

Part Two: The Marketing Plan
This part requires the creativity that you tapped when you first invented your product. You’ll need to answer questions here like “who will buy this product?” and “what strategies are necessary to lure a buyer in?” In addition to this, you’ll need to realistically define what you can expect when it comes to buyer turnout. The investment of money and time put in can equal the amount of revenue taken in, and this is probably the best place to estimate this. It’s very important that when you project these things, that you don’t overestimate. If you are actively seeking investors to take an interest in your product, they will be very actively disappointed if you don’t supply the revenue that you agreed to. This is also a place to exhibit some of your first advertising ideas. Since you know your invention probably better than anyone else, the roots of your advertising campaign should lead to you. In the future, you may want to tap other creative outlets – particularly experienced marketing personnel – but if you’ve got a great idea for letting people know how good your product is, this is the place to describe it.

Part Three: Financial Projections
Although you know you have a great product ready to be shown to the world, can you identify just how much money it’s going to bring in at first? This is never an easy question to answer. If you’re new to the business world, it’s best to contact a friend or colleague who knows about making projections like this so that they can help you do proper research. It has been said here before, but it bears repeating: be realistic. Venture capitalists will form better relationships with you if you do not overestimate too much. In addition, if you plan to market this product locally, nationally or internationally, do research about the associated regions; don’t get data that may misrepresent what’s the truth.

Part Four: Hiring Strategy
When it comes to selling your invention, you’re going to have costs. These include operational costs, material costs, and labor costs. This is the section where you estimate just what personnel you’re going to need to meet your goals. Most investors start small and work their way up. With repeated successes and the spreading name of the business, the size of the company will grow. Still, in the initial business plan, you must outline the most immediate staffing needs and not those that _could_ happen.

These are all part of a quality business plan that will entice any investor.

For the average inventor, getting the willpower and drive to patent and manufacture an invention can be a difficult process.  There are many obstacles that can frighten the innovator and may cause he or she to put a device, process or concoction somewhere it collects metaphorical dust.  It’s no secret that becoming a successful inventor is as challenging – if not more than – as starting your own business.  In fact, you may find that you have to start your own business to promote the product.  Therefore, you’ll need to have a large monetary base to get your product out.

One place that commands a significant amount of money is the field of patent law.  To the novice inventor, the idea of going through the patent application process – including paying the non-refundable fees, obtaining the correct terminology, following the correct rules and making sure that the invention hasn’t been reproduced – can be extremely daunting.  Patent lawyers can often help out with this process monumentally.  Patent lawyers are available all over the world and can be considered a tremendous investment for the inventor who has deep pockets.  However, you may have the next revolutionary machine and not a lot of money to spend to make sure no one else claim it’s theirs.  What can you do?  The following is a set of steps you can take to avoid having to shell out $5,000 and up for a patent lawyer.

First: Can your invention be protected?
You know what your invention can do.  You know how it is similar or different to the products you have seen marketed every day.  However, you must be sure that a) it isn’t too close in functionality to another invention and b) that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) can legitimately understand why it’s a unique product.  In order to do this, you’ll need to do two things.  First of all, run a search through the USPTO database to see if other inventions that are closely like yours exist.  List how they’re similar and how they’re different.  Be sure that when you fill out your patent application, you compare and contrast these inventions to your own and be clear about why yours fills a niche that the others do not.  Secondly, learn what different classifications of inventions exist for the USPTO.  This will help you fit your invention into a place where regulations exist.

Second: Is your invention modern?
When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, it was revolutionary and it made him a household name.  Today, if you were to go to the patent office with a new version of a light bulb that did not improve on his original invention, you may be shot down.  Yes, you may have a novel idea, but if it couldn’t be found useful when compared to similar products that exist today, but if the USPTO doesn’t find it modern, then it may reject your application to patent it.

Third: Can your invention be commercialized?
You can pretty much tell what a marketable invention is by watching mail order commercials.  Things like towels that hold ten times their weight and high-volume vegetable slicers are quick and easy sellers, whose patents were well-earned.   If you have an invention you’re proud of, but you’re not sure if it will sell, it may be best to do a little market research.  The best place to start with this research is to find what’s called ‘prior art’, which include inventions that are close to yours which you may have improved upon.  If your invention doesn’t have enough appeal so that it could potentially grab market share from prior art, then it probably won’t get a patent.

Fourth: Can you fill out the paperwork?
In order to have a patent approved, you must be able to fill out a patent application successfully.  This application will require quite a bit of information, including descriptions of the functionality of your invention, why it should be given a patent, and quality drawings of the invention and how it works.  Instructions about how to fill out patent applications are widely available in libraries and on the web, so become familiar with USPTO terminology and rules before trying to fill the application out.

Although it can be tough when you first become an inventor to get your product patented, it’s a wonderful experience.   Avoid paying for a lawyer and pave your own way to a patent!

Throughout history, the spread of literacy and the advent of engineering made intellectual discovery become a significantly defined part of reality.  Engineering is the root of all invention, and inventors first came along when scientific discoveries were published and printed throughout the world.  At first, there weren’t many early inventors.  Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Leonardo da Vinci were considered invention pioneers.  However, now that the world has gotten metaphorically smaller and knowledge about the world has become larger, inventors have become much more common than they were even 100 years ago.

Even though invention has been a popular activity, about only ten percent of patentable inventions are marketed successfully.  In fact, if you are considering going down the road to get a patent, you may be turned off by the idea that your invention may never be widely used.  Nowadays, though, you can find an expert at just about anything by just searching for it.  If you do search for someone who can help your invention become popular, you’ll likely fall upon a large list of invention companies.  Invention companies claim to help your invention get off the ground.  However, very often, these invention companies are only interested in getting paid money that’s not owed to them.

Usually these companies are very attractive at first.  They provide colorful brochures describing what it is that they can do for you, the inventor.  They list patents that they had worked on and have shown success.  They offer an invention kit – which contains a summary of the services that they will offer to you – and a place where they can be reached.  If you contact them with a general idea about what your invention is, they will be very quick about getting back to you with their invention marketing plan.

This is the first point in which you could get scammed.  They will compliment your invention, and claim that it has enormous potential to bring in large amounts of revenue.  They’ll state that they’ll help you with the patent application, which, to many new inventors, can take a load of stress off their hands.  They’ll say that they will run a search for patents that are similar to yours, and will make sure that your invention will be suitable to get a patent.  In order to do this, they’ll ask you to pay a fee which is usually in the hundreds of dollars.  If an inventor sends in the money, it’s very likely they won’t see it again.

Some inventor marketing companies will actually do a patent search for you.  However, the search will be monumentally smaller than what a patent lawyer or a respected patent search firm could accomplish for you.  The company will send back to you their search results, which are usually trumped by more marketing material that claims that your invention will go far when it’s taken into their hands.  They’ll ask for more money – usually around $10,000 – to file a patent application, help with licensing, and market the invention using brochures and displays at trade shows.   In addition to the up-front fee, the invention marketing company will indicate that they’ll require royalty fees in the ballpark of 10-15%.

When they get paid the fee, what they will really do is list your invention on a website or in a database.  They may display it at trade shows, but the trade shows will be few and far between.  They will, however, send you updates about its success, and in some cases, they may spin the success to sound better than it is.  In this case, they may go on to say that the invention is so good that they expect it to make an exorbitant amount of money, and they’ll need a down payment on their royalties so that they can properly market it.  This down payment can also be into the many thousands of dollars, and you won’t see any return on your investment.

The web is an excellent place to check up on inventor marketing companies to see if they are scams.  It’s always important to determine just how many customers they’ve had and to get customer feedback.  The Better Business Bureau also has quite a bit of resources available to the inventor looking to avoid scams.