3 stages of starting an Invention Idea (Stage one)
How many of you kept trying coming up with Invention Ideas but never seem to have materialized? I did many times over. There are lots of bright people around the world with great Invention Ideas but never went ahead getting them off the ground and tried to make money out of them. I face these inventors in my business all the time. Due to my experiences in starting up businesses they have the same first question, “What do you need to do before you go ahead with any idea?”. So here is what I have to say.
My first response is, your gut feeling! It is very important to at the initial stages. The stronger you feel about it the better. Once you looked deep inside yourself and discovered that your concept, whether it is a service or product as the best thing you ever thought of. It is then time to get it challenged. This is a very critical part of your process to starting the invention. But be very careful who you ask. It is not easy to find the right people to help you brainstorm it and even more importantly challenge it.
“The Three Kings” is what I call the people whom I ask for help. Quality is what matters here not quantity. It is waste of time to find twenty individuals with no interest in helping you. All you need three. Personally I always keep them odd numbers.
The first “King” must be a person that is close to you. A family like brother, wife husband or even your son or daughter (that is if they are old enough of course). They are great on two levels as they will be biased towards your Invention Idea or against it. Basically they either say that it is amazing and you should go ahead with it and never look back, or it is the most ridiculous thing they ever heard and you should never leave your day job. What you get out of them is the level of support you are willing to offer. It is extremely hard to start on your own without the full backing of your family especially.
The second “King” is a friend or colleague you trust that you can discuss the idea with. They are the best for moral support and even better, as potential investors! But never approach from investors point of view. Always talk to them as advisers. Take their practical opinions and suggestion more seriously than families as they can see the invention as is. They are also great for referral. You never realize who they might know that will find your idea very interesting from an Invention Investment point of view.
The last “King” is a specialist who has some experience in your invention. At this point not only you spoke to the first two Kings you also researched the ideas thoroughly by now. In many cases you probably even done some of the invention patent procedures by now. How the specialist can help you with your Invention Ideas is by providing even more specific advice to find tune and enhance the invention to become more attractive for your investors.
Update: The next article is on how to develope an Invention Planing.
It is definately important that you have a strong gut feeling about your invention. It is going to be you that pushes your idea and makes it a success.