The pieces were slowly starting to fall in place. I had a patent, market research, great customer feedback and a viable cost structure. Now it was all about sales and marketing. 16 months had passed since we attended the International Housewares Show in Chicago and were featured on the 9 o'clock news. We were coming up on our first $1,000 in total sales. It felt like a big deal but if you do the math that's less than $65 per month... not even enough to cover my Starbucks habit! When you factor in the $50,000 I spent to get to this point, you really have to wonder if I had a viable business model. QVC was still a few months off and even with all of the support and training QVC provides only 3 out of 10 new products are successful on air. I knew I had to keep looking for other ways to promote my product.

By this time I had sent samples and spoke to almost sixty different companies, not one wanted to step up to the plate and give my product a chance. The market research indicated that consumers that own a "Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer" loved it and after using it ate more Hotdogs. I was hopeful that one of the hotdog manufactures would see the value of promoting my product and agree to some kind of joint marketing effort. I contacted every Hotdog manufacturer I could find. I hoped to closed a deal with one of the premium Hotdog producers like Nathans, Sabretts or Vienna Beef, but these companies are focused on making a great hotdogs and didn’t have any interested in promoting a little kitchen gadget, even if it did make better hotdog. Early on I had contacted the major hotdog brands produced by the big food conglomerations. It took almost a year, but one by one, I eventually received a generic rejection  letters from all of them. If you really want to be an inventor you better be able to handle rejection, because it will be part of your everyday life, if its not your not doing it right! One thing I learned during this part of my journey is "the bigger the company the smaller their vision".

There was a promotion model I was trying to emulate. Subway sandwich shops adopted Jared Fogle as their spokesman, an ordinary guy that lost 245 lbs eating subway sandwiches. Ten years later the name Jared is synonymous with Subway and healthy eating. If a hotdog company wasn't willing to join forces with me maybe there was another company that would.

I was very satisfied with all the Legal services I purchase from LegalZoom.com. I can honestly say that the work they did for me was the foundation and key to my later success. They conducted a patent search, filed a provisional patent, created a trademark and formed my LLC. Each time I used them they exceeded my expectations, maybe there was an opportunity here. In March of 2009 I contacted LegalZoom.com's PR firm to share my story, with in a few weeks I had established a dialog with the head of their public relations team. This is another example of how important it is to build relationships and network with people. In June 2009 I received word that LegalZoom.com was going to use my story in a July press release having to do with summer time inventions. Its was just going to be an online press release, not supported with radio or TV, but it was a start and I was thrilled to be a part of it. This was another step forward and a solid promotion opportunity for my product.