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January 2010 - All the chips are in the middle of the table

2011-02-15T05:08:00Z

The New Year was full of anticipation and unanswered questions. When will the new LegalZoom.com TV commercial start airing? What does the finished commercial look like and what will it do for sales? I didn't have time to sit around think about it. I was busy trying to get my website integrated into the new fulfillment company and credit card processors I had hired. This is when I first heard the term "PCI compliance"(Payment Card Industry). I didn't think it was any big deal, after all I had hired two large established companies whose only business was shipping products and processing credit cards everyday. Boy was I wrong, PCI compliance is the bane of small internet based businesses. It was now a race to get everything in place before the TV commercial started to air and to make things worse I didn't know exactly when that would be. The best information I had was that the commercial would start airing the end of January, which didn't give me much time.

This was a pretty scary time, I didn't know what the commercial would do to sales or even if it would air. I had $65,000 of inventory arriving at my new warehouse and a website that wasn't working. All I could do is cross my fingers and keep pushing forward. Then I received an email from the VP or marketing for LegalZoom.com with the video clip of the finished TV commercial attached. Wow, the commercial looked great! The Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer was on screen for almost 22 seconds of the 30 second spot. Based on the finished commercial it was time to celebrate, that night my wife and I went out for a nice dinner for the first time in several years. I was sure that within a few weeks we would be selling 25 to 50 units a day and our financial future would be secure. I turned my attention back to getting the connection between my website and warehouse working.

By the end of January my manufacturer had come through and I had all the inventory I needed. My new LegalZoom.com TV commercial was scheduled to be phased in replacing the old commercial over the next 90 days. All I had to do was to get the website connection working and wait for the sales to come in. By the middle of February I started getting reports that friends and family were seeing the TV commercial, but instead of the 25 units per day I was expecting we only saw our sales increase by 2 or 3 units a days. This was going to a big problem because I had based all of the business projections on the assumption that 25 units per day would be the minimum level of sales. Once again my most conservative sales estimations were way off. By the time March rolled around sales were approaching 5 units a days, a far cry from the generating the projected cash flow I needed, needless to say and I wasn't sleeping at all. We had sold about $5,000 in product, but the $65,000 invoice was coming due. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that math just wasn't going to work. I had to raise $60,000 and fast.

Fortunately I started working with SCORE. over a year earlier and knew they could help me get a SBA loan. If you're starting a new business and not familiar with SCORE you really need to look them up, they can be a great asset to any small business. My SCORE counselor was incredibly helpful and he reviewed my updated business plan and helped me file for a small business loan. Luckily I had started the 3 month process back in December and was approved for a $25,000 SBA loan. Now all I had to do is raise another $35,000 to pay my manufacturer, so I contacted my primary investors and made arrangements to sell off another 7% of the business. My manufacturer got paid and it was time to head off to the 2010 International Housewares Show in Chicago.

December 2009 - Double or Nothing... its time for the Best Laid Plans

2010-08-15T04:32:00Z

Laying the ground work to support a national TV commercial was a real shot in the dark. There were so many unknowns; how many units do I need in stock, what website capabilities do I need, how am I going to ship out all the orders. The only information I had to go on was based on the sales increase caused by a single article on page 19 in our local newspaper. That one local article resulted in 30 extra units sales over the next 3 days. How do you extrapolate sales resulting from a single local newspaper article to sales resulting from a national TV commercial? My best working guess was that sales would start out at about 25 units a day and grow from there. I knew that if I was personally shipping out that many units a day that's all I would be doing. I wouldn't have any time left to work on the strategic issues and product development. It was time to hire a fulfillment company.

I spent several weeks researching various fulfillment companies. I wanted a company with locations in multiple states and one that had experience with direct response TV products. Once I decided on one I turned my attention to beefing up my website. Up until this time I had been maintaining my own website on GoDaddy.com, now it seemed like it was time to hire a professional. This was another case where having my own network of people to tap into was useful. I reconnected with some of the marketing people I used to work with and got the name of a good programmer. Then I turned my attention to inventory, this was my biggest dilemma because Chinese new year was quickly approaching. If you haven't imported products from China before you probably wouldn't know that manufacturing completely shuts down for most of the month of January during Chinese new year. The best information I had was that the LegalZoom.com TV commercial would start airing at the end of January. That meant either I commit to a production run in December or I wouldn't have any inventory until almost April. There comes a point in every entrepreneur's venture when they have to take a leap of faith and this was mine.

By the time Christmas came I had signed a contract with a fulfillment company, hired a webmaster and issued a PO for a container full of product. I was on the hook for over $100,000 and had made all of those commitments without seeing the finished commercial or even knowing exactly when it was going to air. For all I knew at this point LegalZoom could have decided to scrap it. I remember hearing the story of how Andrew Carnegie gambled everything he owned and everything he could borrow to start the first US steel plant. Somehow he managed to keep his factory going under tough economic times until he started turning a profit, within a few years he would be one of America's richest men. Everyone that has started a business from scratch at some point had to take a gamble. By December 2009 all my chips were in the middle of the table and I was doubling down.

November 2009 - Hollywood here I come!

2010-05-21T03:29:00Z

After the grocery store test market program fell through I found myself regrouping from yet another major set back. One of my mentors said it best when he said "an inventor's journey is like an ant clinging to a YoYo, not only is your head is spinning but there are so many ups and downs you can't tell if you're moving forward or not, but the important thing is to keep moving forward". Six weeks had passed since I spoke to the vice president of marketing from LegalZoom.com and I had been through 3 different interviews along the way, when I finally got the email I had been waiting for. There's so many email scams, its not always good when an email starts off saying "congratulations", but this time is was. This was the email that told me I had been selected to appear in next years LegalZoom.com TV commercials and I would be flying out to Hollywood to shoot the commercial at the end of November. Talk about ups and downs, two week ago the test market program deal fell through and now I was going to star in a national TV commercial.

Its funny how my wife and I look at things differently, although we knew that me and my product were going to be featured in a multi-million dollar television campaign, we didn't know if I had won the prize money associated with the LegalZoom.com customer story contest. To me it really didn't matter, after all what's a couple of thousand dollars prize money compared with millions of dollars worth of advertising for my product, but to my wife it was a big deal, I guess she was looking at our checking account. It would be almost two more months before we got the news that I won the contest and another 2 months before we received the prize money.

I knew I was going to be in next years LegalZoom.com TV commercial, what I didn't know was how big a role my product would play. Was it going to get a casual mention or was it going to be central to my story? The excitement and anticipation was almost more than I could handle as I boarded the flight for LA. When I arrived at LAX there was a chauffer holding a sign with my name on it, wow this is cool. When I got to the hotel in Hollywood there was a huge gift basket waiting for me. It was apparent early on that something special was happening to me. The next morning a car picked me up to go to the studio and get fitted for wardrobe. What happened next was one of the biggest thrills of my life, as I walked into this huge sound stage, front and center was a 14 foot tall by 30 wide back drop covered with blown up pictures of my design drawings. Imagine the thrill of seeing your own 6 inch drawings blown up to the scale where they were 12 feet tall. It was as this time that I realized that my product would be prominently featured in however this commercial turned out. That night I had dinner with the people from the three other customer story's along with all the key executives at Legalzoom.com. Everyone was just plain good people and I enjoyed getting to know all of them.

The next day I shot the commercial, I have never had so many people fuss over me, makeup, wardrobe, lighting, cameramen and the director. For seven hours I stood in front of that camera while the director asked me questions and had me tell my story. I remember when we got to the cooking demonstrations they gave me a spittoon, I asked "what's that for?" "that's for spitting out the bites of hotdog, we are going to film you eating" the director answered. "Why would I waste a perfectly good hotdog?" I asked, she said "we may have you do several takes", I said "that’s not a problem" I was pretty hungry by this point. I think we went through about 7 rolls of regular film and 3 rolls of high speed special effect film to capture the steam in slow motion that day. The total film crew was comprised of about 25 people. These guys worked hard for 14 to 16 hours that day and really knew what they were doing. Before I knew it the shoot was over and I would be heading for home the next day. Now all there was to do was wait for the commercial to be edited and start appearing on TV, which would take three more months.

October 2009 - "The Steamie" A New Product is Born

2010-05-20T03:15:00Z

It’s hard to believe that we sold twice as much product appearing on QVC at 4:00 in the morning than we did at 1:00 in the afternoon, but we did. Most people don't realize it, but QVC is on the air, live 24/7. After the show I spent a couple of hours talking to other QVC hosts to get their take on my product. It’s very important to listen to your customers and encourage feedback, what you learn can really help improve your product. One of themes that kept coming up was that the QVC customers want color choices and I needed to find a way to incorporate color into my product.

After I made the larger version and started steaming foods like salmon I realized it needed some type of heat insulation on the handles, lifting the grill out of a pot with oven mitts was just awkward. I looked at other kitchen utensils and saw that many were coated with brightly colored silicone. It wasn't hard to put two and two together, I purchased some modeling latex, designed finger pads for the handles and sent them off to China for prototyping.

I can't stress how important it is to listen to your customers. The most common thing I kept hearing from my customers, was how great the larger steaming grill was at steaming tortillas. My own testing showed that as long as the tortilla was smaller than the pot the grill was very effective, but for tortillas larger than the diameter of the pot it didn't work. That’s because the extra large tortillas choked off the circulation of the steam in the pot. The solution was simple; place a small dish upside down on the grill and drape the tortilla over the top. This allowed the steam to circulate around the edges. To add value to my product I needed a self contained way to accomplish the same thing. My solution was two perpendicular "C" shaped pieces that popped up and formed a frame that extra large tortillas could be laid over. With these simple improvements The Steamie was born.

At the same time I was developing the Steamie, I was also working on getting the Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer into a test market program that would have it hanging up in 50 to 100 grocery stores next to the Hotdog Buns in the bread aisle. This is where I always believed my product would be most successful. The distributor I was working with wanted me to send them 500 units for free to conduct the test program. In my retail career we always taught our salespeople not to devalue our products and services by discounting them. It was a tough pill to swallow, but after consulting with a few of my mentors I decided to give them the free product they were asking for. I always believed that my product would be most successful hanging up next to the Hotdog buns and at this point in the game the most important thing was to get my product on the shelf. After 3 months of negotiations I received an email that the distributor had decided NOT to go forward with the test program, stating that the economy was too bad to launch such an expensive product. What, a free $10 item is too expensive to test market! Once again the big deal eluded me and I was back to square one.

September 2009 - A Second Chance... Once in a lifetime!

2010-02-22T03:10:00Z

My first appearance on QVC was a major disappointment, but the only thing I kept hearing in my head was "when the going gets tough the tough get going". The first thing I did was call my biggest investors and give them the results of the show. The second thing I did was measure my garage to determine if QVC decided to return their remaining inventory could it all fit in my garage. The answer was yes but the car would have stay outside. Next I contacted my QVC agent to see if there was any type of deal I could work out with QVC for another appearance. As it turned out, QVC had already realized that many of the products that aired the day that Kennedy died under performed. The news cycle surrounding the death of senator Kennedy was the most news intense event since the death of Michael Jackson 3 months earlier. Looks like I was going to get one more chance.

The last Saturday of every month I attend the Inventors Association of Georgia meeting. It’s a great place to network and talk to other inventors. Each time they have a different guest speaker that talks about different aspects of the inventing process. This month the guest speaker was from a law firm and was going to discuss the legal issues that inventors face during product development. As I was sitting there waiting for the guest speaker to start, the club president came up to me and whispered that the guest speaker was going to be late and asked me if would mind sharing my story, "my inventors journey" with the group?. The first thought in my head was "No I'm not prepared" but before I could say a word my mind had changed and the only thought in my head was "go for it". I had about 5 minutes to get my thoughts together before it was time to stand up and speak to a room full of hopeful inventors. I always seem to do best under pressure and speaking straight from the heart, it felt like I did a good job. Several people came up to me afterwards to tell me how much they enjoyed my story. Hopefully someday in the future I will have the opportunity to speak to even larger groups and inspire a whole new generation of inventors. I believe its important to give back.

A few days later I received my second air date for QVC, 4:00am on September 29th on the Kitchen Clearance Show, at least I got a second chance. In the mean time I received an email from LegalZoom.com inviting me to enter into their "Customer Story Contest" where the winner has a chance to star in the next years LegalZoom.com TV commercials. That was exactly what I was trying to do when I contacted their PR firm back in the spring of 2009. I quickly went to work, writing my story down in script form, making every word and sentence count. With in a few days I was standing in front of my video camera telling my story and how LegalZoom.com helped make it happen. It must have taken me 15 takes to finally get it right, but I made it through my 5 minute story without making any mistakes. Then all I had to do was upload my video and wait.

A few weeks later it was time to head back to West Chester, Pennsylvania and the QVC studios. Counting the training classes I attended, this was my 4th trip to QVC. I finally found a hotel I liked and was just relaxing in my room a few hours before the show when I receive a phone call from the Vice President of Marketing for LegalZoom.com. He said they loved my story were interested in having me do a radio commercial for them, then he added I would still be able to stay in the Customer Story Contest for next years TV commercial. Wow... me and my product in a national TV commercial, now that would be a once in a lifetime opportunity!

August 2009 - US Customs and Senator dies, anything that can go wrong will...

2010-02-13T04:05:00Z

It was the middle of summer and time to head back to Pennsylvania for QVC guest host training. Once again QVC showed why they dominate the cable TV selling channels. Before you ever step in front of a live camera you need to pass through their certification program. Three hours of class room training followed by several takes in front of the camera and critiques in between, it was very exciting. I got to work with David Venable, a total professional and a really nice guy. By the end of the day I was a certified guest host and ready to be scheduled to appear on air.

Like most big companies, QVC has very strict inventory requirements. Which means when they give you a purchase order they also give you a specific delivery window when your product needs to arrive. For the first time I was trying to manufacture my product in China and ship it across the ocean. Then import it into the US, truck it from the west coast to the east coast and have it arrive at QVC's warehouse no earlier than August 5th and no later than August 12th, piece of cake right... NOT! Stacy, my importer from Sun Products Ltd, was great. She followed the progress of my order every step of the way. Everything was right on track and then 10 days before delivery, US customs selected our container at random for "an intensive examination". In laymen terms that meant customs was going to go through our shipment with a fine tooth comb and at their discretion delay it for up to 30 days. Its not the first time I got a sinking feeling in my gut and it won't be the last. Lucky for me, my QVC buyer was more accommodating than then the new vendor rule book said they would be. My shipping delay turned out to be not a big deal and soon I had my first airing date.

My first QVC on air appearance was scheduled for Wednesday August 26th. I was so excited to plan my trip from Atlanta to West Chester, Pennsylvania, I couldn't wait to get in front of a camera and start selling my product. QVC had ordered 3200 units and my goal was to sell out in 5 minutes, that way they would re-order and have me back on. I reviewed what I was going to say and practiced my cooking demonstrations over and over again. QVC has two full size gourmet kitchens and a dozen top rated chefs on staff, standing by to help prepare the best looking food for the cameras. Its not a free service but well worth it. These chefs really know how to make the demonstration food look so good for the camera and for me it was one less thing I had to worry about. That morning as I was getting ready for my first QVC appearance, the news reports starting coming in that Senator Ted Kennedy had died. At the time I didn’t give it much thought, I was way too preoccupied thinking about going on TV to give it much thought, after all my dreams were within my grasp. I knew that if I could sell out or at the very least sell a couple thousand units I would be well on my way.

Arriving at the QVC studios two hours before my air time I had enough time to meet with the chef preparing my food for the show; wow, did she know how to make food look great!. After seeing the food she had prepared I was even more confident than ever. With twenty minutes to go, I was getting mic'd up and led into the standby area. Inside the studio its easy to see the organization that has made QVC the number one selling TV channel, these people really know what they're doing. I wasn't nervous, but before I knew it I was in front of the camera and it was show time. Working with the host was fun and it seemed like things were going well and then, in a flash it was over. I was so excited leaving the studio, it felt like things went well, but at the time I didn't know if we had sold 2,000 units or if we sold out. Imagine how I felt when I found out that we had only sold a couple of hundred units, a far cry from my goal or even my minimum expectations. I was devastated... I stuck around in the green room, numb and watching the results of the products that followed me. As the afternoon went on I saw that most of the other products were also struggling. Could it be that America was watching the news coverage regarding Kennedy's death and not the shopping channels? Either way, that sinking feeling in my gut was back, the results were less than one third of what I imagined could have been the worse case scenario. What was I going to do if QVC decided to ship the remaining units back? What was I going to tell my investors? My head was spinning as I waited for my flight to board. What now?

June 2009 - LegalZoom.com, a future strategic partnership

2010-01-23T02:24:00Z

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.

April 2009 - QVC new vendor training

2010-01-03T19:08:00Z

You should never underestimate the value of good training, in fact quality training may be the single most important factor when it comes to consistently delivering an excellent customer experience. Over the years I've conducted and participated in many different types of training, but I have to say that the training program that QVC requires its new vendors to take, was one of the most thorough "non-employee" vendor training programs I've ever been through. QVC really understands their business, what their customers want and have a very clear vision of who they are in the market place.

QVC's sales philosophy is straightforward, honest with an emphasis on value. In a nut shell, when you under promise and over deliver you're always going to have winning customer service model. They do over 7 billion dollars a year in sales and every single product is delivered by UPS; that makes QVC one of UPS's largest customers. To make sure every purchase arrives in perfect condition and works as promised, QVC has an intensive QA (quality assurance) process, if your product doesn't pass QA it won't make it to the purchasing department and you'll never see a PO.

The next topic covered in training was how to properly ship to one of QVC's six warehouses and most importantly what you need to do to get paid. As companies go QVC offers more support and online reports than just about any other company around. Out of all the companies I contacted or tried to do business with, QVC is by far the most pro-entrepreneurial to work with, they are an inventors best hope.

After months of preparation, multiple phones calls to my agent, developing a solid relationship with a Chinese importer and successfully passing through quality assurance, on April 28th I officially received my first QVC purchase order. Now I just have to complete their Guest Excellence class and get in front of a camera. I'm almost home free, or maybe not!

January 2009 - QVC, one of the few truly innovative companies

2009-12-17T06:26:00Z

In my 30 years in sales and marketing, I had never been fired, never been laid off or never spent more than a week looking for a job. Now I found myself laid off and unemployed for the second time in 18 months. What's up with that? Clearly I was destine to do something else and in my mind that meant it was time to finish my inventor's journey and bring my product to market.

The larger unit was ready for production so now I had two sizes, the smaller original unit, ideal for cooking hotdogs and steaming buns together; and the new larger unit great for steaming everything from tortillas to lobster. The two sizes could be bundled together and sold as a set, which was exactly what the QVC agents I had met at the International Housewares Show, had ask me to do. Now it was time to circle back around with them and see if they still had any interest. As so often the case in business, people anxious to do a deal with you one month end up not following up with you the next. Its nothing to take personally its just the nature of enthusiasm and the root origin of the phrase "strike while the iron is hot". Disappointment is part of the inventors journey and you just need to keep pushing forward.

Even though I had made several QVC contacts at the International Housewares Show, it turned out to be a personal connection through my mother that helped me present my product to QVC. A former neighbor of hers had relocated a few years early and taken a job with a company that presented products to QVC. A few emails, phone calls and a sample got the ball rolling. On Tuesday January 20th I got the phone call I had been waiting for almost 9 months, QVC was going to purchase 2500 pair and we were in business. This was one of the most exciting events of my life, this was my dream, my invention and now I had my 1st commercial order for almost $20,000.

By this time I had sent samples to over 50 companies the vast majority turned me down without even trying out my product from themselves. How can you evaluate a new product without trying it out? When people are handed my product they don't see much more than a round grill. When I tell them what it does and how it works then they think it sounds like a pretty good idea. But when they experience the Hotdogs it makes they think it’s a fantastic product. This is bore out in my market research as 90% of my customers report that the results my product produces far exceeds their expectations. You would think that several companies would be able spot a new product opportunity when presented to them, but surprisingly enough only 1 or 2 of them even tested out the sample I sent them. QVC on the other hand is always looking for new cutting edge products and encourages their buyers to take chances. Their "guarantee sale" policy is good and bad news for inventors and entrepreneurs. Good news because the buyers are more likely to take a chance on a new product, bad news because if the product doesn't sell well QVC will ship the un-sold product back. Either way, I'll take a shot at a sale over a rejection letter any day of the week, that’s just how successful salespeople think.

November 2008 - Lightning can strike twice.

2009-12-04T05:35:00Z

I had settled into a routine as the store director for one of Circuit City's new concept stores and was really enjoying their dramatically new approach of doing business. That's when I received a phone call telling me they were closing 150 stores, including the brand new store I had just opened 3 months earlier. Now I really felt like someone "up there" was trying to tell me something... "laid off twice in 16 months". I guess lightning really can strike twice! Looking back it's perplexing how such a screwed up company could give birth to two cutting edge business models such as Carmax and the new concept electronic stores "The City".

This sixty year old organization went from having a Billion dollars cash in the bank to being bankrupt in 18 months. The whole time opening brand new stores like there was no tomorrow. Didn't they have an accountant that knew how to perform cash flow projections? There were stores that grand opened and went into liquidation in the same week! They spent almost a million dollars on a managers retreat to roll out the holiday promotion strategy and three days later announced they were closing 150 of those very same stores a month before the holiday season even got started, huh? They had 4 different point of sale systems and none of them were compatible. We were on the newest system and it took 36 steps to sell a pack of batteries. This is one company where the left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing.

It is so difficult to manage big organizations because the systems and procedures take on a life of their own and everything is done by committee. Maybe that’s why I enjoy being an inventor so much, it’s a one man show. Not because I like working alone, I don't, but I do enjoy being involved in all aspects of a product's development. In my case, I built my prototype, wrote my business plan, raised the capital, found a manufacturer, designed my brochures, conducted market research, promoted my product, shot my own photography and most importantly created the go to market strategy. I felt like I had finally found my "calling" and was really enjoying it.

Although this job only lasted 6 months it came at a critical financial time, filling the gap between the licensing deal that fell through and finishing pre-production testing of the new larger unit. Unlike the last job I had this time I was able to get some work done on my days off. The larger unit was ready for production, the shipping packaging was good to go and some minor changes in the handle design meant it was able to work with a wider range of pot styles. Now I was ready for QVC and I started contacting the QVC agents I had met back at the International Housewares Show in Chicago almost a year earlier.

July 2008 - The Dream goes on the back burner again

2009-11-17T00:37:00Z

As a sales trainer I use to tell new salespeople that, "customers buy from salespeople they like". As a regional manager I told my sales managers that, "salespeople sell better for sales managers they like". Most employees would gladly take a 10% pay cut or more to work for a boss they really liked versus working for someone that's really difficult or had a bad reputation, but what about the company's reputation. Here was my dilemma, one of my favorite bosses was offering me a job to work for company with a terrible reputation. This is where a good business relationship can be helpful, I was able to directly expressed my concerns about going to work for a company with such a bad reputation, to my surprise my former boss felt the same way. He explained that the company was aware of their problems and was trying to change their image and was creating a new concept division to facilitate the change. This new division was his baby and I would be helping him bring it to life. The job sounded interesting and challenging, combined with the fact that I really trusted this guy I decided to accept his offer and let my dream simmer on the back burner for a while, after all I had a family to support and really needed the income while I was getting my product ready for the next step.

In 30 years of being in the consumer electronics business I rarely heard a customer or an employee speak favorably about their experience with Circuit City. Changing the reputation of a 60 year old, 13 billion dollar company wasn't going to be easy, that’s why I was so pleasantly surprised after learning about the core philosophies that were being incorporated into the new concept division called "The City". To this day I'll never understand how such a screwed up company could give birth to such an incredibly well thought out organization with a world class culture like "The City" stores. The problem was that "The City" stores never made up more than 10% of the total company and there was always internal conflict between the upbeat positive karma coming out of the City division and the negative back stabbing cancerous culture of the core stores. Even with all that said, I wouldn't trade a minute of my time working in a City store, it was quite possibly the best 6 months I ever spent in a consumer electronics store, but only God could save something that was already 90% consumed by cancer.

Nevertheless I spent my days off developing a larger version of the Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer, creating several brochures, about a dozen cooking video demonstrations and getting a website up and running. As soon as I was able to sell a few larger units I started getting reports from my customer that it was great for steaming all kinds of foods from tortillas to lobster. This feedback exactly mirrored the expert advice I received at the International Housewares Show in Chicago, hmmm… maybe the experts actually knew what they were talking about!

Make a note of that, sometimes we inventors get so wrapped up in our product that we're not always open to advice from others, keep in mind that they're usually are looking your product from the very same perspective your customers will view your product. Remember the old adage "you can't see the forest through the trees", most inventors struggle to see their product from the same point of view of their customers but its something we have to overcome.

May 2008 - Time for Plan B

2009-11-11T05:20:00Z

Luckily when I wrote my business plan I included several different strategies for bringing my product to market. Of course finding a licensing partner was my first strategy after all it was the cheapest and easiest to execute. Early on in this process several people told me that I had to be prepared to bring this product to market on my own; that is produce it, develop the distribution channels and get it in front of the end consumer. After I got over the disappointment from the licensing deal that fell through the first thing I did was go back and review my business plan, there were still a lot of good strategies in there I hadn't executed yet and it was time to get going.

I knew I had to develop a larger unit from the feedback I got at the show, so I drew up some design drawings and sent them to the wire production team at Kasper Wire Works. It would take 6 to 8 weeks before I received a first prototype. I also took this opportunity to improve the design of the handles so they would fold up better for easier shipping. I sent a sample of the smaller current version to a Chinese importer recommended by a fellow inventor I meet at the show, to see if I could get my production cost in line. At the show a lot of people like my concept, but thought I was nuts to even consider making it in US. Finally I started contacting every company that did business in the kitchen gadget and utensil market space. I kept very detailed records of the companies I solicited, who I talked to, who I emailed, what correspondence I sent and where I mailed samples to. Also in my original business plan was a strategy to partner with one of the premium Hotdog manufacturers, to me it made perfect sense, my market research showed the customers that owned a Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer reported consuming 30% to 40% more hotdogs, after all their Hotdog appetite was no longer limited because the only buns in their kitchen were stale.

So I guess as it turned out I actually implemented plan B, plan C, plan D and plan E at the same time. As you can see I was pulling out all the stops, but without a licensing deal it would take at least 6 months before my product was ready for the next step, unfortunately I didn't have 6 months, I had a family to feed. That’s when I got a phone call from one of my most trusted former bosses offering me a job selling consumer electronics again.

April 2008 - Back to Square One

2009-11-06T04:16:00Z

My wife and I came back from the International Houseware Show on cloud nine, it seemed to us that the show couldn't have gone any better. We made connections to get on QVC, got introduced to some overseas manufacturers, attracted television coverage and struck a deal with an established company, what more could we have hope for from our first show.

Over the next few weeks I had several conversations with the CEO/ Inventor of the company that wanted to partner with me to bring my Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer to market. I believed we had a deal, after all we shook on it, but with each consecutive phone call I sensed diminished enthusiasm. One day six weeks after the show I got a phone call from the company's CFO that they decided not to go forward with the verbal agreement. It was like someone punched me in the gut, all the air was let out of the room and then a sinking feeling came over my body. As it happened I received that phone call on my way to spend the day with my son riding dirt bikes, one of our favorite things to do. That turned out to be a real blessing, I had to keep a stiff upper lip for my son and riding all day helped keep my mind off of the bad news. Had I been home alone when the call came in I'm sure I would have spent the day crying in my beer and I don't drink. Bottom line, it's back to square one, now what!

Once again I had to pick up the pieces, formulate a plan and get moving. My mom always told me "when the going gets tough the tough get going!" I couldn't produce my product with my US manufacture profitably, I wasn't in a position to start manufacturing overseas and I needed to design and build a bigger version before QVC would give me a shot, but other than that I had this thing licked. Looks like my hopes to find a company to license my concept to was going up in smoke and its time for plan B!

March 2008 - Chicago its SHOW TIME!

2009-11-02T03:48:00Z

After my trip to Houston, I had newly designed handles that worked with every lid and pot combination I could find, unfortunately they were significantly different from my original design that we couldn't be sure that the design patent we had already filed would cover them. To make sure we decided to file another design patent based on the new design. This was my 2nd costly mistake, but not as costly as not being protected by a patent. No one should think you can head down a path like this and not make any mistakes. The important thing is to use a well thought out methodically approach and make corrections as needed.

The upcoming International Houseware Show in Chicago would be the biggest event of my products short life and could make or break it's market viability. I had most of the pieces in place, the legal protection I needed, a finished product to show and legitimate market research. Now I had to put together a show plan that would help me reach my goal of finding a licensing partner. I was able to select a booth on the outside aisle right across from the food court. My plan was simple demo my product and give away free hotdogs. We purchased a couple of hot plates, hired my father's sign company to print us a couple of banners and purchased 300 hotdogs from a nearby warehouse club. My wife and I packed up the SUV and set out on a road trip, Chicago here we come.

Walking into the McCormick Center was thrilling, daunting and a bit overwhelming. Although she didn't say so at the time, my wife would later admit that she was scared and felt we were way over our heads. I had been to several consumer electronic shows that were even bigger, but at the time I was working for companies that did hundreds of millions of dollars annually. This time it was me, my wife and a little hotdog steamer that hadn't even sold one unit yet. If I had thought about it in those terms I may have turned around and ran home with my tail between my legs, but I didn't. After almost a half hour of searching, we finally found our booth, set up our pots, banners and headed to the hotel to get a good nights sleep, the show would open the next day.

Up until this point my strategy was to find a company to licensing my product to, that way I wouldn't have to deal with manufacturing, importing and developing distribution channels. The company that made the turkey lifter seemed like a good candidate, since it was started by an inventor many years earlier and manufactured very similar wire based products. I had a good conversation with CEO/ Inventor back in October and decided to send him a follow up email a few weeks before the show. Now it was time to see him face to face. With a show directory in hand I looked up his booth location and decided to pay him a visit. He was very pleasant, acknowledged my email and committed to come by our booth to check out my product before the end of the show.

Our booth was in the "Inventors Corner" a collection of inventors and their products hosted by Inpex. Each inventor got to present their product and get advice from a panel of experts. The feedback I received was consistent, I needed a bigger version to steam more than 2 buns at a time and I needed other food applications besides just Hotdogs. When I got back to our booth a women with a press badge was asking questions, "What's this do?, Is it new?" My answer was "It lets you cook your hotdogs and steam your buns in the same pot at the same time and its brand new, never seen before". She said,
"I'll be right back with a TV crew". I though to myself, yeah right! Five minutes later there was a camera guy and a reporter talking to me about my invention and why not Chicago's a hotdog town. We made everyone in the news crew a hotdog and later that night we watched ourselves on the evening news… WOW!

The next day the CEO/ Inventor from the company making the nifty turkey lifter came by, I told him about the news coverage, explained the concept behind my product and made him a hotdog. He was blown away, I believe he said something like, "you have really got something here, I don't think I could make you rich fast enough". Then he offered to make me a deal, a really good deal and we shook on it. The few hours remaining in the show were a blur, my wife and I were on cloud nine. We thought that we had secured the deal that was going to change our lives forever, it had been a GREAT trade show and now it was time to head home!

February 2008 - Free Hotdogs for Market Research, Its almost an Emergency

2009-10-27T00:55:00Z

No legitimate business would take a product to market without first conducting some type of market research and my experience taught me that was a step NOT to skip. I had spent $2500 with the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center for professional market research, but it was focused on finding a licensing partner and looking at the overall market place not on the end user's opinion. I had already demonstrated the Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer to friends and family, but their opinion didn't count because their relationship with me meant that the data was tainted. What I needed was a group of complete strangers to evaluate my product objectively. So I called up the local Home Depot Store, spoke to the manager and asked him if I could cook free hotdogs for all of his employees in exchange for their opinion on my Hotdog Bun Steaming product. He said "I'm sure my employees would appreciate free Hotdogs for lunch, could you feed 30 to 40 people?", I said "sure, what time on Saturday should I show up?" I purchased 6 packs of Hotdogs and Buns, loaded up my cooler, brought my camping stove and my wife and I headed over to our neighborhood Home Depot Store to provide all the employees a free lunch.

When we got there the Store Manager had just stepped out, but the HR manager was there. I could tell she wasn't too keen on me providing free Hotdogs to the store employees in exchange for some market research. She asked me to wait outside her office while she "checked into it", code for give me a minute to figure out how I can put the kibosh on this. I knew what was going to happen, even though I had spoke to the store manager and I was providing a free lunch for all the store employees the HR manager was looking for any company policy that might be violated. Most HR managers are paranoid and trained that anything out of the norm could lead to some type of litigation. In their mind its always better to say NO than to take a chance and think out of the box. So with enough food to feed 40 employees she sent us packing and we walked out of Home Depot experiencing another roadblock put in place by the limited thinking of a mid-level manager. Once again the roadblock we faced sent us on a better path, as we were driving away dejected my wife and I were thinking about what we were going to do with all those Hotdogs. With determination, I said "we're not going home until we find a group of people that we can cook free hotdogs for, that shouldn't be too hard!" Then we got the idea of going to our local fire station and cooking free hotdogs for the on duty fireman, the closest fire station was only a few miles away.

Fire Stations aren't really set up for visitors, there's no customer parking or a front door with an open sign, just finding which door to enter was a bit of a challenge and once you go in there's usually no one there to greet you. It’s a strange felling walking around a fire station looking for someone and saying "Hello is anyone here?" When I finally found someone they were as startled as I was but they had a badge and I had some explaining to do. Once he realized it wasn't an emergency, I wasn't selling anything and I was going to cook everyone free hotdogs, a smile came on his face as he got on the PA and called the other fireman to the kitchen for chowtime.

This was our first pitch to strangers and it was good practice for the up coming Chicago Show. My wife did a great job, as I started my pitch and cooked the hotdogs, she asked the market research questions and took notes. The Firemen loved my hotdogs and thought my little steamer was pretty cool. We still had quite a few Hotdog left so we asked them if they knew of another fire station that might like to have some free hotdogs. One fireman suggested the fire station in the next town over, it was a lot bigger station and the fire chief had a reputation for eating a lot of hotdogs. We packed up our stuff and headed over there. This time the fireman were ready and waiting, as soon as we got there they escorted us to the kitchen. This station had a huge table and before I had unpacked my cooler there were 8 or 9 fireman sitting at the table waiting on their hotdog. A few minutes later the fire chief showed up and for the next 30 minutes I was cooking hotdogs as fast as I could. Before I knew it the fire chief was asking me for his 4th hotdog, that’s when I knew I really had something.

January 2008 - Houston we have a problem

2009-10-25T17:34:00Z

I couldn't wait until I received my first manufactured unit, up to this point I had been using a crudely bent together wire mock up I produced in my garage. It worked really well and always made a perfect Hotdog but it looked like something a second grader brought to school for show and tell. A few weeks had passed since I sent my crude prototype and dimensional drawings to Kasper Wire Works, to say I was anxious to receive a price quote would have been an under statement. It just so happened that I was visiting my Grandmother when I got the phone call from Kasper. I knew my simple little gadget needed to retail for less than $10, which meant to be financially viable I needed the manufacturing costs to come in under $2.00. That's why it felt like a kick in the gut when I heard the price quote was $19.36 each. I remember walking around in a daze at Wegman's, a world class grocery store chain based out of Rochester NY and located near my Grandmother's home. This was the first time I thought my journey might have come to a premature end. That's when I stumbled across the "Nifty Lifter", a simple metal grate with two handles designed to lift heavy turkeys out of a pan. At first glance it looked like a Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer on steroids and it was selling for $9.95. A ray of hope shined down on me as I realized if the Nifty Lifter was a viable product at $9.95 I knew the smaller and lighter Hotdog Ez Bun Steamer could be also. I wrote down all of the information about the company making the Nifty Lifter and contacted them as soon as I got back home. It turns out the that Nifty Lifter was imported from China by Nifty Home Products a company founded by an inventor. When I called it just so happened that the inventor himself answered the phone and we spoke for twenty minutes.

The next thing I did was to follow up with my manufacturer to see what if anything could be done about the outrageous cost. I knew if I could get it manufactured in the US for under $10 I could get it manufactured in China for 1/5 of that cost and I would be in business. It turns out that the way I originally designed the handles to attach was very difficult to produce, a simple redesign would cut manufacturing costs in half. This was the second time in my journey that a roadblock ended up diverting me onto a better path, but it certainly would not be the last. The new handle design created the possibility of being able to hold the lid in place. This would significantly improve results as the steam would be forced to circulate around the bun. I sent in a new sample with the resigned handles to Kasper and waited anxiously. Now it was time to expand my pot collection.

I found my self checking out every houseware store within a ten miles radius, if this product was going to be successful it needed to work with every pot style it possible could. I never realized how many different styles of pots were on the market and nearly everyone had a different way that the lid attached. On paper my new handles designed appeared to work, but as so often happens the best laid plans of mice and men doesn't always pan out. In the inventing world you have to always build a working prototype to prove what you drew on paper works in real life.

When the first manufactured sample showed up I remember hurrying to my kitchen and pulling out every different style pot I had collected to see how the design worked. To my horror the design only worked on my original pot, on all the other styles the lid slipped off. That’s when I knew I had a BIG Problem, in less than 2 months I was going to show my product at the International Houseware Show in Chicago and in its current state it didn't work. This was my second kick in the gut in as many months. I spent the next few days trying to come up with a universal solution. What I came up with looked like it would work, but until it was produced I wouldn't know for sure. That was the next problem I faced, producing the manufactured sample would take 6 weeks if something was wrong with the design there wouldn't be enough time to make corrections before the big show.

I decided to make a trip to see the manufacturer in Shiner Texas, the closest airport was Houston and it was about a two hour drive from there. I packed up 5 different pots in a suit case, purchased an airline ticket and took off for Houston. The company, Kasper Wire Works, had been making wire products for almost 150 years and started with barbwire. Located in a tiny Texas town in the middle of nowhere, I drove by the factory 3 times. Not because it was small but because it was housed in a series of old extremely large barns. The people were very nice and gave me a complete tour of their facilities which took over an hour. When I finally got to meet the wire production manager the first thing he asked me is what is this thing for, somehow he never got the memo. I explained what its intended use was and his first comment was that’s a really good idea. I proceeded to pull the different pots out of my suitcase and explain the problem. I showed him my idea for a solution and he went to work. His assistant told me where the closest hotel was and that I should come back tomorrow. When I returned the next day he had taken my idea and incorporated it into a new handle design. It worked universally on all the different pots I brought and I was on my way home Mission Accomplished.

November 2007 - An Idea Becomes a Real Business

2009-10-18T00:56:00Z

Halfway through the fall of 2007 and my utility patent had been filed, LegalZoom.com filed the documents forming the LLC partnership for me and my investors with the secretary of state and I had just deposited $23,000 in the business bank account. It was starting to feel like a real business, now it was time to start developing a product. I needed to find a manufacturer and to have some unbiased market research conducted. How inventors in the past ever brought new products to market before the internet and computers is beyond me.

Finding a manufacturer to build my product was a matter of using Google and Thomas Net to locate several possible companies that could do the job. After several emails and a couple of phone calls I decided that Kasper Wire Works in Shiner Texas was the best company for the job. I sent them my crude homemade prototype, some dimensional drawings and talked to the manager of wire production. With in a few weeks first professionally manufactured prototype would be produced.

Now I turned my attention to market research, one of the inventors books I read mentioned a research group associated with the University of Wisconsin School of Business. Most inventors suffer from being overly paranoid and in the beginning I was no different. Hiring a company associated with a University seemed like a safe bet even if it wasn't the most economical, so I contacted WISC (Wisconsin Innovation Service Center) and decided to hire them to complete a "New Product Evaluation" and "A Licensing Partner Search". At this point I still had I high hopes that I could license my idea and walk away with regular checks hitting my mailbox, wow what a dream that would have been, but then I would have missed on all the fun that was to follow.

While the market research was in the works, I circled round with Ron Reardon, my patent agent, to see if he could give me some idea of how long the utility patent was going to take to issue. After he contacted the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) he called me and said that the 1st office action was 19 months out and that there could be several office actions before the utility patent would issue, he suggested filing a design patent because they issue so much faster and would give me legal protection much sooner. I agreed and hired him to "get-r-done".

The last thing I did before 2007 came to a closed was hire an accountant. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any deadlines and got all my financial records in order before the new year rolled in. That's when I realized I made my first mistake. Why did I form a LLC in November 2007 when I could have formed the company in January 2008? If I had waited I wouldn't have had to pay accounting fees totaling $900 for 6 weeks of business and file a 2007 tax return. Make a note of that for your own reference.

September 2007 - Time for a Business Plan

2009-10-15T01:40:00Z

I spent the rest of summer 2007 conducting patents searches, interviewing patent attorneys and writing a business plan. I starting by conducting my own patent search using Google, its free and should be the first place every inventor starts their journey, after all if someone else has already patented your idea its game over. I found lots of devices designed for steaming food, but nothing like my idea, so I took the next step and spent a few hundred dollars to have LegalZoom.com perform a patent search. I think this was one of my most anxious periods, I was scared to death that a company I hired to conduct a patent search would in fact find that someone else already patented my idea. When the results came back I was pleasantly surprised, LegalZoom.com did not find any preexisting patent claims that would effect the development of my idea. I was "Go" for the next step, a provisional patent.

A provisional patent is a stake in the ground, temporary patent that buys you one year and officially notifies the US patent and trademark office (USPTO) about your idea. I spent several weeks trying to understand the documentation required to file and finally decided it was in my best interest to once again hire LegalZoom.com to do it for me. On September 6th 2007 I was notified that the USPTO had received the documents needed for the provisional patent and I could now legally use the phrase "Patent Pending". The first time I put the words "Patent Pending" on my product was a pretty big moment.

Time for another patent search this time I needed a detailed one. Patent searches are like layers in an onion, just because one layer is clear doesn't mean that every layer is clear. While I was trying to find a patent attorney to partner with I was referred to Ron Reardon and his company "Patents and More". Now that I had the provisional patent in place I felt much more comfortable talking to people about my idea and Ron was one of the first patent agents that talked to me instead of at me. I knew that I finally found the guy I was going to use for my IP (intellectual property) protection and the first thing I hired Ron to do is to conduct a third detailed patent search.

By the end of September 2007 I had completed a preliminary business plan and my investors started sending in their money. It was a strange feeling collecting money from friends, family and former business associates, I had never done anything like that before and taking money from people you respect and care about is a huge responsibility. I knew they trusted me and I knew I was trust worthy, but that’s a far cry from being a good solid investment. I promised myself that I would do everything I possibly could to make their faith and trust in me pay off. To this day one of my greatest goals is that my investors earn more money annually from their investment in my idea then they do from their day jobs!

July 2007 - Unemployed, Now what?

2009-09-09T19:13:00Z

Losing a job, let alone being laid off after a 15 year career with the same company, is something that really gives one pause. I spent quite a bit of time contemplating my career options and wasn't sure what my next move should be. The only conclusion I came to is that I wanted to get out of retail management. Considering all of my options, I remembered how my dad always touted the advantages of having a business of your own. The quote that keep ringing through my head was, "do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life". If you ever find yourself in a similar situation ask yourself this question "if you could do anything you wanted to do to make a living what would you do?" I had to go all the way back to my childhood to personally answer for that one, fortunately being unemployed give me plenty of time to think it through. I wanted to be an inventor and invent some simple little product that everyone would buy.

I had a prototype and knew that the concept worked really well... now what? It was such a simple idea that I knew I needed a patent or someone else could just build more faster and cheaper putting me out of business. So I started reading books starting with "Patent it Yourself" and "The Inventor's Bible". After I had a basic understanding of the process I started calling patent attorneys and asking questions, a lot of questions. I learned that the first step in the process is a patent search for pre-existing similar inventions and that there were various degrees of searches: basic, moderate and advanced, each one being more in depth than the one before and more expensive. Thanks to the internet you can get much of information for free, but eventually you will have to hire experts and that takes money.

I was out of work and had no source of income, but I had an idea for a product that I believed in. I went around cooking hotdogs and steaming buns with my little gadget for my friends and family asking them ,"what do you think?", "would you be willing to invest in exchange for a piece of the future profits?" Two of the first three people I spoke to offered to invest and pledged $6,000. Obviously I had their trust, now I had to work hard smart to make their investment pay off. Promised them that I wouldn't accept any of their money until I had completed the patent searches and had a professional business plan to give them.

One of my most passionate dreams is to pay my investors back with dividends equal to many times what they invested in my idea.

February 2007 - Fortunately I was about to be laid off

2009-08-02T03:10:00Z

Looking back, like many inventors trying to find themselves, I had trouble deciding on a career. Planning a successful inventing career is nearly impossible until that idea, that "flash of genius" pops into your head. Most inventors stumble into a career to pay the bills waiting for that moment to happen. At least that’s how it was in my case. While still in high school a buddy of mine said "hey let's go get jobs selling stereos, that would be cool" and so began my 30 year consumer electronics career. Being around the latest and greatest electronic gadgets was fun. I was a good salesperson and a halfway decent manager, but I found myself yearning for something more. I never felt like I reached my full potential, except for the 2 years when I was at the corporate office project managing all of the new retail initiatives. I really enjoyed that job and learned some of the most important business skills I would need later on. It was a great company and for most of my career I worked for and with great people, but when the company started loosing money things changed and the employees were about to get squeezed.

15 years of hard work and dedication with the same company was about to pay off, not because I was going to be promoted, but because I was about to get laid off. Most people face a mid life crisis at some point in their life and this was mine. There are so many inspirational quotes appropriate to describe a life changing event like this its hard to pick just one. The first one that comes to mind is one my mother taught me at a young age, "every cloud has a silver lining". As an inventor I should probably use the old adage "necessity is the mother of all invention", but all I can tell you is actually going through this life changing event it feels more appropriate to say "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".

Sensing a career change was coming my way, I started examining different business models. Why is it that some companies like Apple or Google are known for being so good to their employees that every time there's a single job opening thousands of people apply, while companies like Circuit City struggle to keep their employee turnover below 100% per year. The answer is profitability. Apple and Google are very profitable companies because they create high quality unique products or services that consumers can't get anywhere else. That allows them to pay higher wages and provide their employees with enviable perks. Most retailers aren't very profitable because they resell other company's products which consumers can find anywhere, including online. If a company doesn't create a unique product it may find it impossible to maintain profitability in a competitive environment and if it can't maintain its profitability the standard of living its employees enjoy will decline. Inventors create new unique products by definition.

For inventors the first step in creating a unique new product begins with a basic patent search, after all if someone else has already patented your idea its game over. If your idea doesn't infringe on an existing patent its time to make a prototype. If that works well and people need it you may have step three covered. If you can manufacture it for a low price compared to its retail value you may have the profitability thing licked and be able to move on to step five. If you can develop a marketing strategy or an effective IP (intellectual property) strategy you are coming up on the point where you can contemplate trying to bring your product to market, all you'll need is $50k to $100k to get started. Keep in mind that there are still a couple of dozen more steps that you will have to successfully complete before approaching the break even point, actually making money is still a pipe dream away.