Best techniques make Money from Your IDEAS and Inventions

    Every one has ideas, inventions, and dreams but only a
few people ever make any money from their thoughts.
This Is how Ive been doing it (or trying to).From a simple thought to an
actual product as a high school kid. Im not trying to show
off or anything, im simply trying to show that it is possible
for a kid to actually make money and start a small

company based off of their ideas. Also this isnt about my
invention, i dont care if you dont like it, its a consumer
product, designed to be cheap, quick to manufacture and
secure enough for most average consumers. So please,
constructive comments only I dont want to be flamed.
STEP 1: FIRST LEARN HOW TO BUILD THINGS WITH
YOUR HANDS
Learn how to build things, everything using simple tools.
Unless your rich or extraordinarily lucky, you will have
difficulty launching any product that you can not build with
your own two hands (and a dremel tool). Investors,
companies, and business partners have all seen
thousands of inventors with ideas but absolutely no clue
how to build them. By showing them a working prototype
or even a detailed mock up you will have one step above
most other "inventors" . If you can develop a clear model
in your head and and then build it with your hands, then a
manufacturer will be able to do the same.
STEP 2: INVENT A PRODUCT
This can sometimes be the shortest and simplest part of
product design, often though it will take a long time for the
idea to come about. Simply look for everyday problems
around you, brainstorm simple solutions to these
problems. Usually you should discard solutions that are
outside of your field of expertise and focus on the most
likely solutions. If your really into it you can create a gant
chart to analyze the best solutions.
For example, My product, the Hard drive zapper was a
solution to the problem of getting scrap computers for my
company. Businesses and schools refused to sell me
obsolete computers without some type of data security. I
put together the Hard Drive Zapper as a simple cheap and
relatively secure solution. Although it is not as secure as
a several other data destruction methods, it is secure
enough for the average homeowner who just wants some
peace of mind while disposing of a computer. i have made
this fact clear to all of my customers.
STEP 3: DESIGN A METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING
Now that you have built a simple prototype of your device
and tested it, you have to figure out how to make
thousands of that device very quickly. An easy way to
decide on the best manufacturing method is to use flow
charts. Figure out the path of every component you plan
to use from the raw materials to the packaging. Next
figure out each process that take the components from
one step to another, (soldering, gluing, .etc). Now you can
attach price tags to each component or process. Time
yourself going through each process, take the average of
these times and divide by 60 minutes, then multiply by
minimum wage(about $7.50). this gives you the
aproxamite price per action on each device. Now to
Optimize you must look at multiple routes that you can
use and find the absolute lowest cost with the highest
volume.
For Example It took me over 4 Hours to build the first
zapper. After optimizing my design, i reduced the time
down to 3 minutes when built by a mentally retarded
person.
Initially I built a bunch of zappers and recorded all the
steps i went through. then i timed each motion. Using
flow charts and gant charts i tried to find and eliminate
the slower steps in construction. I optimized production
by reducing multiple actions into 1 swift motion. I also
built tools and machines like a small plastic extruder and
crude injection molds to help speed up production.
Unfortunately i failed to finish everything when i left for
college so my extruder and more complex machines are
on hold till Christmas.
STEP 4: FIND A MANUFACTURER
This is not as difficult as it sounds, you just need to start
small. Without a long sales record it will be difficult to get
a large manufacturer interested in investing the tens of
thousands required to retool machines .etc. so it is
usually best to go to a medium sized corporation that you
can contract out to build your device. Often it is cheapest
and best to look for a manufacturer who employs mentally
disabled people, to work on essentially an assembly
line.Through my contacts i found a local company that
hires mentally disabled people to perform repetitive
rudimentary tasks, this was perfect because i had
designed the zapper to be manufactured without any skill
at all. The manufacturer did time studies to figure out the
cost for manufacturing each unit. The time studies
showed that the device could be produced in
approximately 4 minutes. Between parts and labor and
packaging the total price comes out to under $4. As soon
as i start getting larger orders i simply have to send a
check and the address to the manufacturer who will ship it
to my clients.
STEP 5: SETUP SUPPLY CHAIN
My parts need to get to the manufacturer, But how? the
easiest way is to design the product from unwanted trash.
In my case 90% of my device is produce from recycled
electrical products. My manufacturer picks them up from
local stores weekly. By using ewaste i get $10 worth of
components for 20 cents. This took alot of negotiation
with the store manager but in the end worked out well.
STEP 6: GET PRESS
this is easy especially if your a kid doing something
unique, Just call up your local news paper, and any others
you can find. So far my company has gotten into 5 papers
so far. An Ewaste recycling company contacted me after
the president read about me in the boston globe. They
bought a sample zapper and want to help me market it.
STEP 7: PATENT IT
Before telling everyone about your idea , file a provisional
patent application. The provisional patent application
basically says to people, "if you copy me, ill sue your
asses down the line". Its not perfect and expires after a
year but its only $100 and it tells people that you are
seriously pursuing this.
STEP 8: MAKE A WEBSITE, BUSINESS CARDS,
LOGO, .ETC
Basically you dont want to come off as a poor young
inventor to oter companies, you need to act as though ur
company is real, large and serious. Say "we" instead of
"I". Whenever you call other companies say that you are a
product designer for ur own company you will get 100
times further than if u say "hello sir i am an inventor. Also
press helps alot ive called up several places who have
read about me in the news paper and they have been
extremely helpful. You should consider incorporating for
liability protection. Make a professional looking site in
publisher, and host on hostmonster. It gives validity to
your business. Check out my site harddrivezapper.com i
have a bunch of product listed on there as well as
projects.
STEP 9: CASH YOUR CHECKS
eventually orders will start coming in and so will the
money, its a long hard road but quite doable.
also if any one is interested in a job at WillCorp please
email me, we are currently hiring.
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