Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!: Make Your Million-Dollar Idea Into a Reality (6 page)

Then I met a woman who proudly showed me her new baby bag. It was a nicely designed bag with convenient features, particularly in that it could fold out into a changing mat or fold up into a purse. Secretly, though, I didn’t think it was that different from so many others already on the market. But I wasn’t there to crush anyone’s dreams; I was there to advise people and steer them to where they would figure out for themselves if it was a hero or a zero. So that’s what I did for this participant. About an hour later, another young woman sat down across from me, carrying her invention—a baby bag. Except for the color, it was exactly the same as the one I’d seen an hour before. Now I had to say something. I told her that I understood how excited she was about it, but I had to share with her the fact that I had seen the same bag just a little while earlier. As I spoke, I prepared myself for her disappointment, maybe even a few fireworks or tears. I got neither. “No way,” she said. “It can’t be the same as mine.” She thanked me for my time, and walked away.

Here’s the crazy thing: over the course of the day, I saw five more bags just like that one. Every detail was nearly identical. In total, seven inventors at that one conference had designed the exact same product for the exact same market, and not one of them knew about the others until they met with me and I shared this with them. Amazingly, the six inventors I was able to warn reacted to the news the same way: complete denial. They did not want to believe that all the time, money, and effort they’d put into their invention might have already been for nothing.

You’ve got to pay attention to what is already for sale and what has been patented or is patent pending (a major reason to hire a patent lawyer—more on that in
Chapter 6
). It is far more difficult to compete with other products already on the market than to introduce a brand-new, unique product. Of course, it is also a lot harder to come up with a truly unique idea than it is to improve upon something that already exists. So let’s say that you’re sure you’ve got a hero of a product, but you also know that you’ve got competition. What can you do? Where are the areas that can give you an advantage?

Sometimes your price can make you unique. When she was only eleven, Lani Lazzari concocted her first batch of Simple Sugars body scrub to treat her painful, persistent eczema using only natural ingredients. The skin-care market is hugely competitive, and there were already natural scrubs out there claiming to do the same thing as her product. It was for this reason that I chose not to make her an offer when she appeared on
Shark Tank
, even though she was a great contestant. But though using a scrub wasn’t a unique solution to the problem of eczema, Simple Sugars was unique in that it provided a hand-made, hand-jarred, hand-labeled natural product for about half the price of its main competitors, while still upholding a high standard of quality. People love it, including Mark Cuban, who did make the deal with Lazzari that allowed her to expand her rapidly growing business.

Sometimes your story can make you unique. Do inventor James Dyson’s vacuum cleaners really clean your carpets that much better than the ones you can find at Walmart for much less? He says they do, and he points to a lot of research to back up his claim. For customers who aren’t satisfied unless they can eat off the floor, the possibility of “better” makes the higher price point worthwhile. It did for me—I love my Dyson vacuum cleaner. It works and I like seeing the dirt whirl around in the
canister. The product looks so cool and the marketing story is so convincing, it is easy to believe that it offers a unique kind of cleaning experience. And that has been worth millions to Dyson.

“Better” does not necessarily trump “unique.” If people believe that their problem has been solved, they’re probably not going to be interested in a 2.0 version, especially if it costs more than the original. Sometimes people have gotten used to a product being a certain price point, and nothing you do is going to convince them that they should pay more, even if your product is better quality. Or maybe there are people willing to pay, but not enough to propel you out of a niche market. That was why none of the sharks made an offer to Brian Altomare, co-founder of the LugLess baggage shipping service. It is positioned as a less expensive alternative to paying the hefty fees airlines charge to carry luggage beyond your carry-on. But there are already companies that provide this niche service, and none of us sharks could figure out how LugLess could scale and still keep its prices below those of its competitors. It’s probably a great service, but despite Altomare’s protests at the time of the show, we still saw it as a luxury niche service.

Your 2.0 version might have an advantage if you can create a similar or better quality product for the same price or cheaper.

You can, of course, make a lot of money in a niche market, but it requires a magical combination of great marketing and fortuitous timing. Vending machines used to exclusively carry sodas, so that’s what people bought to drink when they were in a hurry or on the go. Bottled water became an alternative, and Evian marketed itself into a status symbol for the healthy set that publicly proclaimed the drinker was healthy, fit, and sophisticated
enough to appreciate the difference in taste between natural spring-fed European water and tap water. Then research came out showing how awful soda is for people’s health, and bottled water started flying off the shelves. Vending-machine makers adapted so they could carry the popular product. Evian and the like became mainstream products, and a cultural change was born. Today green products, which used to be niche, are picking up speed, especially now that Millennials are growing old enough to make their own purchasing decisions.

Keep this in mind at all times: retailers are always looking for what is new and different. It is in your best interest to try to be that. Not cheaper. Not even just better. Brand-new, different, and surprising—that’s what will get the attention of stores, retailers, and shopping networks. Once you’ve proven you can do business with them, and better yet, once you become an indispensable resource to them and their customers, then you can start moving in on big-brand territory. But in general, it is unwise to try that until you’re well established and have the right connections.

4. Is It Something People Will Need or Want?

Most hugely successful inventions are functional and make obligatory tasks easier. Appliances like the clothes dryer and the dishwasher changed homemakers’ lives forever. Can you imagine life without zippers, shoelaces, or disposable razors? How about the electric lightbulb? The wheel! At some point, human beings got along without every one of these inventions, but once they became available, they were an indispensable part of daily existence. But you know someone, somewhere, surely looked at that first disposable razor and thought, “Who needs that?” After all, that’s what people said about the first cordless phone, and the first computers, too.

Your challenge should be to create something so amazing that once people start to use it, they won’t be able to live without
it. Create to fulfill people’s needs, not their wants, because once they believe they need something your invention is better protected against economic forces. For example, when the economy collapsed in 2008, luxury items stopped selling. Jewelry sales dried up. But people continued to buy disposable razors. If asked which item they wanted more—a beautiful piece of jewelry or a five-pack of disposable razors—most people would probably express desire for the jewelry. But when money gets tight, people don’t buy what they want, they buy what they need. Or at least, what they perceive they need.

Small luxuries, like specialty coffees, treats, cosmetics, and haircuts, tend to do well no matter what the state of the economy is, because they’re inexpensive ways for people to feel good and look good. They always want to spend money on these basic things. In tough times, these are the ways we treat ourselves and make ourselves feel better.

Any inventor who wants job security should aim to create items that will be perceived as necessities, not luxuries. Accessories are an excellent example. Your phone works just fine and smoothly fits in your pocket without a cool case, but do you know anyone who walks around with an unprotected, undecorated phone? People have been carrying around their reading glasses in their shirt pockets or dangling from chains forever. Each option has some serious drawbacks: in your pocket, your glasses could easily slip out and break, and any chain, even a cool one, is still a granny chain. But no one questioned these options until Rick Hopper invented the ReadeREST, which magnetically and discretely keeps your glasses securely fastened to your shirt or blouse, no matter what. You can still tuck your glasses in your shirt pocket; you can still use a chain. But why on earth would you if you could buy this instead?

5. Is It Demonstrable?

Your customers will have to “get” your product as soon as they see it. Of course, you’ll provide investors with fabulous marketing materials, and your customers with excellent copy on the package, but it’s not the copy that’s going to clinch the sale of your product. Your copy is there only to confirm what has led potential customers to read the copy in the first place: their desire to believe your product works as well as they want it to. Yet we’ve become a sophisticated buying class, and few people believe everything they read. It’s a lot harder, however, for people to dismiss what they see with their own two eyes.

Products that can be easily demonstrated sell really, really well. The late Billy Mays was a genius with demonstrable cleaning products. How could anyone deny the power of OxiClean when you watched him erase grape juice and wine stains from white carpet swatches with just a small spritz of the product, or when you saw one scoop of OxiClean turn the water in a transparent vat of filthy clothes from black to clear? Seeing is definitely believing.

That’s how I knew Rick Hopper’s ReadeREST was a hero. The other sharks didn’t see it that way, though; Robert commented that he thought the product would be the kind of thing sold in gas stations. But they didn’t have any experience with the category. I, however, had developed a successful line of reading glasses, and though I didn’t wear them myself, I knew that many of my customers, not to mention friends and family members, had the same complaint—they were always losing, misplacing, or breaking their eyewear, whether prescription glasses, sunglasses, or reading glasses. They didn’t have a safe, attractive way to keep their glasses on their person when they weren’t using them. ReadeREST was the answer. I had already sold hundreds of thousands of reading glasses; it stood to reason that a large portion of
those customers would think this was a cool little gadget. They did, and Rick Hopper is now a millionaire with a line of new ideas coming down the pipeline.

6. How Do I Make It?

Will your product be made of plastic or wood, metal or fabric? What type of factory makes your type of product? Where do such factories exist? Is it important to you that you manufacture in the United States, or can your product be made overseas? We’ll cover how to select a manufacturer in depth in
Chapter 8
, but you need to do some preliminary research at this stage in the invention process because the answers will immediately give you a ballpark figure of how much it will cost you to make your product, which will then tell you how much you can charge for it. And price matters a great deal. If your target market can’t afford your product, you’re in trouble. In addition, the majority of consumers in our post-recession society will continue to feel a pinch for years as they come to grips with the fact that the price of necessities like food and fuel have risen but paychecks have not. We’ll discuss pricing in
Chapter 4
.

Another question to which the answers will inform pricing, manufacturing, and even selling is: how big will your product be? The bigger your product, the harder it will be to sell, not only because of pricing concerns but also because retailers have only so much square footage for display and storage, whether for stock in the back or in their warehouse. It would be a shame to meet a retailer who loves your product but can’t sell it because they don’t have the room. Obviously, the size of a product won’t matter if its size is part of what makes it wonderful. Refrigerators were once almost half the size they are now, until people started demanding more space, not just for food storage but also for home square footage as well.

7. Who Is Your Target Market?

Whenever possible, invent for the masses. There is a niche market for products, but it’s easier to design something that is useful, with broad appeal, at a price point that the majority of people can afford. The broader your audience, the better your chances of making large numbers of sales. There are many examples of products made for specific segments of society that have sold spectacularly well, of course. The kids’ market is filled with them. Who knows, maybe you’ve got the next Beanie Baby or Silly Bandz on your hands. Who could have predicted the Slinky would still be selling after sixty years? Luck could be on your side. But it’s better if you don’t count on it. If you insist that you have knowledge about a certain demographic that makes you confident you can sell to that specific group, make plans to branch out as soon as possible once you’ve made your mark on that audience.