business plan for new invention

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Start » strategy, how to write a business plan for inventions.

Attract investors and formalize processes by developing a roadmap for commercializing your innovation.

An inventor’s business plan is a framework for bringing a concept to market and achieving profitability. It’s similar to a regular business plan but adds details about intellectual property protection and prototypes. Ideally, a business plan for inventions builds upon a feasibility study. It should highlight your findings from a comprehensive competitive analysis and be tailored to its intended audience, such as investors.

An invention business plan is crucial for getting funding and securing strategic alliances. But you can also use it internally to guide operations, from marketing to hiring. Here’s how to craft an effective report.

Determine your audience and purpose

Although most business plans for a new invention follow a basic outline, you can tailor your approach to appeal to specific readers. Suppose you want to pitch your idea to investors or accelerator programs. In this case, it’s essential to mention funding requirements. But you should also emphasize the skills and experience your team brings to the table. According to Heer Law , “Often, investors and other stakeholders care as much or more about who the people are behind an invention than the potential of the invention on its own.”

However, if you’re looking for co-founders and employees, modify your document to clarify the skills required and long-term benefits for early joiners. Once you understand what drives your intended audience, you can write a business plan that excites them while answering their questions.

[ Read more: How These Innovation-Driven Startups Reached an Elusive Milestone: Profitability ]

Outline your invention business plan sections

The Small Business Association (SBA) said, “There’s no right or wrong way to write a business plan. What’s important is that your plan meets your needs.” You can use a basic template , take a free course , or start from scratch. Begin your process by outlining commonly used sections, then modify your document to include invention-specific content.

Often, investors and other stakeholders care as much or more about who the people are behind an invention than the potential of the invention on its own.

Christopher Heer, Annette Latoszewska, and Daryna Kutsyna, Heer Law

Consider adding the following components:

• Executive summary: Keep it concise but touch on each aspect of your plan. Remember to pique interest and compel your audience to read more.
• Company overview: Discuss your industry and niche, including what makes your invention and business stand out. Explain how you will commercialize your design (selling to consumers, wholesale, or retail).
• Organizational structure: This is where you describe your legal business structure (sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC), or corporation). Provide details about inventors, executive team, and current or prospective employees.
• Market and competitive analysis: Share insights from your feasibility study, including an analysis of your industry, competitors, and market. Add statistics about market size and growth. Plus, offer a customer profile and explain what differentiates your invention from others.
• Invention: Tell readers about your design (features and functions) and how it benefits customers. Mention your product research, prototypes, and intellectual property registrations .
• Marketing and sales: Explain how you will apply competitive and market insights to earn a return. Topics may include sales, pricing, promotional strategies, positioning statements, and marketing campaigns.
• Financial information: Show how your invention will be profitable and use spreadsheets, charts, and graphs. Include projected revenue , profit and loss, cash flow, and a balance sheet. Also, detail any funding needs, how you’ll get the money, and what you’ll do with it.
• Appendix: Add all supporting evidence for your invention business plan. For instance, Chron.com said, “Investors respond well to business plans that include endorsements of the product from potential customers.

Add sections for your new invention

In addition to these regular sections, you can expand your business plan to include research and development, intellectual property protection , and owned or future IP assets. According to Heer Law, the research and development component helps readers understand “future products that can be commercially exploited.” Likewise, details about your intellectual property protection ensure investors that you’ve taken action to defend your innovation from unwanted duplication.

Provide information about any assets going through the application process and how various trademarks, patents , and copyrights will impact profitability. Also, discuss if you plan on developing new inventions or have prototypes available.

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Business Plans for New Inventions

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A common trait of small-business owners is their creativity -- the ability to spot a customer need and design a product to effectively meet the need. Inventing a product is an exciting experience, but the inventor must temper his enthusiasm by developing a business plan that is aligned with the realities of the marketplace, which include the competition his invention will face.

Key Questions to Address

For a new invention, the business plan resembles a feasibility study. The business owner must be able to state with confidence that there is a large-enough market for the product to attract significant numbers of customers and that the cost structure of producing it will allow the company to make a profit. Many times, the small-business owner will use the business plan to obtain a commitment from investors to provide the capital needed to finish developing and then market the invention.

Uses and Benefits

The business plan includes a detailed description of how customers will use the product and the benefits they will receive. Showing the product being used makes it seem more real to the reader of the plan. The benefits must be powerful enough to cause the target customer to consider making a purchase. The product must represent a significant improvement over other solutions to the customers’ needs or problems. Entering the market with a clearly superior solution greatly increases the company’s chances of being able to convince customers to try the product. These early customers will serve as word-of-mouth spokespeople to attract other customers.

Confirmation of Market Size

The business owner must prove to potential investors -- and most importantly to herself -- that a large market exists for the invention. A market that is growing offers the best opportunity. Instead of having to take customers away from your chief competitor, you can focus on reaching out to new customers who will be trying this class of product for the first time. Investors respond well to business plans that include endorsements of the product from potential customers. This shows the business owner knows who her target markets are.

Development Plan and Cost

The steps to complete research and development of the product, build prototypes, test the prototypes and create the market-ready version of the invention must be outlined in detail in the plan with realistic cost estimates for each step. If the timeline for entering the market turns out to not be feasible, it delays the company being able to generate revenue from the product.

Marketing Strategies and Cost

The business owner next must devise marketing strategies and action plans to reach the chosen target markets. A pitfall of marketing strategies for new products is underestimating the cost of getting the product known and convincing customers to try it. The plan should include measurable metrics to track that will show the business owner which of his strategies worked well. These metrics, also called key performance indicators, include such things as the growth of traffic to the product’s website and the marketing cost per customer lead generated.

Projected Profit and Loss Statement

The business plan includes projected revenues for the product. These should be conservative, reflecting the difficulty of launching a new product. The plan also shows the cost of production and incorporates the marketing and administrative expenses related to the product to arrive at a projected pretax profit. If a patent can be obtained on the invention, include a cost estimate for the legal work to accomplish that. Patents and other intellectual property protection increase the value of an invention.

• Inc.: How to Bring Your Invention to Market
• Inc.: How to Save on Marketing Your Invention

Brian Hill is the author of four popular business and finance books: "The Making of a Bestseller," "Inside Secrets to Venture Capital," "Attracting Capital from Angels" and his latest book, published in 2013, "The Pocket Small Business Owner's Guide to Business Plans."

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• 1 The Importance of a Business Plan
• 2 Key Factors to Considering Business Feasibility
• 3 Entrepreneurship and Business Planning
• 4 How to Get an Idea Into Production

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Write your business plan

Business plans help you run your business.

A good business plan guides you through each stage of starting and managing your business. You’ll use your business plan as a roadmap for how to structure, run, and grow your new business. It’s a way to think through the key elements of your business.

Business plans can help you get funding or bring on new business partners. Investors want to feel confident they’ll see a return on their investment. Your business plan is the tool you’ll use to convince people that working with you — or investing in your company — is a smart choice.

Pick a business plan format that works for you

There’s no right or wrong way to write a business plan. What’s important is that your plan meets your needs.

Most business plans fall into one of two common categories: traditional or lean startup.

Traditional business plans are more common, use a standard structure, and encourage you to go into detail in each section. They tend to require more work upfront and can be dozens of pages long.

Lean startup business plans are less common but still use a standard structure. They focus on summarizing only the most important points of the key elements of your plan. They can take as little as one hour to make and are typically only one page.

Traditional business plan

Lean startup plan

Traditional business plan format

You might prefer a traditional business plan format if you’re very detail-oriented, want a comprehensive plan, or plan to request financing from traditional sources.

When you write your business plan, you don’t have to stick to the exact business plan outline. Instead, use the sections that make the most sense for your business and your needs. Traditional business plans use some combination of these nine sections.

Executive summary

Briefly tell your reader what your company is and why it will be successful. Include your mission statement, your product or service, and basic information about your company’s leadership team, employees, and location. You should also include financial information and high-level growth plans if you plan to ask for financing.

Company description

Use your company description to provide detailed information about your company. Go into detail about the problems your business solves. Be specific, and list out the consumers, organization, or businesses your company plans to serve.

Explain the competitive advantages that will make your business a success. Are there experts on your team? Have you found the perfect location for your store? Your company description is the place to boast about your strengths.

Market analysis

You'll need a good understanding of your industry outlook and target market. Competitive research will show you what other businesses are doing and what their strengths are. In your market research, look for trends and themes. What do successful competitors do? Why does it work? Can you do it better? Now's the time to answer these questions.

Organization and management

Tell your reader how your company will be structured and who will run it.

Describe the  legal structure  of your business. State whether you have or intend to incorporate your business as a C or an S corporation, form a general or limited partnership, or if you're a sole proprietor or limited liability company (LLC).

Use an organizational chart to lay out who's in charge of what in your company. Show how each person's unique experience will contribute to the success of your venture. Consider including resumes and CVs of key members of your team.

Service or product line

Describe what you sell or what service you offer. Explain how it benefits your customers and what the product lifecycle looks like. Share your plans for intellectual property, like copyright or patent filings. If you're doing  research and development  for your service or product, explain it in detail.

Marketing and sales

There's no single way to approach a marketing strategy. Your strategy should evolve and change to fit your unique needs.

Your goal in this section is to describe how you'll attract and retain customers. You'll also describe how a sale will actually happen. You'll refer to this section later when you make financial projections, so make sure to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales strategies.

Funding request

If you're asking for funding, this is where you'll outline your funding requirements. Your goal is to clearly explain how much funding you’ll need over the next five years and what you'll use it for.

Specify whether you want debt or equity, the terms you'd like applied, and the length of time your request will cover. Give a detailed description of how you'll use your funds. Specify if you need funds to buy equipment or materials, pay salaries, or cover specific bills until revenue increases. Always include a description of your future strategic financial plans, like paying off debt or selling your business.

Financial projections

Supplement your funding request with financial projections. Your goal is to convince the reader that your business is stable and will be a financial success.

If your business is already established, include income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements for the last three to five years. If you have other collateral you could put against a loan, make sure to list it now.

Provide a prospective financial outlook for the next five years. Include forecasted income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and capital expenditure budgets. For the first year, be even more specific and use quarterly — or even monthly — projections. Make sure to clearly explain your projections, and match them to your funding requests.

This is a great place to use graphs and charts to tell the financial story of your business.  

Use your appendix to provide supporting documents or other materials were specially requested. Common items to include are credit histories, resumes, product pictures, letters of reference, licenses, permits, patents, legal documents, and other contracts.

Example traditional business plans

Before you write your business plan, read the following example business plans written by fictional business owners. Rebecca owns a consulting firm, and Andrew owns a toy company.

Lean startup format

You might prefer a lean startup format if you want to explain or start your business quickly, your business is relatively simple, or you plan to regularly change and refine your business plan.

Lean startup formats are charts that use only a handful of elements to describe your company’s value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. They’re useful for visualizing tradeoffs and fundamental facts about your company.

There are different ways to develop a lean startup template. You can search the web to find free templates to build your business plan. We discuss nine components of a model business plan here:

Key partnerships

Note the other businesses or services you’ll work with to run your business. Think about suppliers, manufacturers, subcontractors, and similar strategic partners.

Key activities

List the ways your business will gain a competitive advantage. Highlight things like selling direct to consumers, or using technology to tap into the sharing economy.

Key resources

List any resource you’ll leverage to create value for your customer. Your most important assets could include staff, capital, or intellectual property. Don’t forget to leverage business resources that might be available to  women ,  veterans ,  Native Americans , and  HUBZone businesses .

Value proposition

Make a clear and compelling statement about the unique value your company brings to the market.

Customer relationships

Describe how customers will interact with your business. Is it automated or personal? In person or online? Think through the customer experience from start to finish.

Customer segments

Be specific when you name your target market. Your business won’t be for everybody, so it’s important to have a clear sense of whom your business will serve.

List the most important ways you’ll talk to your customers. Most businesses use a mix of channels and optimize them over time.

Cost structure

Will your company focus on reducing cost or maximizing value? Define your strategy, then list the most significant costs you’ll face pursuing it.

Revenue streams

Explain how your company will actually make money. Some examples are direct sales, memberships fees, and selling advertising space. If your company has multiple revenue streams, list them all.

Example lean business plan

Before you write your business plan, read this example business plan written by a fictional business owner, Andrew, who owns a toy company.

Need help? Get free business counseling

How to Start Inventing Things and Get to Market

Candice Landau

25 min. read

Updated February 21, 2024

Everything you see around you—every item you own, every book you’ve read, every app you use, every website you browse—was once nothing more than an idea in someone else’s head.

That airplane thousands of miles above you. The memory foam pillow on your bed. The headache pills. The toothbrush. Your guitar. The internet. All of these things began as dreams.

The great thing about starting to see the world as an overstuffed library of ideas is that you couldn’t have any better proof that  inventing is for everyone . If someone else can dream something and turn it into a reality, time and time again, you can too.

But, when it comes to inventing things, the real trick is sticking the journey through or going from idea to invention to market. In this case, Thomas Edison said it best, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

So, if you think you’ve got a genius idea, be prepared to put in the legwork to see it through. It’s not as hard as you think!

That’s where this handy little guide comes in.

We’ll walk you through the things you need to do to get your ideas to market, and give you a number of useful resources to help you figure out everything you need to know to do it. All you have to do is read (and learn), develop a good sense of focus (think essentialism, or one priority at a time), do your research, test, test, test, and stick it through!

Disclaimer: Nothing within this article should be construed as legal advice. Please consult a patent attorney for more information about filing for a patent, and getting your idea to market. 

• 1. Believe in yourself

Coming up with an idea or inventing a product is a process that takes commitment, dedication, and self-belief.

If you’re someone that gives up at the first “no” or who is discouraged by negative feedback, you’re going to need to start working on believing in yourself before you send your idea out into the world.

According to Jo Boaler, Professor of Mathematics Education at Stanford University, it’s important to believe in yourself, because the “growth mindset” that comes part and parcel with doing so, literally changes your brain chemistry. By cultivating a growth mindset (a mindset in which your brain is very active), and by working hard, your brain can grow and change, making it easier for you to solve problems and find new solutions.

If that’s not enough to convince you to get on the self-help bandwagon, almost every inventor I spoke to when researching this article told me that being obsessive and sticking the inventing journey through was what got their idea or product invented.

Ken Beckstead, the inventor of the Butts only Box, and a recycling company that produces electricity from cigarette waste says, “Never give up. The rough times are what weed out others from achieving their goals. Watching the Simpsons is fine, but only after you’ve done your work for the day!”

With that in mind, let’s move forward to figuring out how to come up with great ideas.

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2. Find a problem worth solving

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re someone who has ideas, and probably a lot of them.

If you are indeed an “idea person,” you know that coming up with ideas isn’t the hard part. It’s sticking with just one of them for long enough, and seeing it through from vision to reality, that really is the trial.

If, on the other hand, you struggle to come up with ideas but still really want to be an inventor, read our guide on  how to come up with hundreds of business ideas —it’s fool-proof.

Ultimately, inventing a product or coming up with an idea means one thing: solving a problem, whether it’s your own or someone else’s.

Here are some examples of problems and their commoditized solutions:

• Problem:  dry skin.  Invention:  moisturizing skin cream.
• Problem:  need to work at night in the dark.  Invention:  light bulbs, candles, flashlights.
• Problem:  hairy clothes because you have a cat or dog.  Invention:  lint roller.
• Problem:  can’t stop biting fingernails.  Invention:  horrible tasting nail polish to stop you.
• Problem:  need to contact someone far away.  Invention:  telephone.
• Problem:  boredom.  Invention:  board game.

You get the point. Where there’s a problem, there’s a solution.

The best part about inventing new things is figuring out which of your problems, or other people’s problems, you’d most like to solve. If you can find a problem that hasn’t been solved, or a way to solve a problem better, you’ve hit upon something you may want to pursue.

See Also:  How to Come up with Hundreds of Business Ideas

Of course, you don’t have to solve a brand-new problem; you just have to come up with a solution that is all your own. If you want to invent a new solution to oily hair (shampoo), no one is stopping you.

The trick then is figuring out what your exact solution is, and whether or not there will be demand for it on a scale beyond just yourself, or whether or not you’ll be able to compete, if you’re entering an already-flooded market, like the shampoo market. We’ll talk more about this in step three.

How to find problems that actually need solving:

To come up with a really great idea, all you need to start doing is tuning into your own frustrations. Doing this is easier than you think, especially if you have a job, hobby, or pursuit that you’ve been doing for years. This sort of in-depth experience gives you unique insight into the daily workings of a particular industry.

Boris Wertz, founding partner of Version One Ventures, believes that if you’ve worked in an industry you’re passionate about for a long time, you may know something about the market that nobody else knows. He calls this “the secret of the market.”

Do you know a specific market’s secret?

For example, I’ve been making my own jewelry for years. Though I’ve really only been a hobby jeweler, I’ve been doing it for so long, I’m already deep in the marketplace. I know all the jewelry suppliers, and I know what products and ideas are currently trending.

When I wanted to start making more professional metal jewelry, I started shopping for a jeweler’s workbench. I needed a desk that had features that would give me quick access to a variety of tools; that was large enough for all my mixed media projects; and that was also sturdy enough it could take hammer blows and an occasional brush from a blow torch.

The most affordable jeweler’s workbench on the market at the time started at around $400. It was small and expensive. Rather than spending the money, I spent months looking for something larger and more affordable, something that simply didn’t exist, even when I looked outside of the jewelry niche at hardware stores and wood shops.

Today, a standard jeweler’s workbench from Rio Grande comes in at around $420

For anyone who doesn’t know, the hobby jeweler’s market is huge. In 2011, it accounted for approximately $2.3 billion in total industry sales. Today it is even larger.

So, if I were going to invent something, I’d probably start by creating an affordable jeweler’s workbench, not least because I’d be able to test it, and because I already know all the distribution channels I’d need to hit in order to sell it. Naturally, while doing my market research, I might find that the need for such desks isn’t high, and that the problem is exclusive to only a few. But, I’ll never know if I never put my hypothesis to the test and start doing the research!

Of course, solving your own problems isn’t the only way to go about finding an idea you can work with. If you prefer, you can also start paying attention to others’ frustrations. What are other people always complaining about? What do your friends want? What product doesn’t function like people wish it would?

To find out what people are complaining about, read forums, turn to your social media accounts, and read reviews. Open your mind to all the problems people are talking about.

• 3. Do basic market research (before investing money)

Once you’ve hit upon an idea you think you’d like to move forward with, it’s time to validate it by doing your market research.

According to Patricia Nolan-Brown, author of  “Idea to Invention,”  there are six primary reasons you do market research. I’ll expand on each of them, and offer you some additional, useful resources.

1. Do market research to know if it’s already selling and who your competition is

If you do have competition, pay special attention to your product name, price range, materials used, what the product claims to do, packaging, and who the manufacturer is. You can do a lot of this research online, but you can also do it in-person. Drop into a store that you think would be a great candidate for stocking your product in the future. Check out what merchandise is taking up shelf space and figure out where your product might sit within a similar store.

2. Do market research to minimize risk

If you find similar products exist when you’re doing your research, look for patent numbers. That said, not every product that has been patented can be found in stores. You will still need to do an online search to make sure you’re not infringing on someone else’s idea.

The  U.S. Patent and Trademark Office  (USPTO) is a great resource to help you learn more about intellectual property. In fact, they’ve created a 39-minute  step-by-step video course  to guide you through the process of conducting a preliminary U.S. Patent Search. You can also use  Google’s Patent Search  to see if similar ideas have been patented.

If you do find a patent similar to yours, worry. How the patent is worded can make all the difference. If you need help at this stage, contact a patent attorney and get their opinion. Don’t confuse a regular lawyer with a patent attorney. Only the latter is licensed to practice before the USPTO.

To find a patent attorney, use the  USPTO’s search directory  to find qualified help.

3. Do market research to see if there’s interest

Also known as asking people whether or not they’d buy your product. Make sure to ask people that can be objective (mom and dad probably won’t be) so that you can get honest feedback. Try to sample your ideal audience, and not just anyone.

If you want to explain your idea to someone in-depth and are worried potential theft, you can get them to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)—a legal document that states both parties intent to keep information confidential. You can  create one for free  on the RocketLawyer website.

If you’re trying to gauge interest through online surveys, be sure to be more vague about your idea, as at this stage you likely don’t have a patent. For example, if your idea is a new way to remove cat sand from a cat litter tray, you could ask people what bothers them most about the process of doing it. This way you don’t give away your idea, and you get information related to people’s pain points.

4. Do market research to start thinking about price

Providing your product is made from similar materials, and doesn’t include extra bells and whistles, you can price your product somewhere between the lowest and the highest price of competitor products. Of course, you could also calculate your price based on the cost of materials and manufacture.

Just remember, when you’re pricing your product:

• Your starting price defines you
• Your price positions you in the market
• Your price may affect business operations
• If you have multiple products, your price may even affect sales

Pricing a product right is as much an art as it is strategy informed by careful research. Read our article on  strategic ways to price your products or services.

5. Do market research to find potential licensees

A licensee is a company that agrees to manufacture and sell your product idea. Like a book publisher, licensees usually send you payments in the form of royalties, so for each product sold, you earn a percentage.

If you’re far more interested in inventing things, this may be a good idea as licensees do all the hard work for you: producing the item, shipping it, marketing it, assuming liability, and so on.

A great way to find potential licensees is to look for products similar to yours and then to look for the name of the manufacturer. You can usually find it right on the box! Compile a list of these so that you can start reaching out to them once you’ve patented your idea.

6. Do market research to gather vital details for your “sell sheet”

In the world of inventing, a “sell sheet” is also something you’ll need to learn to write. It’s usually a one-page description of your idea, with the sole purpose of enticing licensees, buyers, or trade show attendees to get excited about your product.

Your sell sheet should include:

• Your product name
• A benefit statement
• Visuals like illustrations or photos
• A demo video (if you’ve got a digital sell sheet)
• A list of features
• Necessary contact details

You can learn more about  crafting a sell sheet  on the I’ve Tried That website.

Validating your idea

Once you’ve worked through your preliminary market research (likely before you’ve had a prototype made), you can begin validating your idea. Thankfully, there’s a fast and affordable way to do so.

As you work through validating your idea, you’re going to need to understand how to conduct market research , and you’re going to need a list of  market research resources  to help you do just that.

Use the research process to help you get a good sense of the type of customer your product will serve. Not only will this impact how you design the product, but also where you distribute it, and how you market it.

Furthermore, the industry statistics for businesses who focus on products instead of customers are harrowing.  According to a study  conducted by seed accelerator Blackbox, many tech startups failed because they focused on their product rather than their potential customers.

Blackbox cofounder Bjoern Lasse Herrmann says, “Too many startups start building first without talking to customers. A structured customer discovery process makes a big difference in defining the key features for an early prototype. Building a product without finding problem or solution fit by talking to customers is one form of premature scaling.”

Beyond focusing on your potential customer base, make sure to scope out the competition. If you don’t have direct competition because your idea is entirely novel, think of the indirect competition.

For example, our product  LivePlan  offers a host of features that make it easy for business owners to manage their financials. Before they used LivePlan, many of our customers had to make do with Excel, using complex formulas to keep track of important data. Even though Excel is generalized spreadsheet software and requires a lot more work that our easy-to-use business dashboard, it’s still an indirect competitor as our target audience still uses it to the same end goal.

These indirect competitors may make it very hard to entice people away, even if you have a solution that’s better than theirs; this is especially true if they already have market share, and especially if that software is more affordable, or free.

If you go through the idea validation process only to find that your idea seems like a flop, don’t despair. Many ideas can be improved with a bit of fine tuning.

• 4. Build a prototype (and test your idea)

You’ve got a good idea, and you’ve validated it. Now you’re ready to get a prototype made so that you can test it. Congratulations! This is where the fun really begins.

The first thing you’re going to need to take into account is your budget. How much can you afford to spend on getting a physical prototype made? I’m not just talking about a 3D-printed mockup of your product, but a real-life working design.

Having something you can actually test is important, as up until this point, you’ve been knee-deep in theory. That’s fine, but it doesn’t give you an opportunity to test out a multitude of other factors:

• What are your customers reactions to your product?
• How does it feel? (You may decide to change the material it is made from.)
• Does it function as you had hoped?

When it comes down to prototyping your idea, you need to first decide what the purpose of the prototype is. Is it so you assess the product, or is to sell to prospective clients? Depending on its purpose, you can adjust your budget to suit.

At this beginning phase, don’t spend too much money. In fact, if it’s possible to make a functional prototype from cardboard or paper, that’s totally fine. If you do however require a more professional prototype, use a 3D printing company, or find an affordable manufacturer. You can check out the resource list at the end of the article for more information.

Make sure to do this initial manufacturing in small batches, too. After all, you don’t want a warehouse of prototypes—and what if you find out there’s something wrong with the first one? You want to be able to change it.

• 5. Protect your idea

If, during the market research phase and after validating your idea, you find there are no matching patents, or products in store, you’re ready to begin the process of getting your idea legally protected.

If you’re still doing research and are worried about someone stealing your idea, you may be thinking about filing for a patent as soon as possible. The problem with doing so, is that it’s an expensive process and you may not yet have figured out whether your idea is marketable. In this case, you may first want to file for a provisional patent application (PPA).

I’ll start by walking you through some of the ways you can go about protecting your products.

See Also:  Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks, and Trade Secrets…How Do You Protect Your Creations?

The non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

A non-disclosure agreement is a legally-binding mutual agreement between you and whomever you are sharing your idea with. If you have not yet patented your product but would like to share it with a third party, it’s usually advised that get one. In order for the NDA to be enforceable by law, it will need to be signed by both yourself, and the party receiving it.

If you need an NDA, you can pay an attorney to create one for you. You can also do a Google search to find one that you can use as a template.

Filing for trademark protection

If you want to protect your new idea’s name, you should apply for a trademark (™). With trademark protection, nobody else can use the name on similar products. You can also use a trademark to protect a logo or a phrase associated with your product.

If you’re going to license your idea, you may not need to patent your logo, or even a marketing slogan. The name is likely enough, as the company licensee will have their own team to do the rest for you. Why spend the extra money when you don’t have to?

To get a trademark, you can pay an attorney to conduct research to find out whether or not the name, logo, or slogan has been taken, and to file for trademark protection as well. If you’d prefer to save money and do the filing yourself, you can once again turn to the USPTO website. They will  walk you through the entire process.

Once your application has been completed and you’ve received confirmation of having done so, you can start using the (™) symbol after your product’s name. It’s worth noting however that use of the (™) symbol does not guarantee you will be protected under trademark laws. In order to be fully protected, you will need to wait until the name, logo, or phrase you filed to protect, becomes a registered trademark (®). This can take up to a couple of years, but by the end of the process, you’ll have a fancy-looking certificate to prove it’s all your own.

If once you’ve filed, you find someone is using your name, you can ask an attorney to send a “cease and desist” letter. Usually that’s enough to avoid getting into a costly legal battle. The same is true for your own actions; make sure to do your research before choosing a name. After all, you don’t want to be on the receiving end of the letter—or even worse, of a court case.

The provisional patent application (PPA)

The benefit of filing for at least a PPA, even if you simply want to license your idea, is that you get “patent pending” status, a first-to-file date, and a couple of years to test and tweak your product. That said, you need to file for a full patent (AKA: non provisional patent or NPA) within one year.

Filing for a PPA is a fairly inexpensive way to go about getting your product protected. This is partly thanks to the “first inventor to file,” law, which protects whomever filed for patent protection first, even if the other person had the idea many years before.

It’s also a good idea to file for a PPA if you foresee the non provisional patent process taking a long time. This will help ensure someone doesn’t steal your idea in the interim. Given that you need to file for a full patent within one year of obtaining a provisional patent, you should start the non provisional patent process filing as soon as possible as it can take up to half a year to receive full protection.

If you plan on approaching a licensee or an investor, you may also find that they prefer dealing with a product that has some form of protection.

Seasoned inventor Patricia Nolan-Brown suggests going through a patent attorney when filing for either a provisional patent or a non provisional patent. If your attorney pushes you to file for an NPA right from the get go, be aware that you won’t be able to change your product without paying additional (sometimes substantial) fees. For many people seeking investors and licensees, or who simply want to test the market, the PPA is perfect for exactly this reason—if there are changes to be made, you still have the freedom to make them.

The nonprovisional patent (full patent)

According to the USPTO,  “A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.” Patents usually last for about twenty years in the U.S.

There are three types of patents in the U.S.: utility patents, design patents, and plant patents.

Most people will apply for a utility patent which may be granted to “anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.”

Design patents are granted to “anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.”

And plant patents are granted to “anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant.”

To file for a full patent, you should use a patent attorney. Make sure you read what your attorney writes when creating the patent document as you are the one who knows your product best. Even though this will be an expensive process, it will ensure your product is 100 percent protected.

• 6. Manufacture or license your idea

While everyone can be an inventor and play their hand at inventing things, not everyone is cut out to be an “entrepreneur-inventor.” Some people prefer to invent for royalties, avoiding the entire manufacturing through marketing and distribution process.

FindLaw suggests  you analyze your personality before deciding. If you’re someone who is great at sales, who can manage people well, who can clearly convey their idea to the world and who enjoys taking risks, owning the process yourself may be right up your alley.

Making this decision could also come down to the cold, hard facts: Do you have the money to manufacture your idea?

In this section I’m going to discuss the pros and cons of each so that you can better decide what type of inventor you are.

Licensing your invention versus manufacturing it

The great thing about licensing your product is that it requires a lot less up-front investment and it eliminates most of the risk around bringing an invention to market. By contrast, manufacturing requires tooling and staffing production facilities, which means you’re going to either have a costly set-up if you want to make your own products, or have to do a lot of work to find a manufacturer you can afford to pay.

Unfortunately, because royalties from licensing agreements are often a flat percentage rate, the potential growth in return on a licensed invention is linearly bound. Usually  royalties fall  somewhere between 2 percent and 10 percent of the net profit. This isn’t the same when you manufacture. The economies of scale in manufacturing can allow returns to grow exponentially.

One element of risk in licensing your invention is the possibility of an agreement gone wrong, which could end up in a long legal battle and the price to match. Then there are the statistics to consider:  One study  (requiring people to self-report their success or failure) by Ed Zimmer and Ron Westrum found that only 13 percent of inventors were successful in licensing their invention. If you’re keen to go down this route, don’t let the number put you off—just remember, you may have to DIY if things don’t work out.

That said, this same study found that almost half of the inventors who decided to take control of producing and marketing their invention claimed that they were successful.

If you’re still interested in finding a licensee, remember that you do not have to opt into an exclusive contract with them and you can license to other companies first as a means of assessing the feasibility of manufacturing the product on your own later.

However, still take into consideration that companies licensing an invention will have higher expectations for profitability, as the royalties they will pay increase the expenses and decrease overall profitability for them.

If you’re still wondering which route is right for you, consider: How complex is your invention?

If your invention is simpler, it could be more feasible to begin manufacturing operations in order to produce it. However, for a more complex invention, especially if some aspect is technically complex, it may make more sense to license the invention to a company that is better-equipped to manage those complexities from a production perspective.

Remember, licensing an invention will require buy-in from the company you license your idea to. You might not find interested parties willing to license the invention from you, at which point manufacturing may be your only choice.

When should you start marketing?

Another question many inventors ask when they’re hovering around the manufacturing stage, is: Marketing before, or marketing after?

If you decide to license your invention, you will need to pitch it to prospective licensees, and like any other pitch, you might need to try dozens of opportunities before you get a bite. In this case you will at least need to have a “sell sheet,” something we discussed above.

However, if you decide to manufacture the invention and sell it yourself, you will need to continuously market your product. This can be a huge expense. If you don’t have much marketing experience, or aren’t particularly interested in learning, you might prefer to go the licensing route.

Candice Landau is a marketing consultant with a background in web design and copywriting. She specializes in content strategy, copywriting, website design, and digital marketing for a wide-range of clients including digital marketing agencies and nonprofits.

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How to Make a Business Plan for Commercializing Your Invention

Business plans can fuel business development and are correlated with enterprise growth. In a recent study, a national survey of more than 800 who were in the process of starting businesses, the researchers found that writing a business plan significantly increased the probability that the business would actually be created. The correlation amounted to a business plan writer being two and a half times more likely to start their business.

There is no right way to write a business plan, though there are conventions when it comes to the information which should be included and how the sections should be organized. Broadly, there are four main things that should be made clear to readers:

• The purpose of the business and the void it fills in the market;
• The proposed product and its anticipated clientele
• The goals and objectives you plan to accomplish in the short- and long-term; and
• The financial state of the business.

Depending on the use to which the plan is put, other sections may vary in detail, or may be selectively included or omitted. The plan, however, should always cover the above basics.

When to begin thinking about a business plan

Many inventors believe that their invention needs to be patented before any commercialization steps can be taken. While a patent is certainly important for ensuring that your rights are protected from unscrupulous competitors, and certain steps on the road to bringing an invention to market can render the invention ineligible for patent protection without appropriate measures being taken, the patenting process can last for several years. Waiting until you obtain a registered patent before you assess the market for your product, the potential avenues via which to pursue funding, or the degree of competition in the market, can result in the incursion of significant expenses in relation to an invention that was not commercially viable in the first place.

A business plan can make answering these marketability, funding, and competition questions significantly easier. By compiling all relevant information into a single document, you will be able to streamline your business’ goal settings, and resource allocations, and anticipate future challenges. Investors, start-up accelerators, and funding sources will commonly familiarize themselves with your business by asking you for a business plan before requesting or accepting any further information.

For these reasons, inventors should start thinking about a business plan immediately upon deciding to commercialize their invention. While a business plan should incorporate intellectual property assets, whether current or anticipated, large portions of it can be written before the patent application process is even commenced.

Further, many businesses will begin operations and begin selling a product embodying an invention that is the subject of a patent application long before that patent is granted. Whether this is desirable will depend on many factors including the business’ tolerance for risk and its long-term goals. While a product that is the subject of a patent application can be sold after that application is filed without undermining the product’s eligibility for a patent in at least some jurisdictions, the exclusive rights to make, use and sell the product (invention) are only obtained after the patent has been granted. Recourse may be available to applicants which are eventually awarded a patent for certain third-party activities that occurred in a limited time period prior to the patent’s grant, but even if a number of conditions are met, that recourse comes after grant. What this means is that competitors could, once a patent pending product is brought to market, immediately and without penalty, knock-off that product. Some businesses will take that risk and rely on a “patent pending” notice in an effort to deter copying. Others will wait for their exclusive rights.

The elements of a business plan

While there is no one set way to write a business plan – its structure is dependent on your goals and audience – there are a few standard sections that readers expect to see.

The first is an executive summary, which provides the concept and mission of the business, a summary of relevant financial information, and any significant achievements that the business has accomplished to date. If the plan is written with an “ask” in mind, make sure to summarize the value proposition and the financing needs to the reader.

Further, an executive summary is often requested as a stand-alone document by investors and venture capitalists. It is key to ensure that it is well-written, concise, and informative in order to peak the reader’s interest and prompt a request for the rest of the plan.

The next section is a business overview. Here, it is crucial to provide a description of both the industry in which your business will be situated and the particular niche that your invention will be filling. The structure of the business operation – wholesale, retail, direct-to-buyer, etc. – must be explained, as well as the business’ support systems, channels of distribution, and legal form (i.e., corporation, sole proprietorship, etc.). This section needs to also give the reader a clear idea of how your business is (or will eventually) be profitable based on the novel invention that you are bringing to market.

After providing an overview of how the business will function, address the people that will run the operations. This includes providing an overview of yourself and your co-inventors, if relevant, giving details on the number of full- and part-time employees that will be working on the project (including information about any that are already hired), and specifying which tasks, if any, will be outsourced. Often, investors and other stakeholders care as much or more about who the people are behind an invention than the potential of the invention on its own – it is well-known that people are responsible for much of a business' success. In drafting this section, you may therefore want to highlight your team members’ qualifications and experience which will support the success of the business.

Another important element is establishing the target market for your invention. To do so, you need to first establish which groups are most likely to use and benefit from your invention. Then, segment that group further to outline whether any preferential marketing will be conducted (e.g., while both men and women use razors, Venus markets preferentially to the female market). Explain what specific marketing efforts will be used to highlight the product’s usability to your target market. For example, if your target market consists mostly of young adults, more specifically generation Z, you might propose a marketing strategy that includes a large proportion of influencer marketing.

Next, provide an analysis of the competition. This needs to include both the broader competitors within the industry and the narrower group of competitors that sells a product that solves the consumer problem that you have presented. When assessing who your competitors are, make sure to not only focus on businesses that offer something very similar to your invention, but also the other ways that consumers could go about in solving the problem that your invention addresses. For example, if your invention is a new way to make coffee at home, focus not only on assessing other companies that produce coffee makers, but also coffee shops and sellers of other hot beverages like tea and hot chocolate. If relevant, provide details on how you plan to price or market your product in a way that would give you an advantage. It may be helpful at this or an earlier stage to also discuss current trends in your target market and how your business is responsive to these trends, if applicable.

In this section, give the reader an understanding of what differentiates you from the competition. This is often done through a strengths and weaknesses analysis of your competitors, or by clearly explaining how your proposition is so different that it cannot be matched by the market as it currently stands.

Finally, you need to provide comprehensive information about the financial state of your business. The three key documents readers will look for are an income statement, a cash flow statement and a balance sheet. Together, these documents will provide the reader with an idea of your business needs, its current assets and liabilities, and its financial outlook in the near and medium-term future. Although it may be tempting to provide estimates for future expansions of the business or other numbers that are not concrete, sticking to concrete financials that can be backed up by numbers may be best. In addition to the three documents above, which are crucial to include in any plan, you may want to provide a costs of production statement (if you have inquired about how much it would cost to produce a commercial version of your invention). When dealing with investors, the financial elements of your business plan, together with the information provided in preceding sections, help investors assess their potential return on investment and when they are likely to see that return materialize. A major question any business plan should answer, whether directly or indirectly, whether used to secure funding or not, is “How will the business make profit?”

Highlighting your intellectual property assets within the business plan

Both assets which you already have ownership of and assets which you are hoping to register should be included in your business plan. Intellectual property assets provide your business with legitimacy and show that you are serious about its long-term future. They also present an effective deterrent to competitors that may try to replicate your invention and immediately decrease the profitability of your enterprise. This is among the reasons investors like to see that a patent application has been filed when a business is centered around a new and inventive product. Your business having exclusive rights to the product, or having initiated the process to obtain those exclusive rights, reassures investors as to the security and profitability of their investment.

Importantly, addressing intellectual property in your business plan is a strong indication to readers that you are not infringing on the property of others because you have done searches or assessments during your own registration process. A patent infringement lawsuit could bankrupt a new business, thus due diligence in the form of freedom-to-operate searches having been conducted can be quite valuable to investors who want to see their investment returned. Further, it will be helpful to think about eligibility requirements for different intellectual property assets. For example, in the case of patents, patent searches and freedom-to-operate searches can help assess the likelihood of obtaining a patent and the likelihood of infringement on existing patents, respectively. For more information on patent searches and freedom-to-operate searches, please consult our resource on Patent Searches and Opinions: Patentability vs. Freedom to Operate . In the case of trademarks, a trademark search may help determine the likelihood of registrability for your proposed mark. If you would like to conduct your own trademark search, please refer to our resource on What You Need to Know about Conducting Trademark Searches in Canada .

Intellectual property assets are not limited to patents; trademarks, domain names, copyrights and industrial designs applicable to your business should also be included within your plan. Your portfolio also shouldn’t be limited to registered assets. Copyright subsists in original creative works as soon as they are created – registration provides certain advantages, but is not essential. Common-law trademarks, or unregistered trademarks that have been used in business long enough to obtain consumer recognition and goodwill, may be eligible for common law protection, and while the protection is narrower in scope than that which is available to registered trademarks , it remains a valuable asset and rights to these marks should be noted. Assets that are in the process of registration should also be listed. Make sure to make clear the status of each asset you include; that is, whether the asset is registered, in the application process, or unregistered, as well as the jurisdictions or regions in which the assets have protection.

Further, address whether your business strategy will be relying on any intangible assets owned by others, such as whether you will be seeking a patent licensing agreement for a current invention as the baseline for your modernized invention. This will be relevant where your product is an improvement of an existing product and may thus involve practicing a patented invention.

The biggest part of this section should be explaining what role the intellectual property assets will play in the commercialization of your invention. Here, specify whether you will be commercializing the invention by yourself once it is patented, licensing it to interested parties, or both. It is key to also address other potential stakeholders in the invention – was it developed in combination with other individuals? Have those individuals waived their rights to it either automatically through an employment contract or in a separate agreement? Finally, elaborate whether your enterprise will be working on developing other assets or only commercializing the intellectual property that you have already developed.

Making effective use of your business plan

A business plan can be invaluable to you if used as a tool for research and communication with interested stakeholders.

When writing your plan, do not cut corners. The information within your business plan, while aimed at other readers, can help you keep yourself on track and determine the viability of your commercial plan. While it may be tempting to finish the plan quickly by providing only rough estimates, or by focusing only on the best-case scenario to the exclusion of others, this approach is not going to be of benefit. Instead, approach your business plan as a guide to the information that is essential to running your enterprise and do your best to ensure your research is thorough and substantiated.

When drafting your plan, it is key to have in mind the audience which will be reading it. Do you intend to pitch your enterprise to investors or accelerator programs? Is the plan intended to attract talented employees to your company by giving them a look into the goals and objectives of the enterprise in the long-term? Or is it for internal use to aid with tasks such as marketing, securing suppliers, or guiding talent acquisition?

The intended audience should guide the plan’s structure. When dealing with busy investors, emphasize the financials and provide a concise executive summary. For potential employees or co-founders, clarify which types of skills are necessary to advance business goals and what long-term benefits exist for key members of the team. In other words, while the basic plan can remain the same for different readers, different sections will need to be highlighted or modified depending on the anticipated audience.

Finally, remember that, while a business plan is a useful tool, it does not bring value or progress on its own. Once you identify goals to attain and tasks to perform, make sure that you follow through on the timelines and solutions that you have outlined. Your invention is a valuable asset, but without taking steps toward commercialization, it is very unlikely to give you the profitability you desire.

If you are set on commercializing your invention and bringing it to market, you should consider obtaining patent protection for it. Contact us for a complimentary and confidential initial telephone appointment to learn more about your options.

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Chapter 10: What Are Some Guidelines in Developing a Business Plan?

Given the time it takes for a patent to be issued, it may be a good idea to start marketing your invention immediately after you've filed the patent application. Developing a business plan is one of the first items on the agenda. 

A business plan offers multiple advantages. It keeps you focused on your goals and timelines, helps identify strategic flaws that need to be ironed out, and it aids in evaluating the market and your product's earning potential. It is also highly beneficial as a planning tool to be used at various stages of the production and marketing process, and as a sales tool, critical to raising capital. 

Remember that your business plan is competing with hundreds of others. Make it concise and professional, but detailed enough to convey a sense of credibility. A solid business plan includes: 

A summary of your product—what it does, its advantages and patent status

A marketing analysis, including market opportunities and competition

Projected sales, pricing and distribution

Production plans, methods, costs, capacities and implementation timeline

Management personnel

Financial statement, cash flow budget, suggested wholesale and retail prices

Projected profits 

The Inventor Handbook is written as a preliminary guide for inventors and where legal rights are concerned, the reader should consult a qualified attorney. 

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Setting up an innovation start-up, create a business plan for innovation start-up.

A novel idea is the starting point of every innovative business. An innovation business plan will help you to:

• validate the feasibility of that idea
• evaluate the market potential
• verify that there is a real demand for your product

It can also help provide your innovation start-up with credibility and focus, which is vital if you want to attract investors for your innovation start-up.

Innovative business plan - key elements

Your business plan for innovation should show:

• how you will develop and exploit your invention
• the capability and experience of your team
• how you will finance costs
• how investors will be able to realise their profits

Other key questions that your innovative business plan should answer include:

• What is unique about the innovation and is it protected?
• Who will buy it and why?
• What will it cost to deliver and how much will it sell for?
• What is the competition, and how do you propose to tackle this?
• When will the business start receiving income and when will it break even?

For more information on finance and funding, see funding for innovation start-ups and exit strategies for innovation start-ups .

How to structure a business plan for innovation?

A sample business plan structure for innovation start-ups may involve:

• executive summary
• description of a business idea or your business statement
• product or service description, including how you will exploit any new technology or IP
• market analysis, including trends, needs and growth projections
• competitor analysis - looking at their strength and weaknesses, and opportunities
• marketing plan and strategies
• management and operations, including your business' legal and organisational structure
• financial planning and resource requirements
• risk management, covering business, technology or financial risks

Detailed guidance is available on how to prepare a business plan and tailor your business plan to secure funding .

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How to Create an Invention (9-Step Guide)

March 9, 2022

Table of contents

How do i come up with an invention idea, step 1: decide on your invention, step 2: research and conceptualize, step 3: document the process, step 4: market research, step 5: design your invention, step 6: start prototyping, step 7: patent your invention, step 8: begin manufacturing, step 9: sell or license your product, how to create an invention: faqs, final notes on how to create an invention.

This is probably the most popular question we get asked here at MAKO Design + Invent. In general, every great idea starts with two things :

• It needs to solve a problem for a specific group of people.
• The idea should be simple for the end-user.

So, before you go about developing and manufacturing the invention, try to simplify the idea as much as possible. Focus on just one or two key features that will solve a pressing problem for users.

It’s important to realize that a simpler product allows the designers and engineers to focus on making the one or two key features included as refined as they can possibly be. A simpler product is also easier to manufacture, which means fewer defects and, most importantly, happier customers.

This is a critical part of coming up with a great idea, and the nine steps below will help you transform your new invention idea into a polished, successful product.

If you’re reading this, you might be thinking about how to start the process of inventing. Every great idea needs a well-structured plan to be successful.

Thoughtful choices must be made first when coming up with an invention idea to begin the process of development.

Key considerations:

• Will you license for royalties or a lump sum?

These are factors you will need to think about to know what’s right for you and your lifestyle.

If manufacturing and marketing is the path you would like to take, be prepared to become an entrepreneur and put a lot of time into building a business based on your idea.

This path enables your invention to have a higher success rate with a higher payout, but it also means a lengthy process is ahead. Your hard work will pay off in the long term if you do decide to go this route!

The second option of licensing leaves you with the choice of receiving royalties from the company you end up selling your idea to or receiving a single lump-sum payout. While royalties may sound enticing, you may be acquiring significantly less than if you were to market the invention yourself.

The standard royalty rate is between 2-5% of the gross profit the company receives. The lump-sum option gives you a one-time payout from the company that is purchasing your idea. Essentially you are selling the rights to your idea.

Whichever option you choose, these companies are looking to mitigate risk. Thus, in addition to the idea itself, you should also consider how to create an invention prototype. That way, you can sell units after conducting product prototyping to help prove that your product has traction in the market while garnering feedback. If you can get positive reviews from customers, even better.

The conceptualization phase is where you’ll acquire a comprehensive understanding of your invention’s potential value.

• What problem is my invention solving?
• Who is my target audience?
• Are there already existing products in the market
• What is the size of the market?
• How saturated is this market?
• Do you understand how you can build/direct others to build your invention?

Mentally preparing yourself to execute the idea you have decided on will be your next move.

One thing many first-time inventors forget about when they are first thinking about how to come up with an invention is that developing the idea is just one small part of the process.

Indeed, your job is not over once you’ve come up with the idea. Seeing the invention process through requires careful and strategic planning, consistent self-motivation, and experienced developers – this could be yourself or a professional design firm like MAKO Design + Invent.

Creating an invention doesn’t mean you should quit your day job and work on it full-time, especially if you’re partnered with a developing firm to design, engineer, and bring your vision to life.

Your invention will, however, require a long-term commitment.

Document everything!

Record all the progress you make throughout every stage when you come up with an invention for organizational purposes and legal protection.

You will need to protect your ideas and privacy by ensuring that you do not disclose any specific information to the wrong parties. Make sure you have your concept written somewhere in print so that if anything should happen, you are covered.

Don’t hesitate to go the extra mile and create disclosure documents where you see fit.

Once you are mentally prepared and organized and have made important decisions regarding the frameworks of your invention, start doing research on how to create an invention for a specific market.

• Are there similar products in the market?
• Does that product have a patent?
• Does my invention have advantages over theirs?
• Is their product design better?
• How efficient is the product design in comparison?
• Is my product more environmentally friendly?
• Does mine cost less to make?
• Are there any other benefits to my product that theirs doesn’t have?

This market research will help you decide if you need to rework your idea or if it’s original enough to succeed. Answering these questions will also help you know when and how to create an invention prototype following the design phase and before you start manufacturing.

We want you to be excited about and confident in your idea so you are optimally positioned to achieve your product goals. In fact, most inventions are modifications or combinations of existing products.

Never give up!

Now for the fun part; designing the invention. 

Three-dimensional computer-aided designs (CAD) are required to bring your 2D concept to life. Visualization is key to understanding your true product design and learning how to create an invention prototype. 

Ways of achieving this can be either by yourself using an engineering software like Solidworks or leveraging the experience and expertise of professional design firms like MAKO Design + Invent that provide product design services . 

Photographic renderings are next as you delve into the true design of your idea. You can find some examples of what these look like in our past work . Here at MAKO, we believe including mechanical and electrical design is key to truly understanding the way your product will function. 

Many firms do not incorporate design for manufacturing principles in the design process or know how to create a CAD. They might just create a 3D model of your invention, which can lead to a costly rework. MAKO brings together industrial design, mechanical engineering, and electrical design all under one roof to ensure the invention prototypes we create for clients look great and also function as they should.

To cut costs, ensure you use good quality designs to limit the number of prototypes you create. Whether you’re building the MVP version or a near-final prototype, these prototypes will help bolster your pitches and boost the confidence of someone evaluating your idea. 

This stage helps you test the functionality as well as locate any weaknesses/improvements to be made. 

As a result, it’s imperative that you do not skip this stage. In fact, not learning the importance of creating an invention prototype will lead to more costly errors and potentially faulty products down the line, and no one wants that.

You are ready to get serious now and apply for a patent. 

We do recommend acquiring a provisional patent so your idea is protected for a 12-month trial period. Once you learn how to create an invention prototype, you have time for trial and error to market the product yourself before applying for a full patent. 

The trial period gives you time to build credibility for your brand as well and provides the opportunity for you to get your name out there. 

That way, when you’re ready to sell the idea, your invention may be worth more to potential buyers.

Seeking out a manufacturer is your next move. 

This is for entrepreneurs gearing up to open their own businesses, with a focus on their new invention. For those looking to license, this is not a requirement; however, it will increase value to potential buyers, as mentioned before.

Most products have more than one part to them, meaning you may need to seek out more than one manufacturer, depending on the complexity of your product. You may need to seek different companies for each task as well. For example, parts manufacturing, assembly, packaging, and shipment.

Outsourcing on your own is also a good idea, as it will help you maintain a competitive edge in the global manufacturing marketplace. MAKO Design + Invent offers this for our clients at the time that we produce the prototype. We can utilize this collected information with our suppliers in Canada, the US, and overseas to finalize the production logistics for you.

The final phase of creating your product after sourcing out your manufacturers and parts is to either sell your units to a product buyer or license your invention .

This is the exciting part! 

While still under the 12-month provisional patent, we recommend you industriously promote your invention to as many buyers as possible. Find the decision-makers within these potential buyers! Work out improvement opportunities while you have the time to experiment.  

Licensing deals can sometimes be more difficult to obtain. If you keep busy and market your product under the 12-month provision patent trial, you will earn your product more value in the eyes of potential buyers. Once you’ve obtained some sales under your belt, you can sell the product outright or license it at a much higher premium because it’s worth more now. 

Know your buyers, do your research on them, and brush up on your negotiation skills. Be realistic! Don’t get greedy and blow a good deal.

To get your invention made, you should follow the nine steps below: 1. Decide on Your Invention: Determine the problem that’s worth solving and for whom. 2. Research and Conceptualize: Learn if your invention is the right fit in the existing market. 3. Document the Process: Protect your idea and yourself. 4. Market Research: Research how and where customers will use your invention. 5. Design Your Invention: Conceptualize and visualize the invention in both 2D and 3D. 6. Start Prototyping: Test functionality and identify improvement opportunities. 7. Patent Your Invention: Protect the product and build credibility. 8. Begin Manufacturing: Build and ship the final product. 9. Sell or License Your Product: Earn royalties or enjoy a lump-sum payment for your hard work.

It starts with a CAD file, a 3D representation of the invention. This file also has information about the functionality, dimensions, and other critical details required to manufacture a prototype. 

It depends on what stage you’re at in the product development cycle. Depending on the development phase, you may need a designer, engineer, patent attorney, manufacturer, or a combination of these. That’s why MAKO Design + Invent offers end-to-end product development services to help simplify the process and minimize risk to the inventor.

The recommended steps above are based on our years of product development experience. As the pioneering end-to-end product development firm catered to inventors, small manufacturers, eCommerce brands, and startups, we understand how daunting it can be to not only come up with an invention but actually start bringing your idea to life. Trust us, we have over 20 years of experience doing this. 

Each step in this guide is designed to minimize risks, costs, and revisions to help ensure all timeline and budget requirements are met. In addition, we’ve outlined the details above to help explain why a great product is more than just a great idea. Successful products go beyond the idea . It’s a combination of the right parts, materials, engineering know-how, manufacturers, and other strategic elements that make up a successful product launch.

And in the end, if you work with us, you’ll be at the helm. Of course, it will be a collaborative experience, but we won’t make any changes or updates to the design without your approval. 

It’s truly your vision that comes to life!

About:   MAKO Design + Invent  is the original firm providing world-class  consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors . Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for  developing your physical product  from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house  industrial design ,  mechanical engineering ,  electrical engineering ,  patent referral ,  prototyping , and  manufacturing services . To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts  The Product Startup Podcast , the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers.  Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent !

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MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves.

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Use innovation to grow your business

The successful exploitation of new ideas is crucial to a business being able to improve its processes, bring new and improved products and services to market, increase its efficiency and, most importantly, improve its profitability .

Marketplaces - whether local, regional, national or global - are becoming highly competitive. Competition has increased as a result of wider access to new technologies and the increased trading and knowledge-sharing opportunities offered by the Internet.

This guide explains how you can make innovation a key business process and outlines the different approaches you can take. It gives you advice on planning for innovation and creating the right business environment to develop your ideas. It also outlines the help and support available to innovative businesses.

The business case for innovation

Approaches to innovation, planning innovation, encourage innovation in your business, funding innovation.

It is important to be clear about the difference between invention and innovation. Invention is a new idea. Innovation is the commercial application and successful exploitation of the idea.

Fundamentally, innovation means introducing something new into your business. This could be:

• improving or replacing business processes to increase efficiency and productivity, or to enable the business to extend the range or quality of existing products and/or services
• developing entirely new and improved products and services - often to meet rapidly changing customer or consumer demands or needs
• adding value to existing products, services or markets to differentiate the business from its competitors and increase the perceived value to the customers and markets

Innovation can mean a single major breakthrough – e.g. a totally new product or service. However, it can also be a series of small, incremental changes.

Whatever form it takes, innovation is a creative process . The ideas may come from:

• inside the business, e.g. from employees, managers or in-house research and development work
• outside the business, e.g. suppliers, customers, media reports, market research published by another organisation, or universities and other sources of new technologies

Success comes from filtering those ideas, identifying those that the business will focus on and applying resources to exploit them.

Introducing innovation can help you to:

• improve productivity
• reduce costs
• be more competitive
• build the value of your brand
• establish new partnerships and relationships
• increase turnover and improve profitability

Businesses that fail to innovate run the risk of:

• losing market share to competitors
• falling productivity and efficiency
• losing key staff
• experiencing steadily reducing margins and profit
• going out of business

Innovation in your business can mean introducing new or improved products, services or processes.

Analyse the marketplace

There's no point considering innovation in a vacuum. To move your business forward, study your marketplace and understand how innovation can add value to your customers . For more information on analysing your marketplace, see the page in this guide on planning innovation.

Identify opportunities for innovation

You can identify opportunities for innovation by adapting your product or service to the way your marketplace is changing. For example, if you're a specialist hamburger manufacturer, you might consider lowering the fat content in your burgers to appeal to the health-conscious consumer.

You could also develop your business by identifying a completely new product . For example, you could start producing vegetarian as well as meat burgers.

You could innovate by introducing new technology, techniques or working practices - perhaps using better processes to give a more consistent quality of product.

If research shows people have less time to go to the stores, you could overhaul your distribution processes, offering customers a home-delivery service, possibly tied in with online and telephone ordering.

If your main competitor's products have a reputation for being cheap and cheerful, rather than trying to undercut them on price you could innovate by revamping your marketing to emphasise the quality of your merchandise - and consider charging a premium for them.

Some innovative ideas may just come to you out of the blue. However, you should ideally have:

• innovation as part of your business strategy
• a strategic vision of how you want your business to develop - if you dedicate your time to monitoring trends in your business sector, you can then focus your innovative efforts on the most important areas.

Innovation will not only improve the chances of your business surviving, but also help it to thrive and drive increased profits. There are lots of practical ways of assessing whether your ideas have profit potential:

Assess the competition

Find out who your competitors are and where they operate. Use the Internet and advertising sources such as the Yellow Pages to find out about their products, prices and operating culture. This can give you an overview of their selling points, as well as any areas you might be able to exploit.

For example, if the competition is focused on value for money, you might want to emphasise the quality of your product or service. Search for business listings nationwide on the YellowPages.ca or Canada411.ca websites.

Study market or industry trends

Awareness of the climate in which your business is operating will help you to plan.

You can find a lot of information about your industry on the Internet. Business and trade magazines will also feature useful articles.

Build a relationship with your customers

It's not enough simply to know who your customer base is. You need to communicate effectively with them as well.

Communication involves not only listening to their needs but also actively observing their behaviour around current products and services and generating ideas on how you can make improvements.

Involve your suppliers and other business partners

Pooling your resources with your suppliers or other business partners will help to produce and develop creative ideas. Potential partnerships can also be developed through business networking opportunities.

Next, consider what taking a particular innovative step could mean for your business. Ask yourself:

• what impact it will have on your business processes and practices
• what extra training your staff may require
• what extra resources you may need
• how you'll finance the work
• whether you'll be creating any intellectual property that will need protecting

Finally, you should include your vision in your business plan by:

• putting down your goals, both long and short term and detailing how you intend to achieve them
• linking goals to financial targets, such as achieving a specific turnover by a set date
• reviewing your plan regularly

There are many sources you can use to help generate new ideas for the business.

Suppliers, business partners and business network contacts can all make valuable contributions to the creative process, as well as providing support and encouragement.

Your employees are also a vital asset in generating innovative ideas.

To get the most from them, you need to create an innovative environment and encourage creative thinking.

Steps to promote innovation

• Make sure you have processes and events to capture ideas. For example, you could set up suggestion boxes around the workplace or hold regular workshops or occasional company away days to brainstorm ideas.
• Create a supportive atmosphere in which people feel free to express their ideas without the risk of criticism or ridicule.
• Encourage risk taking and experimentation - don't penalise people who try new ideas that fail.
• Promote openness between individuals and teams. Good ideas and knowledge in one part of your business should be shared with others. Teamwork, newsletters and intranets can all help your people share information and encourage innovation.
• Stress that people at all levels of the business share responsibility for innovation, so everybody feels involved in taking the business forward. The fewer the layers of management or decision making in your organisation, the more people feel their ideas matter.
• Reward innovation and celebrate success. Appropriate incentives can play a significant role in encouraging staff to think creatively.
• Look for imagination and creativity when recruiting new employees. Remember that innovative thinkers aren't always those with the most impressive list of qualifications.

There are a number of ways you can fund your growth through innovation, either by using your own funds or tapping into external funding such as loans or equity finance.

However, any route to external funding will need a high-quality business plan that describes your business and sets out detailed forecasts of where it's going.

Businesses often turn to their banks for a line of credit or loans for additional finance, depending on their borrowing needs.

If you're willing to relinquish some control of your business to external investors, you could consider using equity finance. The two main routes for this are investment from business angels and venture capital firms:

• Business angels are wealthy individuals who invest in private companies, typically from $30,000 to $500,000.
• Venture capital firms provide higher levels of investment in return for shares in the business.

Government programs

You may also wish to consider applying for a government program. This will only usually cover part of your project, but you will retain control of the shares in your business. Consult Programs - R&D and innovation .

Other sources of help

Small and medium-sized businesses can claim tax refunds and credits on appropriate research and development spending.

Original document, Use innovation to grow your business , © Crown copyright 2009 Source: Business Link UK (now GOV.UK/Business ) Adapted for Québec by Info entrepreneurs

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Innovation in Business: What It Is & Why It’s Important

• 08 Mar 2022

Today’s competitive landscape heavily relies on innovation. Business leaders must constantly look for new ways to innovate because you can't solve many problems with old solutions.

Innovation is critical across all industries; however, it's important to avoid using it as a buzzword and instead take time to thoroughly understand the innovation process.

Here's an overview of innovation in business, why it's important, and how you can encourage it in the workplace.

What Is Innovation?

Innovation and creativity are often used synonymously. While similar, they're not the same. Using creativity in business is important because it fosters unique ideas . This novelty is a key component of innovation.

For an idea to be innovative, it must also be useful. Creative ideas don't always lead to innovations because they don't necessarily produce viable solutions to problems.

Simply put: Innovation is a product, service, business model, or strategy that's both novel and useful. Innovations don't have to be major breakthroughs in technology or new business models; they can be as simple as upgrades to a company's customer service or features added to an existing product.

Access your free e-book today.

Types of Innovation

Innovation in business can be grouped into two categories : sustaining and disruptive.

• Sustaining innovation: Sustaining innovation enhances an organization's processes and technologies to improve its product line for an existing customer base. It's typically pursued by incumbent businesses that want to stay atop their market.
• Disruptive innovation: Disruptive innovation occurs when smaller companies challenge larger businesses. It can be classified into groups depending on the markets those businesses compete in. Low-end disruption refers to companies entering and claiming a segment at the bottom of an existing market, while new-market disruption denotes companies creating an additional market segment to serve a customer base the existing market doesn't reach.

The most successful companies incorporate both types of innovation into their business strategies. While maintaining an existing position in the market is important, pursuing growth is essential to being competitive. It also helps protect a business against other companies affecting its standing.

Learn about the differences between sustaining and disruptive innovation in the video below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

The Importance of Innovation

Unforeseen challenges are inevitable in business. Innovation can help you stay ahead of the curve and grow your company in the process. Here are three reasons innovation is crucial for your business:

• It allows adaptability: The recent COVID-19 pandemic disrupted business on a monumental scale. Routine operations were rendered obsolete over the course of a few months. Many businesses still sustain negative results from this world shift because they’ve stuck to the status quo. Innovation is often necessary for companies to adapt and overcome the challenges of change.
• It fosters growth: Stagnation can be extremely detrimental to your business. Achieving organizational and economic growth through innovation is key to staying afloat in today’s highly competitive world.
• It separates businesses from their competition: Most industries are populated with multiple competitors offering similar products or services. Innovation can distinguish your business from others.

Innovation & Design Thinking

Several tools encourage innovation in the workplace. For example, when a problem’s cause is difficult to pinpoint, you can turn to approaches like creative problem-solving . One of the best approaches to innovation is adopting a design thinking mentality.

Design thinking is a solutions-based, human-centric mindset. It's a practical way to strategize and design using insights from observations and research.

Four Phases of Innovation

Innovation's requirements for novelty and usefulness call for navigating between concrete and abstract thinking. Introducing structure to innovation can guide this process.

In the online course Design Thinking and Innovation , Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar teaches design thinking principles using a four-phase innovation framework : clarify, ideate, develop, and implement.

• Clarify: The first stage of the process is clarifying a problem. This involves conducting research to empathize with your target audience. The goal is to identify their key pain points and frame the problem in a way that allows you to solve it.
• Ideate: The ideation stage involves generating ideas to solve the problem identified during research. Ideation challenges assumptions and overcomes biases to produce innovative ideas.
• Develop: The development stage involves exploring solutions generated during ideation. It emphasizes rapid prototyping to answer questions about a solution's practicality and effectiveness.
• Implement: The final stage of the process is implementation. This stage involves communicating your developed idea to stakeholders to encourage its adoption.

Human-Centered Design

Innovation requires considering user needs. Design thinking promotes empathy by fostering human-centered design , which addresses explicit pain points and latent needs identified during innovation’s clarification stage.

There are three characteristics of human-centered design:

• Desirability: For a product or service to succeed, people must want it. Prosperous innovations are attractive to consumers and meet their needs.
• Feasibility: Innovative ideas won't go anywhere unless you have the resources to pursue them. You must consider whether ideas are possible given technological, economic, or regulatory barriers.
• Viability: Even if a design is desirable and feasible, it also needs to be sustainable. You must consistently produce or deliver designs over extended periods for them to be viable.

Consider these characteristics when problem-solving, as each is necessary for successful innovation.

The Operational and Innovative Worlds

Creativity and idea generation are vital to innovation, but you may encounter situations in which pursuing an idea isn't feasible. Such scenarios represent a conflict between the innovative and operational worlds.

The Operational World

The operational world reflects an organization's routine processes and procedures. Metrics and results are prioritized, and creativity isn't encouraged to the extent required for innovation. Endeavors that disrupt routine—such as risk-taking—are typically discouraged.

The Innovative World

The innovative world encourages creativity and experimentation. This side of business allows for open-endedly exploring ideas but tends to neglect the functional side.

Both worlds are necessary for innovation, as creativity must be grounded in reality. You should strive to balance them to produce human-centered solutions. Design thinking strikes this balance by guiding you between the concrete and abstract.

Learning the Ropes of Innovation

Innovation is easier said than done. It often requires you to collaborate with others, overcome resistance from stakeholders, and invest valuable time and resources into generating solutions. It can also be highly discouraging because many ideas generated during ideation may not go anywhere. But the end result can make the difference between your organization's success or failure.

The good news is that innovation can be learned. If you're interested in more effectively innovating, consider taking an online innovation course. Receiving practical guidance can increase your skills and teach you how to approach problem-solving with a human-centered mentality.

Eager to learn more about innovation? Explore Design Thinking and Innovation ,one of our online entrepreneurship and innovation courses. If you're not sure which course is the right fit, download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.

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How to Make a Business Plan for Commercializing Your Invention

A carefully thought-out business plan is an asset to any company and has been shown to be a predictor of a business’ success down the road. A business plan is especially important for successfully commercializing your business’ intellectual property. Many of the decisions you make as you develop your business and prepare to commercialize your invention can have significant implications for your intellectual property rights.

If you have an invention you’re looking to commercialize, you have a valuable asset worth protecting. Unfortunately, rushing to market to capitalize on the value of that asset without a business plan in place can hinder your success and endanger the protection of your intellectual property. Having a plan in place can not only help you avoid costly mistakes but also secure the confidence of potential investors.

This article will highlight some of the most important elements of a plan to commercialize your invention and how they interact with your intellectual property rights.

Market Research

An understanding of the market you’re entering is critical to making informed business decisions and profitable investments into your product. Some key questions to answer are:

• What similar or related products are already on the market?
• How successful are these existing products?
• How much are people paying for these products?
• What is the value of the market for these products?
• How does your invention stand out? How will you be better than the competition?
• What channels are these products distributed through?

Knowing the market ensures (1) that you’re making profitable agreements with your manufacturers, distributors, retailers and investors and (2) that you’re making an informed, value-driven decision when patenting your invention.

If the market for your invention is small, and you’re only likely to capture a small part of it, you may decide that investing in a patent is not a priority. If you don’t know your market, you may be disappointed when you invest thousands of dollars into a patent only to make approximately the same amount in revenue over the lifetime of your business.

If any of these questions stumped you, you might consider a filing strategy that protects your intellectual property while still allowing you to test the market before filing a full patent application. An option under United States patent law, called a provisional patent application, makes this possible. A provisional patent application is often described as an informal application, and is transformed into a full application within a year. The advantage of filing a provisional patent application is that it allows you to secure a filing date for your invention and label your product as “patent pending” while deferring sp,e pf the initial cost of preparing a patent application.

Development and Production

Key Questions:

• Do you have a finalized product?
• Who will manufacture?
• Who will distribute?

An idea is a powerful thing but commercializing your invention will often require a finalized design, manufacturer, distributor, and retailer. Once you begin to have meetings with these potential players, you’ll want to make sure you’re not endangering your intellectual property protection through public disclosure. An almost universal requirement for the patentability of an invention is novelty. The invention claimed must be new. What will come as a surprise to some inventors is that even their own disclosure of the invention prior to filing a patent application can be used against them. In some countries, a grace period applies during which inventors can file for a patent despite having publicly disclosed their invention.

Knowing this and knowing you will need to have many meetings to get your product to market, should alert you to the fact that you may require a non-disclosure agreement to protect your invention.

While commercialization of an invention is a revenue-motivated undertaking, going to market also represents, in most cases, a substantial initial investment. Fortunately, entrepreneurs with innovative products may be able to garner financial support from investors on their way to market. As is the case with conversations surrounding manufacturing and distribution, meetings with potential investors can also constitute a public disclosure if no non-disclosure agreement is signed.

If you have already filed for or been granted a patent for your invention, not only is the disclosure concern eliminated, you may also find you have more success in securing financing. Investors may be more willing to invest in a business that has itself invested in one of its most valuable assets – its pending patent application or granted patent. In the absence of a pending application or issued patent, investors may share concerns about there being nothing proprietary to the business, making it easily reproducible and a risky investment.

Going to Market

There are two broad strategies for the commercialization of an invention: venturing and licensing. Venturing refers to building a business around your invention and being directly involved with its marketing and sale. Licensing refers to an agreement between you and another party wherein they manufacture, distribute and sell your product while paying you for that license. The licensing route gives inventors the chance to step back and leave the business side of things to someone else.

If you’re planning to license your invention , potential licensees will expect you to have a patent application pending or a granted patent. In the absence of one, there is nothing stopping them from making your product themselves and leaving you out. There is nothing motivating them to pay you for it.

If you plan to pursue the commercialization of your invention yourself, you will want to consider in what markets you’ll sell your product – in what markets. If you have plans to go abroad, you should remember that patent protection is territorial and you’ll need to file an application in every country in which you want to protect your invention. When you’re making this list, recall that some countries will require absolute novelty – meaning no public disclosure for a patent to be granted.

In either case, you will want to make sure your invention is protected. If you’re investing in a business, you want to make sure you can maximize sales and revenue from your product. Without a patent, competitors can replicate your product and offer it at a lower price. If you’re the only one who can make the product (because you have a patent), no one can look elsewhere for the same thing, enabling you to set your price as you see fit. If you’re investing in a product rather than a business, to later license, these considerations continue to apply as they are the factors which will drive licensing agreements. Your licensees have similar goals after all.

In order to maximize your success, regardless of the route you take, you will want to have a business plan prepared. Giving careful consideration to the market and the road ahead will help you to identify critical intellectual property considerations and make decisions that protect rather than endanger your intellectual property rights.  

Christopher Heer is the owner and founder of Heer Law . He is an intellectual property lawyer, registered patent agent, registered trademark agent, and is also certified as a specialist in intellectual property law (patent) by the Law Society of Ontario. He believes that intellectual property rights add tremendous value to businesses by enabling them to raise capital, build asset value, and grow faster under the protection that these exclusive rights give them.

Headshot – https://www.heerlaw.com/images/christopher_heer_270.jpg

Co-authored with Annette Latoszewska.

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DO YOU HAVE A GREAT INVENTION IDEA?

Creating a business plan for invention licensing.

Inventing a new product involves two kinds of plans. Firstly, inventors must plan for the development of the product. Although once the product has been created, the next important step is to create a business plan for actually licensing the invention. The latter plan is just as important as the product development phase, as commercialization of the invention is what can help make the inventor get paid, and perhaps even get rich.

Many inventors already have an idea of how the invention will be commercialized right at the outset. However, most of the details for marketing and licensing the product are inside their head. The business planning stage helps to provide details about the product on paper. The business plan will include information such as a definition of the product, the reasons why people would purchase the product, the current context of the industry, the target companies for licensing the product, and the predicted profits from invention licensing.

Within the business plan, the product definition will be one of the first parts detailed. The product definition will express how the invention poses a solution for a problem that many customers are facing, but for which there is no adequate solution at present. In this section, it helps to include results from your market research, such as interviews with customers and data from your surveys, so that you can demonstrate clear evidence of the need of your product.

Another important segment of your business plan should be an analysis of potential licensees. An inventor’s business plan should strategically position their product as helping to advance the market share and profitability of companies interested in licensing. It helps to do research of potential companies by discovering whether your product will appeal to their vision. This can be done by analysing their financial reports, their company information on their website, or by speaking to someone from their business development department.

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My New Invention Idea: How to Design a Product and Get it Made with Companies

•   3D Modeling , 3D Rendering , Patents
•   Aug 17, 2022

How do you have your new invention idea turned into a product? The best products aren’t designed and created overnight. However, some inventors will leap of faith and quickly turn their ideas into tangible products. Attempting to speed the development process with a 3D product design service for your new invention may be risky. Rushing products to market often results in defective products that don’t meet market needs, while other ideas are forgotten. 

A new invention idea starts with a strong vision and market research to turn your concept into reality. The last thing you want is your new product idea to lose traction and stagnate. Bringing a new product to market requires resources and can be costly. Learning to design a product from scratch, ready for the manufacturing stage, is critical and will save you from unnecessarily spending time, effort, and money. This is where a design for assembly service professionals can be handy.

RELATED: How much does it cost to make a prototype for my new product invention?

Document everything  

When you develop a new invention idea, it’s essential to document everything. Document your inspiration for the invention, the date, how it works, and how you plan to make and market it. You may also want to make a rough sketch of the invention. Documentation is crucial in patenting your idea and ensuring it doesn’t get stolen. You may have heard of the so-called poor man’s patent, where you record your idea and put it in a sealed envelope.

You then send the envelope to yourself via mail for dated proof of conception of your invention. This method is unreliable and would not hold up in court. A more reliable option is to record your idea in an inventor’s journal and ask a witness to sign it. Journaling will help protect your new invention during the patent process. This inventor’s journal can be any notebook with consecutively numbered pages and cannot be reinserted or removed. 

RELATED: Common mistakes for inventors to avoid

Do your research 

Once you are ready to document the process, it’s time for you to research your new invention idea from a business and legal standpoint. Before filing a patent, you will need to take two critical steps. 

Complete your initial patent search 

Before you work with a patent agent or attorney, don’t forget to complete a free rudimentary search at www.uspto.gov to confirm that your idea hasn’t been patented by anyone else. You also need to perform a non-patent search before patenting an idea. Non-patent literature (NPL) is a way to look through other non-patent databases (i.e., social media, datasheets, magazines, public conferences, scientific journals, etc.).

Research your potential target market 

Just because your mother loves your idea for a grass cutter doesn’t mean your neighbor will! Unfortunately, over 95% of patents worldwide don’t earn inventors’ money. Before you invest capital and time patenting your invention idea, research your potential target market. Is your idea something that people will buy? Can you manufacture and distribute your product at a reasonable retail price? To determine these costs and better understand your competition, you can compare your product with existing products on the market.

RELATED: Understanding the different types of patents

Develop a prototype

Prototypes are a preliminary model of an invention that put everything you wrote down in your inventor’s journal into practice. A company specializing in rapid prototyping services can develop a prototype you can showcase and present to potential licensees and lenders. Avoid filing a patent if you don’t have a prototype yet. Chances are you will find a flaw in your original design or come up with a feature you want to add. If your idea is patented before you address these issues, it could be too late for you to include these in the patent, and this may put you at risk of losing the new design’s patent rights to someone else. 

Here are several rules to remember when prototyping your new invention idea:

• Start sketching your invention idea in the inventor’s journal before starting the prototyping phase. 
• Hire a product concept design professional to create a 3D model mockup of your product design concept. 
• Once you’re satisfied with the 3D mockup, you can construct a working model of your product idea. You can refer to kits and literature as your guide in creating your prototypes. You can also consider using a computer-animated virtual prototype if your invention is costly or unreasonable to prototype (i.e., a pharmaceutical drug or an oil refinery process).  

RELATED: Guide to new product design and development: bring your concept prototype to market

File your patent

You have worked out all the kinks in your new product concept design, and it’s finally time to file your patent. You can choose from two primary patents. The first is a utility patent for new machines or processes, and the second is a design patent reserved for manufacturing ornamental designs. Writing the patent and filling out the application is something you can do on your own. But don’t file the patent until a skilled patent professional has reviewed it. 

There is always the possibility of someone infringing on your invention. Suppose you don’t have a patent written by a patent agent or attorney. In that case, you may be in a predicament if a competitor discovers a loophole that allows them to copy your idea. It’s best to seek legal help to avoid litigation.  

RELATED: Should you get a patent for your invention?

These steps will help you find the best patent expert:

• Do your homework and be organized. Having your notes, prototype, and inventor’s journal ready for a patent professional will save you time and money.
• Check to ensure that the patent professional has been registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. 
• Inquire about the professional’s technical background. For example, if you have an electronic invention, look for a patent expert who is an electrical engineer. 
• Discuss associated fees. Smaller patent firms are often more affordable and will work closely with you. Be sure to agree to the estimated cost before you hire a patent professional . 

RELATED: Manufacturing or product licensing? The route to selling your invention

Market your new invention

Once you’ve completed the steps above, it’s time to develop your business plan. How and where will you manufacture and sell a profitable product? Will you license your product through a company or manufacture and sell the product yourself? You will receive approximately 2-5% royalty fees if you decide to license the product. The main advantage of licensing is that you will not have the financial strain associated with running a business. In the long run, licensing may earn you more money.

The product development process is lengthy and can take years. From the conception of your invention idea to new product development, many inventions take years before they come to life. Be patient and follow the steps above to make the most of your hard work and effort. 

RELATED: The 50/50 rule of product marketing

How Cad Crowd can assist

Visit our Patent pages for more information on patents and USPTO patent applications. We offer comprehensive patenting services for inventors and entrepreneurs. From USPTO patent searches to utility and design patent applications, we’ll connect you with leading U.S.-based patent attorneys.  Get a free estimate today .

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Invention Business Plan

It also meant that I would need to send someone overseas to supervise the making of my invention. So I needed to find a way to have my invention assembled locally without increasing assembly costs.

What's Important

If your receivables are 90 days and your accounts payable are 30 days, you have no cash flow and therefore no cash on hand. That's not good.

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When someone is evaluating a business plan they are looking for credibility, confidence and potential for success.

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Invention Business Plan Success

Develop a versatile invention business plan for use by invention hunts, licening agents, engineers, provisional patents, etc. See actual examples. Overview As an experienced inventor, IVe learned that an idea is not perceived as a viable business opportunity until it can be effectively communicated on paper (or any other readable format). No matter how great your idea is, most people expect that you have it written down.

When I was new to inventing, I had no idea what that meant.

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I searched around but didn’t find any universal format for documenting my ideas. When submitting my inventions to invention hunts, licensing agents, anufacturers, retailers, engineers, and the patent office, I was asked many different kinds of questions. The questions ranged from basic such as “What problem does it solve? ” to questions that required extensive research such is “Who is your target market? ” Fortunately, with my entrepreneurial background I was very familiar with writing business plans.

And, many of these questions were very similar to business plan questions. Therefore, to save time, I decided to consolidate all of these questions into a universal Invention Business Plan format that could be used and/or dapted for any audience within the invention process.

In this article, I discuss how to develop an effective versatile invention business plan. I include the importance of an Invention Business Plan, its main elements, how and where to find content, and its many uses.

I also provide actual examples of an Invention Business Plan adapted for three common purposes: for filing a provisional patent, for entering into an invention hunt, and for submitting to other key users. Other key users may include retailers, manufacturers, industrial engineers, investors, and licensing agents. By sharing my nsights and examples, I hope to help inventors like you, develop your own material in order to effectively communicate and present your invention to the many different users within the invention process.

The Importance of an Invention Business Plan An Invention Business Plan is an effective communication tool for providing a clear and tangible description of your invention while conveying its viability and value.. It tells a detailed story about your invention including what it is, how it works, and why your invention is a viable business opportunity. Although there are no known niversal Invention Business Plan formats, it can generally be described as an organized all-in-one depository of everything you know or have learned about your invention.

It includes every angle about your invention so as to be used as a reference point for the development and/or submission of audience specific requests. Having a broad audience scope allows your plan to be used as a collection of information which can then be modified or adjusted according to the audience in which it serves.

The main elements of an Invention Business Plan Many different readers and audiences need to see your Invention Business Plan. You will be surprised how many different questions can be asked about your invention.

In order to effectively answer such questions, the planshould be designed such that it serves as a detailed yet practical guide and resource to be used by a broad audience. Thus, the elements and content of your plan should be both comprehensive (i. e. can modified) for the purpose of a specific use or audience.

The recommended elements for a comprehensive and adaptable invention business plan include: a Short- Description, Abstract, Fit, Key Selling Advantages, Key Consumer Advantages, Detailed

Description, Drawings and Design, Components, Main Features, Method of Device, Suggested Retail Price, Estimated Manufacturing Cost, Problem/Challenge it Solves, What Makes It Innovative, Competition, Market Position: Target Users and Target Buyers, Packaging Suggestion, Product Extensions, Variations, and Add-ons, Intellectual Property Research, Patent Search Results, Drawings, Methods, and other related Appendices.

How and where to find content for an Invention Business Plan While most of the content should be in your own words, the top five suggested ontent resources for finding inspiration and ideas as they relate to the above elements include: A related retailer or manufacturer’s 10-Q (Quarterly Statement) or 10-K (Annual Statement)-for Market Research, Problem/Challenge It Solves, Competition, and Target Users. 10-Q’s and 10-K’s can be found on the website of most public companies, or search for companies on the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) website here. ? Related patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – for Abstract, Detailed Description, Components, Features, Methods, Intellectual Property Research, Patent Results, and Drawings and Design. Trade association websites, magazines, and other trade materials – for Market Research, Competition, and Target Users.

For example, a well-known trade association is the International Housewares Association (IHA). ? Websites of retailers or manufacturers – for Packaging Suggestion, Product Variations, Key Selling Advantages, Key Consumer Advantages, Suggested Retail Price, Manufacturing Cost (general rule: divide retail price by 4). Examples of actual Invention Business Plans provided below) Uses of an Invention Business Plan The invention process involves disclosing your invention to a wide variety of readers. As mentioned, the Invention Business Plan is a starting point or template for providing future material with respect to the many different readers and audience for which you will need to communicate your invention.

You can adapt or modify your plan depending on its primary use or audience. As a general rule however, be conservative about disclosing everything in your plan.

Only disclose the information that is requested or required. Invention Business Plans are useful for: invention unts, industrial designers or engineers, retailers, manufacturers, licensing agents, lawyers, marketing agencies, and the United States Patent Office. Invention Business Plan Examples If available, it is always helpful to use actualexamples.

Below are examples of actual Invention Business Plans. The examples are adapted for three common purposes within the invention process. Example # 1 Invention Business Plan for the purpose of filing a provisional patent An example of an actual invention business plan adapted for the purpose of filing a provisional patent.

This document includes the actual Invention Business Plan example and Provisional Patent. It also includes the actual Provisional Patent acknowledgement form and receipt from the USPTO’s e-filing system.

Example # 2 Invention Business Plan for submission to an invention hunt An actual Invention Business Plan example modified for submission to an invention invention hunts. Also included is an example of the actual invention hunt results, sample invention drawings (using MS PowerPoint), and sample patent search results. Example #3 Invention Business Plan for general use An actual example of an Invention Business Plan modifiable for general use within he invention process such as for presentationto a retailer, manufacturer, licensing agent, investor, manufacturer, or industrial engineer.

Also included is an example of Invention Drawings (using PowerPoint), Retailer Fit, Market Analysis, and an Invention Sell Sheet. Conclusion In summary, an Invention Business Plan is used for many reasons. It is an essential part of the invention process. By developing a solid Invention Business Plan for your invention, you effectively turn your idea into a tangible business opportunity. I wish you much success with your invention endeavors.

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AI companies make fresh safety promise at Seoul summit, nations agree to align work on risks

Hyung-Jin Kim

Associated Press

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A screen shows an announcement of the AI Seoul Summit in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. World leaders are expected to adopt a new agreement on artificial intelligence when they gather virtually Tuesday to discuss AIs potential risks but also ways to promote its benefits and innovation. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

SEOUL – Leading artificial intelligence companies made a fresh pledge at a mini-summit Tuesday to develop AI safely, while world leaders agreed to build a network of publicly backed safety institutes to advance research and testing of the technology.

Google, Meta and OpenAI were among the companies that made voluntary safety commitments at the AI Seoul Summit , including pulling the plug on their cutting-edge systems if they can’t rein in the most extreme risks.

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The two-day meeting is a follow-up to November’s AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom, and comes amid a flurry of efforts by governments and global bodies to design guardrails for the technology amid fears about the potential risk it poses both to everyday life and to humanity.

Leaders from 10 countries and the European Union will “forge a common understanding of AI safety and align their work on AI research," the British government, which co-hosted the event, said in a statement. The network of safety institutes will include those already set up by the U.K., U.S., Japan and Singapore since the Bletchley meeting, it said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the opening session that seven months after the Bletchley meeting, “We are seeing life-changing technological advances and life-threatening new risks — from disinformation to mass surveillance to the prospect of lethal autonomous weapons.”

The U.N. chief said in a video address that there needs to be universal guardrails and regular dialogue on AI. “We cannot sleepwalk into a dystopian future where the power of AI is controlled by a few people — or worse, by algorithms beyond human understanding,” he said.

The 16 AI companies that signed up for the safety commitments also include Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung, IBM, xAI, France’s Mistral AI , China’s Zhipu.ai, and G42 of the United Arab Emirates . They vowed to ensure the safety of their most advanced AI models with promises of accountable governance and public transparency.

It's not the first time that AI companies have made lofty-sounding but non-binding safety commitments. Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft were among a group that signed up last year to voluntary safeguards brokered by the White House to ensure their products are safe before releasing them.

The Seoul meeting comes as some of those companies roll out the latest versions of their AI models .

The safety pledge includes publishing frameworks setting out how the companies will measure the risks of their models. In extreme cases where risks are severe and “intolerable," AI companies will have to hit the kill switch and stop developing or deploying their models and systems if they can't mitigate the risks.

Since the U.K. meeting last year, the AI industry has “increasingly focused on the most pressing concerns, including mis- and dis- information, data security, bias and keeping humans in the loop,” said Aiden Gomez CEO of Cohere, one of the AI companies that signed the pact. "It is essential that we continue to consider all possible risks, while prioritizing our efforts on those most likely to create problems if not properly addressed.”

Governments around the world have been scrambling to formulate regulations for AI even as the technology makes rapid advances and is poised to transform many aspects of daily life, from education and the workplace to copyrights and privacy. There are concerns that advances in AI could eliminate jobs, spread disinformation or be used to create new bioweapons.

This week's meeting is just one of a slew of efforts on AI governance. The U.N. General Assembly has approved its first resolution on the safe use of AI systems, while the U.S. and China recently held their first high-level talks on AI and the European Union's world-first AI Act is set to take effect later this year.

Chan contributed to this report from London. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.