Know-How Exchange : Other

Hi melissa and welcome.

A little more information on your potential new development would be useful. TO help us focus our answers a little more.

To start you on your way, take a look at this: [inactive link removed]

[Moderator: Inactive link removed from post. 2/22/2011]

There isn't enough information to help you find a company to make your "idea," but I wouldn't spend much time/energy on that unless/until you have a basic marketing and business plan in place.

If consumers won't respond to the concept, getting it made isn't an issue. And consumers are reasonably good at reacting to a concept and telling you if they're likely to buy or not.

If you don't already have that answer, you probably need to contact a professional market researcher and come up with a plan to figure out what consumers think. Ultimately that will be more important than how you get it made.

The answer depends on what kind of product you are offering. If you are offering a service (consulting, legal help), or a physical product (fast food chain, new toy), the strategies will be different.

First things first, you will need a business plan, or at least a rough sketch of one. It's never good enough to have a great product. Don't sell vitamins, sell pain-killers. You have to show that your product fills a pressing pain or need, and that you have a large or growing market. Don't fall into the trap of "it'll be nice if everybody had this" or "I bet their lives will be much better they knew about this." It should be a product they NEED NOW, not something that would be great to have. You have to communicate what this need is, and why your product best and is the only that fills it.

Then you have to show how it would be hard for competitors to come in and steal your idea. You'll need escalating barriers of entry, because if your product does find success, you'll attract more wolves that will want a bite out of the market.

Do tons of market research. Know your market inside out, specifically who will shell out to buy it. Find the innovators and early adopters in your segment, and how big they are in terms of size.

You will also need proof of concept, to show your product is real, and feasible. If you came up with a new product, can you make it cheaply, and how does it work. Have a prototype.

Things to avoid- try to avoid VCs (venture capitalists). Their funding is hard to get, and they come with a lot of attachments. Most companies bootstrap, only around 15% get VC capital. There are intellectual property problems, to them seizing control of your company, and really high financial returns they expect.

AVOID INVENTION FIRMS. Most are scams.

最后tip, your best friend will be google. You can't expect someone to do the work for you. If you really think this is a great idea, you are going to have to execute it. Go online and look up ways to complete specific parts of your plan (financial statements, business plan writing, product design, etc. )