Free Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!: Make Your Million-Dollar Idea Into a Reality by Lori Greiner Page A

prototype wasn’t cheap. There are many types of prototypes,each one representing various levels of sophistication and detail, but the kind I needed, and the one any new inventor intent on selling his or her idea will need, is called a “pre-production prototype.” It is essentially identical to the finished product, but is made using a one-off mold, which is a lot cheaper to pay for than a permanent mold. It cost me $10,000 to make.

Get your ducks in a row as soon as possible, so that when your orders start to come in, you’re ready to go. There are many other things you can get started on while waiting for your prototype to be made: contact retailers, look for manufacturing options, investigate your funding options, set your price, file for your patent and trademark. With the exception of the final two, nothing on this list will cost you anything but time, so you risk nothing.
    Yet I was willing to spend the money, for I was sure that the more professionally made and beautiful my prototype, the easier it would be for people to fall in love with it and I would get the sales.
    I hoped my prototype would be my ticket to those holiday sales I wanted. I could pre-sell with it. I could take it with me to stores to show to buyers. Whether they were the consumers I knew I’d have to poll for market research, or retail buyers selecting products for their customers, I wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to imagine the organizer on a woman’s dressing table. It would help me make sure people were willing to buy my invention and save me from making the worst mistake of my life. I had an incredibly strong gut instinct that I had a hero on my hands, but I wantedto make sure my instincts were correct. Unsubstantiated enthusiasm would surely lead me to make a mistake, so I needed to do unbiased market research first.
    My prototype maker’s suggestion that I make my invention out of polystyrene, and his additional advice that I might need something called an injection molder, sent me on my next research binge. I didn’t know the first thing about plastics, so I went back to the Yellow Pages and looked under “plastics.” And there was a list of companies that manufactured plastic in Chicago. This was a relief, because I’d already made up my mind that I was going to do what I could to work with local companies so that at all times I could keep a close eye on the production, packaging, and any other processes necessary to usher my product onto retail shelves. But aside from “plastics,” there were other words staring up at me from those business directory pages. Thermoforming. Extrusion. It turned out there were different types of plastic manufacturing processes, and I was going to have to figure out which one I needed. It seemed as if every time I got one question answered, ten more popped up. Methodically, I started researching, reading, and making calls to educate myself about what I would need to do to bring my product to life. And sure enough, my prototype maker was right: I needed an injection molder, a factory that mass-produces products by using large machines to inject liquefied plastic into molds.

Ignorance is never a good excuse for stalling. You can get any information you need if you’re willing to do the research.
    You have all the information at your fingertips that you need to get your invention made. If, then, I could figure out how to get my prototype made when my only resources were the businesspages and whatever books I could lug home from the library, today you can use the Internet to find a reliable prototype maker, as well as manufacturer, packager, sales rep, or any other resource you need. It is worth the time and effort to educate yourself as thoroughly as possible about every aspect of your business, from design to manufacturing to packaging. Absorbing all that knowledge will be instrumental in protecting yourself from being taken advantage of and for negotiating the best deals