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Suggest You - The Steps from Product Idea to Product Success
Avoid Common Business Start-Up Mistakes rams. Product design results from combining your innovation with needs and wants you’ve discovered through research. Market planning involves positioning, pricing, and communications.If you are considering starting up a business, you are facing both an exciting and stressful time. To succeed, you should avoid the common mistakes many new business owners make.The motivation to start a business is usually derived from a dream. You envision something of interest that you think you can make money off of. You probably have been sitting on the idea for some time and something has motivated you to finally have a go at it. Maybe your finances are such that you can comfortably devote your time to it. Maybe you got laid off. Regardless, a vision is not enough to ensure your success! Over the years, I’ve seen many businesses based on good ideas crash and burn * Product and Market Development (Chapter 16) In the fifth step you’ll develop your product in stages (i.e., alpha, beta, commercial release). You’ll use the beta product to obtain feedback to confirm functionality and eliminate bugs before final production. * Product Launch, Market and Sell (Chapter 17) In the sixth step you’re ready to move into production and launch your product. This is the most exciting part of your project. You’ve given birth to your idea and are bringing it out into the world. And as you would with a child, you’ll need to nurture and grow your product, with marketing and sales strategies and tactics. Path B: Licensing Y A Good Brand Name Commands a Premium Michelangelo once said that his statue of David was embedded in the block of marble and he merely chipped away the edges to reveal it. Is your product idea inside your mind just waiting to come alive? Or, is your product already formed and you need only to smooth out the edges?In the long term, the ailing organisation needs to build a strong brand name as it will help to strengthen the company’s future prosperity. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.Customers can only remember a limited a number of brands in their minds. Brands help the customers to remember the products. Thus, when you think of Mercedes, it suggests luxury, success, prestige, fast speed, well engineered, customer service par excellence and good resale va Using my Market-Step process your idea will come to life as we progress in the following steps from idea to launch:
Please use this roadmap as a navigational tool to guide and monitor your progress. (See www.Product-Coach.com > Articles for a graphical flowchart.) Getting Started * Protect Your Idea (Chapter 4) When you have an idea, you need to protect it. The first line of defense is to set the date of conception. Start by documenting your idea in an inventor’s notebook, but don’t file a patent until you evaluate its marketability. Market Research and Evaluation * Self-Evaluation (Chapter 9) Start the Market-Step process by evaluating your product idea’s marketability. Your product idea is marketable if and when it solves a problem, meets a need or want, overcomes competition, and generates a profit. * Concept Evaluation (Chapter 11) The second step of the Market-Step process is to determine if people like the concept of your product idea. To test your invention, you’ll need to uncover which people or companies are your future customers. After identifying potential customers, ask them to evaluate how well your product idea solves a problem, or meets a need or want. * Prototype Evaluation (Chapter 12) The third is detailed evaluation by giving people a prototype to examine. A prototype is a working model that looks, feels, and functions similarly to the finished product. I’ll lead you through the process of creating a prototype that resembles what your customer wants. Then, I’ll show you how to get detailed feedback by interviewing potential customers. * Funding Your Idea (Appendix F) Do you need to raise money to develop and market your product? Initially, you’ll need money for expenses such as market research, equipment, and prototype development. Raising money is a normal part of doing business when you start, grow, and expand. * Patent Review (Chapter 13) You performed a preliminary patent search earlier. Now it’s worth your time and money to perform a detailed patent search and possibly file for a patent. * Self-Market or License (Chapter 14) What do you do with your new product? Your choices are to either self-market or license it. In some cases you can do both or sell the rights. Self-marketing means turning your idea into a marketable product that you intend to sell directly to an end-user, and/or through a distributor or retailer. Under a licensing agreement, a business will produce and sell your product in exchange for royalties. Path A: Self-Market Development If you’ve decided to self-market, follow the remaining steps on Path A. If you’ve decided to license your idea, see the next section for Path B. * Product and Market Plan (Chapter 15) Plan your work and then work your plan. The fourth step of the Market-Step process involves planning product design and marketing programs. Product design results from combining your innovation with needs and wants you’ve discovered through research. Market planning involves positioning, pricing, and communications. * Product and Market Development (Chapter 16) In the fifth step you’ll develop your product in stages (i.e., alpha, beta, commercial release). You’ll use the beta product to obtain feedback to confirm functionality and eliminate bugs before final production. * Product Launch, Market and Sell (Chapter 17) In the sixth step you’re ready to move into production and launch your product. This is the most exciting part of your project. You’ve given birth to your idea and are bringing it out into the world. And as you would with a child, you’ll need to nurture and grow your product, with marketing and sales strategies and tactics. Path B: Licensing Yo Factoring an idea, you need to protect it. The first line of defense is to set the date of conception. Start by documenting your idea in an inventor’s notebook, but don’t file a patent until you evaluate its marketability.A factor is basically a financial institution that purchases accounts receivable from businesses. The factor normally bears the credit risks associated with the accounts receivable purchased by it. There are about twenty firms in the United States engaged solely in factoring. These firms raise their operating funds by issue of equity and debt capital.The factoring agreement governs the relationship between the factor and the business whose accounts receivable the factor purchases. The following conditions are typically found in factoring agreements. The factor will select only those accounts receivable which appear to be acceptable to it. The sales of accounts recei Market Research and Evaluation * Self-Evaluation (Chapter 9) Start the Market-Step process by evaluating your product idea’s marketability. Your product idea is marketable if and when it solves a problem, meets a need or want, overcomes competition, and generates a profit. * Concept Evaluation (Chapter 11) The second step of the Market-Step process is to determine if people like the concept of your product idea. To test your invention, you’ll need to uncover which people or companies are your future customers. After identifying potential customers, ask them to evaluate how well your product idea solves a problem, or meets a need or want. * Prototype Evaluation (Chapter 12) The third is detailed evaluation by giving people a prototype to examine. A prototype is a working model that looks, feels, and functions similarly to the finished product. I’ll lead you through the process of creating a prototype that resembles what your customer wants. Then, I’ll show you how to get detailed feedback by interviewing potential customers. * Funding Your Idea (Appendix F) Do you need to raise money to develop and market your product? Initially, you’ll need money for expenses such as market research, equipment, and prototype development. Raising money is a normal part of doing business when you start, grow, and expand. * Patent Review (Chapter 13) You performed a preliminary patent search earlier. Now it’s worth your time and money to perform a detailed patent search and possibly file for a patent. * Self-Market or License (Chapter 14) What do you do with your new product? Your choices are to either self-market or license it. In some cases you can do both or sell the rights. Self-marketing means turning your idea into a marketable product that you intend to sell directly to an end-user, and/or through a distributor or retailer. Under a licensing agreement, a business will produce and sell your product in exchange for royalties. Path A: Self-Market Development If you’ve decided to self-market, follow the remaining steps on Path A. If you’ve decided to license your idea, see the next section for Path B. * Product and Market Plan (Chapter 15) Plan your work and then work your plan. The fourth step of the Market-Step process involves planning product design and marketing programs. Product design results from combining your innovation with needs and wants you’ve discovered through research. Market planning involves positioning, pricing, and communications. * Product and Market Development (Chapter 16) In the fifth step you’ll develop your product in stages (i.e., alpha, beta, commercial release). You’ll use the beta product to obtain feedback to confirm functionality and eliminate bugs before final production. * Product Launch, Market and Sell (Chapter 17) In the sixth step you’re ready to move into production and launch your product. This is the most exciting part of your project. You’ve given birth to your idea and are bringing it out into the world. And as you would with a child, you’ll need to nurture and grow your product, with marketing and sales strategies and tactics. Path B: Licensing Y Six Sigma Requires a Substantial Commitment from “Informal” Leaders meets a need or want.An awful lot has been said lately about Six Sigma and its abilities to bring out the full potential in any business or organization. However, the aspect – other than money – that most frequently causes a company to stop in its tracks when confronted with the option of taking on a Six Sigma strategy is the fact that it requires such a substantial leadership commitment.This being said, leadership doesn’t just mean the people at the top of the company hierarchy. Leadership commitment in this sense is required by all leaders in the business, whether they be presidents, CEO’s, team leaders, or “informal” leaders.In fact, it is these informal leaders who are being r * Prototype Evaluation (Chapter 12) The third is detailed evaluation by giving people a prototype to examine. A prototype is a working model that looks, feels, and functions similarly to the finished product. I’ll lead you through the process of creating a prototype that resembles what your customer wants. Then, I’ll show you how to get detailed feedback by interviewing potential customers. * Funding Your Idea (Appendix F) Do you need to raise money to develop and market your product? Initially, you’ll need money for expenses such as market research, equipment, and prototype development. Raising money is a normal part of doing business when you start, grow, and expand. * Patent Review (Chapter 13) You performed a preliminary patent search earlier. Now it’s worth your time and money to perform a detailed patent search and possibly file for a patent. * Self-Market or License (Chapter 14) What do you do with your new product? Your choices are to either self-market or license it. In some cases you can do both or sell the rights. Self-marketing means turning your idea into a marketable product that you intend to sell directly to an end-user, and/or through a distributor or retailer. Under a licensing agreement, a business will produce and sell your product in exchange for royalties. Path A: Self-Market Development If you’ve decided to self-market, follow the remaining steps on Path A. If you’ve decided to license your idea, see the next section for Path B. * Product and Market Plan (Chapter 15) Plan your work and then work your plan. The fourth step of the Market-Step process involves planning product design and marketing programs. Product design results from combining your innovation with needs and wants you’ve discovered through research. Market planning involves positioning, pricing, and communications. * Product and Market Development (Chapter 16) In the fifth step you’ll develop your product in stages (i.e., alpha, beta, commercial release). You’ll use the beta product to obtain feedback to confirm functionality and eliminate bugs before final production. * Product Launch, Market and Sell (Chapter 17) In the sixth step you’re ready to move into production and launch your product. This is the most exciting part of your project. You’ve given birth to your idea and are bringing it out into the world. And as you would with a child, you’ll need to nurture and grow your product, with marketing and sales strategies and tactics. Path B: Licensing Y Making an Agreement with Your Power Team patent search and possibly file for a patent.Power Teams seem like an ideal way to promote your business and offer a wide range of services. It is true when they work well. Although the concept is excellent, you should not work with a Power Team unless you have an agreement in place. With an agreement, you will be able to define what is important and how to divide the spoils. Never leave anything to chance. If you know that you will be providing one hundred hours of work and the other team member will be providing only twenty, then the agreement must reflect how you plan on handling the revenues. For example, I worked on a project with a team member and although we thought I would be working most of the hours, in realit * Self-Market or License (Chapter 14) What do you do with your new product? Your choices are to either self-market or license it. In some cases you can do both or sell the rights. Self-marketing means turning your idea into a marketable product that you intend to sell directly to an end-user, and/or through a distributor or retailer. Under a licensing agreement, a business will produce and sell your product in exchange for royalties. Path A: Self-Market Development If you’ve decided to self-market, follow the remaining steps on Path A. If you’ve decided to license your idea, see the next section for Path B. * Product and Market Plan (Chapter 15) Plan your work and then work your plan. The fourth step of the Market-Step process involves planning product design and marketing programs. Product design results from combining your innovation with needs and wants you’ve discovered through research. Market planning involves positioning, pricing, and communications. * Product and Market Development (Chapter 16) In the fifth step you’ll develop your product in stages (i.e., alpha, beta, commercial release). You’ll use the beta product to obtain feedback to confirm functionality and eliminate bugs before final production. * Product Launch, Market and Sell (Chapter 17) In the sixth step you’re ready to move into production and launch your product. This is the most exciting part of your project. You’ve given birth to your idea and are bringing it out into the world. And as you would with a child, you’ll need to nurture and grow your product, with marketing and sales strategies and tactics. Path B: Licensing Y 5 Personality Traits of Success rams. Product design results from combining your innovation with needs and wants you’ve discovered through research. Market planning involves positioning, pricing, and communications.Successful men/women seem to have basic personality and character traits that lead them to great wealth and accomplishments. Some of the men/women use one combination of skills to achieve their goals while others use a different combination. Despite these differences all of the men/women have basic skills that comprise the canvass on which the picture is painted. To know what these skills are is to know your own chance of becoming successful.Before we begin to define each of these skills it is important to know what type of success you are looking for. Even though each skill is beneficial some skills are more prone to success in one arena versus another. Success can be * Product and Market Development (Chapter 16) In the fifth step you’ll develop your product in stages (i.e., alpha, beta, commercial release). You’ll use the beta product to obtain feedback to confirm functionality and eliminate bugs before final production. * Product Launch, Market and Sell (Chapter 17) In the sixth step you’re ready to move into production and launch your product. This is the most exciting part of your project. You’ve given birth to your idea and are bringing it out into the world. And as you would with a child, you’ll need to nurture and grow your product, with marketing and sales strategies and tactics. Path B: Licensing You’ve determined that licensing is for you. Follow the steps in Path B to license your product idea. * Licensing Proposal (Chapter 5) Before approaching a company or product agent, organize your marketing research into a proposal. Some companies have their own forms to fill out; others ask to submit in your own format. If you feel comfortable presenting and negotiating, seek companies on your own to license your product. Otherwise, find product agents who will seek companies and negotiate on your behalf. If the company likes what you have, you’ll then negotiate a licensing agreement, then carry out the obligations, and collect royalties. Going Forward Now that you have an overview of the steps, my book Product Idea to Product Success, takes you through the details of the Market-Step process, one step at a time. * This article can be freely published as long as it is not edited, author information is present, and copyright notice is posted. Copyright 2004 Matthew Yubas. All rights reserved.
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