Garage Inventor Supply Chain™      

It's not how good you are. It's how good you want to be.

Every product starts with someone’s bright idea that turns into a series of relationships on its way to market. As an independent inventor it is your responsibility is to create the opportunity for those relationships to manifest. In order to do that you must demonstrate that you respect the value and contribution added by process experts who take the risk to believe in you and moving you along the way.

Authentic invention help

A typical inventor's journey to market might look like this. You meet a model-maker, who knows how to get you in touch with a prototype-maker, who happens to know someone interested in venturing, who may have legal advisors he’s worked with before, who knows a professional who can develop a channel of distribution for you, or has the know-how to market the item, and who can build the infrastructure it takes to service the sale.

Whew, seems overwhelming? Yes, it can be. This is often why a great product idea fails before it begins.

If you return to the journey above, you'll see a line-up eight people listed so far, and with a closer look, you’ll notice that the folks involved in manufacturing the product, the packaging, the liability insurance, and that the other supply chain vendors are not mentioned.

The truth is innovation is manageable when the right relationships are in place and it is a deal killer when they are not.

Your task from here forward is to improve your ability to communicate with your customer in the best way you can.
You'll learn that the strength of your relationships is far more important than your idea, and in most cases, more valuable.

It is said that most inventors don’t have the same skill sets as a businessmen. This is true, not because you cannot learn, but mostly because you have no passion for doing so. It is the ultimate seductress to be able to focus your smarts on problem solving.

Your creative process often leaves little time for business organization. Many inventors become so wrapped up in the creative process they become a solution looking for a problem or they stumble because they have no clue about how they will go about getting to market. Sometimes their paranoia blinds even good counsel.

It is not surprising that the inventor doesn’t trust anyone because he knows practically nothing about himself.

This lack of identity handicaps your ability to articulate your solution with a credible enough presentation that people can understand. Now, don't misunderstand me, even when you know who you are, not every idea is saleable; but you can be certain none sell because you said so.

95% of the time, you’ll give up here because by now you have spent all your money and you still haven’t identified your customer.

Furthermore, your lack of business experience makes you feel vulnerable in the face of smarter operators. You make mistakes that should have been avoided. Typically unable to detach from your work, you’ll react rather than respond in a business-like manner. Either way you are leaving too much on the table or coming off as uninformed.

Your journey, and your new tool, the Garage Inventor Supply Chain™, begin with you defining your problem-solving perspective and cataloging your body of work. Only then, will you be empowered to adopt a disciplined approach that is right for you.

If your objective is to become a partnership-worthy professional, then here’s the place to start.

Once you have developed a consistent process, people will be more willing to listen to your proposals, trust you, and rely on your ability to deliver a viable solution in series. As a solution-provider with a market, you’ll be free to do what you do best, invent.

The more organized you become, the easier it will be for you to identify and qualify opportunity that turns your ideas into cash.
Understanding what the process of commercialization costs

It is tremendously expensive to bring innovation to market; not to mention risky, for all parties . The statistics state that 9 out of 10 new products fail, even those launched by large and experienced corporations.

So, inventors get the “One Hit Wonders” off your radar. Inventorship must be treated as a profession. Independent inventors must learn to avoid counting the money of other people and focus on your own accountability and the validity of your solution.

If you are to be successful people must invest big bucks. Its up to you to demonstrate you are worth the investment.

Building a body of work and an ironclad case for your solution is the only thing you need to be counting at this point. This is an important and necessary step if you are going to meet the challenges of being an independent inventor.

The inventor who creates a new product category or a substantial subdivision in an existing category must know that getting that solution to market will carry significant startup costs.

It always costs ten times more than you think.

You can depend on everything costing ten times more than estimated. The factory costs (labor, materials, overhead) are usually more pricey, especially if new tooling is required. Very often Inventors forget to account for these extraordinary costs of doing business when they think of only the money they "plan" to make.

In the field of innovation, it is good business not to count the money of the other person; you don’t have to pay those bills.

Focus on the value you add. For a deal to be signed it must be a win win for all parties. And for you to get your solutions to market, many deals will need to be signed and a great deal of money must be invested in you.

The mission of Garage Inventor Live is to empower you with the process that gives you a chance to feed American manufacturing the serial innovation it is looking for.

Getting your idea to market can be a daunting task for the independent inventor. The main issue: your lack of relationships and a deep understanding of who you are. Getting started here is you best approach to work solo from home.

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