Since I know that this is a longer, long article, I began to try to shorten it to save my readers from complete boredom! However, there is a lot of good information here, and I think it is important that you have so much information with one shot, especially with these topics. In this article we will discuss: 1. How to attract investment and business ideas to the market; 2. Filing patent applications; and 3. Evaluate your products and agreements for the market.
Let's start!
When I started writing this article, I had a memory ... Back to the past, when I first started working in the web design business many years ago. Little did I know what life experience for me would be, and how it will completely change my own business future. In the early 90s, when the Internet was still in its infancy, we (that means, I, my then future husband and our main group of geeks and crazy people) were creating websites! Big, funny, creative, awkward, but exciting, fun and promoting sites that ... by today's standards ... look pretty scary! Large giant text fields, giant buttons, images and tons of text links filled a 15-inch screen with a barely color image. This is a modern creation, known as “animated. GIF! ”Long before the days of integrating Flash or a host of other technologies, we broke up with the Red Sea! The Internet has become the wave of the future and the future!
On the same day, people from all walks of life lined up at our place on the Internet provider — our “ISP” —with some of the craziest ideas and “inventions” I've ever seen in my life. When a client wanted to create a website, I would excitedly ask them: “Do you have a sketch or idea of what you would like to design?” The infamous wrinkled napkin from the previous dinner, filled with crazy scribbles, pictures and food stains will proudly come out. It was their business plan - whatever that was. They say that necessity is the mother of the invention, and I knew that this “napkin” would not work for a long time. Alas, I was introduced to this new "new program", new to the market, on the same day. Something like Quark Xpress was a break! You can draw cool lines and squares, create flowcharts, and even create newsletters! Wow. How interesting it was. The rest was history for our group; creating layouts and websites, as well as teaching people, the smallest moments of creating and running a business suddenly collapsed. Computer technology was awesome!
These were fun days in simpler times. But since then, the Internet has changed dramatically, and the creation of something has changed a lot. Today, when someone has an idea for an invention or business, more are at stake than in the past. Gone are the days of handshaking, where your word was your honorary honor sign. Unfortunately, this is a day of theft, fraud and driving to protect what you worked so hard. With that said, let me talk about how you, as an entrepreneur, can protect your actions, your ideas and your business and bring them to the market.
1. Bringing your inventions and business ideas to the market : First you have to define a few things:
- You need to define your product: what is it? Is it a product or service? Do you know the difference? This may seem silly, but you will be surprised at how it overlaps.
- You need to define your business model: what are you selling? Product? Services? Both?
- You must determine your market: who is your target audience or is it buying demographic data?
- You must determine your durability in the market: will this product remain popular throughout the year? Five years? Twenty years old? Is it a passing fantasy? Does he have the potential to turn into something prosperous? Does it have the potential for a mass market?
- You have to define your competition: how long have they been around? What makes them better or worse than you? Be honest with yourself in your assessment.
- Understanding your own product / service : If my mother can't figure it out, will the product or service really be sold? Do not laugh at this concept! You need to think about who spends dollars in your target market. What is their level of education? What is the level of their technology? What are their needs?
- Cleaning and rationalizing what you have : You must work out all the excesses ... and there are always excesses! What can I do to refine, simplify or optimize my invention or product?
- Protect your protective gear! Do you have help in protecting your assets? (In a legal document, this is called the CYA method or the Cover Your Assets method. LOL :) Do you have a lawyer or legal entity who can help you?
- Get a marketing plan, man! Am I ready to do market research? Do I have a marketing plan? Do I need to know about marketing first? Do I know current trends? Do I have someone I can hire to help me?
Currently, there are many cases where copyright and trademark will be used together to protect various aspects of a particular product. For example, copyright will protect the artistic creation of a graphic or logo used to identify a particular business or company, while a trademark serves to prohibit others from illegally using it in the market (illegally, which means without special permission from the company or the creators). This approach is commonly used by advertising agencies and advertisements. In short, copyright helps to identify and block the expression and brand, the trademark serves to protect it, blocking others from infringing upon it. Phew! Hopefully this will explain it in a nutshell!
Difference between trademark and patent : That's all the other kettle, which you can think about. Patents protect specific actions. For example, Joe invents a new type of socket wrench, which is awesome, incredibly easy to use and can remove any old socket head from any socket. Joe will be a happy tourist with this invention. He can not only block others from making, selling or using his powerful invention with a socket key, but can also get monopoly rights that prohibit others from engaging in the commercial use of their invention, and this patent can last 15 or 20 years,
As a rule, patents and trademarks do not overlap in the same way as copyrights and trademarks. Patents are a slightly different animal with their own set of problems and conditions. When it comes to a unique design or product invention, you protect the “thing” from the “design”, which has other legal implications, such as functionality, style, materials used, etc.
Hiring a patent attorney or patent service A: If you invented a product, I highly recommend you find a good patent attorney. There are experts in this field who know exactly how it all works, and what exactly is happening. There are also many online services. My pick service for these important needs is LegalZoom (LegalZoom.com). I have used them before, and I am very pleased with their service and performance. They are cost effective and I found them incredibly easy to handle. There are all kinds of services available, whether it is online, or you can even refer to your local yellow pages directory if you want to find someone local and personally. You can also ask for help from the websites of the US government, but I do not recommend going directly because it is very complicated and confusing. If you do one tiny thing wrong, you need to start from the beginning, which is not fun. When it comes to your creations, do not save on what is important to you. You worked too hard to get there, so be sure to protect your work. You will be very glad you did it!
3. Proper assessment of your invention or services for the market : This article does not have enough space to fully consider the details that are included in the price goods for the market. It is, however, very difficult for anyone in the business. Setting a magic price for something can be a bit overwhelming. If you are setting prices for the first time, raising or lowering existing prices, or trying to keep up with various economic trends, it can be difficult. Overestimate your products or services, and you risk losing business to competitors. Underestimate this, and you can dramatically hurt your profits. What to do? I will try to give you this in two words:
You cannot base everything on price separately, especially on services. : Yes, there is competition. And yes, you need to keep prices lower in difficult economic times. However, “cheapest” rarely means “best.” I came to find that you usually get what you pay for. In many cases, rock prices usually mean bottom maintenance. For example, my local auto mechanic is an amazing guy. He is not the cheapest or most expensive mechanic in our area. What is it, fabulous. He is local, he is honest, he is reliable and affordable. If I need help with my car, he shows me everything he does. He uses the best parts, and all his staff are very proud of their work. I never need to invade something, and this is very important to me.
Now, allow yourself to buy a purchase against. sale of products A: Price services and products are very different. What for? Because, using my mechanic as an example, he is not a reproduced "thing." It is not a razor blade or a 9-volt battery, or a pack of paper towels. I can buy these things anywhere at a super-preferential rate, in bulk. With everyday products like batteries, razor blades, food, clothing, cleaning products, etc., I’m going to evaluate the price and look for the best deals for my family. In the end, Windex glass cleaner is almost the same product he bought. This is acquired in advance by the "thing"; not a human. With this in mind, you should evaluate products for a larger market.
Your lower business dollar for pricing A: To set a good price for a product, you will need to do your homework for your production or development costs. What is your product (or products)? Are you a manufacturer of your products? What is it for? Can you afford price matching? Will you offer wholesale prices to distributors? What are your overhead costs? How much do you need to bring to each product? Countless programs such as QuickBooks and other software applications are available to you. If this is not an option for you, do not be afraid to consult your financial advisor or your CPA to help you do the math. You may be surprised at how quickly you find the right price with a little tutorial. This person can help dispel fear from a situation.
Don't sacrifice quality if at all possible. A: This can be tough during inflation for many companies. If you produce food or drinks that use, say, sugar or flour, and these costs have increased dramatically, which affects your expenses and your income. But here's the hook: switch this ingredient to something lower, and your customers will find out about it. Certain things can not be faked, so beware of high-quality cutting. This could be a real killer.
Do not be afraid to offer discounts and coupons, but do it wisely. A: I will use the example of a popular restaurant, especially here in California, TGIFridays. If you personally love this restaurant or not, I believe that this is a role-playing company that needs to be monitored and advised, at least in terms of business and marketing. Restaurants are certainly a service, but they also happen to the seller of the goods. In fact, restaurants in general are one of the few business models that are both services and product suppliers.
So back to our example TG I. Friday .... This restaurant has leaned back to help all kinds of communities struggling with a complex economy (at the time of this writing). They have more discounts and deals than any company I have ever seen. They have their “$ 2 for $ 20,” which is a complete meal for two with all the decorations, including appetizers and desserts; they offer boat loads of “buy-one-get-one-free” deals; they offer a fantastic “happy hour” discount, and the food is pretty damned good quality for what it is. This is not a five star resort experience, but it is a successful mainstream market. Friday at restaurants. here in Southern California, in any case, almost always stand only in a room, even in difficult economic times. This company knows its market, its current and future market, its product line and its basis. They know how to ride in traffic, offer good deals, offer a delicious menu, and they do it right. There are many large food chains that will never follow this philosophy, and their restaurants are dying on the vine (again, at the time of this writing).
There is art, science and balance to create a successful business. Get too greedy and you will fail. Get too giving, and you give away the store. Be complacent or cut off too many corners and your sales will be gray. For those of us who love bargaining art - the excellence of creating a business is a constant journey to strive for this perfect hit - this is the perfect home run.
Stay tuned for our latest article in this series where we discuss: raising capital, buying a franchise, and then a summary of all the topics in this series of articles.
