Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Arcane

Distribution:
You might have a case where there is a `salesman` who sells to  distributor who sells to a retailer who sells to the end user. It really depends on the product.

Advertising:
I would agree with DeafCeo. In fact, i would put all that advert money into great photography and give it away to the magazines and newspapers. They always want new and notable products.

patents:
You might wait to file the provisional just moments before going public, and then see if the product sells

manufacturing:
Shaped plastic and aluminum seems a tough road to go down.
Check out this group
http://www.emachineshop.com/

Thanks Degrees, much appreciated.

I am composing a step by a step tutorial of my experience bringing this product to market, it will be a while before it`s done but Startup Nation will be the first to know.  Thank you all.

I started a blog detailing my experience in trying to bring my new invention to market and that was two years ago.Now A O L has screwed up my blog and I`m the only one who can see it. Good luck. Wes

-------------------------

WESTNOVA

Arcane, hidden layers of distribution refers to all the people that purchase your product before the end customer does.  So, for most products it will be 1) your distributor and 2) the retailer.

Plan appropriate margins for these layers.  I`m not sure what is reasonable.  My best guess is that distributors mark up 25%, retailers 100%.  SuN community might have experience in this area, this is only what I`ve read.

-------------------------

Travis Tschepen
Hibachi Bros. LLC

--My goal in life is to be as good of a person my dog already thinks I am.--

Has anyone used the patentandtrademark guy that westnova mentioned?

-------------------------

BRENNAN MITCHELL President/Founder www.FAMTAC.com Operator Designed Operator Tested

it is also possible to file more than one provisional application if the changes from the first provisional application are significant.

-------------------------

James Lindon, Ph.D. Patent Attorney
Lindon & Lindon, LLC
Cleveland, Ohio
Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Pharmacy Law, Litigation
[this is not legal advice - provided for discussion only]
Intellectual Property for the Individual and Small Business: Identify, Protect, Enforce, Defend.
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
http://www.LindonLaw.com

Provisional patent filing fee for small entities is $100.  Patent attorney to draft the application? priceless 

-------------------------

Go Green and put more money onto your bottom line with award-winning LED-based light bulbs PearlLED. If you manage a good sized store/business and want to boost the bottom line, call us!

let`s see:

something about the size of a bar of soap:
potential tooling cost for top bottom molding tool:
(for a `soft tool` $8000+)  good for short production runs (under 1000 pcs)
(for a `hard tool` upwards of $15k+) good for larger production runs

i`ve done this before with a similar sized product. we had great engineering and attempted to do it all ourselves, but needed a lot more marketing sales behind us. it costs money to get a product in front of the people that make decisions to carry your product in catalogs, websites, distributors, on store shelves.

there`s also another layer of fulfillment, tracking orders, shipping, completing orders. also don`t forget the backend stuff - customer support, warranty issues, product packaging, product testing, UL certification, etc.


-------------------------

No Eternal Reward Will Forgive Us Now for Wasting the Dawn.

A very insightful post txbassguy, have you read any particularly good books on this topic that you can recommend?  I am currently filling papers to incorporate as an S-Corp so that I may deduct the R&D (prototype, patent, etc..) costs if and when profits are made.

It`s a long road out of serfdom and into ones own, don`t give up!

Haven`t read any books on the subject. Mainly just from job experience being a mechanical engineer with consumer electronic companies. So I guess I have inside information on working with suppliers, developing drawings, working with marketing, sales, fulfillment, and even doing customer service.
I know score.org is good, nolo.com is very good resource.

Yes - the only way to success is to do it yourself.


-------------------------

No Eternal Reward Will Forgive Us Now for Wasting the Dawn.