Table of contents for rwilliams

1. Pitch Your Invention To 6 “As Seen On TV” Companies

For those of you who feel you have a product worthy of the “As Seen on TV” label, here’s a great opportunity for you. An impressive list of companies, representing successful TV brands like Snuggie, Perfect Brownie, Topsy Turvy, Pajama Jeans, EasyFeet, Tony Little’s Gazelle and many more, will be present on the campus of Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, PA to meet face-to-face with inventors.

Submit Your Product Today to the DRTV Product Summit

What is the DRTV Product Summit?

The DRTV Product Summit is a one-day event that gives everyday inventors the opportunity to pitch their products to six leading “As Seen On TV” companies in one location. Twenty-four inventors will be selected by a panel of judges. These inventors will then receive 10-minute private pitch sessions with each of the companies in attendance.

For more information, visit the DRTV Product Summit website.

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This unique product has two horizontal, parallel lines spanning each lens and a small box in-between the parallel lines in which the user lines up the ball with his or her dominant eye. To use, golfers simply keep the ball in the box to reduce head movement while swinging.

The inventor of this product enlisted the help of InventionHome to assist him in finding marketing/licensing opportunities for their invention.

InventionHome offers a low cost, low risk solution for helping inventors through each step of the invention process. They have created a simple and streamlined process for connecting inventors with manufacturers for the purpose of licensing inventions for royalties.

For more info visit:

• Invention Home Twitter
• Invention Home Facebook
• Invention Home Customer Satisfaction
• Invention Home LinkedIn
• Invention Home Blog

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Submit Your Product Today at the QVC Sprouts Event Page

What is QVC Sprouts?

The QVC Sprouts program was created by QVC and designed specifically for inventors with the help of the United Inventors Association (UIA).

The program gives an inventor with a retail ready product the opportunity to be selected and placed on the QVC website along with other contestant products for a period of one week. During this time QVC customers will be given the opportunity to vote on those products they would most like to see sold on QVC. This one week voting period allows both the inventor and QVC the opportunity to judge consumer interest in the product.

For help with your invention, please visit www.inventionhome.com.

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The good news is you don’t always have to spend a fortune developing and fabricating physical, working prototypes of your invention. 3D virtual prototyping or virtual designing offers a much lower-cost alternative while still providing companies with a realistic representation of how your invention will look and function as a real product.  Here’s an example of a virtual design:

There are many qualified designers who specialize in 3D virtual prototyping, and a simple Google search can help you locate vendors in this realm. At InventionHome, we have a team of talented artists who specialize in refining inventor sketches into highly detailed 3D Virtual Designs.

Whether you have a new idea that just needs an artist’s touch, or a fully-developed prototype ready for marketing, a professional presentation could be just what your invention needs to take that next leap forward!

For help with you invention call 1-866-844-6512

More information is available at:

Twitter

Company Blog

Customer Service Blog

Press Release

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As I divulged before, I am pretty determined, dogged, and tough.  Once I had this spark of an idea in my head, I was going to figure out how to make it happen no matter what.  The whole inventing thing became more about learning the process than the actual product at many times over the last year.  I accepted the challenge!

A few months ago, I became really stuck in the phase of moving my prototype forward, and I was so LUCKY to connect with Christopher Hawker of Trident Design.  Chris and his team saved me from a big headache, got me get unstuck, and are helping me take my product the last ten percent of the way.

Chris Hawker is Founder and President of Trident Design.  Chris is an Idea Guy.  Trident comes up with innovative and strikingly designed consumer products in a variety of industries, from pet care to cooking to gardening.  Trident had brought many products to market through a variety of business models, including licensing ideas, private label manufacturing, and marketing and distributing products through their own organization.  Their most successful product is the PowerSquid, which was licensed to Philips, an innovative, award-winning, and commercially successful power strip.  It is sold in many major retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target, Radio Shack and Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

I thought that it would be an awesome idea to interview Chris on the inventing process for all of you budding and aspiring inventors at StartUpNation!

So without further hesitation…My questions on Where to Begin in Inventing answered by Chris Hawker:

RB: An ‘Average Joe’ has what they believe is a great product idea, ultimately what should be their very first step?

CH: ‘The first step is to decide they want to look into their invention and make it a business opportunity.’  The emphasis needs to be on treating your idea like a business and making money.  When you fall in love with an idea and start investing money, it is more about ego.  Make it less about the product and more about running a business.

After the decision to operate like a business, the next step is RESEARCH.  Something important to remember is ‘Don’t look to NOT find it, but look to find it’ when researching your idea.  Do not limit your search because you do not want to find bad news because even if you find similar items it does not mean there is no opportunity.  You must do research before you start spending money. ‘Search for it with the tenacity as if it exists.’

RB: For me, I did some prototyping at home and then with a local artist before I got stuck.  At what point is it crucial to invest in a professional prototype?

CH: This depends on ‘who you are’ and ‘what the product is.’  If you are capable, you may get close on your own to perfection.  However, just because you personally cannot take the product far does not mean that you will not be successful. ‘Inventing is a team sport’ (I personally love this notion - RB).

‘Get another professional involved at the moment you see diminishing returns on your progress for the time you are investing.’

RB: When it is clear that it is time to bring help onboard, what should someone new to the industry look for in a designer?

CH: ‘Look for someone who can take it the last 10% of the way.’  Ask for samples of products that they brought to market.  This will be an important relationship, so make sure that you like them!  Design firms can be expensive, but there are a small group of firms with ‘inventor friendly rates.’  Both the United Inventors Association and the Better Business Bureau are good places to check for design firms.

RB: The million dollar question - Are there ways to tolerate risk in inventing? Possibly some methodical steps to follow in order to avoid risk?

CH: ‘If there was a way to know, I would be rich!’  ‘Focus groups are notoriously unreliable, friends can be overly positive and business owners overly negative, so test with a few people you trust and get feedback, but a lot of it is an intuition thing.’  Licensing often is the better option for most inventors because if everyone says ‘no,’ then there is not much you can do.

To manufacture on their own is a major lifestyle change and commitment for inventors.  If that is the choice, then make sure to ‘execute with intelligence and good business decisions,’ do the smallest possible run first because often there are little ‘bugs,’ and make sure your sales will be enough to justify your investment.

RB: WOW! As a new inventor, this is some of the information that I craved in the beginning, so I hope that this helps many up and coming inventors.

I could have spent hours asking Chris questions, but we both had to get back to work……

To learn more about Chris and Trident, you can check out their site here.

For more on my roller coaster ride, you can read up here. Rachel

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Tell us how you got involved with Brother Bru Bru’s African Hot Pepper Sauce.

I had worked for years in the natural products industry, when my friend Bruce Langhorne asked me to help him formulate a hot sauce that was salt-free, sugar-free and gluten-free. He had just gotten diagnosed with high blood pressure and wanted something to liven up his meals without all the salt that traditional hot sauces had in them. 

We got a bunch of peppers and some exotic spices from Africa, and blended them together in his kitchen, with blenders whirring and pepper powder permeating the air. (In hind sight, goggles would have been a good idea!)  Eventually we came up with something we loved - Brother Bru Bru’s African Hot Pepper Sauce.

Bruce was primarily a musician so for him, making the hot sauce was a dietary excursion and a hobby. But his friends loved the “Bru” and begged for some of their own, so he started producing enough for everyone. I helped him launch the business in 1992, and then stepped back into other pursuits. Fourteen years later, when Bruce got sick, I came back to run the company.

What has been the most successful activity you’ve done to increase word-of-mouth?

The most successful part of our word-of-mouth campaign has been for people to meet Bruce. He’s a huge spirit with an incredible heart, and practically everyone who has ever met him or spoken with him on the phone remembers him. 

“If he were to walk in right now and you didn’t see Bruce, you would feel his presence,” shared Peter Fonda (for whom Bruce composed the soundtrack for The Hired Hand). “Bruce just emanates love and kindness, in addition to being a virtuoso on like 50 string instruments.”  That is Bruce’s legacy and one we try and continue, to treat each one of our customers with great care and kindness.

What do you plan to do to get your unique message across and stay ahead of the competition?

The hot sauce market is incredibly competitive. But somehow, we have remained near the top of the pack, and that is with no absolutely marketing. I think it is because people recognize quality, and we really deliver it.

We use the very best ingredients and the most expensive peppers in our sauces. You can get hot sauces that are a lot cheaper, but Bru Bru’s has flavor without overwhelming you with the heat. As one of our “fans” said, “It appears to be made out of concentrated awesome.”  After almost 20 years, and a loyal following, we are just now expanding our line to include two new flavors (Organic African Chipotle Pepper Sauce and Organic African Chili Pepper Sauce).  Both have been produced in accordance with the USDA’s National Organic Program and Certified Organic by Quality Assurance International. It was a difficult and time-consuming process, but we are happy with the results - two really great new additions to our line.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs who are trying to get their products on store shelves?

My advice is to produce to the highest standards, and to produce products which support the health of individuals and the planet. That is the definition of “right livelihood,” to do something at which you can be successful, which also benefits individuals and society.

If you had to start the business over, what one thing would you avoid doing?I would get help at the beginning to set up computer systems that would work as the business grows. For example, I have different files on my laptop and my desktop, and it would benefit me to have an integrated system of file management.

What insights and tips would you like to share with new entrepreneurs pursuing their business dreams?

Ask for advice and mentoring. Find a Small Business Development Center (SBDC) near your home, and get involved with them

Find mentors in your own industry or one that is similar, and go to trade shows. Keep business cards, and follow up with people. Develop relationships. Be open to magic. 

For me, that means going to a trade show, looking in people’s eyes and seeing who is drawn to meet me.  Or it shows up on airplanes, as I talk to the person next to me and find the most amazing ways our paths connect.

On a recent flight from Los Angeles to Boston, I sat next to a man who had been in California for a wedding.  The father of the bride, it turned out, had a chocolate-making company and imported fair-trade cocoa from Africa. He had a supplier in Africa who knew about the African spices I needed for my “Bru.”.   Well, you get the drift. Open up and see what connections are there behind the “strangers” who show up in your life.  And while you’re at it, enjoy the journey.

Thanks for your great insights Cynthia! For more information about Brother Bru Bru’s, visit http://www.brobrubru.com/.

And if you have questions about promoting your small business, please write to me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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When is the last time you updated your Website?

I know that you have many, other priorities. But, if your Website is old, you are losing customers! After all, who wants to look at the same old data all the time?

And I’m not talking about drastic, expensive changes. I’m talking about quick updates that can make a huge difference in your search engine optimization (SEO) site traffic and sales. With this in mind here are…

3 Ways to Provide New Value to Your SEO Website Visitors.

1. Write a Blog.

A blog is a great way to share tips and insights about you and your industry. It’s also an excellent way to include your SEO keywords in your copy so that the search engines can find your site.

Simply set aside some time each morning, once or twice a week, and write a quick blog. You can keep it short (about 250 words or so), and write about current events, industry news or something that happened to you relevant to your customers.

Don’t think too much about it. Just write, and see what happens. People like to hear real stories, not contrived, PR articles about your products and services.

And if you’re not a writer, hire an intern to help you write your blogs for you. It will give them some great pieces for their new portfolio, and you won’t have to worry about your grammar!

2. Add a Survey.

Do you know what your customers want? Add a simple survey to your site each week, and find out!

By asking interesting questions that your customers will care about (and even including a comment section), you will get higher response-rates. Not only will site visitors be more likely to interact with the survey, but they’ll also come back to your site to see the responses.

There are many, free tools out there that make it easy to add a survey to your site. Just do an online search for “free, survey tools or plug-ins,” and see which one fits your needs.

3. Update SEO Copy.

When was the last time you updated the copy on your site?

Do you have information posted about all of your products and services? If not, write a landing page for each stressing the benefits for your customers.

Also, have a few outsiders read your online copy. Do they think it is boring?

If so, add some spice to your wording. Talk to your customers instead of telling them how great your company is.

Write short sentences that are easy to read, and don’t be afraid to add some personality to your writing. After all, aren’t we all sick of hearing about this award being won, that event happening and how great the features are on particular products?

Use your Website copy to stand out from the crowd. And if you’re not a good writer, find an SEO writer who can help you. You’ll make up the cost in the new sales you make from the great copy!

Avoid Boring Your Site Visitors!

Your site is often the first impression you make with new customers so don’t you think it’s important to update it regularly?

Yes, we are all busy, but you can add new content to your site within minutes. Simply set aside some time each week to add new, SEO copy to your site. It can be a blog, a survey, a landing page, or other content. Just be sure it provides value to your customers.

Who knows? You may have such an increase in site traffic from your efforts that you make updating your site a priority!
Do you need more help with your SEO copywriting and sales efforts? Please write to me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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For those companies in search of innovative products, tradeshows have been a longstanding opportunity to discover the next big product. However, traveling the country to various tradeshows and spending hours walking the floor in search of products is time-consuming and expensive. With the power of the Internet, more companies are turning to online tradeshows to discover new products available for sale or license. With the click of a few buttons companies can search and discover new products without the need to spend time and money on travel.

A Leading Platform for Product Discovery

One of the top online invention tradeshows in the United States is MatchProduct.com. MatchProduct, with its focus on fully developed innovative products, provides companies with a centralized marketplace to discover products that are already developed and ready for sale. Companies can search the site’s database directly by category or keyword or signup to have products screened and emailed directly to their inbox that match their product interests.

MatchProduct.com

Part of the North American Product Innovation Network™

MatchProduct has the distinction of being part of the North American Product Innovation Network™, a network consisting of thousands of companies looking for new products, which provides tremendous exposure for inventors’ products. In addition, MatchProduct is the only tradeshow of its kind that feeds listings to other prominent websites, including some of the largest product tradeshows in the United States: the National Hardware Show, International Housewares Association, and Response Magazine (DRTV). This means that inventors not only receive exposure directly on MatchProduct itself, but their listing can also be discovered from searches conducted on other sites within the network.

How MatchProduct Works

MatchProduct is a commission-based site, which means inventors can list as many products as they want for FREE and only pay a modest commission if MatchProduct lands them a wholesale or license agreement. The MatchProduct marketing team supports all contract negotiations and due diligence efforts on behalf of the inventors and the inventor’s products are not locked up in an agreement, which would limit the inventor’s marketing options.

Inventors and entrepreneurs from all over the world are listing their innovative products on MatchProduct and companies of all sizes are turning to the site as the starting point for their search for innovative products.

List FREE on MatchProduct

iShowOnline.com

Another great online tradeshow for inventions that are not yet “market-ready” is the iShowOnline from InventionHome. Similar to MatchProduct, iShowOnline listings also receive the benefit of being part of the North American Product Innovation Network. In addition, listing on the public section of the iShowOnline includes exposure to the same partner websites for broader reach.

How the iShowOnline Works

Whereas MatchProduct is free to list for inventions that are fully developed, the iShowOnline can only be added to a fee-based Invention Portfolio package offered by InventionHome.

Inventors can contact InventionHome for pricing at 866-844-6512 or go online to www.inventionhome.com.

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I’m telling you the story of what happened to me. I was in the middle of starting up a new business while playing Startupologist here at StartupNation. And my hard drive had crashed, according to the Dell Customer Service rep. A DISASTER!!! ALL MY STUFF, GONE!!!

The Cinderalla aspect of this story, though, is that just a month earlier, a business associate at a collaborating company for my startup suggested that I get an automatic back-up service. Actually, he didn’t suggest, he demanded, saying something like, “If I’m going to be dependent on you, I’ve got to be confident that you won’t have a catastrophe and lose all this data we’re sharing. You’ve got to have an automatic back-up for your data.” He mentioned a couple of options he’d used for automatic backup of your computer. I chose one not knowing the difference - Carbonite, which is always working in the background, syncing your files with a remote storage area at Carbonite.

And thank goodness for his sage advice. Within a few days of my hard drive crash, I had received a new hard drive from Dell, I logged in to Carbonite, I selected “Sync,” and after Gigabytes of downloading, Bingo! I was back in action, not a single thing missing, everything organized just like before.

So I connected with Carbonite to ask them to make a special offer to fellow entrepreneurs at StartupNation who MUST NOT suffer a loss of their priceless data. Our businesses are just too small to endure that kind of blow.

Glad to share that Carbonite has stepped up and offered a special two-months free on an annual subsciption costing around $59. They also offer their standard “Try It Free” trial without a credit card required. Here’s Carbonite’s special offer for StartupNation folks.

My data was priceless, literally. At around $5/month ($59 annualized), it was a no-brainer for me when I was first advised to download it, and now I’m giving you strong encouragement to develop your own hands-off, automatic back-up solution.

Yes, Carbonite is an automatic backup service we have a special offer on, but choose any such service and get your data backed up automatically without having to think about it. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. In business, the key is taking only risks you HAVE to take. Your data no longer has to fall into the “risk” category.

Here’s the special offer at Carbonite

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I’ve been working with the creators of StartUpNation since 2001 when I was hired to shoot Rich Sloan doing yoga on the conference room table in the Birmingham Michigan office of the up and coming StartUpNation.  I was recently offered the opportunity to blog about photography if I thought I could contribute to entrepreneurs and start ups. I think I can so I’ll give it a shot.  I’ll be talking about all things photography, from how to do a shoot in the office, to what’s the best stock agency for what your needs are, to rights and usage contracts.  I’ll be answering questions about any thing relating to the business of photography and photography in your business. If I don’t know the answers I’ll look to the vast knowledge base of my peers and will share what I learn with you, so post your questions and comments about you’re photographic quandaries here, and I’ll help you along the image driven super highway of successful businesses.

I should tell you a bit about me.
I began my career as a photographer early in life.  My brother had a darkroom in a closet at our house when I was a sixth grader.  It didn’t take long for my teachers at school to see an opportunity to recruit the next news paper and yearbook photographer.  That’s when I learned that you can have fun and provide a needed service at the same time.  I could get credits for graduation if I work on the year book and news paper staff!  Life was good.  Then one day I was handed a press pass to cover the cheerleaders for a story for the news paper, that was all the motivation I ever needed to pursue my career.  When I was a senior in High School I was introduced to an advertising photographer in my home town of Detroit named Ameen Howrani.  He let me watch him work one day, he was shooting a news crew for the local ABC affiliate.  It was very glamorous, they had food there!  I was face to face with the local anchor man!  That’s when I decided that advertising was where it’s at.  Fast forward 25 years.  I have photographed some really great people, some incredibly beautiful places, and some of the most interesting stuff you’ll ever see.  I picked up a few professional sports teams along the way as well.  Namely the Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions, and currently Tampa Bay Ray’s as well as the NHL, NFL, MLB and other editorial venues related to sports. I’ve had unprecedented access to closed door behind the scenes events in the NFL, NHL, and MLB to name just a few. I was given the opportunity to shoot a book for the Detroit Red Wings called “48 Hours with the Detroit Red Wings”. Its a chronological documentation of what happens in forty eight hours in the world of the Red Wings Hockey team.  I was able to travel with the team to photograph players, coaches, and staff. We took two days to shoot the book so we could show the travel aspect of how the team lives on the road (and above the clouds).  During that shoot I was given access to coaches meetings that had never been photographed before.  One of the best experiences I had with the Red  Wings was Flying on the team jet to Washington DC to the White House to meet President George W Bush.   I was given an assignment by the Detroit Tigers Baseball team to shoot an eighteen page photo essay of Tiger Stadium during the final home stand ever to be played there.  The parting shot was Al Kaline in his nineteen sixty eight world series uniform (it still fit), pondering his days playing in that historic stadium.  The cover shot was of the stadium from the corner of Michigan and Trumble on a Friday night with fireworks lighting the sky.  I was able to get images never before captured, such as the neon Tiger Stadium sign from the roof of the press elevator.  I’m currently team photographer for the Tampa Bay Ray’s Baseball team, and have a nice client list of local and national companies and agencies as well.  I live in the St Petersburg area of Florida where I’ve lived for the past six years.  Before that I lived mostly in the suburbs of Detroit with a few years in New York city.  Please feel free to see some of the photographs I mention here at www.kovich.com

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