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Taking Your Invention to Market

Ideas come from many sources: nature, personal interactions, problems — even your morning shower. Some ideas remain in the imagination, but at times they are the spark that ignites a new business. Many entrepreneurs have great ideas for how to solve problems and improve the world. The challenge is how to take these ideas from a sketch to a successful product launch. How to take your invention to market? Here’s a brief outline of some of the steps.

• Is this idea really a business? Great innovations solve problems in the market. Is your invention doing that? Sure, it’s cool to invent something nifty. My grandfather invented a way to turn tin cans into highly serviceable soup ladles. Unfortunately for him, the market is not clamoring for tin-can soup ladles. Seth Anderson, inventor of Loki’s patented jacket design, says, “I would make sure your whiz-bang idea solves a real problem and is as well thought out as possible for the first product.” If your idea will be easy/low-cost to manufacture and provides a significant advantage over what exists on the market today, then you may just have hit on a business.

• Is this the market niche with the greatest potential? In the early 1970s, Art Fry needed a better bookmark for his choir group. He used some adhesive created by a colleague at 3M Corporation, Dr. Spencer Silver, and applied it along the edge of a piece of paper to make a sticky bookmark. Of course Post-It Notes turned out to be a lot more than a placeholder for church hymnals. Ideas evolve as research is performed. An inventor will need to take time to identify the optimal market niche and then refine the product to best serve that niche.

• Are you ready for the journey? Art Fry struggled within the 3M Corporation for years to get his concept to market, due to technical problems and management's doubts about the product's salability. More important than his creativity and technical savvy was his tenacity. Eventually he got 3M to complete the market research and consumer sampling necessary to find Post-It’s market niche. Are you ready to take this journey? What are your strengths as a product developer? What are your weaknesses? Knowing where you are strong and where you are going to need support it a crucial part of the process.

• Use protection when necessary. Patenting an invention can be a critical step in developing a market niche —it might be nice to have a few years without competition to build sales. But not always. It takes years to get a patent, and if the marketplace demand won’t exist in a few years, then there’s no value to a patent. If a design is easily changed to perform the same function, then a patent may be worthless. Patents can be critical to success, but they are not a panacea.
    If protecting your intellectual property creates value in the market, Seth Anderson suggests, “Do a thorough patent search yourself on the website www.uspto.gov to make sure that your idea has not already been patented or is patent-pending.” Then find a good patent attorney. The value in the patent is going to be created in how broadly it is scoped. If you merely describe a prototype’s construction, then your competition can design a device with a similar function but an alternative construction. If you can patent the whole concept (a broad scope), the patent is worth more because it is more difficult to “design around.” You may need to spend some big bucks to get an attorney proficient in creating value in your industry, but it will be worth it. Matt Mayer of Leap Frogg LLC says, “Without the benefit of a well-respected law firm with deep knowledge of the medical device arena, we would not have generated the value that we have in our patented medical device.”
    If you take the patent route, be cautious in talking about your idea. In patent law, the monument you “disclose” your invention to a third party without a non-disclosure agreement, you have a one-year time frame to file your patent application.

• Take a reality check. Late-night television commercials abound with sweet-sounding promises of promotion firms. They claim that inventors only need to call a toll-free number, sit back, and watch the checks roll in. Unscrupulous promoters will push inventors to patent their ideas and then make false and exaggerated claims about the market potential of the invention. The reality is that few inventions ever make it to the marketplace, and getting a patent is not always a path to commercial success. If a firm seems enthusiastic about the market potential of your idea and wants to charge you huge fees in advance, take your business elsewhere.

• Take it to market. There are many ways to do this. You can build an entirely new company around your invention or license your invention to an existing company. Each holds significant risks and rewards.
    Building a new company could potentially make you rich, but you need the skills, experience, and financial resources to handle manufacturing, distribution, and marketing. If the big guys in your industry are already fighting hard for space on store shelves, you’ll have to be ready to operate on par with your larger competitors.
    When you license your invention to an existing firm, that company pays you a small percentage of future sales so that they can make and sell your product. This can be an effective route if the partner company has manufacturing and distribution resources  in place to make your invention successful. But sometimes it’s hard for inventors without a track record of proven sales to make inroads at big companies. And once you get in the door, there’s still a risk that the licensor will not deliver on the sales potential. 

Negotiating your way from an idea to a successful product can be daunting, and coming up with the idea is really only about 5 percent of the process. However, you inventors are ingenious individuals, capable of rising to meet the demands of challenging situations. Innovation is the spark of our new economy, so let’s get those inventions to market.

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The Western Slope Office of Technology Transfer at the Business Incubator supports the commercialization of innovation through a wide array of free or low-cost resources. For more information, go to gjincubator.org.

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Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - December 2010

8 Rules for Good Customer Service

1.) Answer your phone.
Get call forwarding. Or an answering service. Hire staff if you need to.
But make sure that a live person is picking up the phone when someone calls your business.

2.) Don't make promises unless you WILL keep them.
Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception. If you say, "Your new bedroom furniture will be delivered on Tuesday", make sure it is delivered on Tuesday. Otherwise, don't say it. The same rule applies to client appointments, deadlines, etc. Think before you give any promise - because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one.

3.) Listen to your customers.
Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn't been paying attention and needs to have it explained again? From a customer's point of view, very unlikely. Let your customer talk and show them that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.

4.) Deal with complaints.
No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us have developed a reflex shrug, saying, "You can't please all the people all of the time". Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time - and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.

5.) Be helpful - even if there's no immediate profit in it.
The other day I popped into a local watch shop because I had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of my watch band together. When I explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to my watch band - and charged me nothing! Where do you think I'll go when I need a new watch band or even a new watch? And how many people do you think I've told this story to?

6.) Train your staff to ALWAYS be helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.
Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to them about good customer service and what it is (and isn't) regularly. Most importantly, give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, "I don't know, but so-and-so will be back at..."

7.) Take the extra step.
For instance, if someone walks into your store and asks you to help them find something, don't just say, "It's in Aisle 3." Lead the customer to the item. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people.

8.) Throw in something extra.
Whether it's a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they thought they were getting. And don't think that a gesture has to be large to be effective. The local art framer that we use attaches a package of picture hangers to every picture he frames. A small thing, but so appreciated.

If your business applies these eight simple rules consistently, they will become known for great customer service. And the best part? The irony of great customer service is that over time it will bring in more customers than promotions and price slashing ever did!

Down by the River...

Wouldn’t we all like to see more people creating and growing local businesses, thus creating more jobs, investing more money in our community, and increasing the health and diversity of our Grand Valley economy? And don’t we all know that it takes hard work, smarts, and some luck to start a successful business? Well, it takes even more of the same to grow a successful business. And there is no magic “easy” button to push and make the process simple. The vast majority of businesses fail in their first five years, and it is rarely out of a lack of effort.

Still, there are steps to take, things to consider, and practical lessons to learn that can benefit the development of entrepreneurial companies, helping them to survive and grow during the vulnerable start-up period. The sole purpose of certain organizations is to guide businesses through this process; these are business incubators. They offer specific support services and resources tailored to help companies avoid common pitfalls, learn important skills, and achieve a necessary level of preparation so that their smart ideas, hard work, and a little good luck turn into great businesses. And we’re lucky to have a great one right here in our community.

Business incubators turn an 80 percent failure rate for new businesses into an 80 percent success rate. Every venture will have its own path, but in general there are critical steps. If they’re missed, disaster can follow. It’s important to have a strategic plan for how you want to grow the business (a business plan). It’s essential to have a solid understanding of the market in which you plan to operate and a good grasp in how cash flows. New ventures need funding to get up and running and a way to keep costs down and overhead low. It is in these areas that business incubators focus their support.

Incubation as an industry has existed since 1959, and today there are an estimated 7,000 incubators worldwide. Incubators come in many different styles, shapes, and sizes. They can focus on specific industries from the arts to software development to manufacturing. Here in Colorado there is a clean-tech incubator, a homeland security incubator, a bioscience incubator, and two space incubators (focused on a new frontier of commercializing space technology). There are rural program, urban programs, accelerators, and boot camps. Some incubators are impressive state-of-the-art facilities like the LEED Gold building just completed for the Rocky Mountain Innovation Initiative in Fort Collins. Others, like the one here in Grand Junction, utilize existing community assets (like older buildings) with a less glamorous appearance but that offer a practical, flexible space. Here in the Grand Valley, the Business Incubator Center is “mixed-use,” meaning that it serves all businesses and industries from manufacturing to construction to food production to web development. The Incubator Center is an award-winning, enduring example of one of the best sustainable programs in the country. And it is all happening down by the river, behind the Orchard Mesa Cemetery, in a former Department of Energy compound.

Creating business success takes a lot more than just an offer of low-cost space and a few classes. The heart of a true business-incubation program is the services it provides to its clients: networking with other entrepreneurs and with business leaders; help with business, strategic, and marketing plans; access to capital; and development of the skills needed to make a business successful. At the Incubator Center you can sit down, one on one, with smart people who will help you to draft budgets, projections, and a marketing plan. From funding through the Business Loan Fund to hourly rentals in the commercial kitchen, there are a lot of ways that the Incubator can be of assistance.

The Business Incubator Center is focused on results that have a positive influence on economic growth in the region. Over the past 23 years, it has supported the launch of more than 240 companies, thus creating nearly 10,000 jobs and generating more than $150 million in revenue. The Grand Valley community takes pride in its independence and ability to create its own prosperity. In these times of economic uncertainty, it’s critical to seize the opportunities at hand and grow our own businesses. This is exactly what is going on at the Business Incubator Center.

To learn more or to set up an appointment to review your business goals, go to www.gjincubator.org.

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Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - November 2010


For more information on business incubation, visit:
National Business Incubation Association at www.nbia.org and 
Colorado Business Incubation Association at www.coloradobusinessincubation.org.

The Making of a Great Website

Published in Grand Valley Magazine (www.grandvalleymagazine.com) - October 2010

www.gjep.org

Breaking news! The Grand Junction Economic Partnership was recognized in September as the International Economic Development Council’s 2010 Website of the Year, in the general purpose website category for a community of population 25,000-150,000. It is a tremendous honor, of course, and if you’ve visited www.gjep.org, this award will come as no surprise. The site quickly and powerfully conveys a sense of the high quality of life and vibrant business community that make this Grand Valley a wonderful place to live — and to grow a business.

If I had my own personal FAQS, near the top would be: What goes into a great website? It’s almost impossible for a business to operate effectively without a website — and yet so many feel that theirs has not lived up to expectations. Because GJEP’s website is successful enough to win an international award, I sat down with Kelly Marlin to find out what went into creating it. She’s GJEP’s business development manager. The process that Kelly laid out makes an excellent road map for any business looking to create or redesign their website.

Before the 2009-2010 revamp, the GJEP website had suffered the fate that so many sites fall victim to: It had become dull and dry and so loaded with information that the main point of the site had been lost. There were interesting articles, loads of demographic data, and community statistics, but the site’s most important job is to represent the Grand Valley as a fabulous community. It wasn’t doing that.

Kelly started her mission with several weeks of research on other websites and other communities to see who was doing what and what looked good. She started with basic Google searches for similar organizations and then refined the search to similar communities (i.e., the competition) and other economic development entities in the state. She ended up focusing on organizations and sites that have received awards for their success. She developed a list of elements that seemed to function optimally, including the way sites were structured, components that made sites visually interesting, and things that made the site look up-to-date. GJEP knows that a good economic development agency knows what is going on in the local business community, and the website should express that understanding. People want to feel comfortable spending time browsing the site, so colors and images must invite a pleasant experience.

With a complete marketing and communications plan in hand, Kelly started the development process with an RFP (request for proposal) to the web development community. Choosing among the responses was made even more difficult because the best proposal came from a firm outside of our Grand Valley community. Denver-based Atlas Advertising was selected because of their rich experience working specifically with economic development agencies.

In the first step of the design process, Ann Driggers (GJEP’s President and CEO), Kelly, and members of the Atlas creative team sat down and put all the elements they wanted to include on sticky notes. On a wall in the GJEP conference room, they developed a site map, arranging the notes into a structure of lists and tabs. They stayed focused on the important message and prioritized content appropriately. This kind of simple, yet detailed, advance planning is critical — and anyone can do it. Decide what content you want on your site, then create a map for how you want it to be laid out. Putting sticky notes on a wall is a simple and effective planning process.

The next step was up to the web developers. They built the site, made it visually interesting, created a data center for the community, and added tools to keep the site current and relevant to our community. The early drafts looked fabulous, and the GJEP team was thrilled. A social media strategy that included blogs and twitter feeds made the site connected and up to date.

Kelly writes the content for the site, aided by templates and guidelines supplied by Atlas that help ensure the message is well suited for online viewing. Each section is brief enough that readers don’t have to scroll down. Text is easy to read and search-engine optimized. Much of what GJEP wanted to say about the community could not be expressed in words, so pictures are used. Almost every page includes images, each personalized to our community. There’s nothing wrong with representing the Grand Valley with Mount Garfield and the beautiful desert cliffs. It’s the usual go-to strategy. The problem with this approach for GJEP is that there are no people, no activity, and no vital business community represented in a landscape. Kelly worked with Anne Keller and several other local photographers to come up with images that represent the life that makes the Valley a great place to do business. What was chosen: pictures of everything from mountain biking and skiing to manufacturing and business enterprises.

Once the site was live, some of the most important work began. A website can be a living, breathing organism. It’s critical to understand how people are interacting with it. Kelly monitors the Google Analytics weekly and adjusts the content to ensure that the important messages are in the most popular places. Kelly has found, for example, that most people will click on either the top or the bottom of a list, but not much in the middle. The most clicked-on tab is the leftmost tab, no matter what is there. Therefore, the most important messages are in the top of the list on the far left tab.

GJEP wants people to spend enough time on the website that they feel comfortable enough to call GJEP to learn more about our community. They have created a website that does exactly that through a highly effective process of research, preparation, strategic structure, and effective content. We can all follow that road map to success.