More Trademarks

Since we were looking at the Canadian market for our invention there were some decisions that needed to be made. Our original filings of Trademarks in the U.S. were done on November 1st 2010. You have 6 months to file in other countries and still be able to claim priority. Claiming priority means that if your trademarks are granted in these other countries, you can claim the date of first filing which in our case is the November date. If you wait longer than 6 months you take the chance that someone will claim your trademark or if they started using the trademark before you filed in the other country they would be safe.

We decided to file in Canada and I went to the Canadian Intellectual Property website. They had an entire list of trademark attorneys. I sent emails to about 10 and got prices back ranging from $1250 to $2300 for each trademark. After more research I found a sample filing and decided to follow that format to file myself. The cost of filing yourseld is $250 canadian for each. So we saved at least $4000 because we filed 4 trademarks. The form seems relatively simple to fill out as long as you follow the sample provided. We'll see if I did everything correctly. If not, they will contact us and let us know what questions they have or what needs corrected.

If you decide to file for Trademark protection in other countries it might pay to look at their websites and see if it's something you can do yourself. You might be able to save some serious money.

Oh Boy! Some One Likes It!

It's been a while since the last post so I may have to work at keeping this short. In any invention process you should be doing what's known as "Proof of concept." This is where you manufacture your invention on a limited scale for a limited market and see if someone actually buys your product. Large companies do this all the time. They go to trade shows with a new product prototype and take orders. If they don't get the interest they are looking for or orders are low, they just tell the people who originally ordered that they have decided not to produce it and move on.

We have been working on our proof of concept for the Monster Basher Night Light. First came the idea. Then building a prototype. Next we conducted surveys and found other surveys that were done in the past to determine if there was a market. The next step was to see if it actually worked. The last step in proof of concept is to try and sell it to see if there is a market. This last step will help you determine if your previous steps are fundamentally sound. If all of this says go for it, go for it.

Uh Oh I don't have the money to go for it. I don't know how to go for it. In the immortal words of President Clinton, "I feel your pain." You may be able to go to a bank with all of your proof of concept information and convince them to give you a loan if you have other collateral you can put up and you have good credit, and you can convince them you can make this happen. You could borrow from family. They probably believe in you or your product but that's a difficult decision. At least for me. What if it doesn't work out and you can't pay them back. Even if you give them part of the company for their investment, if it doesn't work out all they have is a worthless share of a company that is out of business. You may have to find an angel investor or Venture capitalist if your idea is worth hundreds of millions.

We took another route. There's a reality TV show called Shark Tank here in the U.S. It's a spin off of a TV show called the Dragons Den in 14 other countries. We traveled to Calgary to audition in front of the shows producers with our little invention. We got a call about a week after. They want us to fly to Toronto and pitch in front of the Dragons. It may work out or it may not. Chances are we will have to give up most of the company for their involvement and money. The up side is that even if we only maintain 25% we will make much more money in the long run than going it alone. These people have very deep pockets and know what it takes to bring a new product to market in a big way.

We won't be able to say anything until after the episode has aired but we'll let you know how it comes out. In the mean time, we will be starting a limited TV commercial campaign in a small area to see how that affects sales. I'll let you know how that is going as well.

This is a difficult process and causes a lot of stress, but I have to say that overall it's fun. Hopefully rewarding as well.

Monster Bashers big adventure

Well we're getting ready to take off on another adventure in the continuing development of our kids night light, the monster basher. We are going to the Western Toy and Hobby show to scout it out and see if we may possibly find a company to work with to license our little invention. This would make the most sense for us because although we want as much money as possible we don't really want to manufacture, promote, ship, etc. Hopefully while we are there we'll find a company that is interested. If not, on to plan B. In the meantime, we may be making a commercial to run for a test market of the product when we get back.

Damn it Jim, I'm an Inventor not a website guy.

Well I met with a guy who specializes in internet marketing. We went over all of the things that I could be doing to drive traffic to our website. He thought that we were doing pretty good as far as traffic goes but there is room for improvement. He started talking and every so often I would actually understand what he was saying, but for the most part, it was blah, blah, blah protocol, blah blah. He was good and explained it all pretty well.

Then he said, "I know that you told me that this is your first website and you did it all your self, so don't take what I'm about to say personally, but your site is pretty chaotic." I assured him that I did not take it personally and his mother wears army boots. The last part I just made up. Any way, I took his suggestions to heart and revamped our home page. He told me that I had so much information that the message was getting lost.

He laid it out like this. The title of the page needs to be key word rich with what your trying to accomplish. A simple statement that piques their interest and causes them to want to know more. You then give them the information that solves their problem and why they need your product. Finally the call to action, BUY NOW.

I followed his advice and I have to admit that the home page looks much cleaner with a clear message. It's been reinforced to me through this inventing process that you can't be an expert in every field. Find people that are experts and listen to what they have to say. You may feel intimidated, but the expert may be intimidated by you. In the case of our marketing guy, he can't fathom how to even start to invent something and get it to market. Just like I can't fathom how anyone learns HTML code.

Printing a book

It's been a while since the last post, but we've been busy. During the Seattle show we went to, we ran into a guy who had a book that goes along with some childrens pajamas. Since we need to get a book printed to go along with our products, I asked him who did the printing and how much it cost to do his book. It was really a very nice quality paper and printing. Since it was a childrens book, it had a thick paper cover. He told me that it cost him 60 cents per copy. I couldn't believe it. He gave me the name of the printer Asia Pacific Offset. I got in contact with a woman named Elizabeth@asiapacificoffset.com based out of San Francisco. I asked her to give me a quote for printing our book with the same high quality paper and color. The quote came back at 55 cents per book including customs and delivery to Medford Oregon which is where we are close to. It's amazing that we can't get it printed locally for even 3 times the price.

Now all we have to do is finish the text and find an illustrator. We are meeting with a graphics art student tomorrow. We'll see how that pans out.

Book Keeping Software and Goober Balls

We have been working on our quickbooks for the 2010 tax season. Because we are currently the manufacturer, there are some complicated issues for keeping track of inventory. I always thought that inventory was what you have on hand ready to sell. Not so when you're the manufacturer. Inventory consist of the raw materials to create your product plus finished product for sale. We found out that our version of quickbooks (Pro) isn't really set up for this type of business and makes things more complicated to keep track of. Apparently if you're going to do manufacturing and whole sale, you should use QuickBooks Premier.

We'll use what we have for now, but probably in 2012, we'll upgrade if we're still doing the actual production. You can save yourself a lot of work if when you buy your materials, if you break it down to how many items that batch of raw materials will make. As an example, you buy 100 pounds of flotsam and jetsam for $100 to make your patented Goober Ball. It takes one pound of flotsam and jetsam to make a Goober Ball. Your materials cost is $1 of raw material for each Goober Ball. Now we all know that Goober Balls sell very well and are highly profitable. You'll make a fortune.

Trust me, you'll need this information when you start your setup for your company.

Google Adwords

I started experimenting with google adwords a couple of weeks ago. I don't know how it will go, but it is really interesting. I set up Google analytics to track the clicks on our site. I bought a book written by Perry Marshall called The Ultimate guide to Google Adwords. In the book he explains how Google evolved and how to operate in their system. He talks about picking related Keywords for an ad test. You then create 2 ads and run them at the same time. After a few clicks, you throw out the worst performing add and replace it with another one. Your goal is to try and get a better click through rate than the ad you kept. You keep doing this until you have the best CTR possible (2% is good,4% is Great). Then you move on to the next set of keywords and do the same thing. Eventually you have a few ads running that are generating clicks to your site. It is a very methodical approach. I really recommend this book if you are thinking about running Google ads. It will save you money.