Should You Sell Your Product Before It Exists?
Pre-selling a product before it even exists may seem crazy to you, but it can actually be an effective way to judge market interest and prove to investors that there is a demand for your product. Asking people if they want something is one thing, but getting them to buy it is completely different. But there can be downsides to selling a technically non-existent product, as well. So let’s take a look at the pros and cons, and you can decide if pre-selling might be good for your business.
Pros
- You’re generating interest in your product with the presales. You’re also validating that people will go out and spend money on your product. That’s a big step if all you have at this point are some focus groups where people agree that they like your product. People like a lot of things. They don’t always dig into their pockets to buy them, though.
- Pre-sales can also help you calculate consumer demand for your product. Production isn’t cheap, and knowing what the demand for your product is can save you a lot of money.
- You want to have an established community around your product. That is, you want people anticipating its arrival, and getting excited for the product launch. Once other companies start copying your product, it helps to have a dedicated customer base that’s loyal to your original product.
Cons
- The most obvious point against pre-selling your product before it exists is the simple fact that it doesn’t exist yet, and you’re putting tremendous pressure on yourself to come through. Even if you’re certain that you can manufacture your product and bring it to market, delays and setbacks can kill the momentum that you build with a pre-sale. Angry investors and pre-sale customers commenting on your site and social media is not a good look. This in turn can lead to businesses shipping a product that isn’t quite ready.
- You also might not want to sell your product early if you’re worried about competition or large companies who can quickly copy your product. Larger companies with better production facilities at their disposal can pose a significant danger to your product if it falls behind schedule.
- You also shouldn’t pre-sell if you don’t completely understand everything it’s going to take to make this product. Worrying about setbacks or being late with the product launch is one thing, but not being able to actually manufacture the product you’re promoting is another. When people give you their money, they expect something in return. So make sure you’re working with a manufacturing firm that has plenty of experience, and can work with you to get your product to market.
Selling your product before it actually exists isn’t going to work for every startup, but it could be a great opportunity for some. If you’re not sure whether you should be pre-selling your product, then contact Pivot International. We have decades of experience working with businesses just like yours, and we’d love to help you get your idea off the ground and turn it into reality.
Best Inventions For The Summer
Everyone loves taking a break from the daily grind and finding that relaxing vacation spot during the summer. There’s just something about the warm weather that helps slow us down and makes us want to hang out by the pool. But sometimes the heat can be a deal-breaker, and when the thermometer spikes it takes some smart inventions to keep people cool, comfortable, and having fun. Here are a few of our favorite summer inventions, perfect for keeping you safe and happy outdoors this summer.
Watermelon Tap Kit
This ingenious little tap sticks directly into a watermelon and gives you the coolest punch bowl in the world. Hollow out a watermelon and insert the shank and tap. Then all you need to do is fill it up with your favorite beverage (hopefully one that pairs well with a hint of watermelon), put the top of the watermelon back on, and enjoy your refreshing drink. It’s a perfect low-maintenance addition to any barbecue or poolside day.
Solar Phone Charger
If you like to hike and take your weekends outdoors, then you know how frustrating it can be when your phone battery dies and you’re miles from the nearest outlet. So check out this water and shock-resistant solar charger that easily hangs on a backpack or belt. A full charge will take quite a while, but you can top off your battery quickly with this solar charger, and a little bit might be all it takes to get you home. And it even comes with a powerful LED flashlight with an SOS strobe.
The All-Purpose Hammock Stand
Hammocks are one of the best ways to relax outdoors, and they’re great for minimalist campers. The tricky part is always finding somewhere to put them. If you’re looking in your backyard, there’s a good chance you won’t find two perfectly spaced trees. Fortunately, this hammock stand provides you with the comfort of a hammock wherever you decide to hang it. Plus you get a drink holder and a carry bag to hang off it.
Sunscreen Pill
This one isn’t quite here yet, but it’s close. Applying sunscreen every few hours when you’re out and about isn’t just annoying; it’s hard to remember. Practically everyone has a story about a bad burn they got after they forgot their sunscreen. But now, after research on the unique way coral shields itself from UV rays, there could soon be a sunscreen pill. There are already some “tanning pills” on the market, but they aren’t actually protection from UV rays. Researchers are hoping that this pill would protect both skin and eyes from the harmful effects of UV radiation.
Summer is a great time to get outdoors and have some fun, and these inventions are all about making it even better. Maybe while you swing on that hammock stand, you can think up your own great idea for summer. And if you do, contact Pivot International. We’re all about helping people like you turn their ideas into reality.
The Many Uses Of Drones
When people hear the word “drones” many of them immediately think of the military drones that we use in combat, but in reality there are far more drones being used by the general public than the military. Drones are quickly becoming ubiquitous around the country—you can find them flying over golf courses, along the beach, or even just in your neighbor’s backyard. The inventors of these personal drones found an untapped niche, and the owners of these drones are finding plenty of cool new uses for them.
Journalism and Aerial Photography
Drones are perfect for getting a unique shot from an angle that used to be almost impossible. And because of their small size, they can get closer to the action than a cameraman on a helicopter or blimp. This is even better for sporting events like golf or biking, where the course is spread out over a large amount of land.
And they’ve also been put to good use during music festivals. The aerial shots of massive crowds around multiple stages are really something to behold, and festival-goers can watch the footage later to relive the experience.
Delivery
While the FAA is currently putting the kibosh on Amazon’s drone delivery plan, there could be some future potential for drones to deliver small items short distances in the future. Is it practical? Maybe. Is it awesome? Absolutely.
Hurricane Spotters
It’s easy for drones to fly into a storm, and there isn’t any risk of human life. Drones can monitor a storm as it evolves and perform valuable surveillance. The data they collect can help scientists understand the natural forces in hurricanes in ways they previously couldn’t.
Wildlife Protection
The U.S. actually already uses drones to help keep an eye on animal populations and protect the species that inhabit nationally owned land. Drones with thermal imaging can help identify an animal’s distribution and density, and also provide clearer maps and better data on where animals are moving. The can even help fight poaching—surveying large swaths of land and spotting poachers when they enter protected areas.
Search and Rescue
Drones are also capable of taking on the toughest terrain, areas that humans would have trouble accessing and searching. When people go missing in remote or dangerous areas, drones are the perfect option to help search for them. They also cut down on the expense of search and rescue missions, while increasing their effectiveness.
Whether you use your drone for fun or for one of the more serious activities we just listed, you know that their potential reaches far beyond the battlefield. We may not be getting Kindles delivered anytime soon, but drone use has become the norm around the country.
Remember, someone had to imagine the first commercial drone before it came to life. If you’ve got an idea that you want to make a reality, then contact Pivot International today. We specialize in helping people just like you bring their ideas to market.
Best Inventions For City Living
Whether you’re a born and raised New Yorker or you came to a big city from a little town on the prairie, you probably understand that there are some things about living in the city that aren’t ideal. Traffic, noise, and air quality can all be bummers sometimes, but it’s really the little things that can pile up and become a nuisance. That’s why inventors are always trying to find new ways to help out their city-dwelling brethren. A new invention that taps into that market could become hugely profitable in just a short amount of time. Here are a few of the best ones already out there for city living.
The Wally
Do you live in a cramped apartment, and can’t see how you’re going to fit a table into your tiny studio? Then check out the Wally. This ingenious table is mounted on your wall and flips down with a touch of your fingers. And when you’ve cleared the dishes away, you can easily lift the table back up onto the wall. Oh, and it also comes with storage and shelving options to save you even more space.
Foldable Bike
There are a ton of different options to choose from when it comes to a foldable bike, and that’s because it’s such a great idea. Not everyone lives in a neighborhood where they can leave their bike chained up outside all night, and finding space in an apartment for a full-sized bike can be tricky. With a collapsible bike, you can easily fold up your bicycle and store it in a corner, taking up a fraction of the space it normally would.
Fyxation Leather Bicycle Carrier
Speaking of bikes, it’s not always very practical to drive around the city for small errands. Having a bike in the city is just a smart way to save money—and quite frequently time, too. But if you happen to picking up a six pack on the way back home, it can be a precarious adventure making sure those bottles stay safe and away from the unforgiving street. Luckily, the Fyxation Bicycle Carrier has you covered. It’s made from full grain leather, and it connects to the top tube and front seat of your bike, giving each of your bottles a cozy ride home.
Smartphone Pocket Projector
The age of streaming is here and having a cable subscription is rarely worth the money and hassle anymore. The Pocket Projector capitalizes on this, and you can get rid of your cable bill and save on a TV if your rent is making it tough to find some extra money. It attaches to your smartphone, tablet, or computer and projects a 50-inch HD image onto your wall. It runs off your device’s battery, so you don’t even need to be next to an outlet.
Do you have an idea for an invention that the city folk would love? Then contact Pivot today! We’re experts at turning people’s ideas into reality, and we’d love to help you bring your idea to market.
The Pros and Cons of Using Crowdfunding Platforms for Product Funding
Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and other crowdfunding platforms continue to attract all kinds of attention from consumers and inventors alike. High-profile successes like Solar Roadways and the Pebble Time smartwatch have made a wildly popular Kickstarter campaign into a kind of Holy Grail: everyone wants it, but not that many people will achieve it.
However, you don’t have to achieve 500 percent funding in order to call your product funding campaign a success, right? There are many products that do meet their funding goals through crowdfunding, although they may not attract the media or consumer attention that others do.
In the end, crowdfunding is just like any other type of fundraising: you have to take a good look at yourself and your product in order to decide whether or not it’s for you. Here’s a brief rundown of a few of the pros and cons of crowdfunding.
Pros:
It’s one of the most effective ways to reach a whole lot of people early in your product’s development.
The great thing about crowdfunding campaigns is that you can set them up at any point during your product’s lifecycle – including before you’ve even created a prototype (although we don’t really recommend this).
If you have a great idea that you think the world needs to know about, you can set up a campaign in a matter of days, share it with your social media followers, and suddenly you have a potential audience of thousands.
You can find out how many people want what you’re selling before you actually order the parts.
Estimating how many units of product you’ll sell can be one of the hardest parts of taking your product to market, especially for first-time product developers.
With a crowdfunding campaign, however, you can pre-sell units. This way, you know exactly how many people want to buy your product, allowing you to make a more accurate estimate of what your demand might be once the product is actually for sale to the wider public.
Avoid going into debt (or at least, as much debt) in order to create your product.
If your choices are funding your product yourself and trying a crowdfunding campaign, the answer looks pretty obvious: why not try crowdfunding? You don’t have anything to lose except time, and you’ll get helpful information about the market’s interest in your product either way. If the project fails, maybe your product needs tweaking. If it succeeds, then you’ve got the money to get to work. You’ll also have the money in your hands within a few weeks.
Cons:
Not everyone, or every product, is made for a crowdfunding campaign.
Experts tend to agree that the most important part of a successful crowdfunding campaign is a great video. This is not something you can put together in a day, upload, and be done with.
If you’ve never made a video and decide to try your hand at it, the amount of time that it takes to create a good one will probably blow your mind. There’s a reason movies take years to complete. If you’re not comfortable on camera or you don’t have much in the way of a product that you can actually show people, the video portion can be pretty difficult to do well. And some products just simply don’t translate well to video.
But if you’re really committed, that’s no reason not to start a campaign. Just be aware that you may have to work on your on-screen presence, or perhaps wait until your product is a little further into its development to start that campaign.
You have to commit to your backers – and their questions, comments, etc.
Crowdfunding may seem like an incredible way to convince people to give you tons of money, no strings attached. And while it is, no doubt, a revolutionary concept, it’s not true that most people will give you their money without expecting something in return.
You can cover this to an extent with your perks and rewards, of course, but you also have to be ready to stay engaged with your backers. That means posting updates as often as there’s something to tell, staying active on social media, and just generally showing your backers that you appreciate their generosity.
Still deciding what kind of funding model is best for you and your product? Read our post “Three Ways to Fund Your Product Idea.”
Pros and Cons of Investor Funding
Once you’ve got your concept, done your market research, and are ready to start developing your product, you might notice that something is missing. That something is money. You need money to pay product designers and engineers, to commission a prototype, to manufacture the product, to market the product, and so much more.
You can fund your invention in a few different ways—bootstrapping, crowdfunding, or by getting investors. Each has its own benefits and pitfalls, but today we’re going to focus on funding with investors.
If it’s too early to turn to crowdfunding, and you don’t want to risk your savings on your idea, then your best bet is probably getting what’s called an angel investor. An angel investor is a wealthy individual or group of individuals that is willing to provide a startup with funds, in return for a stake in their business.
Pros
The pros of this strategy are obvious. You’re getting an investment that doesn’t require you to take out a loan or blow through your savings. It also looks good that someone else is willing to invest in your idea, even without guaranteed success. The amount varies, but angel investors generally put up somewhere between $50,000 and $250,000. Yeah, that’s a pretty sizable chunk of money that you’re not going to raise on your Kickstarter.
And that’s the biggest reason to apply to angel investor groups. You probably just don’t have the funds to manufacture your product and get it to market, and a massive loan is a sizable risk that may not pay off. That’s why they call them angel investors. They seem like they’re heaven sent when the funding comes through.
Cons
However, there are some potential negatives to getting angel investor funding. Although they are called “angel” investors, that doesn’t mean they’re doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. Angel investors generally want a pretty hefty stake in your business in return for their generous funding. This can be anywhere from 10 percent to 50 percent, so you should spend some time weighing the potential benefits against the amount that your investors will want from your business. If they want half of your business, is that a sign that your invention has significant potential? And what will that do to your income down the road if your invention does take off?
Applying to angel investor groups is a great way to cover costs that you simply can’t on your own. Crowdfunding is nice, but it almost definitely won’t cover all your expenses. That’s why it’s a good idea to have multiple streams of funding to ensure you have the costs to develop, manufacture, and market your product, without relying too heavily on one source of funding.
Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with extensive experience in product prototyping. If you are interested in designing a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.
Legal Issues To Consider When Setting Up Your Company
Starting your own business is an exciting endeavor that may end up becoming a huge part of your life. It’s a time when you’re working hard to pursue a dream and make your own way in the world. The last thing you want is a number of legal problems holding you back and keeping you from achieving your goals. Unfortunately, there are quite a few legal issues to consider when setting up your company. Although we’re not lawyers and can’t give legal advice (for that, be sure to consult an attorney), take a look at the following list, and maybe you’ll save yourself some time and headaches.
Business Structure
The first thing you need to think about is how you’re going to legally structure your business. This can have long-term consequences down the road, so it’s important to understand the options that you have in front of you. The three main choices are to operate as a sole trader or sole proprietor, incorporate as a limited company, or establish a partnership. A sole trader structure is the easiest to establish, but you may be taking on more personal risk than you would like. You should carefully consider each option and their potential benefits and risks.
Intellectual Property
When you first start out, you might not be that worried about people infringing on your intellectual property. After all, you’re a small business, and you have plenty of time for that down the road, right? Don’t fall into that trap. Make sure you have your intellectual property covered with whatever protection applies—whether that’s trademarks, copyrights, patents, or trade secrets. It’s better to be prepared if an issue does arise somewhere down the road.
Finances
Many entrepreneurs are focused on their product and getting their business started. It can be easy to gloss over financial issues when you start out. This is a bad idea. Make sure you have proper bookkeeping and accounting infrastructure in place from the very beginning, and you can save yourself a lot of trouble—and a lot of money.
Employee Classification
A lot of businesses are hiring independent contractors instead of full-time employees because it saves them money on benefits and in other areas. There is actually a very strict definition for an independent contractor, and you can wind up taking on significant risk if you’re incorrectly classifying employees. Again, do your homework and find out when you can use independent contractors, and when you should be hiring full-time employees.
Licenses
At the very least, you’re going to need a business license and tax registration, but you also might need a special license depending on what type of business you’re operating. You should also look up zoning laws when you’re choosing a location for your business. Don’t just assume that the building is properly zoned for the type of business you’re running. Trust us, you’ll be glad you complied with any regulations for your new business.
It can be easy to get ahead of yourself when you’re doing something as exciting as setting up your company, but don’t forget about all the legal issues surrounding your business. Those are the details that will eventually help make your business a success. If you have more questions about taking an idea for a product and turning it into a reality, then contact Pivot today.
Top 5 Tips For Entrepreneurs
Starting your own business isn’t always an easy prospect. If it were as simple as quitting your job and being your own boss, then everyone would do it. Being a successful entrepreneur takes long hours, a lot of hard work, and a few good breaks along the way. If you’ve got a great product, you’ve done some market research, and you think you’re ready to get out on your own, then by all means make the leap. At Pivot, we love helping entrepreneurs get their feet under them and their business going, so we’ve brought you some of the best tips for entrepreneurs.
- Surround Yourself with The Right People
You might be starting your business on your own, but you definitely are going to have some people around you when you do it. This could be family, friends, or business partners, but whoever it is, you need to identify the right people. You want to surround yourself with people who support you, but push you as well. Think of the saying, “You are who you associate with.” It’s an important idea to keep in mind as you start your business. - Don’t Be Afraid To Fail
This doesn’t mean failing in the sense that you risked everything on one long shot, and now you’re broke. It means not being afraid to take calculated risks that could pay off for you. Your business probably won’t rocket to the top from the merits of your product alone, but by taking smaller risks, and being prepared for failure, you can learn and grow your business over time. And remember, not all of those risks are going to be failures. - Good Promotion Is Key
Setting yourself apart from the crowd is important if you want your business to succeed. Promoting yourself and marketing your product intelligently are two keys to entrepreneurial success. - Your Time Is Precious
This applies to anyone, but it’s especially true for entrepreneurs. Your time is both limited and precious. You only have so many hours in the day that you can use to get work done. Prioritize what needs to get done and then do it. Find ways to become as productive as possible with your time. It may be a cliché, but you can’t get it back. - Don’t Give Up
Simply put, there are no shortcuts. You probably see plenty of news stories about young millionaires who were successful a year or two out of college. That’s the exception, not the rule. If it happened all the time, it wouldn’t be newsworthy. Starting your own business and growing it into a successful enterprise takes time and hard work. Don’t give up, and don’t feel like it won’t work because it didn’t take off immediately.
If you’ve got a great idea for a product, but need help in turning that idea into reality, then contact Pivot International today. We specialize in helping people pursue their dreams and actually make them happen.
5 Things To Consider Before Quitting Your Day Job
It can be tough to recognize the right time to quit your day job and go all in on your new product company. In fact, you probably aren’t going to wake up one day knowing that the time is now. That’s why it’s risky going out on a limb to pursue your dream. You don’t have a sign from the heavens telling you to do it, you have to rely on your own intuition. That’s a scary thought, and many people decide to never leave their regular paycheck because of it. But it doesn’t have to be a total shot in the dark. If you ask yourself the right questions, and give honest answers, you may find that you have a pretty good idea whether or not you should quit your day job.
Your Personal Life
Starting your own business is tough, and if the timing of that start coincides with other factors in your personal life, that can make it a lot harder. Think about what’s going on at home as well as what your business prospects look like. For example, if your wife is pregnant or you’re caring for an older family member, you’ll probably think twice about leaving the security of a steady paycheck.
Your Expenses
More to the point, can you cover them? You should obviously have savings built up to cover the cost of your business initially, but you have to be honest with yourself when crunching the numbers. Don’t do the math with the best-case scenario numbers.
Family and Friends
Getting the perspective of your family and friends before heading out on your own is a smart move. The people that know you best can help give you an honest evaluation of your current situation. That’s not to say you should let them completely talk you out of it, or into it, but if you respect their opinions then that’s a good place to start.
Being Your Own Boss
Do you think you have the discipline to be your own boss? It sounds great, but at least in the beginning you’re going to be working long hours, with no schedule except for what you set yourself. Not everyone can successfully manage their time like that.
The Plan
How solid is your plan, really? If you can confidently answer that, then you might be ready. But not everyone has a good business plan in place when they set out on their own. Don’t let this be you. “Winging it” just isn’t going to cut it if you want your new product company to be a success. Along with a plan, are you sure that your product idea is sound? If you’re basing your business on a product, you should know for a fact that it’s a workable idea that can end up being manufactured and sold.
At Pivot, we specialize in making ideas into reality. If you aren’t certain that your product is 100% feasible, then why not sit down with our experts and work on your idea? Check out our testimonials if you want to see how we’ve helped others just like you, and contact us if you’d like to set up a consultation.
New STEM Inventions from College Students
Great ideas come in all shapes and sizes, and they come to all kinds of people—college students included. College is a great time to test out an idea because students are surrounded by support, as well as other students and faculty they can collaborate with. Student inventions don’t always succeed, but that’s the beauty of inventing—failure is fine, and sometimes it precedes success. So check out some of these great new inventions by college students and maybe you’ll get an idea or two.
- The first comes to us from engineering students Eric Nguyen and Abiyaz Chowdhury at The Cooper Union in New York. They developed a device that converts a single toilet flush into what’s known as a dual flush. A dual flush system saves water by giving people the option of a full or half flush. More than a quarter of the water that is consumed daily inside American households is used by the toilet. Water consumption is quickly becoming an issue around the world, but also here at home in western states like California.
- The next invention was developed by Erica Tyburski of the Emory University School of Medicine. She created AnemoCheck, an inexpensive and disposable test that allows people to check themselves for anemia. Anemia affects 83 million people in the United States, and 2 billion worldwide. Many people don’t have the resources to store or transport the blood for testing, so there is a great need for AnemoCheck.
- The third invention comes from students Jihu Kim and Min Joon So, also of The Cooper Union. Humidifiers are a must in the dry winter season, but they can be extremely difficult to clean. Not anymore. The new, radically redesigned humidifier has a simple cube shape that’s easy to access and clean. The base contains all of the electronics, so it doesn’t come in contact with the water and requires no cleaning.
There are other tools available to make the conversion, but they cost more and require tools and labor to install. The device developed by the students hardly takes any time at all to install.
The device works by pricking a finger to obtain a drop of blood, much like blood sugar tests for diabetics. The blood is then drawn into a tube with a chemical solution that reacts with hemoglobin present in the blood. This results in a color change and an answer within 45 seconds.
Not every student invention becomes mass-produced, but that doesn’t stop them from trying. And you shouldn’t give up on your idea either. If you feel like you’re almost there, but just need a little help along the way, then contact Pivot today. We specialize in helping turn people’s ideas into reality, and we’d love to help you with yours. Check out some of our testimonials, and you’ll see that we have the knowledge and experience you need on your side to make your invention happen.
