Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!: Make Your Million-Dollar Idea Into a Reality (4 page)

However, be careful. Sometimes people compose a grand business plan, complete with financial projections, when they haven’t yet calculated how much it’s going to cost them to make their product. How could their financial plan be viable? It’s important to see the big picture, of course, but your ability to appreciate the details and recognize square one is essential. For the record, square one is always this: accurately identifying and describing your product, followed up by figuring out how you’re going to make it, and what it’s going to cost. These are the basics. Everything that happens next, from the research you undertake
to the connections you try to make, will stem from your answers to those initial questions. And for every hoop you jump through on your way to achieving your goals, three more hoops will materialize. There’s always one more form to fill out, one more phone call to make, one more person to track down. So you’ll need to have discipline and an organized system to keep on task.

Many of today’s inventors probably rely on any number of apps for that. My system, however, has always been and remains quite low tech. I keep lists on my iPhone and computer, but my team teases me about the number of yellow notepads I have. I love notepads. I love writing things down with an inky pen and seeing the scope of my to-do’s all in front of me at one time so I can prioritize. I have a lot of balls in the air at one time and the list changes frequently. I’ll write five columns on the front page listing all my
Shark Tank
ventures; my QVC business; contracts, agreements, and negotiations; new product development; outside retailers; video shoots; social media, and more. I try to check things off as I go through them, but it’s always a work in progress. Then I rewrite my lists to narrow them down, and of course they instantly get just as crowded again. I usually have about four notepads going at any one time, and then when I travel I condense them down to two. It sounds crazy to schlep all that weight in this day of sleek phones and wafer-thin computers and tablets, but nothing beats the satisfaction of writing on a lined piece of paper with a black pen, and then crossing the words out. That quirk probably helps explain why I’m drawn to inventing tactile products and not techy ones.

It’s hard for entrepreneurs to delegate, but over time I’ve learned how. And yet my to-do lists remain as long as ever because I stay so closely involved with each of my products, projects, and ventures. I can ask people to communicate with our factories, and trust others to arrange for samples to be shipped
on time or transmit orders, but only I can confirm that a product’s design and creation are true to my vision.

One last thing should be said about being organized and making plans. Of course, you need to make them, but a smart entrepreneur also knows when to go off script. It’s common for people to believe that before they embark on a big project they need to have a fully outlined master plan. I’ve never worked that way; I don’t think it’s wise. How can you make a plan when you don’t even know where to begin? Only by figuring out each step you need to take can you see the shape of your plan. Each discovery leads to the next one, so your plans will always need to adapt. Figure out what you’re going to need next, and then use your organizational skills to get to that next step. Allow yourself room to be spontaneous, to change your mind or adjust your expectations. Structure and discipline are important, but don’t ever let your plan become a cage that bars you from reacting quickly, taking advantage of opportunities, or adapting to new realities. Be willing to change tactics midstream if that’s what it takes to solve a problem and get you to your end game.

Though many of my products are intended to help make people’s lives easier or better, and several of them have been organizers, I’m not freakishly organized. I do believe, however, that chaos, clutter, and disorganization make you crabby and your day harder. I know it did for my mom. The home where I grew up was neat and orderly, except for my mother’s bedroom. She worked, she was busy, and she was always running late. I have strong memories of watching her scramble around, hunting frantically for some misplaced earring, lipstick, or shoe. I was very close to my mother growing up. She’d spend thirty minutes searching for something like her lipstick—“My lipstick. Where’s my red lipstick?”—and I’d walk in and immediately pick it up from her nightstand. “You mean this one?” We’d crack up.

It happened all the time. Who knows, maybe watching my mom taught me that life goes just a little more smoothly when things are put away where they belong, and that means having a place to put them. When I started inventing products, I tried to think of things that people needed and wanted. There are so many things in life that we cannot control, but our stuff doesn’t have to be one of them! I design a lot of organizers because it makes people’s lives easier, including my own. My mom owned every single one of them. In fact, she owned every single thing I ever made, and watched every show I was ever on, calling me to share her thoughts after every one. Of course, she loved everything—she was my mom.

My mom’s nemesis was her cluttered bedroom; mine is my office. It’s a nightmare, and I have yet to invent or find any tool to help me tame it. Like a lot of people, as soon as I put papers away, I forget about them, so I have to leave them scattered all over my desk. It’s chaos. When you’re a busy person (and who isn’t?), stuff just winds up everywhere. One of these days I hope I’ll come up with a solution for the office. Or I hope
you
will.

Self-Sufficiency and Independence

You’d think that it would go without saying that an inventor needs to be self-sufficient, but based on the questions people ask me, it does need to be said. I think some people believe that because they have an independent streak, they are naturally self-sufficient, too. But that’s not always the case. I’ve lost count of the number of entrepreneurs who have asked me for information, and after I’ve given them some guidelines about how to research their question, have come back at me with, “Couldn’t you just tell me what to do?” I don’t think those people stand a chance. You may want to be your own boss, but if you don’t have the wherewithal to figure it out on your own, you won’t make it.

One of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur is that there is no one around to tell you what to do, and no one to make sure you do it. That’s what I love about it, but for others I often wonder, how will they cope? I’m sure they understand, rationally, what it means to be self-employed, but many will find it surprisingly hard to stick to a self-imposed regimen. You’ve got to be the kind of person who doesn’t need direction and enjoys figuring things out for yourself. My husband always jokes that I can never do anything like everyone else. They will be driving in one lane; I’m always off creating my own. Being independent doesn’t mean, of course, that you shouldn’t turn to others for expertise or guidance. It’s a wise person who knows how and when to do that. But you must have the initiative to take whatever you learn and run with it. Ultimately, it will make you a stronger, more competitive businessperson to try to figure things out on your own. Your mistakes will be all yours, but so will your triumphs.

Charisma and Showmanship

The three years you spent holed up alone in your garage tinkering with your product may have been the happiest days of your life, but they will be wasted and your invention will never see the light of day if you are afraid to talk to strangers about it. People drawn to entrepreneurialism are typically outgoing and unafraid of making public speeches, but I’ve often heard protests along the lines of, “I’m a scientist/engineer/accountant, not a salesperson.” It’s fine to live a life of the mind while building your invention, but if you ever want to sell it, you’ll need to embrace the limelight, too. Shyness will sink you in this business.

We’ve discussed the importance of passion, and here, too, it plays a role. A large part of successful selling is demonstrating tremendous passion for your product or idea, because enthusiasm and excitement is infectious. But in general, the best salespeople
do genuinely like people. They like getting to know others and developing rapport, and most of all, they know how to listen so they can learn what people want or need. Developing charm (yes, it can be learned), being sensitive to others, and feeling at ease around strangers can be a challenge if you’re naturally shy, but it’s critical that you be able to draw people in and read them well, even if you’ve only got a few seconds with them, so that you can tailor your pitch accordingly. There’s also a bit of showmanship required for great selling, so if you suffer from stage fright, now is the time to start working on beating it back. Acting classes, comedy classes, public speaking courses, and especially improv classes are great training grounds for introverts and others who want to sharpen their communication and presentation skills.

If you’ve done everything you can to improve your salesmanship, but you still don’t feel that you can represent your product the way it deserves, this is one of the few instances in which it would be not just acceptable but also imperative to bring in someone else with better people skills to do your presentations and pitches for you. You’ll probably hate that bit of advice. How could I suggest that you trust someone else with your baby, someone who couldn’t possibly care about it as much as you do? I’m telling you, if public speaking is really a struggle for you, you have to do it. It’s the only way you’re going to get anyone to pay attention.

Finally, if your business is large enough, you could ask an employee to pitch for you, or you could hire an outside sales rep or distributor. We’ll talk more about how those business arrangements work and their advantages when we get to the art of the pitch in
Chapter 7
.

One Last, Important Thing…

Although it is not a character trait, there is one other thing a successful inventor needs, and I would be remiss not to mention
it here: money. All the passion, confidence, drive, determination, charisma, and showmanship in the world will not help you if you don’t have enough money to pay for the bare necessities, such as a prototype and travel expenses so you can meet with buyers and show your product. In addition, count on everything costing more than you think it will. There are many inspiring stories of people down to their last dimes whose inventions saved their families from financial ruin and went on to make millions. There are many more who spent everything they had on their inventions and were left with nothing to show for their efforts. This book is filled with advice that should help you avoid that kind of disaster, but nothing can change the fact that invention is still a risky business. Be prepared. We’ll discuss where, when, and how to pursue funding options in more detail in
Chapter 5
.

A SUCCESSFUL INVENTOR DOESN’T NEED…

A Business Background

Many inventors are extremely entrepreneurial and business-savvy, the types who knew they were going to create their own business from the time they learned to tie their shoes. They start selling glow sticks to schoolmates at the age of nine and are working on their third business plan by the time they are in their early twenties. I was not really that person. In retrospect, however, I can definitely see that I had an inventor’s brain, which is a lot like one of those spinning-wheel fireworks, the kind that shoots flames and sparks as it rotates in a pyrotechnic whirl of color and light; the kind that once it catches fire, there’s no stopping (you’re probably nodding your head in recognition).

But though my mind was constantly spinning with ideas, there is little in my background to suggest that I would become an inventor and entrepreneur. I studied television, journalism, and film.
I gave up my journalistic ambitions because I thought I might like to make movies, and I also dreamed of being a Tony Award–winning playwright. I handcrafted my own jewelry and I never, ever read the business section of the paper. You really never met a less business-y type than me. If that sounds like you, take heart—a business background can be helpful to inventors, but you don’t need it.

Overhead

I’m amazed at how many people feel that they need to make a good impression by putting themselves up in a sharp-looking suite in a cool part of town. What for? Who’s going to see your office when you’re the one who’s going to travel for meetings? Avoid spending money unless you absolutely have to. Try to work out of your home for as long as you can, even if you have a few employees, to keep overhead low. If you need storage, you can hire fulfillment centers that will store your product, and even put labels on it before shipping it out, or sometimes you can negotiate assembly and shipping straight from the manufacturer.

Many new inventors come on
Shark Tank
asking for thousands of dollars because they feel they need to hire staff. More often than not, they don’t. If you eventually need a specialist like a graphic designer, you can hire a freelancer who will work out of his or her own space, not yours. You can answer your own phone or get an automated system. You can keep track of your own books. You have to be willing to do as much as possible by yourself up until you simply have no choice but to hire someone; and even then, you will have to stay intimately involved in the day-to-day operations, because even the best employee will never be as vigilant as you will.

You will make so much more money if you remain frugal even when your invention starts to succeed and your business begins to grow. For now and for the near future, enjoy roughing it. Take pride in the fact that you’re tough enough to run a business on
a tight budget. There will be plenty of time later to indulge in luxuries, comforts, and labor-saving purchases, and you’ll appreciate them more. I was in business for four years before I finally indulged in my first big celebratory purchase—a stainless steel Cartier watch that I still love to this day. Sally, a supplier in London, and I had worked exceedingly hard on selling a product for QVC, and the channel had chosen it to be a “Today’s Special Value,” which is when they order a huge number of units and try to sell the entire amount in one day at a special low cost to the customer. We sold out. It was a huge milestone to get a TSV and sell it out in one day. Sally and I were ecstatic.