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View Full Version : do you ever think about inventing something?



huggytree
09-27-2012, 09:16 PM
i am always thinking about inventing something....im just not very creative......id love to invent some new pipe hanger for the plumbing industry and retire a 42 year old millionaire....i see new products all the time and am always impressed how someone can come up with a new idea that seems obvious after the fact.....i always bring up 'inventing things' with my kids....i want to put it in their heads that all they need to do is come up with 1 small idea to be a millionaire...

am i the only one? do any of you sit and think about these things?/??? do you ever get an idea that makes it to a sketch pad(i dont)

MyITGuy
09-27-2012, 09:37 PM
All of the time, but not in terms of a physical product but rather a process or application to make things more efficient or etc...

nealrm
09-27-2012, 10:08 PM
I invent new or improve current web pages almost every day.

Brian Altenhofel
09-27-2012, 10:36 PM
i am always thinking about inventing something....im just not very creative......id love to invent some new pipe hanger for the plumbing industry and retire a 42 year old millionaire....i see new products all the time and am always impressed how someone can come up with a new idea that seems obvious after the fact.....i always bring up 'inventing things' with my kids....i want to put it in their heads that all they need to do is come up with 1 small idea to be a millionaire...

am i the only one? do any of you sit and think about these things?/??? do you ever get an idea that makes it to a sketch pad(i dont)

Some of those "obvious" things aren't necessarily new. I know of foldable tire steps that were in heavy use well before 1971. Some made of square tubing, some made of pipe.

It's not necessarily first to create it that gets credited as the inventor - its first to patent it. Patent US7059449 - Foldable tire step apparatus - Google Patents (http://www.google.com/patents/US7059449)

Will Cunningham
09-28-2012, 01:17 AM
I have thought up a ton of physical products and have perfected a few. I am using Edison Nation for a couple. I'll let you know how it goes. Google "edison nation" for info. A video and sketch is all they really need.

Freelancier
09-28-2012, 07:37 AM
All the time. The question isn't creating the product, it's marketing and selling it once it's created. That's the hard part.

TimPiazza
09-28-2012, 12:45 PM
Yep, all of the time. I have dreamed up any number of contraptions over the decades. I studied industrial design and technology in college, so we even had assignments to invent new things. Back then, cross-country skiing was popular and I came up with an invention that let you determine which wax you should be using for the temperature and conditions.

There are a couple of things that I came up with and posted on the internet, only to see them realized as products by someone else a couple years later. And I made the mistake of showing a novel iPad Stand to someone at Griffin and wouldn't you know, they're making a version of it now. :-)

I did come up with an iPad Stand made of corrugated plastic that I sold on the internet for $5 each. I really did it as a marketing experiment. It turns out that I sold thousands of them before I decided to end the experiment about 1 year later. My only marketing was a $70 press release. :-)

My most "famous" invention was a mandolin armrest. Made of wood, sort of modeled after a violin chin rest. There are at least a half dozen manufacturers of them now, and it can be easily traced back to my original. I never patented it because it is such a niche item that I felt it wasn't worth investing $5k or more to protect the rights.

That saying "a fool and his money are soon parted"... I think sometimes the fool and the money never find each other. :-)

DeniseTaylor
10-08-2012, 06:32 PM
I tend to come up with ideas, but not all of them are great. Just the other day I though of a portable table that could be really spiffy. Whether it was a million dollar idea, I don't know. I think the key is to keep up the ideas and one day something might hit. Once you get a good idea, though, you have to act upon it and know what to do with it. Which is a whole new can of worms to overcome. Those who strike also followed through. :-)

Harold Mansfield
10-11-2012, 07:11 PM
When I was a bartender I had an idea patterned after a popular Caribbean drink that I wanted to market in the U.S. Had the branding and marketing all thought out. No money.

When I was a limo driver I had a design and marketing plan for a new way to monetize the industry on the Vegas strip.(No one has done it yet)

Also a new service to fill a need at concierge desks at the major resorts. Someone ended up doing that one but I really should have kept the domain for my idea registered. It was brilliant! (still got the business plan on that one).

These days I'm always thinking of ways to make things easier for people online. Most of it stems from looking for stuff online and seeing that it either doesn't exist, or is so unorganized that no one would ever be able to find it or sell it that way.

I've had ideas for improving or capitalizing on an untapped market in whatever or where ever I've ever been at every stage in my life. It's probably how I ended up in management at certain stages. My motto should be "There's got to be a better way to do that" because I am constantly saying it.

So far I've only had a few that gave me chills the more I thought about them. You know that revelation that you get when think about an idea one way, and a completely new application for it works it's way into your head that's even better than your original intention and then the additional applications just start snowballing? Those don't come often, so I'm trying now to get that one going now.

We shall see.

billbenson
10-11-2012, 08:31 PM
When I was a bartender I had an idea patterned after a popular Caribbean drink that I wanted to market in the U.S. Had the branding and marketing all thought out. No money.

When I was a limo driver I had a design and marketing plan for a new way to monetize the industry on the Vegas strip.(No one has done it yet)

Also a new service to fill a need at concierge desks at the major resorts. Someone ended up doing that one but I really should have kept the domain for my idea registered. It was brilliant! (still got the business plan on that one).

These days I'm always thinking of ways to make things easier for people online. Most of it stems from looking for stuff online and seeing that it either doesn't exist, or is so unorganized that no one would ever be able to find it or sell it that way.

I've had ideas for improving or capitalizing on an untapped market in whatever or where ever I've ever been at every stage in my life. It's probably how I ended up in management at certain stages. My motto should be "There's got to be a better way to do that" because I am constantly saying it.

So far I've only had a few that gave me chills the more I thought about them. You know that revelation that you get when think about an idea one way, and a completely new application for it works it's way into your head that's even better than your original intention and then the additional applications just start snowballing? Those don't come often, so I'm trying now to get that one going now.

We shall see.

I'm of the opinion that you can sell anything. Just gotta be creative. Some things are easier than others. Hell, people sell fake poop. I can just see them at the networking meeting "ya, we are in the fake poop business". :)

foidesigns
10-17-2012, 10:11 PM
Anyone watch the show Shark Tank? Really good show about if you enjoy inventions

fayt
10-18-2012, 09:33 AM
I have a huge inventors mind and always trying to create new things. If you ever want to co-partner on an idea, let me know. I actually came up with a very unique piece of equipment for police/swat but don't have the capital to invest in making a prototype. Which I am assuming is going to cost $4,000 - $5,000 for the first prototype.

billbenson
10-19-2012, 12:02 AM
I know someone who builds companies off of his inventions. Typically he looks for circuit boards that can be put on an integrated circuit chip.
So to the best of my knowledge he:

Writes a spec
Sends the spec to India for feasibility analysis
Reviews the results from India and either decides to continue with it or cancel the project
If he decides to continue, he goes to Wall Street for VC
Has a prototype built in China or India
Decides if its still a viable product
Starts a corporation and hires staff.
Builds the company
Sells the company in a couple of years when he can make a few million from it.
He's been doing this for 30 plus years with only a couple of failures early on.


__________________________________________________ ____________________________

One of his secrets is bailing out early if analysis doesn't meet his goals. Kind of like getting out of a stock if after analysis it doesn't look as good as you thought or starts going down.
He was right out of college when he started doing this. That's an age when you can afford to make mistakes and sleep on the floor.
He had a good mentor early on.
Over time he built up the contacts for engineering, development, VC, etc. He developed a good VC reputation so he usually could sell his projects.
He learned how to build companies.
During the entire process described above he is marketing the idea

__________________________________________________ ___________________

Some or all of that is what is need to make and make money on an invention. Ask yourself this: Do you have the knowledge, contacts, etc., to actually pull this off?