How to Convert an Idea into an Innovative Sell-able Product?

Follow these five simple steps to turn your idea into a profitable product. Have patience, it takes time and hardwork, before your little business grows into the next big thing.

• Documenting your idea
  Before you get too excited about your little idea, start talking in front of the wrong people, you need to protect it. An idea simple has no value. You need to have proof that you yourself came up with whole idea, i.e., the idea is absolutely original. You can’t simply send a description of your idea to yourself through a mail or have a notary witness sign your written description. The notary would also have to make a signed statement mentioning that he/she has read and understood the description about the invention.
  You are supposed to write down your idea in an inventor’s journal and have it signed by a witness.
• Research your idea thoroughly regarding your idea or invention. Before you file for a patent you have to make sure no one else have patented your idea already. You can start with a basic search at uspto.gov. If you find any sort of non-patented artwork related to your idea, you cannot patent it.
  Also you are supposed to do a preliminary check on your target market, manufacturing and distribution costs, comparing costs of similar products, etc., before you invest a great deal of time and money on patenting your invention. How profitable is your invention in the actual market?
• Design a Prototype
  A prototype is an early model or sample built to test a concept, which has all the specifications of the real working system. This is the design of the invention you will be presenting before the potential investors. Prototyping is necessary so that you discover all the flaws or kinks before your idea can be patented.
• File a Patent
  After your research on the idea, designing of the prototype and working out all the kink in your design, you can finally file the patent. While you are writing the patent and filling out the application on your own, it is better to get legal aid when you filing the patent, so that any loophole in your patent document does not allow your competitor to copy your idea.
• Marketing
  This is when you create a business plan and figure out how you would bring your product to the market. You may also want to make an important decision- whether you want to manufacture and sell the product all by yourself or you want to license for sale to another company.