Invent It, Sell It, Bank It by Lori Greiner
From idea to store.
How to get your invention off the ground.
Lori Greiner, as some of you might know, is a star on the popular TV show Shark Tank. Lori shares her story in this inspiring book about how anyone with an idea that he or she believes in can make it a successful reality.
So you have an Idea in your head that you think could make life easier, improve a process or even change how something is done entirely. How do you get it into the market? How do you know if it will work or not? What about paying for everything? These are some of the loads of questions I’m sure anyone starting the journey of taking their idea to the masses.
When Lori Greiner started working on her first idea of an earring organizer she had a hard time knowing where to start. It can be overwhelming at times because there is so much to do, but she set a hard deadline for herself to get her product to stores just before the holiday rush that year. She gave herself a mere 4 months to do it! She later admits that it is probably better to give yourself a year to get your groundbreaking product to store shelves. So how did she achieve her monumental goal? She became the kind of obsessed that Grant Cardone talks about in Be Obsessed or Be Average.
In her book she lists out six must-have characteristics it takes to be a successful inventor:
- Passion – without passion who will even buy into your idea? Your passion for your invention or product is contagious! And I’m not talking about inward passion either, it is critical to be able to effectively show this passion. Imagine if the iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs saying, “yeah, this is the iPhone, it’s pretty cool I guess. It would be nice if you bought it.” No! That’s ridiculous! There wouldn’t even be an iPhone today if that was how it was introduced. As Simon Sinek says, “People don’t buy based on what you do, they buy based on why you do it.” Without passion, your idea will be dead before you even begin
- Confidence – You must believe in your idea 100% to get it to work. Destroy all doubts and fears. To take the island you have to sink your ships as Hernan Cortez did so his men would either conquer or die. This is not to say be unnecessarily risky, though. Do not forgo market research. I personally believe that the number 1 cause of failure in emerging companies is obscurity and lack of marketing. Blind faith is near deadly in business. If your market research shows promise and you believe in your product, take it to the next level!
- Drive and Determination – As in all walks of life, you will hit roadblocks along the way. In inventing it would be the likes of lack of patentability, lack of resources (which doesn’t exist by the way; more on that later) and possible rip offs of your product. Drive and determination paired with belief will help you to get around the roadblocks, whatever it takes.
- Organizational Skills – this doesn’t mean OCD-perfect desk and alphabetical files. So if that’s not you, don’t worry. If I put something away I tend to forget about it and my papers can get everywhere. However, it is crucial to maintain a proper set of books and records of patents and other legal documents. Lack of just one of these could ruin your business.
- Self-Reliance – It’s a harsh world out there and business can be incredibly competitive. If you still are dependent on others for your results that is a bad recipe for success and can be a huge factory of excuses for not following through.
- Charisma and Showmanship – this returns back to number 1, being able to show your passion. When you bring a new product to market, you are your chief salesman. Selling is one of the hardest but most important skills to perfect in life. In fact, almost everything in life can come down to selling (though not always for money but for attention). You have to sell your personality, your ideas, your help and your product. Even if a product is free, sometimes people will not “buy in” until they’ve been sold on it (free is also a selling point).
If you don’t have all these traits above, don’t worry, you can learn them on the way up. However, keep in mind that experience trumps knowledge. Just because you “know” something doesn’t mean you can apply it. Or in other words, the Law of Attraction only works if you do.
If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask and let me know what you think in the comments below!
To get your copy of Invent It, Sell It, Bank It click here
Happy Reading!
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