Does Your Invention or Idea Have A Market?

I was involved in another discussion with a group of inventors and I asked the question: Do you know if your invention has a market? And followed up with the question: Do you really know your customers?

Invariably most think they have a market, but in reality they don't know very much about their potential customers, so they really don't have a market defined yet. Oh sure many inventors know which industry they think they should market their invention to, however they have no idea if there is an actual need in that market for their product. What I have found is that many inventors do very little real market research of their potential market and the customers that make it up.

So today I am giving away one of my secrets. You can find your market through the Internet.

Are you surprised? Probably not.

Here are five easy steps to help you find out about your market and your potential customers:

1. What problem are you solving with your invention or idea?
2. Who is leading company that is currently solving that problem now?
3. Find their web site
4. Go to http://www.quantcast.com/ and enter the competitor's web site domain address
5. Copy or record all of the data into a document that you can recall later (demographics, traffic, other sites of interest, etc...)

There you have it, the first stage to identify your potential audience. The next steps takes a little more work but at least now you will have a clue who might want your invention. You will need more information than that to build an understanding of demand, like how many units of your types of products are sold today and how many people are searching for a solution to the problem. These answers can also be found on the Internet. Stay Tuned!

Idea and Invention Marketing

I have never ever met someone who did not like their own ideas. In fact quite the opposite has happened throughout my career whether it's a small entrepreneur who has risked his entire personal savings or a Fortune 500 executive who is sure his company needs to try this great idea of his. In fact most people are just totally in love with their idea because it is their "Baby" and nobody loves that baby more than they do.

So if you have a great idea and you want to know how to market it then you came to the right place. And if you think that your idea is the greatest in the world and that everyone should invest in your business idea or invention I am hear to tell you that "Your Baby is Fat" . You heard me I am calling your Baby "Fat". Why? Because you need to hear that no idea is perfect and virtually every idea needs improving and in many cases needs to be dumped completely.

And through the coming weeks and months I am here to educate you on how to improve your idea how to look at it with critical eyes and your potential customers critical eyes and your potential investors critical eyes.

I will be starting by reviewing all of the ideas on ABC's new TV series Shark Tank where business ideas are presented to successful entrepreneurs and investors to invest in their companies. And what I will give you the inside scoop that those business experts are not going to tell you which is why the idea or invention will become successful or will ultimately fail. And I will tell you what they did wrong in presenting their idea when asking for capital.