Success Manifesto

I have about 100 inventions, and I dont know:

1. If any of them have potential,
2. Where I can get them looked at,
3. How I can get them to market

What should I do?

Thanks,
Patrick

Great questions Patrick. I've never created an invention and took it to market so I'm not an expert in this area. However, I will give you advice based on my experiences as an entrepreneur. The following are some steps you might consider taking:

1. Find an Expert or Somebody Who Could Put You In Touch With One. You took a great first step by emailing me. I personally don't know any inventors, but you may be able to find some successful ones by:
   • Searching for books on the topic. For example, two book titles that I found, which may prove useful to you are How to License Your Million Dollar Idea and Complete Idiot's Guide(R) to Cashing in On Your Inventions.
     
   • Joining a local inventors' association and/or group. United Inventors Association and The Inventors' Network are two examples of such organizations.
     
   • Attending a seminar on the topic. For example, I once attended a Learning Annex seminar on how to turn an idea into $1 million led by an inventor who was making $20,000 a month on a number of inventions.
2. Apply for Invention Competitions. A few examples are The Collegiate Inventors' Competition, The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance Grants, and The Best Idea Challenge.
   
3. Team up with an Entrepreneur. If you can convince an entrepreneur of the viability and opportunity for your invention, then you may be able to get him/her to start a company and take your invention to market in return for a portion of the company.
   
4. License Your Invention to a Corporation. If you can prove that there is a market for your invention, you may be able to license it to an existing company who can leverage their infrastructure and brand. In return, you could receive a license fee for each product sold.
   
5. Partner with An Invention Company. There are companies that specialize in helping inventors take their products to market. These companies often take a percentage of sales, an upfront fee, or both. I've been told numerous times to beware of companies that charge a fee and therefore don't have a strong incentive for your invention to ultimately succeed.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 06:45 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (19)

"I would like to write a book, but I am unsure where to start. Do I put the book together first then seek out publishers or vice versa?"
- Charles

Charles,

Great question. The answer really depends on your goals. Let me explain each approach some more:

The conventional approach to publishing is to write a book proposal (like a business plan, but for a book) and then find a literary agent. The literary agent will help you refine the proposal, hopefully find an interested publisher, and then professionally negotiate on your behalf. In return, your agent will get 15% of the deal. Once you have a contract, the agent will also help manage the relationship with the publishing house.

I took the approach of self-publishing. The main disadvantages to this approach are:

1. It takes longer to self-publish and sell to a publisher than it does to go straight to a publisher.
   
2. It takes your time and money to professionally produce a book.
   
3. You take on the risk of the book having poor sales and not being able to find a publisher as a result.

1. You test out and refine an idea.
   
2. If you are able to garner good sales, you have potential of getting a publisher in addition to getting a good deal with the publisher. This occurs because you took on the risk and have proved the product's potential to a certain point.
   
3. You have creative liberty.
   
4. You have a high profit margin.
   
5. You learn a lot about the industry by producing your own book and it is cheaper to do than ever.
   
6. Depending on the publisher, you may not have to spend the time to write out a detailed book proposal since the book and its sales speak for themselves to a certain point.

1. What Color is Your Parachute, Richard Nelson Bolles
   
2. The Celestine Prophecy, James Redfield
   
3. The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr.
   
4. In Search of Excellence, Tom Peters
   
5. A Time to Kill, John Grisham

Posted by Michael Simmons at 09:46 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (6)

How do I find a mentor if my school doesn't have a mentor program?
- Michelle

Michelle,
I have two strategies I would recommend using:

1. Informational Interviews.
   1. Find people who are successful in the careers you're thinking about pursuing. You can find these people online, in the media, or through existing contacts you have.
   2. Learn as much as you can about them.
      
   3. Call or email them, invite them out to lunch, and see if you can ask them questions about your career (they will always end up paying).
      
   4. If the meeting goes well, ask them if you can meet with them in the future and if they can refer you to three other people who might be able to offer assistance as well
   5. Send the person a thank you note and keep them updated on your progress.
2. If possible, join a local organization that helps young people succeed and that already has a mentor network you can leverage.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (26)

Dear Michael,

I am a small business consultant. I do believe in the power of the young mind to do outstanding things, and in that respect I am working to formulate a program geared towards students who would like to start their own operation but may not be sure. I am facing a sizeable stumbling block that I want to run by you, see if you can help me make the formula one for success.

I want to lend a groups of full-time students (individually or in groups) an amount of money at the beginning of next summer. It would be equivalent of what they would make at a summer job. The only stipulation would be that they start their own operation and run it in one summer. At the end of the season I want them to pay the money back. Loan recipients would be high-school and college students selected by a panel according to the merit of their business plan.

The problem that I have is that while I do want them to get a feeling of how exciting and fulfilling running a business is like, I do think that it is risky. Most of our students come back in the summer to get one or two jobs, work hard, and take the money to pay for the yearly expenses at school (often including tuition and fees). It would be quite risky on their part to come to my program, borrow the money, lose it, and have to deal with not having enough money to go back to school with.

Thus I am looking to make this a win-win formula where the advantages of successfully running your own business as a student outweigh the fears of failing.

- Anonymous

Dear reader,
First, congratulations on an innovative program idea. However, if your main goal is to get students to try out entrepreneurship, I would have to advise against offering them loans for the following reasons;

1. Students will have a limited time to pay off the loan. As a result, they are limited to choosing an idea with a quick pay back.
   
2. Most first-time businesses fail. I think this is fine because running a business regardless of its success is a great learning opportunity. However, students may be hesitant to participate with the possibility of not getting any money over the summer and having to pay back a loan.

While loans may lower the barriers to students launching a business, I don't think that a loan is a good way to motivate most students to start a business. I was lucky enough to have great first experiences in entrepreneurship. As a result, I stuck with it. However, I fear that students may not be able to pay back the loan and consider their first entrepreneurship experience a failure.

Two other methods you may want to consider for motivating students to start businesses are;

1. Offer incubator resources (office, copier, meeting room, computer, printer, fax, supplies, etc. The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship offers this service to New York City Alumni. I've personally found this service to be very helpful with my business. In addition, the resource has been a great way to network with network with and be motivated by other students in the same boat as me.
   
2. Teach a curriculum and then have a business plan competition and offer grants and mentoring to the winners. Perhaps a stipulation of the prize is that they have to record how they use their grant and have follow up meetings with your organization.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

How do I break into and become successful at speaking at events?

Getting speaking gigs and then successfully delivery them may seem like a daunting task, but it is actually very easy. Over the years, I?ve developed a system of steps anybody can take to begin the road to becoming a successful public speaker.

All through out high school, I was terrified of public speaking. As a result, I rarely got to practice and I was always one of the worst speakers in every group I was a part of. Things started to change when I decided that being able to speak in front of an audience would be crucial to success in my career path. As a result of this realization, I committed myself to learning how the speaking profession works and getting my name out there. Although, I have a long way to go, I?ve been fairly successful thus far. And if I can do it, I guarantee you can if you are committed!

Get the Gig

1. Start Small. Offer to speak for free anywhere you can at first to build your track record.
   
2. Become an expert. This is easier than you think, especially when you narrow down the topic you want to be an expert in . You can begin identifying an area by thinking about where you are unique. Once you?ve identified a topic, you may want to establish more credibility by writing articles, gaining success, and/or winning awards in that area.
   
3. Video record a speaking engagement and send the tape to potential venues where you?d like to speak if they want reassurance that you?re a good speaker.
   
4. Leverage your network. Do you know anybody who runs an event or knows somebody who does, where you could be a speaker?
   
5. Build trust with the event planners by strategically volunteering. You can do this by helping out at events, connecting them with other individuals who they might like to meet, or by simply asking them how you can help.
   
6. After you are finished speaking, ask for a testimonial from a student and the event planner so you can leverage your past speaking engagements for larger ones. Also, ask the event planners if they know any other organizations that you could speak at.

1. Practice. Take every chance you get to speak in front of an audience of any size. When you get the gig, deliver the presentation to your friends for feedback beforehand.
   
2. Visualize yourself speaking successfully.
   
3. Don?t wing it and don?t stress it. When you first start public speaking it is ok to use note cards. However, as you get more comfortable with your material it is good to stop using aids like note cards so you can focus your full attention on the audience.
   
4. Video record yourself speaking and critique yourself.
   
5. Take a public speaking class at your school.
   
6. Join or start a local Toastmasters club.
   
7. View tapes or live presentations of the world?s best public speakers.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:50 PM | Permalink