Congratulations.  Your crowd funding campaign succeeded.   Take a few minutes to enjoy your success, then WATCH OUT and BE SMART.    You’re on the public domain with a product people seem to like so remember competitors, as well as consumers have taken notice.

Take a few minutes to enjoy this step toward financial success.  High five with your family and team, but remember, this is just one step toward your goal of earning cash, it’s not the end of the game.   You’re just ahead at half time.

Here are the most common challenges of crowd funding success that I’ve noticed.

The Big Head

Successful crowd funding campaigns have a tendency to increase the circumference of the cranium for some inventors.   Often the value of campaign success is delusion-ally inflated, forgetting there is a long road ahead with many additional “small wins” required for serious financial gain.   Bottom line is; you’re going to need a lot more help to leverage the win from this one successful endeavor.  Choose your next step and your partners wisely.

Confusion

Inventors get bombarded with offers from service providers, serious licensees, strategic alliances and potential partners.  Sorting out who’s who is a chore.  Everyone seems to have the answer so deciding the best, least expensive / highest potential, next step can be a daunting task.   In truth, none of us has a working crystal or Magic 8 Ball.   Write out your options and consider risk vs reward soberly.  Go with your gut, but don’t let emotions mistake dreams for best practice product launch sequences.   There are no pie in the sky, get rich quick schemes in inventing.  Whatever you do next takes time and money.  It’s just a matter of who’s going to spend it.

Manufacturing

Inventors often think it’s smart to say they found overseas manufacturing and have traveled internationally to visit.  It sounds cool over drinks and makes you feel like a good business person.   The reality is that manufactures need volume so when you are a small, short run client your not really going to get the quality and time you think you are, in the early stage, no matter how much salesmanship makes you believe you will.   Even so, starting with a small run will fulfill your obligations and give you some market test data.  Don’t make too many units, even if the unit price is higher per piece.  I promise you, you’ll want to make design changes once your customers start giving real feedback.   Guard your cash like a junk yard dog.  You’re going to need it.

Before you take this step, be sure to count the cost, then double it.  There’s a training video on these challenges available on my YouTube channel in the Manufacturing playlist.

Capital Needs

The crowd funding money was a great start.  You’ve got a few seeds, but you’re going to need more cash to end well.  The more you sell, the more cash for operations & inventory you’ll need.   Be sure to save profits now and consider ways to maximize your finances.   You won’t get to pocket any money for a while.   It’s time to press in and lay a good foundation.

Competition & Knock-Offs

Since you did well, you can bet your competitors are alerted. I have 62 product scouts scanning the public domain looking for products that meet a narrow criteria of As Seen On TV. You can bet your competitor pays attention too.   They may contact you and want to license your product. If so, my advise if they are a large, dominate company, is to take the deal and say “Thank you”.

They are far better positioned to move your product quickly to market. If you decline or give them the impression you’re “difficult”, you should expect competition. Large companies can and will employ aggressive techniques when they find winning products in their sector. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. A tiny sliver is often better then missing out completely. Like in poker, the one with the most chips is at an advantage so don’t be foolish by finding yourself in legal battles you really can’t win.

As Seen On TV Products

If your product is a physically small product that solves and everyday problem in a visually demonstrable way, I hope you’ll give me “First Look” BEFORE your crowd funding campaign begins or as soon as possible whether funded or not.   We license products with no patent, on a simple mock-up prototype and home made demo video, in under 30 days.  Checkout Will It Launch?

My suggestion is enjoy your crowdfunding success and leverage it for a licensing agreement.    If you need help and want to hire a licensing agent, checkout Inventive Ideas.

Simultaneously, start building your business by fulfilling your crowd funding obligations with good communication and excellence.   It’s time to prove there is market demand, leveraging your crowd funders networks, and generate more cash.  Don’t believe you have to go big.  Sometimes it’s better to start small and build a profitable business organically, then take on a bunch of debt or investors and risk the family farm.

Whatever you decide, send me a link to your campaign with the product name in the subject line and I’ll do my best to chime in with some free advice and promote it if you’re active on my social networks.

Congratulations on your crowd funding success.  See you on the shelves!

crowd funding success!

Carrie Jeske

Contact Inventive Ideas

The post Crowd Funding Success? Be Smart. appeared first on Inventive Ideas, LLC.

The key to As Seen On TV product success is to learn to overcome failure.  Few products succeed, but if you hit just one, you could make millions in product royalties.

In As Seen on TV (ASOTV), you have to learn to fail forward.   It’s a life skill that will serve you well.   Learning to be an “overcomer” is an excellent character trait that will impact your life in ways far exceeding your ability to invent or find great TV products.   

At the same time, it’s important to balance prudence with hope because there is big money to be made in this distribution channel.   TV products are a hot trend right now so learning to invent in a category that moves with lightning speed and economic precision is worth the hit to an inventor’s ego when a product market viability test fails.    In this industry, failure is simply a necessary component of product success.   For every 5 products tested, about 3 will not perform at the standards required to merit additional funding.      It doesn’t mean the product idea is bad.   It simply means the market was not receptive to buying this product, at this particular time in history, in this one distribution channel.   

When I First Started!

When I first started in sales (back in the day) one of my mentors was Tom Hopkins.    He was a grass roots, go getter who knew how to handle rejection and keep on swinging.   His words inspired me then and now.    He drilled into our heads his attitudes toward failure:

1. “I never see failure as failure, but only as a learning experience.”
2. “Only as the negative feedback I need to change course in my direction.”
3. “I never see failure as failure, but only as an opportunity to develop my sense of humor.”
4. “Only as an opportunity to practice my techniques and perfect my performance.”
5. “I never see failure as failure, but only as the game I must play to win.”

These are good words to remember, in any situation, but in in testing products for market viability, they are a critical part of everyday life as an As Seen on TV inventor or product scout.   Failure is an inevitable part of success so we choose to embrace it and learn from it as fast and inexpensively as possible.

So choose never to see failure, as failure, but instead learn from each experience and use that knowledge to find or create another product that solves everyday problems…. For $19.95 or less.    

You could have the next great As Seen on TV winner and I can’t wait to review and give feedback on your product submission.

Onward & Upward,

By Carrie Jeske

2013 All rights reserved.  Request reprint approval in writing.

If you’re into social networking, please connect with me on:

FACEBOOK      LINKEDIN        YOUTUBE       TWITTER

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Crowdfunding Success – Bandit Guns $54,256

Congratulations to Bandit Guns: Rubber Band Shotgun by Bob Coulston , a friend whom I work with at the Inventors Center of KC.     So we had a small business attorney speak a few months ago and explain how inventors and entrepreneurs could use www.Kickstarter.com  to secure early stage funding.   Bob took the instruction to heart, connected with our videographer, Curt McMillian and loaded their information.

In under a month, the project raised $54,256 with 943 backers.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1845189113/bandit-guns-rubber-band-shotgun?ref=live

Carrie Jeske Free Inventor Education & Help

1)  Watch this video to learn how to earn up to $100,000 per product, as a product scout, while you sharpen your skills in our category. 

http://www.willitlaunch.com/how-to-make-330000-inventing-for-tv/

2)  For even more help read blogs and watch links: 

http://www.willitlaunch.com/inventors-corner/

3)  Also here’s some NEXT Steps if you want to work on licensing outside ASOTV.

http://inventiveideas.com/when-as-seen-on-tv-wont-fly/

4)  Also here’s some of my agents available for hire, to make connections for you.

http://inventiveideas.com/licensing/

5) So join me on social networks and keep learning and helping others.

FACEBOOK      LINKEDIN        YOUTUBE       TWITTER

Just takes 1 winner to earn millions.

Stay close,

Carrie Jeske

The post Crowdfunding Success – Bandit Guns $54,256 appeared first on Inventive Ideas, LLC.