How Do You Invent Something?

People ask me that question all the time. Of course it's a long answer so I decided to dedicate a blog site to the question. But "how do you invent something?" is not the only question. For example how do you market your invention? How do you protect it? How do you make money from it? And there are many, many more questions to be answered.




My heros have always been the great American inventors. People from history like Benjamin Franklin, Edison, and Henry Ford. And then there are the great contemporary inventors like Steven Wozniak inventor of the Apple Computer, Burt Rutan aviation inventor, and my Father who invented Elmer's Glue.

I live in Austin Texas, home of some of todays best innovators. I was lucky enough to team up with a few of them and together, we created the OHSO Travel Toothbrush.

So if I were to break down "how I invented OHSO" into various aspects it would look something like what you see below. Each aspect has many more questions. I look forward to sharing my experiences in subsequent postings. I hope other inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs will share their ideas and experiences as well. So here is how to invent something in a nutshell.

1. Write it Down
Before you can invent anything you have to first write it down. Some of the best inventions started as a napkin sketches. I used a Big Chief notepad myself. But even my limited skills were enough to convey the general idea. Also look for other's who have written down similar ideas. You can lookup every patent ever granted by the United States government at the uspto.gov website. I spent many, many hours looking at similar patents and that helped me refine my concept.

They say Christopher Columbus wasn't really the first to discover America. But he was the first to write it down, so he got the credit.

2. Partner
Nobody can do it alone. You have to find good partners that add value to your invention. If you don't have all the money in the world, your only option is to partner. I partnered with a local design firm called Design Edge. It would have been difficult to afford such a world class group of designers. They provided the essential design and branding expertise in exchange for an equity position.

Even if you do have a lot of money and can afford to hire professionals, you will need to find manufacturing, distribution, and trading partners to be successful.

3. Engineer It
If you are designing a self-dispensing toothbrush, a new web site, a music album, or the first private spacecraft to reach outer space, you have to build it. Before you can build it, you have to design and engineer it. If you possess the engineering skills and necessary tools yourself that's all the better. If you don't, find somebody who does. I was lucky enough to partner with Austin's Design Edge for the engineering of OHSO. It was no simple task and required a lot of effort.

4. Protect it
I'm still paying off my patent attorney bills. Unless you partner with a lawyer (which I would hesitate to) it will cost you cold hard cash. But it's money well spent. What good is all your effort if somebody can snatch it away from you? A patent is your best protection from the wolves. There are a lot of horror stories about great innovations that were not properly protected only to have the inventor deprived of his just rewards.





5. Brand It
Image is everything. I've seen a lot of great ideas that were poorly branded and failed to live up their potential. Your product has to look great, and the better it looks, the better it will sell. You don't have to hire an expensive ad agency but you do have to find good right-brain people who can give your idea style. I've found a lot of good graphic designers on Craigs List.

I also can't stress enough the importance of quality pictures. People like good pictures and you can get a lot of exposure on looks alone. Unless you are a photographer, resist the urge to take your own pictures and hire a professional.

6. Fund It
If you want to build something really cool, it only takes money. So the story goes. You have to be creative when it comes to finance. There are as many funding options as there are entrepreneurs. It helps a lot if you have good credit. So do what it takes to establish or clean-up your credit. I funded OHSO the old fashioned way, I borrowed money. With good credit, borrowing money is easy. Paying it back is the hard part. Credit cards are an excellent mechanism for this. But be careful, its easy to spiral out of control. There are a lot of other options as you progress: licensing, selling equity, raising venture capital money, and of course, going public is the Holey Grail of funding options. I hope to write about that first hand some day.

7. Build It
Setting up manufacturing for OHSO was an odyssey that took me to Hong Kong and mainland China. Seeing first hand how things are manufactured was a real eye-opener for me. Cost effective manufacturing is done in huge general purpose factories. Nobody can build their own factory like in the old days. So you need a good manufacturing partner. I currently manufacture OHSO in Shenzhen, China. However Mexico also has a lot of manufacturing resources.

8. Sell It
You have to sell. I can't tell you how many invention how-to books I have read that brush-off this extremely important aspect of your invention. They would say "find a marketing specialist to help sell your invention" Who are these marketing specialists? I remember telling a friend early on, "I wish I could find a guru sitting on top of a hill who could explain how to sell my invention." Then I realized that I had to become my own guru.

9. Get 'er Done
There are so many tactics you will have to employ to make it all work: setting up a company, establishing a web site, sales channels, email, inventory, and the list goes on and on.

So how do you invent something? By obsessing over it for a long time. In the end, it's passion, determination, and commitment. But whether you succeed or fail this time around, it will be an exciting ride.

Richard B. Trocino
OHSO/CEO