Category: The Kitchen Sink

What Is Crowdfunding? As Crowdfunding has grown in popularity, you’ve probably heard the term.  But what is it exactly and can Crowdfunding help inventors? The dictionary defines crowdfunding as “the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.”  Sounds…

The Reality of Licensing Royalties What are realistic expectations when it comes to licensing royalties?  I know that I have talked about this before but it is time to do a reminder about what is realistic in this economy. I recently “fired” a client because he had expectations that were beyond reasonable. We had a…

You may think that because you’re an individual and not a business that practicing poor business decisions isn’t that detrimental.  You would be wrong. I’ve worked with many inventors over the years and I can promise you, the ones who back out of contracts and treat people poorly rarely get very far.  Here are a…

Recently, I met with an inventor who, while passionate about his invention, absolutely did not want to hear what he didn’t want to hear:  I call it the “do not want to know what I don’t want to know” disease.   You see it’s a lot like a serious disease because in the end if you…

Hi everyone, sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote.  Unfortunately, we had a personal tragedy occur among our inventing group here in Colorado this past May and it’s taken all of our energy and talent to keep things moving along without letting any of the balls drop to the ground. You see, in…

A while back, I blogged about one of America’s enduring strengths: the ability of its people to invent and innovate which, as you look back on the span of U.S. history, is the single greatest attribute that has distinguished us, as a nation, from every other nation on earth.  Given the current state of our economy, I…

I have had several calls from new inventors over the last few weeks asking for direction.  Unfortunately, it seems they want to hear that there is one “go to” place that will do all of the work and then send them lots of money. If you are in the early stages of your invention, there…

Over the holidays I had a few inventors contact me and ask about reality television shows for inventors and if it was a good idea to try to get their product on one of the various “invention” shows. TV is about entertainment and ratings. If you or your product makes for good entertainment, you have…

How do you “name” your product?  I have written about trademarks before and this topic comes up frequently in new product discussions.  The name you give your product is very important to your economic success. Most inventors don’t have millions of dollars to spend branding and marketing a unique name.  Having to educate the consumer…