Scammers are everywhere and they are not always easy to spot. Inventors need to be careful who they trust to aid them on their journey from mind to market. But avoiding the scammers is possible, especially if you get quality advice from industry professionals like me.
Tips on Avoiding the Scammers
Let me give you some pointers on how to avoid those people just looking to take advantage of your inexperience.
- Stop watching late night TV commercials on about companies that help inventors. They make their money on you, not on the success of the product.
- If the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.
- Be wary of references. After all, if someone asks you for references, do you give them the bad ones?
- Scammers offer lots of services for which they charge up front. They have no skin in the game and no motivation to make sure your product gets to market.
- There are legitimate service providers who will send you an invoice. However, even here you need to be careful. Always ask for a quote. Ask the hourly rates. Attorneys are a prime example. Sometimes they charge an outrageous hourly rate and then charge you every time they speak your name. Ask and know the parameters of the services. Engineers can be sketchy too. Get a “Work for Hire Agreement” for them. Never play guessing games with service providers. Sometimes paying more is just more and not better!
Navigating the Road to Success
Getting from mind to market with your idea will not be free. The hard truth is that it will cost you money. Most inventors I work with have limited funds. That requires us to be smart and careful rather than carefree and reckless in the spending of those limited funds.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t find success in this endeavor. When in doubt, ask me please! I can point you in the right direction or, at least, keep you out of the hands of the scoundrels. I recommend that you download our resources manual: The Inventor’s Galaxy Guide. It’s full of good advice that’s free! (Hey, at least something is free!).
And if funding is a problem area for you, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Please check out our sister company, Archimedes’ Offspring at http://www.archimedesoffspring.com.
