Recently an entrepreneur had considered the possibility of taking a new type of jogging light, which would not need a battery from concept to market. The product made sense because everyone who walks or jogs at night would love to have one and it has applications for security professionals, neighborhood watch groups, space and probably even military. The entrepreneur was a salesman in a large corporation. He was determined to sell the product via TV Infomercial. Of course in reviewing this I had some comments;

“. . .Sales experience is important indeed. So is your stated experience being involved in start-ups, but doing the whole thing and making it work when your own butt is on the line is something else in the current business climate in this country. Selling the idea to a military usage or that flashlight company with the “Shaking Flashlight” maybe worthy if you have something more to show them. They might even fund you and kick you down some patent rights with exclusives for a nominal percentage and assist you in your efforts or pay you outright for it? I think you should look into that with them and contact a few Universities that I mentioned too, to help you miniaturize your prototype as no jogger wants to lug around something as big and heavy as a flashlight.”

So you see having sales experience is only one component of being an entrepreneur and those who think they can get rich just doing TV infomercials, well you might wish to check the statistics on that before you go falling in love with your product. Additionally I had the following advice for this entrepreneur;

“Even at best case scenarios with your TV infomercial, it is not the safest start-up business in the world, but it is a viable one. Personally, if I had to choose, I would not do it only for the Consumer Market, if that were my only choice; I simply would not take the risk or my own time and money. It would need to be a more long-term thing with a long-term plan for all markets and new ones discovered along the way. There are so many uses for this, it could be a whole new sector of the LED Lighting Industry, you see? It could be the next new thing.”

For the short-term play with new innovations and bringing them to market one has to look inside themselves and do a little self-assessment, as you only get one good shot at it and money does not grow on trees. So please entrepreneurs be thinking here before taking your new high tech personal gadget to market and blow a whole ton of cash.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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