Jason,

My line of thinking is very similar to yours.

After my first products hit the market a few years ago, other would be inventors asked me how I did it. Basically, I found I had always asked myself a series of empowering questions without really knowing it.

How could this me made better?
What product could I adopt from another industry to apply to my industry?
What can I do to solve this problem?
Is there a thriving market for a potential solution?
Is the potential product feasible?
Is there a mass distribution channel to tap into?
Will this product fit into an existing product line?
And many more.

Typically this process last only a few moments and the idea either grows legs or not. Until I discovered Edison Nation, I normally stayed within my areas of expertise. Now with EN, I get my family together and we brainstorm ideas for each search. We only submit ideas we think actually have a chance and have a blast doing it. Some of our submission videos should probably be on Funniest Home Videos.

Inventing for me started out as a creative outlet and hobby – now it’s my career. Only, it doesn’t seem like a job because I feel like I’m doing what God built me to do.

Dale www.FlexRight.net

Jason, you are saying you received an R5 on a Spencer Light Search idea but took that same idea to Spencer’s yourself and got a license deal? Interesting..

Actually, I think I got Red lined at 4.

I did some research and decided to approach Spencer’s myself, more out of boredom and desperation. You could say I did everything the wrong way…but it worked out and I’ve learned a ton from it.

I wasn’t able to get a licensing deal with Spencer’s, but was able to sell my invention concept to them and am going to recieve a “Designer’s Fee”. Basically it is a one time lump sum rather than an on going payment based on sales.

Being that it was a novelty item, my first invention to be sold, the limited life cycle I predict for it, and my lack of knowledge, etc…I’m happy with the deal I got. I also had them agree in the contract to send me 10 of the product once its manufactured.

The idea took me no more than 20 minutes to come up with, make a mock-up graphic/pic of. It won’t save any lives, but I get to see my first invention make it to market and made a few thousand along with it.

Jason

I use Michalko’s 5 ideas a day technique. I try to challenge myself to come up with five different money making inventions every day. By this method, I usually have a product idea ready before and LPS is ever posted. Edison used to use a similar technique; I believed he forced himself to come up with a new patent every month and a new breakthrough every 6 months.

The bid draw back is you can easily get consumed with this. It can easily become an obsession to come up with an idea and can hinder other things in your life.

To EN,
I’ll be devils advocate…I’m sure I am not the only person to question this, whether in print or just in your mind. Jason just came upon it…he was shot down by EN at R4 or R5 and then proceeds to get the idea in front of the same sponsor and they like it enough to pay a one time fee to purchase the idea. Which makes me want to question who is choosing the ideas that make it to G7 and are to be shown to the sponsor. Apparently Jason’s idea should have passed to a G7. I just think that all ideas should be presented to the sponsor as long as they pass the rigorous testing, such as pricing, patents and so on. I don’t think that it is fair that the number of ideas should then be cut back by the EN staff since they may like one idea more than another and stage 5 says it is reviewed against other submissions. This is a perfect example of the sponsor not being shown a perfectly good idea and then when the sponsor does see it they want it. Could also be why some ideas that are R8 for the 4th and 5th time, makes one think that someone at EN likes the idea but the sponsors might not be as enamored with them. This post might sound harsh, but trust me it isn’t meant to be. I just sound like I’m grouchy, I really need to work on that aspect of me. I realize that this is a fairly new business and you are still working out the bugs. I just have some questions about the process. I posted on this topic because this is where the problem arrived from. Just very interesting

To be completely honest, my entry into EN’s Spencer Gifts Light Search didn’t really meet the criteria they were looking for. It was a “shot in the dark” and entered because I had nothing else to enter.

No one can know the specifics of what the entries were and why certain ones were “red x-ed” and why others weren’t.

I also made some adjustments and tweaks since my original concept was entered into the LPS which may have made the difference.

Upon speaking with Spencer Gifts, they also said that my design would have to be modified, some features changed, others lost in order to meet the price point of $19.99 they wanted…something that could’ve effected EN’s decision.
Jason

Peggy – I absolutely agree. Unfortunately we take it upon fate that the folks at EN in charge of thinking the heard are doing a good job, and they may well be, but there is that boundary between the inventor and the potential client. I mean really…if EN where evil they can screw us and take our money. For all we know they put all the G4s on a large dart board and start throwing darts to see who passes to G7. Again, based on feedback from everyone, I think they are doing the best they can. But let me tell you, its scary to put all your eggs in one basket. You hear of folks on this forum submitting not only one idea, but multiple ideas against multiple LPS entries. They’re shelling out hundreds of dollars, but we don’t see the wizard behind the curtain. We get no feedback…

Another bit of criticism, I have a friend who’s lawyer wouldn’t allow him to submit in these LPS’s; said the terms and conditions are too “rough”, said a percentage of the net instead of the gross sales is asking for trouble because you can claim write-offs and post zero profit.

Then again, we can go elsewhere. I’m sure EN wouldn’t miss us (or me).

This Thread is getting a little off topic…but I will say that, although I was able to get what Spencer Gifts dubbed a “Designer’s Fee”, it wasn’t anything close to what I would’ve gotten if I had won the LPS, gotten an advance, a percentage of sales (even if it was net sales), a percentage of future sale of other merchandise related to my idea, etc.

We all know the process that EN does, and even never have one a LPS, I’ve been happy with them.

Jason

Juan,

I think it is also worth noting that your goal of submitting an idea to Edison Nation is to get Edison Nation to acquire it in exchange for a split in revenues. Edison Nation’s goal is to acquire ideas that we believe will return revenue. Therefore, our interests are aligned- we only succeed and make money if we help you do the same.

Ask yourself this: What is your favorite color shirt and what style. Now imagine finding someone that likes the same color and style shirt and has the money to buy one.

That is what it is like shopping your invention and one executive might hate it and his co-worker will love it. There are enough inventor shows to display this.

Handi-Straps as well as my other inventions were all turned down by companies, and some companies thought they were great.

Even when a CEO loves your idea, trust me, atleast one executive will think it will never work. What happens if your presentation ends up in the hands of that non-believing executive first? There are FAMOUS stories of this happening too…and then when the CEO sees after another company makes the idea big, he is irate that the executive did not show him.

Inventors must realize this and keep trying!!! You take a shot and you can’t blame anyone. I will also tell you, not being partial to EN because I cannot deceive anyone (that is just the same as stealing)..your not going to get a better deal than EN can get you even if you split 50%.

I couldn’t get the same deal they could…I don’t have the leverage! If you went around EN and got a deal at Spencer’s…well that is great…but I bet you were able to do that from what you learned here on the forums and from EN…and Inventors Digest….now say thank you EN…I am thankful of all I learned here…and got on TV because of them….getting in a major inventor book because of them….and who knows what else will come…I’m getting all that in a depression (this is not a recession)

Ron Komorowski
Inventor of Handi-Straps
www.handi-straps.com

OMG, Absolutely agree with you Ron! And I have learned a ton of things from reading this site. I was in no way bashing EN, I was just curious if all ideas are submitted or just a select few.

The company I work at has many licensing deals and you are right on the money. Sometimes the CEO loves the idea and others do not and vise versa. It is kinda funny how some management people want to license the product because it is different from ours and some management people only want to license the product if it compliments our own line.

I think the deal and this site is great, I was just hoping that all ideas were presented and then the sponsor company can make up their own mind since everyone has their own opinion, then everyone is on a level playing ground. That’s all

And some bad news…the frustration with “acceptance” only gets worse after licensing or manufacturing sometimes! I am trying VERY hard for publicity in magazines, newspapers, TV shows that I need because advertising won’t pay off right now.

I think, what a fit I would be for a certain TV show but they don’t call. Then you try for sales sometimes like I do for EMTs and they just don’t get it or think it’s not important..or truth is they probably don’t have the money.

The inventor’s pitch never ends…and it gets harder…and the occasional rejections never go away…you just get “thicker skinned”

The one place I would love to set up a booth is the Navy Peer in Chicago, there are a lot of people on that peer in the summer time. I don’t know if that is good exposure or not, but that’s a lot of eye’s looking at your product in one day.
Ah—ops! back on subject, I love inventing in the store isles mainly hardware stores.

So everyone…how do you invent?

Well…I do it one way by just extensive research until I “pound out” a new way or see something new or…
as with many others too….the subcoscious mind spits out a winning idea like a machine spits out a winning lottery ticket. This happens to me in a few particular places. The shower, while on a walk, driving,while sleeping or just before sleeping in a drousy state.

It is known that the subconscious mind continues to figure for us and is allowed to spit out the ideas when the “thinking” mind begins to rest. That is why the activities I listed are quite common for all creative thinkers, it is when the subconscious mind would get a chance to “take over”

I have studied this subject many years as the subject of the mind, brain, psychology and neuroscience fascinates me.

Einstein used to get stuck trying to think of something and he would go play the piano and let his subconscious mind kick out the idea. He used the piano playing as a system to figure things when he got a block like writers get writers block.

What happened with Einstein is when we do simple repetitive things our thinking mind can be lulled, like when we drive or walk, and then the subconscious mind can be “heard” and come on through.

The light bulb popping on over the head for a new idea was created exactly for this subconscious mind “popping in” with a new idea…a known fact.

I have always felt just going for a walk will give me a new invention every time it works so well for me…or a new marketing idea…something new.

Back to the topic! Whenever I drive I don’t have the radio on or when I go to the YMCA I don’t use an iPod, I consider this my thinking time. I really, really value my thinking time. I would say that this is when I am most creative!

I think across the board in any industry . I look at items in the stores. online and see how I would improve or make them more compact, easier to use and space saving like the Pebble Peeler. Two items in one is very marketable in the kitchen industry right now. I also give myself a topic each day and think on that topic to see what I can come up with. Today’s topic is wheel barrows. I pick things at random each day. Then I have companies send me wish lists so I know what area to focus on that fits their needs. Between the three my miond is always on, even when I am asleep. I wake up a lot and have to write down the idea I dream right then or lose it. I average sleeping about 5 hours a night.

http://www.rogerbrown.net

If I look at a cake, I put that cake in my mind, mentally make a brain storming web, everything about that cake, how it’s made, served, decorated etc and if I’m lucky, something pops up in a flash. Or it can happen later when I’m not thinking about that cake. Either way, I’m sure I have already eaten that cake ;-)

I also look at products and put them mentally in a line and space them. Sometimes an image of what needs to go in between them can pop up, or again…it can happen later. The rest it’s just random and I have no idea what triggers it, although I’m sure it was something I saw visually at some point during the day and didn’t take note of at the time.