Commercialising New Ideas
Commercialising business ideas and inventions
Are there really any real tried and proven “templates” for commercialising an invention? I recently read a business article on exactly this question. It seems the so called “experts” who charge fees for protecting promoting and commercialising ideas on behalf of inventors are even less successful than the inventors themselves. One firm who charged between $1,000 and $2,000 to over 35,000 businesses had only three successes to crow about. On the face of it, the likely success rate is one in one hundred, and if your idea were to be wildly successful the ratio is perhaps one in one thousand. But yes there are certain paths, certain initial criteria and a certain “fuzzy-logic” approach to success in this area.
The first step – Business planning in a small business
A very true business principle is “If you fail to plan – you plan to fail.” The secrets to successful business plans are not in the volume of words written, nor the investment in time and the cost of so called experts – It is the ability of the business plan to present to the business the clear roadmap representing where you are, where you want to be, how you are going to get there and how will you measure progress.
All success is measurable
But do inventors know what to measure, and how to influences potential buyers. Should you ignore accounting reports and concentrate solely on operational outcomes. Or does there exist a simple method of linking present business activity to future business value?
All the important processes used in large corporations can be introduced successfully into small businesses. There are ways to “shift the odds” in your favour – even if you are a micro business. It is possible to develop effective commercialising strategies in small to medium enterprises.