Invention Financing and Starting a Business

The Business Plan

To raise money from investors who are not family and the closest of friends, a business plan is a virtual necessity. The plan tells investors the following:

why the world wants your invention

who will buy it

how and where they will buy it

how much money is needed and specifically for what

the potential return for the investor and when to expect the return

Most often it is the need to attract outside money that motivates an inventor to write a business plan. However, the inventor, more than anyone else, benefits from it. No one invests more heavily. More than anyone else, the inventor must be sold on the plan and on its likelihood of success. A good business plan is an important step toward success.

Business Plan Information and Tools

Money & Inventing - Invention City article - A framework for understanding the economics of inventing.
Business Funding - Thinking about funding your venture? Upload your business plan to PostIdea.com's secure network and to find potential funding or partners. Read the information at the site to see if this service fits your needs.
Anatomy of a Business Plan - Book - A Step-By-Step Guide to Starting Smart, Building the Business, and Securing Your Company's Future. Updated edition of the 1994 Ben Franklin Award winner for Best Business Book. Includes the latest marketing strategies that incorporate the Web; up-to-date business plans; latest resources for entrepreneurs; and a new section on exit planning. Placed with sample forms, worksheets, and two fully developed actual plans. By Linda Pinson. $17.56
The Start-Up Guide - Book - A One-Year Plan for Entrepreneurs. Outlines a 12-month action plan for creating a new business. Provides a framework to research and test ideas inexpensively, define and identify ways to reach the best markets, and forecast sales and expenses. By David H. Bangs, Jr. $18.36

Submit Your Invention to Invention City

Invention Submission - If accepted, Invention City will commercialize your invention (take it from idea stage to retail shelf), without any upfront investment from you. I-City advances the funds necessary for patents, design, manufacturing and marketing. I-City recoups its investment from sales of the product and and earns a return on its effort and risk through profit sharing.