Inventing: First Steps

An invention is often treated like a baby.

But an invention is not a baby. It's a high risk investment. Successful inventors minimize risk and maximize the chances of success by doing their homework.

The hard truth is that most inventions are not worth developing - even if the ideas are sound. You will have many great ideas during your inventing career. The key to success is spending time and money on the ideas that will return a profit.

Failures are more common than successes. A failure can be either a learning or a bankrupting experience. On my shelf are dud projects that have cost my companies from $5,000 to $100,000+. In total we've probably blown upwards of $1,000,000 on projects that have gone (and will go) nowhere. Fortunately, we've had some great successes to offset the duds. More importantly, we've (finally) learned how to recognize dud projects early on. The price of a dud has gone down considerably. This means we can pursue more projects AND keep more money in our pocket.

Inventing 101 tells you how to inexpensively evaluate your invention yourself, how to protect it and how to make a first stage prototype. The book is written from my unique perspective as both inventor (licensor) and corporation (licensee).

Mike Marks
President, Invention City, Inc.

Know that your idea is worth time and effort
Save thousands of dollars
Protect your invention on a tight budget
Make a prototype
... and much more

If you expect someone else to do the hard work for you then you should not read this guidebook. Inventing 101 is written for inventors who care about succeeding with their inventions and care about saving money