You’ve all heard the story about Colonel Sanders of KFC fame how he tried to promote about 60 new ideas he had and each one failed. He kept going and was always determined to succeed. Product after product failed and it wasn’t until he was well on in years did he finally make it with his famous secret chicken recipe.
How he became famous in the chicken world is a fascinating story as well.
Maybe you’ve heard the story of 1000 restaurant owners who rejected Colonel Sanders’ Fried Chicken proposal,
and Prospect #1001 who finally said “yes.”
BUT… did you ever hear the story behind the story?
This is a good one. An old photocopier salesman, who called on Colonel Sanders back in the 60’s, passed this along to me.
The Colonel had a restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, which had been doing very well. A new interstate highway was
planned to bypass the town of Corbin. Seeing that his business was about to dry up, the Colonel auctioned off
his operations. After paying his bills, he had nothing to live on except his $105 Social Security checks.
In 1952, confident of his chicken recipe, he began crisscrossing the country in his car, making an offer to restaurant owners: He would walk into a restaurant, announce to the owner, “I bet my chicken recipe is better than yours” and propose a cook-off. (The chicken provided by the restaurants he visited, using his recipe, was part of his plan for feeding himself during those lean days.)
If the owner was favorable, he would “franchise” his chicken recipe to them at 5 cents per chicken.
In all, just over 1000 restaurants turned him down, without one successful deal.
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Then one day he was having his daily cooking duel with a bar owner, who said to him, “Sir, I’m trying to sell beer, not
chicken. This stuff needs to be a whole lot saltier so customers will get thirsty and buy beer!”
So he grabbed the salt shaker, poured some salt on, and took another bite. ”Now THIS is GREAT,” he said. ”If you’ll add
salt to this recipe, I’m a taker!”
The Colonel took a bite and spit it out! It was terrible!
(This is the end of part 1 – part 2 will continue shortly)
PART 2 – If you haven’t already read part 1, you can locate it HERE
Ask them the following questions:
1. How much do you charge for everything?
2. What is your success rate for inventors who made more money than what they paid you?
3. Isn’t it true that you make your profits from the money I pay you?
This is a good way to find out which particular company you can trust.
Before too long you will end up with a list of companies who will all give you the same or similar answers. The answers of which will either be elusive, deceptive and probably misleading. It is the job of the commissioned salesperson to talk you into paying them for their services.
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Invention company scams steal over $300 million dollars annually from unsuspecting “Newventors” (A new Inventor). Don’t be one of the NewVentors who lose their money.
Find the company you can trust and then you will be ahead of the game.
If you haven’t already read part 1, you can locate it HERE
Have you thought of a good way to rate your invention guru? There are currently over 500 invention companies, patent attorneys and invention related websites, ready to share and bloviate (To speak or write at length in a pompous or boastful manner) their wisdom with you and help you decide what to do with your invention idea.
The unfortunate truth is that 8 out of 10 of these companies are bad. You need to sift through them to find the one that you can trust.
From letters I have received from inventors I can conclude that some of you read everything that anyone is posting on these websites. That’s a lot of reading! There has to be a better way – and there is a better way.
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The only tool you need to get started is free and honest information. Whenever you read someone’s ad or article or 2 cents worth of invention information, simply build up a file on each one of them and write down what they say they can and will do. Most invention websites tout their expertise. They boastfully tell you how will:
1.Get your invention in front of hundreds of manufacturers.
2.Get you a patent.
3.Get you a research report.
The truth is they make bold claims and deliver little to nothing in return.
You know the old saying ‘Winners Never Quit, and Quitters Never Win.’ However, is this the whole truth or is there something else that needs to be added?
Back in the 1980’s I was an invention junkie. I was hearing this quote every day. And I believed it passionately. I spent days, weeks, months and years trying to perfect this new fantastic invention I developed.
But eventually, slowly, I began to realize that this statement was nothing more than a way of manipulating me (via my own guilt) into sticking with my new invention idea for yet-another-month of doing something that absolutely was not working at all.
Let’s get something straight: Some enterprises aren’t worth doing. Some products are so weak that nothing can save them. Some ventures are doomed from the start, even if they ‘appear’ to be worthwhile.
Sorry to say that some inventors are capable of making their invention ‘look and sound’ successful, but the reality is the invention is not. Every inventor must submit their invention ideas to rigorous testing to find out if the invention is fundamentally profitable or not.
When you figure out that your invention isn’t going to work, DITCH IT and move on! That’s quitting out of STRENGTH.
Here’s the REAL issue:
Will you be quitting out of STRENGTH, or will you be quitting out of WEAKNESS?
If you quit because you’re just lazy or not willing to learn, then you’re quitting out of weakness.
If you quit because you’ve determined that you’re headed in the wrong direction with your invention, then you’re quitting out of strength. And you should quit as fast as you possibly can, so that you can WIN with a new invention idea.
So here’s the REAL truth:
Inventors should never quit out of weakness, and quitters never even get far enough to quit out of strength.
Just like everything else we talk about, a comprehensive invention evaluation uses real numbers and results to judge winning and losing product ideas and get down to the real truth.
If you had an honest evaluation and if the the results of that evaluation told you to stop and move on to something else, do you have what it takes to quit out of strength?
1. What are my chances that my product will be a success?
Industry experts show that about 1 product in 20 may get licensed and that only 1 in a 100 ideas make money for the inventor. Most new product ideas fail because bringing any new product to the marketplace is an extremely uncertain process, which has much risk and no guarantee of success. By reading the details of the invention process here, we will help you limit your risks and keep your investment to a minimum.
2. I have a really good idea. What should I do next?
Four important steps should be taken: (1) Look at the market for similar items as well as for different items that fill the same need in an alternative way. (2) Check to see if your product actually works the way you think it can. (3) Evaluate if your idea can be put into the marketplace at a price that will sell. Building a prototype will help you decide cost. (4) See if you can get patent protection. We suggest you start with the Invention Evaluation Test we offer for only $97. It is completely confidential and you will not show your idea to us.
3. How much money can my invention make me?
It is extremely difficult to project the amount of money that can be made from any invention. There are a considerable number of cost variables and channels of distribution to complicate the calculation of your expected income stream. If you were to license your invention to a manufacturer, your return would be a percentage (2 to 9%) of the wholesale selling price of the product. If the volume of the product sold is large, the income stream can also be significant.
4. Can a typical inventor set up a company and build their own patented products?
Yes, this option is always available. However, most inventors do not have the requisite manufacturing, engineering, or financial skills to successfully run a company that could produce the patented product in volume and we suggest other options be exhausted before you begin this huge effort. If you can license the product to a qualified manufacturer, there is much less investment on your part to bring the product to market so your risk to reward is maximized.
September 18, 2009 | Posted by Victor 
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Categories: Competition, Distribution, Financial Resources, Invention 101, Inventor, Licensing, Manufacturing And Production, Marketing, Promotion & Advertising, Research And Development, Test Marketing Analysis | 
Tags: business, Financial, How To, invention, Marketing, Rules, success, Tips | 
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