(Under Construction)
Shop Hacks Innovators Program
How to - Market Searches and Patent Searches
It takes discipline to get your product through the whole process but it can be very much worth it
We've all had that "ah-ha!" moment when we thought of the next big thing or some awesome modification or tool that everyone is going to love. It's natural to get super excited and dream of selling your great idea. However, there are billions of great ideas out there but it takes discipline to go through all of the steps required to evaluate product ideas so you only spend time on the ones that have a chance of selling and at a price that makes them profitable. Not many people have the discipline to go through all of the steps needed to see a product through. It takes discipline and tenacity. When the rush of a great new idea is over and you still need to complete 10 more steps to get to the finish line, will you have what it takes to make it? I hope so. I'll outline most of those steps here. The Shop Hacks Innovators Program is designed to pick up the absolute hardest part of the project which is, showing the product to a large enough group of people in a compelling enough way from a brand they trust so that they will want to buy it. We hope to bridge the gap for those of you who love to innovate but don't want to go through the grueling process of building a brand and an audience to sell to.
Plans vs. Physical Products
Shop Hacks will consider selling physical products that are easy to make with a CNC router, laser, sheet metal or other simple processes but by the time you take out the costs of manufacture, packaging, shipping , taxes, credit card fees, etc... there must be a very high margin (viable retail price = at least 3x to 4x cost to make) before it makes sense to license. Your cut will be much smaller with physical products than with plans. We recommend that you start with developing a product that can be easily reproduced by people of average ability with a set of plans. Once plans are developed, the only costs involved are advertising, merchant fees and shipping fees. There may be more profit from a $10 set of plans than a $75 physical product and there's far less work involved.
What kind of product ideas are we looking for?
Go to www.kregtool.com to see a lot of great products that are similar to the products we want to sell through Shop Hacks. Simple construction, easy to understand benefits without explanation, something a LOT of people can use, simple innovative solutions to common hassles, not too expensive.
Often it's better to look at existing products and read the product reviews to see where the weaknesses are and design to correct those issues. The advantage of using this method is that you know that the product has a proven market and it's easier to improve a product than it is to develop one from scratch. Just make sure there aren't any patents blocking your idea from being sold.
What are some qualities of a great product idea?
We've all had that "ah-ha!" moment when we thought of the next big thing or some awesome modification or tool that everyone is going to love. It's natural to get super excited and dream of selling your great idea. However, there are billions of great ideas out there but it takes discipline to go through all of the steps required to evaluate product ideas so you only spend time on the ones that have a chance of selling and at a price that makes them profitable. Not many people have the discipline to go through all of the steps needed to see a product through. It takes discipline and tenacity. When the rush of a great new idea is over and you still need to complete 10 more steps to get to the finish line, will you have what it takes to make it? I hope so. I'll outline most of those steps here. The Shop Hacks Innovators Program is designed to pick up the absolute hardest part of the project which is, showing the product to a large enough group of people in a compelling enough way from a brand they trust so that they will want to buy it. We hope to bridge the gap for those of you who love to innovate but don't want to go through the grueling process of building a brand and an audience to sell to.
Plans vs. Physical Products
Shop Hacks will consider selling physical products that are easy to make with a CNC router, laser, sheet metal or other simple processes but by the time you take out the costs of manufacture, packaging, shipping , taxes, credit card fees, etc... there must be a very high margin (viable retail price = at least 3x to 4x cost to make) before it makes sense to license. Your cut will be much smaller with physical products than with plans. We recommend that you start with developing a product that can be easily reproduced by people of average ability with a set of plans. Once plans are developed, the only costs involved are advertising, merchant fees and shipping fees. There may be more profit from a $10 set of plans than a $75 physical product and there's far less work involved.
What kind of product ideas are we looking for?
Go to www.kregtool.com to see a lot of great products that are similar to the products we want to sell through Shop Hacks. Simple construction, easy to understand benefits without explanation, something a LOT of people can use, simple innovative solutions to common hassles, not too expensive.
Often it's better to look at existing products and read the product reviews to see where the weaknesses are and design to correct those issues. The advantage of using this method is that you know that the product has a proven market and it's easier to improve a product than it is to develop one from scratch. Just make sure there aren't any patents blocking your idea from being sold.
What are some qualities of a great product idea?
- It has a large market. Offer a benefit that at least tens of thousands (the more the better) of people value. The benefit has to be more valuable than their next best visible option. Typically, less than 1% of people that visit a website buy something. Depending on how a product is advertised, between 0.1% (typical) and 50% (with an already eager audience) of the people presented with a product will click on the link to see it on the website. That means that a product has to be presented to between 200 and 10,000 people before you make one sale. If you want to sell 100 sets of plans per month you will have to reach 20,000 to 1M people per month. If a product only has 1M potentially interested customers then it won't keep selling for very long or it will become too expensive to reach enough people to sell it. For example: Large market - pocket hole jig. Small market - complicated flip table design with lots of innovative features
- It has a benefit that is easy to understand in less than 5 seconds. You get between 1 and 5 seconds to grab a person's attention before they start looking elsewhere. If your product requires more than 5 seconds to gain their attention then it will be very hard to sell.
- It removes fear or pain. People are 5x more likely to buy something that removes fear or pain than they are to buy something that offers a reward only. The SawStop table saw system is a great example. Only a small % of people cut a finger off using a table saw but everyone fears doing so. The SawStop removes a fear that EVERYONE who uses a table saw (tens of millions) has.
- Customers can picture themselves easily making it and/or using it. A pocket hole jig is a good example. A 5 second video or a series of 3 photos is enough to convey the idea that anyone can use the system and benefit from it. Some of the most popular projects in the Shop Hacks group are VERY simple. If a person can picture themselves building the project and gaining a benefit from using it without a lot of mental contortions they are much more likely to buy it. Complex projects lose their attention quickly because they aren't surfing the Internet to expend more mental energy but less.
- Physical products under $20 are much easier to sell than expensive products. Some physical products can sell for under $20 and still have high margins. Products that can be cut and etched with a laser and easily assembled by the customer are good examples. A novel design for a protractor or possibly a compass or a cutting template are some examples . Some CNC'd products are feasible but they need to be small enough to not cost much to package and ship. Developing plans for a useful item and then selling a simple hardware kit is a good example. Use your imagination.
- Start out with a simple product. Plans typically sell for a price between $3 and $15. Don't spend 4 months developing a super complex machine that you can only sell plans for $5. Complex product plans don't sell better than very simple product plans. In most cases you make more $ per hour invested if you create simple plans that take a few days or a week to develop vs one complex set of plans that take months to develop.
- Don't choose products in highly saturated markets. For example, don't try to beat Bessy with a high end clamp but we might be able to sell plans for a DIY clamp that is better than anything else a customer can find on YouTube.
Perform a Market Search - Study the marketplace
This step is crucial for many reasons but the number one reason is that you need to become an expert regarding the market where your product will be sold. You need to learn about all competing products and what people like and dislike about them. Follow all of these steps. Make screenshots and copy links into a Word or Excel document to keep track of all of the information you collect in this process.
1. Go to Google Images and perform an image search for products similar to what you are thinking about. VERY often when people bring a product idea to me I can find something similar or better using Google Images in less than 5 minutes of searching. You will find many products similar to yours but don't be discouraged about that because that just means there's a demand. Copy links and images and keep them in a file for easy access if you still feel like your product idea offers a significant benefit that the others do not offer.
2. If you make it past step 1, perform a search on ALL relevant sites, including but not limited to:
This step is crucial for many reasons but the number one reason is that you need to become an expert regarding the market where your product will be sold. You need to learn about all competing products and what people like and dislike about them. Follow all of these steps. Make screenshots and copy links into a Word or Excel document to keep track of all of the information you collect in this process.
1. Go to Google Images and perform an image search for products similar to what you are thinking about. VERY often when people bring a product idea to me I can find something similar or better using Google Images in less than 5 minutes of searching. You will find many products similar to yours but don't be discouraged about that because that just means there's a demand. Copy links and images and keep them in a file for easy access if you still feel like your product idea offers a significant benefit that the others do not offer.
2. If you make it past step 1, perform a search on ALL relevant sites, including but not limited to:
- Amazon, EBay, Aliexpress, Walmart, Rockler, Woodcraft, Kregtools, Lee Valley, Kickstarter, YouTube.
- Take notes and save links and pictures of similar products.
- Read customer reviews and note what customers like and dislike about similar products. Can your product solve some of the most prominent customer complaints?
- What are the 5 top products that solve a similar problem as your product?
- How many reviews do each of those products get on Amazon? I.E. are enough people buying them to warrant trying to sell something similar?
- What unique benefit does your product offer that the competition doesn't?
- What unsolved problem does it solve?
- What do customers complain about in reviews regarding similar products ?
- Does your product solve any of the problems customers complain about?
How to Perform a Patent Search
- Go to https://patents.google.com/ and search for patents similar to your product
- Click on the "Patent Citations" and "Cited by" links to see similar patents. This makes it very easy to home in on a lot of patents that are in the same area as your product idea. You can look at the "find prior art" and the "similar" sections but the citations and cited by sections should give you everything you need.
- Look at the "classifications" to find the area related to your product and find more products in that classification.
- Read the abstracts and figures to understand the general area of the inventions. You don't need to read the description section but look at the "claims" section. Those are the areas they are actually claiming for patent protection.
- Once you find 20 or 30 patents similar to yours you will have an idea if your idea is blocked by any patent claims. Another benefit of this exercise is that it will give you a lot of great ideas to improve your product. Patents are a treasure trove of great information about what people have tried to solve problems in every kind of way. Use this as a learning experience.