Episode 14 - PROTOTYPE (name it & make it)

So you have an idea but now you need to make a prototype.  Did you pick a name and can it be easily found across all social media?  Jack goes over naming your product, developing a prototype, testing it all along the way to getting a manufacturer.

Episode Transcript

(00:15):
So tell me if you've heard thisone before. My protype idea is great,
it's not difficult. I can't understandwhat the problem is, Jack,
Is it always like this, Well, I can tell you if you can
make it and have something, justanything to show, that's usually half the

(00:37):
battle. Hi everybody, and welcomeback to the thirty year Overnight Sensation.
I'm your host, Jack Courage,and this podcast is a conversation, not
a class. If you're a noviceinventor or want to be an inventor,
I'll take you through the steps ofdesigning, manufacturing, selling, and getting

(00:58):
your product into the market. Thispodcast is not a front for subscription service
or some company trying to generate moneyoff of your ideas. It's about the
trials of inventing and it's not easy, but you can do it yourself.
You just have to be smart aboutit. Last week I told you I
looked for and came up with anidea. This week, I'm going to

(01:21):
focus on how I made the prototypeand tested it along the way to the
manufacturer. But first you have tocall it something. I've learned that once
you have an idea that you believeyou can make or produce it needs a
name. In my prototype brain,I knew it would not be hard to

(01:42):
make what I wanted for this newidea, to get it right and make
it look pretty for the manufacturer.My thought was that PAM would take my
seamsress. PAM would take a couplehours, which is very very quick.
Most ideas take weeks or months,and that timeframe is it's probably pretty usual.

(02:04):
Since this was gonna be quick,I needed a name. Now,
if you call it a widget ora thing, people just get confused.
I've had old friends that would swearI come up with the most base,
boring names on the planet. Butthat's usually because it just explains the product.
But it works. It works forme, and if that probably turns

(02:25):
out to be successful. The nameusually gets changed down the road anyway,
because of marketing or whoever's license itwants to call it something different, so
you really rarely keep the same name. But for me, the most important
thing you can do, the numberone thing you can do, is own

(02:47):
that product's name or your name atthat time. I don't mean just the
url, but all of the media. That's Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram,
anything, take time, anything thatyou think you're going to be on to
use. You need to go acrossthe board and own that name for that

(03:07):
product at that exact time. Onceyou've done that, it's very hard for
someone to take it from you.So don't do what I did. In
twenty twenty two, when I wasworking on this first project, I had
a name, so I emailed itback and forth to some business partners,
my graphics people. I moved itaround a lot, just trying to get

(03:29):
input. I had already checked ongo Daddy to see if the name was
available, and it was as aURL. Then I started checking across all
media to see if there were anyother problems in other platforms. This is
where we screwed up, or Iscrewed up between the emails and the texts.
Some spiders got it and they boughtit up. Crap. When we

(03:53):
went to buy it just a fewdays later, after all the discussion and
back and forth, it was nowalready sold and they wanted ten thousand dollars
for it. We're like, well, that's not going to happen. So
now we were forced to go withthe backup. I called it the hand
flag, and I can keep allthe media links in the URL for at

(04:15):
least a year or two because wewere able to get everything that we wanted.
We thought we'd be wanting information onor broadcasting, and that gives the
time. If you buy a yearor two's worth, that gives it enough
time. But you know it ifyou're probably going to sink or swim,
And like I said, a lotof times they move on from that name.
So now we have a name.Sounded easy, didn't it. But

(04:39):
once you start putting together all themedia links and url possibilities, it gets
a little tougher. Something about givingit a name makes it more real and
makes it easier to move on tothe next stage, which is making it
so. If they're the idea ofthe hand flag, I wanted to keep
it simple. I wanted to makethem in the United States and source them

(05:02):
through the United States. But forthe prototype I need to get my hands
on the easiest product that was closestto my idea. In this case,
I went online and bought the bestgrouping of kids biker gloves. I think
it was like five pairs for fifteenbucks, which translates to three dollars a
pair, and probably manufacturing costs offof that would be like a buck fifty

(05:28):
all good signs for a product thatgenerally sells for ten to twenty dollars retail,
depending on the brand that's written onthe product. So even as I'm
making the prototype, I'm trying tostay into the cost parameters of what I
think should be the final price.Next, I find a company in Georgia
that will sell me the flags,not on a stick, but just by

(05:50):
themselves. Now, they were veryaccommodating, but they wouldn't sell me less
than five hundred. So, youknow, well, I would have liked
less, but it is what itis when you're dealing with something on the
fast pace like that. And Istill had no idea if this was even
going to work. So five hundred, you know, it's what I had

(06:13):
to do to get it going.So now this is where you need cash
right now. I wanted to buytwo hundred pairs of kids gloves, that
equals about four hundred flags. Icontacted a few manufacturers for the gloves,
but they wouldn't come down on price. It was going to be three bucks
a pair if I wanted to getthem quick. So let's look at the

(06:34):
protype costs right now. Just toproduce this idea to give it to the
manufacture gloves three bucks. Flags wereabout fifty cents each, and I knew
that would drop, and so we'relooking at about four bucks each and I
still haven't sown the product. Formy seamstress, I pay her a discovery

(06:56):
fee, and that's for her towork out the process of what she needs
to do to make the final product, and then the price per piece to
sew it. In this case,she was going to have to cut open
the glove, lay the flag onthe glove, then sew it back up
for probably three bucks a pair dollarfifty each, which is great. I

(07:18):
got what I wanted. It wasquick. She's a jewel, So that
means right now, I'm making aprotype in the United States for seven bucks
a pair. Right there, mostpeople would stop and go wait, wait,
wait, wait a minute, that'stoo much. You need to sell
this for a lot less. No. I know I have to sell it

(07:40):
for a lot less, but rightnow I don't even know if this is
going to work. So yes,I will lose money on the short term
at seven dollars a pair no matterhow I sell it, But that is
the point selling it, And youknow, is it viable. Is this
probably even gonna work? So thisis where I say, welcome to the

(08:01):
world of prototyping. I could havejust made this and send it to the
manufacturer, just made one pair,send it to the manufacturer, but I
wouldn't know anything, and I wouldn'tknow through testing if I needed improvements,
which I did need improvements, Ijust didn't know it at that exact time.
So PAM makes me two hundred units. That translates to about fifteen hundred

(08:26):
bucks and something that I have noidea if it's going to work. Now,
let's say you don't have any moneyto get that idea off the ground.
You have to be realistic or whatyou might spend for me on this
project. I figured I'd burn throughthree thousand before I knew anything. Why
three thousand instead of seventeen hundred ortwo thousand. It's because right then and

(08:48):
there, I thought fifteen hundred dollarsto make the prototype, and then probably
another thousand dollars later for the linesample from the manufacturer, and then I'd
have expenses on lot along the way. Everything costs more and nothing has to
do with the prototype. That onthe extra expenses which I'll explain later,

(09:09):
long time ago, I figured tojust double my cost. It sucks.
It seems like you could do itfor cheaper. But the last thing you
want to have happened when you're doingprototypes is that you raise money x and
then your short three hundred dollars,when if you just had planned at the
very beginning, you would have beenokay. Honestly, I can't remember the

(09:31):
last time I blew the prototype stageby underestimating the costs. It just take
what you think you're going to spendand double it, and that helps account
for all the hidden costs along theway. It just so happens. On
this one example, I did needa little more because I wanted people to

(09:52):
know they were available, so Ibought signs and a few other things that
make the product more noticeable, andit all cost extra money. Plus if
I'd made it that far, I'dstill have to pay the manufacture of the
line costs, which I explained toearlier. That's just to make the sample.
So you might say, hey,where are you gonna get three thousand

(10:16):
dollars for me? At this pointI would go to partners investors, But
when I was starting out it waseasier for me to throw parties and raise
money that way. But there arethousands of ways to raise money. And
I see this a lot. Peoplehave good ideas, figure out the ballpark

(10:37):
pricing, then they figure out theydon't have the money and quit. And
you know that's terrible. It's agood idea, and you just gave up
before he really even started. Andthen I have to tell him the painful
truth. You don't want it enough. Come on, Jack, why are
you such a dream killer? Ihad this friend, essentially a good friend,

(11:00):
Jeff. He had a really goodidea. He called me up to
come over and take a look atit. It was and still is a
good idea. I think he figuredit would cost him about five thousand dollars
to get it off the ground andgo him. I told him, if
he thought that was the case,he better raise ten thousand, because you
know my math, and it alwayscosts more. I remember the look that

(11:24):
he gave me, like, wheream I going to get ten thousand dollars.
We were in his garage and Ilooked around. I said, geez,
man, you've got five motorcycles inhere and three different types of riding
lawnmowers. He had a big garage. I said, sell two of those
bikes and maybe one lawnmower, youknow, one of the riding lawnmowers that

(11:46):
was in there, and you'd beset. And he looked at me and
he said, no way, Ijust can't do it. No way,
I love it, I can't Ican't sell him. And I said,
well, sorry, man, butyou don't want it enough. And I
hated to be harsh to my friend, but this is just the beginning.
I mean, it's your idea.If you're not the one that commits one

(12:07):
hundred percent, how do you thinkyou're gonna get other people to do the
same. Now, I'm not sayingmortgage your house for an unproven idea,
which we talked about last season,but in this day and age, if
you're serious, coming up with underten thousand dollars amounts to a second job
or selling off some items that youdon't have to have. It speaks to

(12:31):
the commitment of also what you're doing. Okay, so back to the hand
flag. I now get the twohundred units back and I start going over
them, and I have a problem. They don't have enough zip or umph.
So right there, if I hadsent these away and had him made,
I would have been stuck with myfirst thought and maybe fifteen hundred to

(12:52):
thirty three thousand units that would bewrong, which would turn out that they
were not right. The product neededmore. First, I cut a notch
into the flag to make the flagslook like the Kevin Costner Calvarry flags and
Dances with Wolves. It's called anarmy guiden cut. But when I waived

(13:16):
it, well, it still didn'tfeel like enough even with the cut out
of it. So I wanted more. One side note that I have to
dress in the coming weeks. Butat this exact place is where I decided
to file for a patent before Ihad sold one unit. And this is
very very important and we'll talk aboutit later. But after the first group

(13:41):
sample, even with the having alack of oomph, I called my partners
and I said this is worth gamblingon. I showed them the image and
they agreed. Okay, So nowI take fifty of the two hundred units
and I've cut that, you know, a guidance cut into it, which
is like a notch, and I'mstill not happy with It's still not working,

(14:05):
and I'm going to have to gotry and sell these and I just
need something to give it more ofa waving effect. And that's where I
decided to cut along the stripes ofthe flag to give it more of a
waving effect with the fringe that wouldcause by me cutting on the stripes.
And I got exactly what I wanted. It had motion. It didn't look

(14:26):
stiff, it looked fun. Sonow that I had the hand flag the
way I wanted it, what wasI going to do about it? So
I grabbed this little TV table andI put a cardboard sign on that just
said five dollars the dollar sign anda number five, And that was it.
And that's what I was going totake down to the next parade,

(14:50):
with the hand flags and just thatdarn sign. Now, I'm sure what
I did wasn't exactly legal. Ididn't have a sales permit and for that
parade that was coming up, butI did Any of the street vendors that
I see at all these parades wouldhave one either. I just figured if
I set up before the parade,like right before the parade, and quit

(15:11):
before the end, the police wouldn'treally bother me much. And I was
right. I had bought the glovesin two sizes small five years and younger
and medium twelve years and younger.I purposely put my table between two small
families in a not very busy partof the parade, but I could see
a lot of people walking back andforth behind where they were sitting. So

(15:33):
I setup took about a full twominutes and I was ready. The two
kids near me were kind of curious, and I said, I'll give you
one if you guys put them onand wave it everybody going up and down
the parade. I checked with theparents and they said that was okay.
So the parade started and I hadno idea what would happen. But I

(15:54):
did know one thing. If somethingsucks, you can't give it away.
And I really didn't know what wasgoing to happen, So this is going
to be fun for me. Ateenager across the street came right over.
He was my first sale and Itold him he had to try on the
gloves first, because I did expectyounger fans. He fit in the medium,

(16:15):
which kind of surprised me, andhe walked back across the street.
He was the best salesman I couldhave dreamed of, because he stood out
and he waved it everybody. Peoplewould walk by say something to him and
he'd point over me and they'd seesome guys sitting behind the little TV table
with just the dollar sign in numberfive, and that's what sold the hand

(16:37):
flags. So I was out ofeverything I brought in about an hour.
I got a lot of feedback,and right there I knew I had passed
the first test. People had paidfor the idea less than what it would
sell for, but they had paidfor it, so I knew I was
on to at least something. Iwas in the right direction, and the

(17:00):
way they paid for it was alsoa lesson. Most families had at least
two or three kids, so theparents thought, I guess for the day
and the time. Spending twenty bucksat under for multiple kids was a good
idea because nobody was selling anything forfive bucks. I sold very few ones

(17:21):
at five, but I sold alot at four for twenty. So right
then and there, with passing testone, I felt pretty good that I
had. You know, I thoughtit was going in the right direction.
I picked up my table on bagand was planning my next move when that
first sale, the teenager came over. He said, hey, there's a

(17:41):
biker parade next week, two townsover. Are you gonna be there?
And I said, I don't know, maybe why. He said, ah,
he's gonna be there with a bunchof cousins and he thought they'd like
this. And I said, butman, you're in the right place at
the right time, because next weekit's going to be more I'll find a
place and I'll see you there.And that was the next step. Would

(18:03):
these hold up if I raised theprice and sold them at the next parade.
So for test two, I putthe gloves in nice bags, put
a little printed card that explained wherethe flag came from and where the which
was Georgia, and where the gloveswere assembled, which was in Iowa.

(18:26):
And next I found a little retailstore in that town that had the parade
and right on the parade route,and they were willing to sell them for
me at twelve bucks apiece. Tomake this deal happen, though, I
gave them to the store on consignmentand I told them they'd make six bucks
profit it they just sold them.Now I realized, at best I'd still

(18:48):
be losing a bucket pair, butthis would also prove that if it was
right and they could sell them atthis odd price at twelve bucks, that
it wouldn't be too hard to pushit to fifteen to twenty dollars, and
said this was a small store,they'd get away with selling it a twelve
dollars instead of immediately saying, nowit's gotta be fifteen bucks. Lucky for

(19:10):
me, it was an entire biker'sweekend, not just a parade. So
on Thursday I dropped off fifty unitsand the owner was pretty good. I
said, you know, I'm puttingthis on consignment. Do you mind putting
this in the window and by theregister so it's visible and gives them New
Pridic a chance. And they reallydidn't have a problem with that. They
also knew they were the only onesselling it, and honestly, I had

(19:33):
no idea how they would sell withouthaving a salesman. I didn't hear from
them on Friday and even early onSaturday. By Saturday noon, I was
prepared for bad news. I waslike, oh, that's the way it's
going to go. So late Saturdayafternoon I called the store and they said,
hey, we sold out. We'rejust busy. Thanks for calling,

(19:56):
and I said great. They saidthey sold them all, and that the
parade wasn't still until tomorrow afternoon.Would I mind dropping off some more?
Truth be told, they only soldabout seventy five and that's one hundred and
twenty five over the course of theweekend. Nothing to sneeze at, and
they did want to keep the lasttwenty five to sell, and that gave

(20:18):
me a chance to come back collectthe money at a later time, see
how many were returned damaged complaints,and then find out from them how they
were sold as a group, likeif they noticed if there's always one at
a time or in groups. Forme, at this point, the prototype
stage was now over Night'd seen enoughto gamble on paying for a US manufacturer

(20:42):
and an overseas manufacturer to make mefactory line samples at both locations and give
me price quotes. The idea oftwo manufacturers was simple. If it was
the United States flag, I wantedto have it made in the United States,
and if it was banners or otherdesigns, I could get those made

(21:03):
overseas. You have no idea thepushback I got from the soccer people and
sponsors on using the American flag,it seems like it's still too controversial and
that's just crazy to me. Seriously, it did shake me up that I
was dealing with something for a nationalaudience and they thought the American flag was

(21:29):
too controversial. But luckily I hadanother plan. Always got to have another
plan. So until next time.When you're thinking of ideas, never settle.
And when you're stuck, I meanreally struggling, just stay the course.
Keep in mind when it gets tough, that's when most people give up
and quit. There's always another way. I'm your host, Jack Courage the

(21:53):
thirty year Overnight Sensation. Stay atit.