Your Invention Action Plan For 2008
With it also comes a fresh, clean slate. You can take the best lessons learned last year, and leave the baggage of disappointment and guilt behind, where it belongs - in the past.
Time to wipe the whiteboard clean and start plotting out your strategies and plans for moving your idea forward.
TIP 1 - Isolate Your Main Objective
You must first define your primary goal in order to define the path you take to get there. So, what is it that you really want to accomplish?
What is your specific "Best Case Scenario"?
Is it successfully licensing your product? You want a company to manufacture and market your invention and pay you a royalty?
Is your goal to start a company or business around your product and market it yourself?
Are you looking for increased sales of your existing product or inventory?
Would your ultimate goal for the year be to get a ton of exposure and publicity in the media?
You have to figure exactly what it is that would allow you to say, "2008 was fantastic because I ______"
Now that you have a mental picture of your successful outcome for 2008, work your way backwards to where you are right now.
Map out the steps needed to get from where you are now to the successful outcome you envisioned above. Take your time and really sit with this and think. Figure out exactly what would be happening in your dream scenario on a day to day basis. What would your day look like? What would you be doing? What would have to happen on a daily basis for your dream scenario to be real?
Now take inventory of your resources: working capital and money, people and business associates, vendors & suppliers, supporters and potential partners, your skills and access to the necessary tools for marketing, your distribution network, your internet presence, your physical inventory, your status as a business entity, and on and on.
Itemize, prioritize, and find holes that need plugging. This will become a major objective for you in 2008, finding the right resources to accomplish your carefully thought out plan and carry the idea along the roadmap you laid out earlier.
Set hard deadlines for meeting specific, actionable goals. No abstract or unquantifiable concepts allowed (ie; "Make lots of money...", or "Sell More Widgets..."). Be very specific: "Complete Demonstration Video by December 1st", "File Provisional Patent by Feb. 21", "Design Packaging By June 1st"...
WORK YOUR PLAN RELIGIOUSLY BUT REMAIN FLEXIBLE.
You need to develop a keen sense of acuity in terms of whether or not your strategies are working or not. There is no point in being dogmatic about your game plan, just because you believed that it would work when you sat down to write it out. It should be a constant work in progress, building upon each small victory and lesson learned.