Many young entrepreneurs come to my office to ask what I think about their ideas. Most of the time I tell them I think they are wonderful and worthwhile BUT…
I tell them to go home and make a model of the product they would like to sell. Often they don’t see the value in having a working model. However, I believe a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case a model can be worth thousands of dollars.
If you have an idea for a light that turns pink when it’s been on for ten minutes, have a working model to show at your presentation. You can’t just say the light will turn pink, you must show them.
I have noticed that many Web sites on the Internet tell people what they are going to do at some future time when they should be doing it right now. Say you search for a particular product on the Web and a site pops up. You think they have the product you want and it turns out they are “coming soon.” Could be the world’s fastest banking system or the newest, most modern fashion site. People will look at it as it is and won’t be back. You will never live up to their expectations. When people, a.k.a. customers, do not go back to visit your Web site, most likely you’ve lost revenue.
In the case of a product, engineers in R&D at a major company cannot guess what your product is supposed to do. You must show them. If they were creative enough to imagine it they would have invented it themselves!
If you are a product developer making a presentation tell it like it is which in this case means have a working model of your product. If it’s software it has to work without crashing. If it’s a consumer product, it has to do what you say it will.
You think you won’t be able to make a model, but that is indeed the exercise. You must be involved in the entire creative process so that you can turn your idea into reality.
Granted, if you need electronic work done and don’t know about electronics, hire someone to do the work for you; but you will have to describe in detail what the product should do so that the expert can make it work properly – all part of the process.
During any stage of this process when you think you won’t be able to solve a particular problem something will waken you from a sound sleep at 3 a.m. and there will be the solution! This has happened to me many times. Find some paper and write or sketch the idea and how it might work right away. Some phenomena seem to continue our thought processes while we sleep and often develop unique solutions unavailable to us when we are awake.
Having a working model of your product is the best way to dazzle people at a major presentation!
Article – Copyright 2000 Stanley I. Mason Syndicated by ParadigmTSA
