Not long ago, I spoke with a bright young woman who has a new invention that she would like to market to the world. Of course, she already has a day job, but she would like to use this as her ticket out of the 9 to 5 world and help launch her career as a successful, innovative and entrepreneurial company. I so applaud that desire to succeed in the free market. I think that’s what makes America great, because there are opportunities for people who want to take advantage of them and are willing to take risks. Now, let’s talk about this a second time, okay?

Can someone really bring a new invention to market if they still have a day job? Yes, I believe they can, and there are many success stories of those who have. No, it’s not going to be easy, but even if you only spend a few hours a night, you can put together a pretty decent business plan, work on your prototype, do the patent searches, and do the market research to see if it’s what you want. to produce, if your original thought and concept can really make it in the real world. You may find that your idea is great, but no one is really going to buy it, and you’re not going to get rich selling it.

That’s fine, because this study that you do in advance and business planning that you work hard to learn, well, these are the first steps, regardless of what the invention is. Even if this invention doesn’t make sense, that doesn’t mean your next idea doesn’t. What you need to do is keep your mind active, focused and not let your optimistic grandiose ideas run away with it. You have to be systematic in your approach. Of course, this is my advice to the young lady who has a great invention, but I can’t tell you what it is, it’s a secret for now.

There are a number of steps you need to follow, those steps take time and require patience, if you have a day job then you have all the time in the world, right? So you need to get started right away, do your research, do your business planning, and see if it’s something that people will buy. If so, start designing your prototype and see if people like it, if so, file a provisional patent, patent pending, and do some test sales on eBay, Craigslist, and/or Amazon.

Try some social networking with your friends and family to see if you can build some buzz, if things take off then you can quit your job. If not, keep thinking and working on your next project, because now you have more experience launching products. Please consider all this and think about it.