A lifetime in the making

After you search http://www.uspto.gov/ for your idea, and hopefully it is not there then you need to get a non-disclosure form and have anyone that you talk to about the idea complete the form.

Even at that, do not tell many people.

If you must tell people, do a provisional patent, it costs about $100 and it will protect you for a year.

You can go online to http://www.uspto.gov/ which has the instructions listed there.

If you would rather skip the provisional patent, now is the time to talk to a patent attorney.

Some people will tell you – do it yourself however I don’t suggest that.

A patent attorney is worth the money to me especially if you think your idea is worth it.

Any attorney is expensive, so get ready for it.

After your initial visit with the attorney then you should search out a manufacturer.

Learn from my lesson.

I was told to try China or Japan.

Trust me, it was a waste of money.

For one thing, you need a contact that you can trust to make the connections for you.

I did that but the product the Asian market continued to send me was HORRIBLE.

The language break barrier between their engineers and I was something that proved to be much more difficult to overcome for a product that didn’t exist.

Then it takes forever to ship from China to the United State.

So for me it was not worth it.

My patent attorney suggested I find someone local which I did and it has proved to be a much better experience.

The first company I called, was the right one and I know for a fact that this was nothing but Gods’ divine intervention.

What’s in a name?

To be continued…

This is a fact, you need direction in starting a product.  First, go online at www.USPTO.GOV do a search for any product similar.  You will be amazed at how many products are out there, that just might be what you are trying to do.

Secondly, if you don’t find it – that is great and the fun begins.

During the last week of March I experienced what I thought at the time was a horrible outing for my business.

My son came up with the idea of going to sorority conferences in an attempt to reach even more women for my product.

At the time I thought it was a great idea due as well due to the fact that sororities are filled with nothing but women.

We both forgot one small yet important detail; Not all sororities are created equal in terms of the types of women that make up the sororities.

I’ve never been one to stereo type a group of people, especially women but in this situation it would have probably been best to search for the stereo types of each sorority.

I met a lot of very nice people however the majority of the women in the conference had no real need for my product due to their own personal upkeep.

It was a bit disheartening but I certainly wasn’t down.

Throughout the two day conference I spoke with my fellow vendors and found a new business contact as well as a new way for me to save money with something that was causing the price of my product to go up greatly!

Before I left I was also able to sell my entire inventory to one of my fellow vendors which actually turned a “horrible weekend” into a great business experience.

Even when things are going as planned a lesson is to be learned and as with anything else in life, learning the process is how the foundation for progress is made.

I believe that I have finally come across a solution for my packaging dilemma that has been driving me crazy.

The first company that I found was a local company which I assumed would love to do business with me.

I spoke with one of their reps and I was assured that I would receive a sample of what they were capable of doing for my product and I.

That was over one month ago and I have yet to even receive a phone call or an email!

The other company that I found was going to be a one stop shop for all of my needs.

Once again this was a local company but they were going to also be able to package, insert my packaging insert and screen print my product.

This company would have been a dream come true had I decided to use them but my gut was telling me to look else where for my needs.

I checked the web one more time and I ran across one one of the first websites that I came across in the search for the perfect package for my product, Uline.

I requested a few of their sample packages and within a few short days I received exactly what they said they were going to send (great service does still exist).

After going through the samples that I received I found the perfect packaging for my product and it was cheaper than some of the non helpful alternatives that I found.

Finding a package for my product has certainly been difficult but finding reliable service has proved to be even more of a challenge.

As of right now I’m in the process of looking for a packaging company that can give me a professional look and feel for my product.

I assumed this would be an easy task since almost everything that is purchased comes in some type of a package.

Once again this I was wrong in this assumption.

The majority of the products’ packages that I liked were actually made and processed in China.

I had my son search the internet high and low for a packaging company that could fill my void but he could only come up with temporary fixes for the product. (more…)

A few months have passed since the last time that I updated my site and during this time frame a lot has changed.

My team and I have received plenty of feedback from our first batch of customers and decided to act on the major issue that people had with the uRulax Shield.

This change was something that we thought wasn’t possible at first.

The reality of the situation was the Chinese firm that we had been dealing with couldn’t figure out a way for my product to work the way that I originally envisioned.

After a few phone calls I was able to find a company (in the USA!) to do exactly what I wanted.

This minor change has taken some time due to various different issues.

Issues dealing with the patent, retooling from the manufactoring company, money, redesigning of the products’ advertisement and of course a complete stalemate in terms of getting the product out to the masses.

During what I assumed would be a simple process my house caught on fire which was another time consuming set back.

If it wasn’t one thing it was another BUT I couldn’t allow anything to keep me from reaching the goals that I’ve set for the uRulax Heat Deflector Shield.

I had to stay on my patent attorney (who is always busy) to get the revisions made so that I could get the new product to test to make sure that it would be more beneficial for my clients.

Afterwards I had to have the company was able to come up with solution to my original problem test out their portion which took an entire month.

They did a great job in testing the product under extreme conditions so every day that they kept the product was worth it!

Afterwards I got a few samples which I had tested in my salon only to find that there were a few changes that I needed to make.

Now once again I’m waiting on my engineers to get back to me regarding the changes that I need made which should be the end of revamping the product.

Oh yea, the holiday season was by far the most unproductive part of the year that I’ve had to deal with.

No one works because of the holidays! 

It’s certainly been an interesting process creating my own product as well as starting my own company.

Working with China.

I’m skipping a bit in the process because using China for mass producing my product has been a very common question that people ask me.

I happen to know an inventor that used China to manufactor some of his inventions so he came up with an agreement to work through him making the product in China.

I was really excited to have this connection because everything is made in China and we assume that the Chinese are eager for our business to that they will do any and everything to get our business.

The first thing that I did was gave Steven (not his real name) my drawings, the concept and samples of what the product should be made of. It took about a month to get my first prototype back which had me on pins and needles patiently awaiting.

After the thirty or so nail biting days I finally received an email with a picture attached to it from the company that was attempting to manufacture my product.

To my surprise it was looked identical to the exact same picture that I originally sent them!
I thought assumed that when the actual product arrived to my door step that everything would some how work itself out.

Once again this was another naive assumption on my part. When I received the prototype
I was so upset that I could have spit bullets because my time had been wasted and I had already invested several thousand dollars.

I continued to work with the people in China for about three months even though every time they sent me a sample it was progressively getting worse.

I finally talked with my patent attorney about the horrible quality of the product as well as my dissatisfaction and he suggested finding someone locally which turned out to be a great suggestion.

I started to check with my local chamber of commerce for manufacturers and they gave me several names which soon led to the best partnership for me.

I met with the sales rep as well as the engineer of the local manufacturer and much to my surprise within two weeks they had a workable sample.

I always heard to work with China because it’s cheaper, but I found that working with my Chinese manufacture to be very inefficient.

There are a few reasons why I now prefer to use someone that I can speak with in person:

First off, when dealing with China I had to use a “go-between” person for communication. I didn’t have the pleasure of getting in my car to visit the company that I was doing business with which made me very uneasy. Not only for final production of the product but quality control and to see how the product that I created is built.

Second the shipping from China to the U.S., is horrible and I spent too much money while the Chinese company attempted to perfect a product that we could never see eye to eye (or email to email) on.

Also the local manufacture did not charge me anything until they had a good sample. which is what I consider excellent service. Whenever I need to talk with my sales rep, engineer or the president of the company, I just pick up the phone or drive to the location.

This has eliminated a tremendous amount of stress in my life.

One thing I have learned during this process is, it takes stamina, endurance and money. It may not be a huge amount, but it will take some cash.

Prior to even attending my first hair show the time and money can really began to add up.

I felt that it was very important to hire experts because I have no issues with admitting to what I don’t know.

The first things that I needed were:
Patent attorney
Certified public accountant
Graphic designer
Website designer and maybe even a photographer.

I am not an expert at any of the above but I do know what I know as well as what I don’t know.

The most important requirement on my list was a very good patent attorney because he or she will have to represent me as well as my product if necessary.

Hopefully not but it’s a lot better to have someone on my side that knows exactly what they’re doing.

I soon found out that my patent attorney did not have time to tell me everything that I needed to know so, I had to get a book on patents, trademarks and copyrights and all I did was read. Then read some more, and once I got tired of reading I read just a little bit more.

I had to do a lot of reading to understand the process of patenting and producing a product because it can be confusing as well as overwhelming.

A CPA helped me to arrange my company papers as well as legal status. Next I decided what corporate status I wanted to file my business under. This wasn’t too difficult of a task so it’s probably something that you’re able to do without any problems.

Graphic designers are good, but in considering what I paid for mine logo I really didn’t see too much of a change from what I originally gave her.

I’ve never had an issue with being creative but if you aren’t a creative person then by all means hire a graphic designer.

A good website designer is an absolute must because we live in a society where image is everything.

The most valueable lesson that I learned from the graphic designer was to make sure that he or she has the time to devote to your product.

One day I was explaining to my daughter the idea that I had for developing a product to shield the heat while using a hood style hair dryer. She bet me that I could not finish the product by the time she was in high school. She was right.

With trying to survive on my income and a small amount of child support from my ex-husband, I really did not have the money to even start thinking about developing a product. I knew that the idea that I was given was golden but the odds were stacked against me in terms of developing, producing and selling a product that didn’t exist.

The question that I had to ask myself was “what must I do with the limited resources that I have?”

First, I had to start searching uspto.gov just to find out if a product like mine existed. I had to read as many books about patents, trademarks and running my business that I could get my hands on. I also enrolled in “how to” classes on running a business etc which also helped tremendously.

When searching the uspto.gov for information, I used every key word that I could think of to describe my product. While searching I praid that no one had come up with the same idea as my product.

After searching uspto.gov, I began to “google” my idea. The name of my idea wasn’t out so I purchased the name of my products’ domain name but during this process I purchased a lot of domains.

At first I would have my son purchase every name that I could think of but he soon grew tired of me calling him so he gave me the instructions on how to purchase my own domains.

Do not believe the saying “It doesn’t take money to make it”. Believe me, it takes some money long before you even start to make any but that is another story.