This site has one simple objective: to share my ideas with you. If you care to add your thoughts, please comment professionally and kindly. I would love to hear what others have to say about the products I think are marketable.
A Little Background
What do I know about inventing?
In 1999, my husband and I launched what we (well, I) thought would be our flagship product: a baby shower game called Baby Draw. I was inspired to create this Baby Pictionary game for a shower I was hosting after not being able to find any games at the store or online. What I did find were plenty of women like myself searching forums and message boards desperate for baby shower games.
Today, baby shower games abound, more online than in stores, and the printable games are the most popular. Still, our little game is chugging along and continues to be one of the most entertaining shower games on the market. If you care to have a look, it is available these days at amazon and in specialty stores.
Lessons Learned
If I had to do this one over again I would change two things—the name and the packaging. In retail, those are pretty significant things! In 1999, SEO wasn’t even a term outside the walls of Google and Yahoo, but if you think about this now “baby draw” isn’t exactly the first thing someone would type to search for a baby shower game. People looking to draw babies, though, find us in the top ten! As for packaging, I insisted that the game should have a hang tab, but it really should have been in a standard box. Hang tabs tear and look cheap. Costly lesson learned.
Other Lessons Learned
I wasn’t naïve enough to think that the proceeds from Baby Draw would fund the next product, but I did think that I would learn a lot from the experience and use that knowledge for our next launch. Turns out, I learned something important about myself: retail, sales, and distribution are not for me!
Open Innovation
Right about the mid-2000s, it became possible for an individual to approach large companies with ideas. Licensing appealed to me, so I pulled out my recipe box filled with drawings and descriptions and got to work submitting to small and large brands. Soon, folks like Edison Nation and Shark Tank provided new avenues for inventors. I have no experience with Shark Tank but reached the final review stage with Edison Nation on two occasions. So far, five products, no licensing deals.
Why the Reluctant Inventor?
The Reluctant Inventor is actually my newest invention. It is a place where I can “launch” all of my ideas, not just to a select few eyeballs, but to many. The days of being bashful, of keeping things close to the vest, are over. It’s time to share.