5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent resource for individual inventors w/ product ideas, April 10, 2001
This review is from: Think Big: Nine Ways to Make Millions From Your Ideas (Paperback)
Don Debelak's new book picks up very nicely from where Bringing Your Product to Market (by the same author, which I also enjoyed and reviewed) leaves off. The assumption is that you've already used the tools in the first book to create a product with promise (this isn't a necessary step, but I personally recommend it). Now you need to figure out how you're going to market and sell your product with finances as a key concern.
The author identifies nine strategies for doing this, among them: trade shows, joint ventures, private label marketing, catalogs, the Internet, licensing, and starting your own business (there are a couple others that elude me at the moment). Two chapters are dedicated to each subject. The first gives the reader an explanation of the strategy including pros and cons and what to expect should you pursue that strategy. The second chapter has more specific information on how to proceed if you determine that that strategy is the one for you. The benefit of this is that you can quickly read through the different options and skip sections that don't apply to your situation.
As with Bringing Your Product to Market, Debelak does a fantastic job of providing insightful details and comprehensive information in general to all the topics he covers. The book is also liberally sprinkled with side bar information that complements the text nicely: industry terms, "reality checks", as well as anecdotes. I should mention that this is not one of those books that could be condensed into eight pages--the ones where the author has five interesting things to say and fills up 295 of the 300 pages with anecdote after anecdote. Debelak does an excellent job of balancing the information he presents so that the reader comes away well informed, and hopefully motivated (at least I was).
In addition to the main text, the appendices are very useful. They include specific information on intellectual property as well as a very useful glossary of terms that will help you look a little more experienced when talking to people in the industry.
One last note, this book does not attempt to teach you how to run your own business, write a business plan, incorporate, etc. However, it is an excellent resource for determining what your options are for bringing your product to market. People who think it's either license or start your own company will be pleasantly surprised.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
