Entrepreneur magazine December 1999 Issue

Let’s Make A Deal – I get by with a little help from my friends’ isn’t just a great Beatles quip.

Often, it’s also the answer to your inventing prayers. By Don Debelak

If anyone knows about bringing a product to market, it’s our new “Bright Ideas” columnist, author and marketing consultant Don Debelak. Considering the several books and 20-plus years of experience he’s got under his belt, we think you’ll agree.

Every year, thousands of inventors get ideas, work on them for a little while, spend a little money . . . and then give up. Why do they shelve their ideas? Primarily because they don’t know what to do next or aren’t sure their inventions will sell.

I’ve worked with inventors for more than 20 years, and I’ve found that people often don’t move ahead with what in many cases are ideas with real market potential. Rather than letting their ideas languish, inventors should find an insider–a person who works in the industry related to the invention–to help them evaluate their products.

Making A Connection

Two years ago, Karen Alvarez of Dublin, California, began selling The Baby Comfort Strap. She built momentum for her product with help from three key insiders until she was able to license it in July to DEX Products, a Benicia, California, manufacturer of comfort and safety products for babies and children.

Alvarez, 35, a mother of three, came up with her idea after a near disaster at the grocery story. When one of her children slipped out of the shopping cart, Alvarez decided that mothers needed a simple device to keep their children safely strapped into carts. She devised The Baby Comfort Strap, which has a reinforced, soft pad that wraps around the child and fastens with a buckle to a cart or stroller. Not only does it keep kids from falling out, but it also prevents them from leaning forward and putting their mouths on the shopping cart handle.

After Alvarez conducted a patent search for similar products, she headed out to children’s stores to see how such products were sold–and in the process made some valuable contacts. Her first mentor was Sharon Trupiano, owner of KaZoo’S Consignment for Kids in San Ramon, California. Trupiano saw just a rough prototype of Alvarez’s product but told her she was on the right track.

Over the next few months, Trupiano helped Alvarez with packaging, pricing and setting up a test market to see how the product would sell.

Trupiano’s advice about what works in a retail store was on target: Alvarez’s reorder rate topped 80 percent in the 100-plus retail stores her product was in before she had even licensed it.

To Market, To Market With Trupiano’s invaluable retail advice and a successful product launch under her belt, Alvarez was ready to expand. Her next connection was Mark Betker, president of Koala Corp., a manufacturer of baby-changing stations that expects to hit $35 million in sales this year. Alvarez contacted Betker initially to see if his company would be interested in selling or licensing her product. While Alvarez’s product wasn’t a good fit with Koala, Betker was so impressed with her tenacity, he agreed to meet her at San Francisco International Airport during a layover.

During that meeting and through subsequent phone calls, Alvarez used Betker’s advice to come up with a marketing strategy that established her company without forcing her to make a major marketing investment. She started by designing her own Web site to advertise The Baby Comfort Strap’s benefits. She then embarked on an aggressive publicity program, calling newspapers and magazines with story ideas about her product, focusing her publicity on the fact that 16,000 children are injured in falls from shopping carts each year. The strategy worked: Alvarez had articles published, primarily in California, and was able to mention her Web site so people could contact her. She used those inquiries to generate additional sales at children’s shops in the California market.

In the second phase of Alvarez’s marketing program, she sent her product to celebrities who had young children, searching fan club Web sites for contact addresses. Although most celebrities didn’t respond, some did–including Friends star Lisa Kudrow and Wheel of Fortune hostess Vanna White. These endorsements gave an additional boost to Alvarez’s publicity program.

That left Alvarez with just one gaping hole: production. The product-liability insurance she needed cost $6,000 per year, which she didn’t have, and producing the product herself was too expensive to make the effort profitable. Alvarez began looking for a better way to manufacture her product but wasn’t making much progress. Then Trupiano, her mentor at KaZoo’S, called her to say she’d seen a new product similar to The Baby Comfort Strap on the market. Trupiano encouraged Alvarez to contact the company, Safe-Strap Co. Inc., to see if her product infringed on Safe-Strap’s product. Alvarez sent a letter to Safe-Strap and was contacted shortly thereafter by Paul Giampavolo, the company’s president.

Giampavolo didn’t feel there was an infringement problem–he sold his product to supermarkets, while Alvarez sold hers directly to consumers–and he actually encouraged her to keep up her marketing efforts. In fact, he asked if he could help. Alvarez explained her problems with liability insurance, and, after giving it some thought, Giampavolo offered to produce the product for her. But he didn’t just offer a standard contract manufacturing deal: He gave Alvarez pricing for 10,000 pieces, even if she ordered small quantities; he covered the product-liability insurance costs; and he offered 90-day terms to help Alvarez with her cash flow.

Alvarez now had everything she needed to land a licensing deal: proven sales to an established customer base along with a low production price. And when she approached DEX Products, the company had no problem seeing the product’s potential and agreed to license The Baby Comfort Strap.

Alvarez’s success on a shoestring budget was due in large part to all the help she received from her mentors and inside connections. Their assistance was critical in getting the right product, at the right price, with the right marketing plan. Why did she receive that help? She was completely dedicated to her idea, but more important, she got help because she asked for it and listened to her mentors. Insiders will often help inventors if they have the drive to take their products to market. All you need to do to get that critical help is admit you don’t know everything, ask for input, and commit yourself to making your idea a success.

One In A Million

Mark Betker is the president of Koala Corp., a midsized manufacturer of children’s activities and convenience products. He receives dozens of inquiries from inventors every month, most of which he ignores. Why did he decide to help Karen Alvarez, inventor of The Baby Comfort Strap? “It was her strength of character,” he says. “She was straightforward and honest, and she struck me as someone who was going to make it. She was persistent and kept calling me; she had such conviction that her product was needed. She lived and breathed her product, and I knew she wouldn’t fail. I couldn’t help but want to help her.”

Why don’t other inventors tend to impress Betker? “They treat their invention as a hobby,” he says. “They don’t have a lot of conviction, and they are primarily interested in making money.”

Sharon Trupiano owns KaZoo’S Consignment Shop for Kids in San Ramon, California. KaZoo’S sells “lightly used” designer clothing and new items for children. Trupiano began selling The Baby Comfort Strap in early 1997. Trupiano also had a positive reaction to Alvarez. “She had a wonderful idea, and her ambition came from her heart,” she says. “She totally believed in her idea, and she wasn’t driven by a desire for money. She was concerned about keeping children safe.”

You Got A Problem?

Karen Alvarez’s Baby Comfort Strap story echoes that of generations of inventors who designed products to solve their own everyday dilemmas. Think Josephine Cochrane, who in 1886 invented the dishwasher, and later founded the company known today as KitchenAid. Cochrane invented her product because she got tired of watching her best china get chipped while being washed. She knew exactly what type of product to create because she would become an actual end-user.

Inventors often find success with their products when they understand exactly what end-users want. When you’re annoyed by a problem with the products you use, think about how that problem could be solved, and you might have your own million-dollar idea.