As entrepreneurs, we have so much to learn from other business owners and innovators about how to take our success to the next level. And when it comes to great entrepreneurs, Don Brown is a true stand-out.
You might not know Brown’s name, but chances are you know his biggest-selling product—the Ab Roller. Brown used the power of infomercials to sell 10 million of those familiar core-crunching products to fitness-focused buyers around the world.
More recently, he’s tapped into the crowdsourcing market to launch his latest creation, the Stealth Core Trainer. He also advises other entrepreneurs on savvy ways to crowdsource through his website, inventwow.com
He recently shared with me a few of his best ideas that entrepreneurs of all stripes can employ when building their businesses.
1. Never underestimate the power of persistence. When Brown first started showing off his Ab Roller device at trade shows, lots of people noticed—including the knock-off artists who frequent these events looking for great ideas to steal for themselves. Virtually overnight, 27 people had started offering their own version of Brown’s invention. For the next few years, Brown spent millions on lawsuits to get his invention back—a persistence that eventually lead to truly massive success.
2. Got an idea? Protect it—the right way. Along with keeping up the fight, he learned another key lesson: “There’s a belief that a patent will protect you. But a patent is merely a piece of paper that gives you the right to spend millions of dollars suing people and hoping they're going to pay up someday,” he says. “That was probably the toughest part of my career, was knowing I hit a home run but couldn’t collect anything.”
The key to success today with protecting your idea is to get a provisional patent application, which does not become a fully issued patent unless you file a regular non-provisional patent application within one year. Provisional patents are great because they cost much less than a full-blown patent.
3. Validate, validate, validate. Once you’ve got a one-year cushion, test your idea relentlessly to see if people really want to buy it. Focus on marketing your idea with a great story behind it and see what the response is. “You can waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on prototypes, manufacturing, patent protection all over the world for an idea that nobody wants to buy, and that’s obviously what you want to avoid,” says Brown.
4. Take advantage of the “new infomercial”—crowdfunding. Brown estimates there are about three million people right now who love to fund new ideas and new projects on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter. These “super backers” are the modern-day equivalent of regular infomercial viewers—and their ranks are growing.
Another great trait of crowdfunding: It might cost you as little as $2,000 to create a campaign—versus $100,000 for a TV infomercial campaign.
That said, crowdsourcing isn’t like shooting fish in a barrel. As Brown notes, “You can't just show up on a platform with a product prototype and shoot a little video, and expect people to suddenly back your project. It takes a lot more than that to succeed.”
With that in mind, consider some of Brown’s pro-tips for savvy crowdfunding:
- Build an audience first. Gather a list of people—friends, family members, and even people you engage through Facebook—who you can pre-educate about your product before you launch on Kickstarter, Indiegogo or a similar crowdfunding site. Gain commitments to get funding from those people early on. “If you can come into the crowdfunding platform on day one with a huge surge of interest, you can shoot up on that site’s ‘hot list’ and start getting the attention of super backers who want to get involved,” says Brown.
- Don’t set too high a funding goal. If you set an outrageously high funding target, many people will get scared off—especially if it’s your first crowdsourced effort and you’re not a proven winner. Speaking of winners: People like backing them. If you can show that you’re close to reaching your goal—or even better, exceeding it—you will get more attention and interest. Setting a reasonable funding goal can help give you momentum that begets more momentum.
- Give potential buyers a great story. People don’t only want to buy new products—they also want to invest in stories and experiences and people. If you can present your product or idea as part of a bigger-picture story that is emotional and inspirational and personal, you will garner more interest—and more pledges.
Brown’s own experience with crowdfunding is instructive. He and his partner, Howie Panes, had the resources to launch Stealth Core Trainer directly into the market, but they chose to use Kickstarter and Indiegogo as a way to test and validate the concept first. Before filing any patents, they created a rough prototype and spent months tweaking the design. After settling on a design, they filed a provisional patent and began the marketing process, which includes telling the story of the product and all its features and benefits.
Before launching on Kickstarter, they reached out to their large network of connections through email, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram--showing those contacts their new concept and teasing the launch weeks before it happened. When it came time to setting a goal on Kickstarter, they chose $25,000 as a reasonable number - a number that they achieved less than 4 hours after the launch. Once they validated the concept through substantial sales on Kickstarter, the partners spent money on a non-provisional patent and began investing in tooling and inventory. Stealth sold more than $500,000 in pre-orders, which reduced their risk and made the project profitable before they even started shipping product.
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