Recently I started on a journey to develop one of my inventions into a full fledged product. It’s been fun so far with some snags along the way. I wanted to offer some advice to entrepreneurs looking to take their products to market based on my experiences. First off I spent a couple months asking friends about the idea to “test market” and developing my business plan. Then I began searching for a great prototype company to find out if the idea will really work I interviewed 4 local companies. The quotes I received went from $1,000 up to $100,000+ just to get started on a beginning prototype. Even the steps varied. Some wanted me to find an engineer and bring in CAD drawings. Others felt I could go straight to make a dye. And a couple just seemed downright shady.

All in all I was lucky enough to find RPM (Reed Prototype & Model). Not only are they reasonably priced but they also went out of their way to provide outstanding advice at every step. I’m extremely happy with my first prototype although I did find a design flaw. But that’s what prototyping is all about. So we’re on to design #2.

I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on the future of the product!