In my opinion..........
Market it yourself.
Get yourself a website. Costco seems to have a good program -
costco.com/services/Web Site Hosting & Design Tools.

You mean like this one www.lctproducts.com ?


Advertise your website in magazines aimed at your audience........ boats,
planes, fishing,etc.

I looked into that. A one month add in a popular womens magazine can cost
over $100,000. I'm not sure I could get enough orders to cover that kind of
expence.


That's the key..... advertise your WEBSITE w/ a teaser describing your
product. A website is the cheapest way to get the information to the
people
out there. Advertising can kill you.

I've even given away free product for clicking on an add. Again the cost of
advertising usually excedes the number of orders I get.



Forget about getting your product into Home Depot, Costco, Sports
Authority,etc. ..... they really don't want to hear from you because.....
A) they have 35,000 sku numbers and they can't deal w/ 35,000 vendors
B) they don't buy "sole source".... meaning, from only ONE vendor/
manufacturer
C) somebody in the company has to back your idea as a good product.....
unlikely.... because if it bombs, that's not good for their career
D) whatever price you want, it's too high
E) if you could afford to put a million dollars of product into their
pipeline (for free) you wouldn't be in the game
F) I thought this was interesting..... stores don't own anything except
the
cash registers .... all the merchandise doesn't get paid for (to you)
until
60 to 90 days after it's been sold BY THEM. Neat, huh? In the mean time
you've re-stocked their shelves.
G) Forget about selling your patent to a big outfit like Stanley. They
don't want to hear from you either, for a different set of reasons.

Ah,, I see you've done this before. I decided my product would go great in
the grocery store right beside the taco products. Just like you suggested,
large chains don't want 100,000 different vendors. Most of them buy from one
of about 4 major wharehouses. In order to get your product into their
wharehouse, you have to "rent" the space from them at around $10,000. Then,
you have to convice each individual store to place an order. And, for some
of the large chains, you have to "rent" the shelf space too. I can afford to
produce the product, and wait 3-6 months for payment, but I can't afford to
grease all the pockets. ;(



I'm wishing for a surface grinder and an EDM machine and struggling w/ the
question...... should I build an RV-7A .... or .... continue ****ing away

You've come to the right place. I've got a manual EDM for sale that has an
orbiting head on it that lets you produce undercuts like threads for about
$7,000... Or, I know a guy that has a large old machine that runs that he'd
give away if somebody would hall it off. Both machines are near Kansas City,
Mo


time and money on "bright ideas" and molds. The plane is a sure thing,
developing products is more creative and potentially could pay for a
Bonanza...... see the dilemma?

Yep, I LIVE the dilemma.


Above all, KEEP YOUR DAY JOB.
Do it yourself. The fewer people you have to deal with, the better.

My day job may be tough to keep. Mold work is heading to China. ;(
Anybody want to buy a mold shop?