Many people have great ideas for inventions. These thinkers amongst us may have a new innovation, better mousetrap, or a totally new concept. Perhaps you have an idea you would like to see come to life and receive the royalties for it and live happily ever after. Unfortunately many folks who have such ideas spend their life savings going after a dream of their own invention. They fall in love with their idea and want to see it come to fruition and mass marketed to the world.

It is wonderful to see so many garage inventors coming up with so many nifty gadgets. But it is also important before you risk you hard earned dollars to be very careful with what you wish for. Bringing even the simplest product to market is not cheap and very few actually succeed. In this case study we will analyze the reality of a seed to weed concept and look into the formation of a small business to make, market, and sell this product. The fictitious product or widget as they call them in MBA school is called a JoggingLight. It is a relatively simple invention, a light, which is powered by the human motion while jogging rather than a battery, so people can work out after dark and have light while they do so. Now then, first we start out with some real world costs below;

The JoggingLight
Financial Requirements

Prototypes:

Parts $ 8,600.00

Modification Costs 2,000.00

Tools 1,250.00

Work Shop Set Up 1,500.00

Misc. Equipment* 2,000.00

Installation 250.00

Back Up Generator (Honda) 1,200.00

Vacuum 200.00

Injection Molding Engineering 12,250.00

Plastic Cover Prototypes 25,200.00

Human Testing 800.00

Ergonomic Testing (Cal TECH) 10,000.00

Research Paper (Interns) 10,200.00

Digital Photos and 3D Renderings 8,800.00

Sales of Original Prototypes