Thread: My Path to the Fastlane!

Keep going Likwid you've been making alot of progress this year!!!!

Funny thing is I'm almost done constructing a rough prototype of my 1st product as I speak, but I'm not telling what it is lol

Last couple of weeks have gone pretty smooth.

We have not received our prototype yet because we shipped something to the manufacturer so he can put the finishing touches on the design. He did send us a bunch of pictures of the prototype and it looks exactly as we imagined it to. There's one part that might need to be adjusted to make it compatible with each product it will be used for and we have a good idea how to do it.

Our computer guy has been a little bit of slacker since he goes to school and runs his own business, not to mention that he's young and probably enjoying his summer. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise!

Since I started this project, I've been trying to convince a very good friend of mine (almost like a brother) to join forces with us. He's about my age and has been building websites and graphic designing for as long as I can remember. He's currently the webmaster for Con Edison, for those that don't know, it's the Electric Company for all of NYC. He was also just offered a job and substantial pay raise from Tokyo Bank. On the side he build websites for fortune 500 companies and has done a decent amount of internet marketing. He kinda has the slowlane mentality but I think I finally broke it.

After a year of trying, we showed him everything we accomplished so far and now he wants to jump on board. We offered him the same deal as the younger kid with an option to negotiate if things go well and we go on to produce our next product. I think it was a great decision because he's someone I'd trust with my life and he has much more experience and skill then the kid. I feel much more comfortable and confident with him there.

In the meantime we are coming up with sales and marketing plans while we are waiting. We are also having my friend go ahead and start building the website. It should be up and running in a little over a month which is about 6-8 weeks sooner than our product will be complete.

Our goal is to get the site out there and promote it to try and get customers before the product is even ready.

One thing I forgot - We completed the packaging and I think it's going to be the key selling point to our product to major retailers. It's very clever and will definitely attract attention to customers that pass by it. I will post it up in the next couple weeks.

Very Exciting times!

@ Likwid24
This is a great thread. Thank-you for sharing your journey with the rest of us.
I can't wait to hear more!

I didn't know this thread existed until just now and will definitely be following your progress. Everyone, including myself, has a few ideas for inventions rolling around in their heads; it's refreshing to see you taking concrete action to see yours through. Thanks for sharing your "process" with all of us and I look forward to the day of your success that culminates in a big "event." Cheers!

Nice!

I like the idea that you're gonna start building up momentum for you first product before you actually start selling it. I had a friend that did something like that for his startup company and it turned out to be pretty successful when he finally opened up. (side note: he isn't an inventor).

Can't wait to hear about the product.

I haven't updated in a while because I've been pretty busy with lots of sidework, a new business opportunity, preparing my website, studying advertising and marketing techniques and waiting for our prototype.

The good news is the prototype has finally arrived!!! It looks great and only needs a few minor adjustments. We are working on the adjustments now and will hopefully have a solution by the end of the week. Then production will start and we should hopefully have our product by November! Very exciting times!

The website is in the works and should be completed within a month.

Besides that, I might have found something that I could do very well with in the meantime while we are getting the product off the ground. I mentioned before about the Green electrical distribution company that I have been working with. Well they have a product for commercial businesses that has huge potential and should be relatively easy to sell. I keep meaning to start a thread about it but have not had the time. It's also something that might be able to help a few people in this forum if they are looking to make some good money while their on their own path to the fastlane. I will try to post it asap but right now it's time to get ready for some football!!

You should sue the NHL, get a nice little boost to that business capital

Can't wait to see the final product and the website.

Originally Posted by Ska2free

So, Likwid...any new updates? I'm still curious to hear what this product is!

Hey Ska2, sorry I've been extremely busy this last month. Everything is going very well though. I promise that this week I will give a full update. I'll try to do it tonight if I can. I'll also announce what my product is. I'm not worried about anyone stealing it. No one will make it or market it as well as I will anyway.

Ok so here's an update finally. I've been pretty damn busy lately between Surgery a couple weeks ago, the beginning of painting season (the jobs are coming in big time now), Getting this side biz going with the Capacitors (Here's the thread if your interested: GREAT New Product and Sales Opportunity This has HUGE potential) and even with all that, I did not forget about my product one bit. In fact, it's moving along very well!

This is what's going on:

-Tested our prototype and it works great. It just needed a few adjustments

-We fixed our minor problems and shipped the Prototype back, along with sending a video to explain the changes better, to our manufacturer. He left for China tonight and will be at the factory tomorrow to get started on our changes.

-Once the changes are mad they will begin building our mold and then production begins! Very excited!

-We are also in the process of building the website. I have to sit down with my friend/partner this week to go over the landing page

-We are also in the process of finalizing all of our contracts. Dealing with lawyers is a real pain in the ass and expensive. If anyone has any suggestions on ways to write out a contract on a budget, it would help. I just looked into writing my own on legalzoom.com

-We finally got an office and a secretary. We are partners in most of our other businesses, so we decided that it was finally time to get some help and trust me, we need it! It's working out great so far.


As far as my product, I told everyone I would finally mention what it was. Since it is pretty much ready to go and I doubt anyone can copy us because we put so much time and thought into how it should be mad and marketed, I'm no longer afraid to hide it. Now it may sound simple and some of you may say there has to be something like it out there, but just remember, this is my first product and a jump off to my other products that I have a great feeling will be very successful. And there are a few a couple out there that serve the same purpose but they were made by people that didn't know what they were doing or didn't put any thought into what the customer wanted.

My product is a Paint Brush Cover. Since I've been a painter, which has been since I was about 16, I always wondered why no one made something that I can store my expensive paint brushes in and protect the bristles. It actually amazes me how after all this time, it never been done or should I say, done right!

Owning my own business, I own about 20 brushes. Each brush is in the range of $12-$20. It get quite expensive buying new brushes often and no matter how hard me or my workers try, they get ruined. We tried everything. Storing them in the cheap cardboard covers they came with, Using hard cardboard and wrapping with tape, hanging them in a pail from a wire. They always seem to get destroyed.

After questioning many many people in my industry, no one has a solution. Except for saying, " Someone should invent a hard plastic cover!". I've talked to other business owners, numerous paint shops, friends in the union, painting forums and just about anyone else I can think of. Everyone wishes they had it but no one is doing anything about making it.

So I figured that it should be a fairly cheap product to make with decent potential. I ran some number and found out that there are over 160,000 members in the painting union, over 250,000 independent painting contractors, over 48,000 painting and decorating stores and millions of everyday do-it-yourself homeowners. And that's just in the U.S. alone!! If I can just get a small % of that market then I'll be in business.

But our product doesn't just serve the purpose of storing a brush. It solves another problem. Most jobs I'm on, at some point during the day, whether it be lunch or we just have to deal with something else at the time, we leave our brushes sitting there for a little bit with paint on them. If we don;t wash them, they will dry up and damage the brush. My cover has an airtight seal so that if you need to leave it there, you simply place it in the cover and close it. When you come back, it's like you never left it. We tested it with the prototype and left a brush soaked in paint for 3 days. After we opened it, it looked like we put it in there a minute ago. It worked like a charm!

I showed it around to my workers, some fellow painters, even a Home Depot manager that I know. They all that it was awesome and can't wait till it's ready. I already have 2 major contacts in Home Depot and possibly one in Lowe's for when it's ready.

We came up with a very clever plan for the packaging, which we believe will allow it to sell itself. We also believe that by pricing it right, it will be an impulse buy, not just for painters, but for average everyday homeowners too. Along with a great website, clever marketing and advertising, we believe we have some potential. At least enough potential to get started on my next product, which is a little more pricey,but I believe it will be the product that takes us to the next level.

Soon I will post pictures of the actual product, the packaging design and the logo. Oh yea. Forget to mention the catchy name that we got trademarked. "The Paint Brush Cover"! The name says it all!

Sorry for the long post but I needed it to explain everything. Any feedback at all would be great! Positive or Negative!

Originally Posted by Likwid24

My product is a Paint Brush Cover. Since I've been a painter, which has been since I was about 16, I always wondered why no one made something that I can store my expensive paint brushes in and protect the bristles. It actually amazes me how after all this time, it never been done or should I say, done right!

Owning my own business, I own about 20 brushes. Each brush is in the range of $12-$20. It get quite expensive buying new brushes often and no matter how hard me or my workers try, they get ruined. We tried everything. Storing them in the cheap cardboard covers they came with, Using hard cardboard and wrapping with tape, hanging them in a pail from a wire. They always seem to get destroyed.

After questioning many many people in my industry, no one has a solution. Except for saying, " Someone should invent a hard plastic cover!". I've talked to other business owners, numerous paint shops, friends in the union, painting forums and just about anyone else I can think of. Everyone wishes they had it but no one is doing anything about making it.

So I figured that it should be a fairly cheap product to make with decent potential. I ran some number and found out that there are over 160,000 members in the painting union, over 250,000 independent painting contractors, over 48,000 painting and decorating stores and millions of everyday do-it-yourself homeowners. And that's just in the U.S. alone!! If I can just get a small % of that market then I'll be in business.

But our product doesn't just serve the purpose of storing a brush. It solves another problem. Most jobs I'm on, at some point during the day, whether it be lunch or we just have to deal with something else at the time, we leave our brushes sitting there for a little bit with paint on them. If we don;t wash them, they will dry up and damage the brush. My cover has an airtight seal so that if you need to leave it there, you simply place it in the cover and close it. When you come back, it's like you never left it. We tested it with the prototype and left a brush soaked in paint for 3 days. After we opened it, it looked like we put it in there a minute ago. It worked like a charm!

I showed it around to my workers, some fellow painters, even a Home Depot manager that I know. They all that it was awesome and can't wait till it's ready. I already have 2 major contacts in Home Depot and possibly one in Lowe's for when it's ready.

We came up with a very clever plan for the packaging, which we believe will allow it to sell itself. We also believe that by pricing it right, it will be an impulse buy, not just for painters, but for average everyday homeowners too. Along with a great website, clever marketing and advertising, we believe we have some potential. At least enough potential to get started on my next product, which is a little more pricey,but I believe it will be the product that takes us to the next level.

Soon I will post pictures of the actual product, the packaging design and the logo. Oh yea. Forget to mention the catchy name that we got trademarked. "The Paint Brush Cover"! The name says it all!

Sorry for the long post but I needed it to explain everything. Any feedback at all would be great! Positive or Negative!

Dam why didn't I think of that. hahahaha j/k

I honestly see potential in this product since its something that will save people money and a lot of trouble in the process. Don't worry about any imitators because you'll most likely have the first mover advantage plus you have 1 or possibly two major retailers backing you so your future customers will know whats up.

Btw thanks for the numbers. Now all I'll have to do is get a small percentage and I'll be in business with my product.

Good luck with the sales!

I forgot to mention my two competitors. Well, not really competitors. Just attempts at making a brush cover.

One cover is made out if leather and it gets strapped on. I can't see how it will protect the brush and it would also be an inconvenience to sit there and tie up all brushes. The worst part though is the price. It's selling for $12.99! Who would pay that much when a brand new brush is only a few dollars more???

The other cover is called the "brush glove". I actually talked to the inventor. He's just a regular guy who owns a painting biz that wanted to protect his brushes too. No entrepreneurial skills at all. The design is off, no advertising or marketing behind it, cheap website, only fits one size brush (mine fits from 3" down) , no packaging and only sold through eBay. The only thing he got right was the price of 2.99.

I think both guys went with what their idea of a cover should be instead of doing their homework and really seeing what painters wanted.

You can Google both of them and see for yourself. I'll put up pics of mine soon so we can compare.

Sounds great..Good luck with this..

Likwid, I just bought a vacuum food packer. I noticed they also have small hand held ones that work with special plastic bags. That might lend itself to a quick compact vacuum pack brush storage system and you would get the residual sale of the bags. Some are reusable and some are disposable. Something you might want to look at.

Originally Posted by Ska2free

Here's a random thought for you....make sure your marketing effort considers women as well. At least where I live, when young couples buy and renovate their first home it is often the wife who takes on the job of painting trim, bedrooms, etc. And for anyone doing that as a side project, being able to set a brush down and come back later....priceless! Maybe you could get attention from a magazine like Real Simple or something like that.

What an awesome idea! That's very true that the women are the ones that do the trim work. I have a few friends that just painted their houses recently and their wives did all the cutting and trim! I'm going to look into Real Simple and other magazines geared towards women. Also add a little something on my website. Thanks for the idea! How's you biz going by the way?

Originally Posted by CommonCents

Likwid, I just bought a vacuum food packer. I noticed they also have small hand held ones that work with special plastic bags. That might lend itself to a quick compact vacuum pack brush storage system and you would get the residual sale of the bags. Some are reusable and some are disposable. Something you might want to look at.

I would look into it but there are 3 big problems with that:

1) I want to create a product myself. I definitely do not want to collect royalties. I'm an Entrepreneur and I see that as the easy way out. Not fastlane to me.

2) It would not do the job of protecting the bristles because if it's just vacuum plastic, it wouldn't be strong enough to protect the bristles from bending while in storage. I need something made out of hard plastic.

3) I don't see that being an ideal tool that a painter would want. It wouldn't be geared towards the need of the painter. I couldn't picture myself with a handheld vacuum packer on each job, carrying those little bags with me and taking time to vacuum seal each brush. It just don't see it as being as convenient as carrying a piece of plastic that you can simply close around a brush in seconds.

Likwid- This is awesome!

I painted for 3 years and I would have to buy new $20-$30 brushes almost every job!
What a waste of money. I remember leaving for the day and wrapping the brushes in torn off bits of plastic drop cloths, or going to lunch and leaving the brushes in pools of paint to keep them moist, not wanting to clean it off!

This is a bada$$ idea. It's awesome and it's going to make you cash.
I think this most definitely fills a need.

I think you could push the price past 2.99 though.
In those days, I would have been willing to pay $10+. But I bet you could sell it for more nowadays.

Have you done any tests to see how long a brush lasts when using your product????
Hopefully, you have receipts from previous years on how many brushes you bought....

This year, during your busy season -which is now- you should give out your product to your guys. Provide some type of incentive for them to use it. (Guy whose brush lasts the longest gets $200 or something... consider it research cost)

After this test.... compare how many brushes you bought for your painting biz this season vs the average of years past. Convert to a savings number... "Product X saves you $70 over the life of your brush!" or similar.

Market the hell out of that.

Take it to your colleagues in the industry, give them away to the painters union, and tell them they can get them at Home Depot. Save them some money and they will buy again!


This is awesome. The brush makers are gonna be pissed!

UPDATE:

Sorry so long since the last update. Like I said, I was in the middle of my busy season with painting and it was extremely busy. Not to mention that the FDNY hasn't hired anyone in over 4 years because of a discrepancy with the last test. That means lots of Overtime right now and there's no way I can pass up a night tour for close to $1k. So that means lots and lots of work for me. Not so much free time lately.

But that doesn't mean I haven't paid full attention to my product. Just a lot of waiting time to correct the minor problems. For some reason the factory couldn't figure out what type of foam to use for the seal. We finally figured it out and it was still taking forever so my partner called them and told them that we were a little disappointed and thinking of going to see another manufacturer. That lit a fire under their asses.

We finally got back another prototype yesterday with some improvements and it's probably about 95% of how we would like it to be which is a good thing. I was very happy when I tested it today. The seal worked really well. The handle of the 3" brush fit just as well as the 1" brush. It actually held the 1" in place perfectly. Better than I thought it would. The 3" brush was a little snug so the factory added 2 small clips at the top of the handle and it worked like a charm! Very happy about that!

The only problem we had with it is that the area where the foam is looks a little cheap. I think that's just because it's a prototype and they rushed to get it to us to see if it worked. Also, the plastic wasn't clear like we want it but that too is because it's a prototype. I'm going to call tonight to tell them to fix these minor problems and send the final prototype along with the packaging.

I'm getting very excited. Looks like I should have the final product very soon!

We have also been working on the Website. We got the final design down and had professional pictures taken for the site. We need to take more pics with the final prototype then make the video. In the meantime, my friend has already started putting the site together.

Another thing did last week was met with a very close friend of my partner. He's a corporate patent lawyer. His company doesn't do work for start ups or independent inventor's but they offered to help us out and steer us in the right direction for free. We met with them for over an hour and showed them everything we have done so far. They said I filed the provisional patent pretty well and were impressed. Same goes for the Trademark. They suggested that we go ahead and get the full patent for a number of reasons. Not only to protect us, but just in case someone wanted to buy us out or partner up with us. We would be worthless without the patent. I was already figuring that and that's the main reason we went to them for advice.

They referred us to a smaller patent lawyer who is a friend of theirs. We spoke to him today and since our product is very simple, the patent shouldn't be too expensive. Most likely under 5k. We are going to meet with him sometime next week to get the process started.

We also spoke to a few of the major Trade Shows. The trade show that I thought would be the big one to go to (PDCA trade show), actually has a very small attendance. They estimated under 1000 people. That was suppose to be in February. Then we found the National Hardware Show In Vegas the first week of May. It's cutting it real close to my wedding date but I have to go. They had over 30,000+ attendance each of the last 3 years. Plus a majority of the people who attend own Painting and hardware retail stores. That's exactly what we are looking for. It's not open for registration yet but we will register as soon as it does. We will have plenty of time for our product to be ready now and plenty of time to game plan for the show.

I will try to post some pics of the product if I can figure it out!