Capitalizing on Good Ideas

If you have a light bulb moment that you think might be "worth a few bucks," it's essential to do some research, figure out how much it might be worth, and be certain it's worthy of commercialization before spending thousands of dollars on IP protection, says Benchfly's Carlton Hoyt. The first thing to do is look at the market size to determine how many potential customers are out there. It's also important to know how many competitors you might have, how large they are, and how "entrenched" they are into the market you're trying to penetrate, Hoyt says. You also need to set a price for the product, and figure out whether customers would need to purchase the product more than once. Once all those questions are answered, you can estimate the potential for revenue, and then decide whether it is worth it to put all that time and money into developing it. You should also consider if you want to sell the product to a company or license it, Hoyt says. "Different industry segments will have different thresholds on what will be considered a worthwhile product to pursue, but if you estimate the value and think that it is indeed worthwhile, then it's time to consider … taking your idea from concept to commercialization, and some important things you'll need to consider when doing so," he adds.