If you’ve always had lots of interesting ideas floating around your head and you’ve finally decided that it’s time to act on them, you need to know that it isn’t going to be easy.
Becoming a career inventor takes a lot of time, commitment and creativity. If you want to be successful, you don’t have to come up with just one great idea, but several of them and that can take it out of you.
Of course, creating a new product, whether it be state-of-the-art Handy Dryers, calming Fidget Spinners or a much-improved smartphone can be exhilarating. To be an inventor is to make your mark and improve the lives of countless people, so it might just be worth it.
That being said, there are a few things you need to know if you want to be a full-time inventor:
Focus on Finance – Keep Your Day Job (for Now)
You might want to start your career as a full-time inventor straight away, but when you’re new to the game, it’s best to keep your product design for your spare time and to keep that day job. After all, it could be a while before inventing starts to pay the bills, and you’ll need something to pay the bills and allow you to purchase any supplies you may need for your work in the meantime. Of course, if money is no object, that’s different, but for most of you, keep your day job until that big idea becomes a successful venture.
Learn from the Master – Get a Mentor
You should, as an inventor and a business person, always start out on your new career path with a mentor who can offer you a few wise words, stop you from failing spectacularly and give you honest feedback on your ideas. If you don’t have someone who can do this stuff fore you, you may well end up wasting a whole lot of time on an idea that just doesn’t have legs.
Focus & Niche – Work for a Related Startup
If you have an idea for, say a fantastic new kitchen blender that will be faster, more efficient and more desirable than anything that’s already out there, finding a job at a startup that sells kitchen appliances could be a good way of getting your own ideas heard. Even if you’re working in an unrelated area of the business, if your ideas are good, the team are way more likely to listen and possibly finance your project than those in a big faceless corporation. If you need to make money while you invent, this is a great option to consider.
Rise above the Rest – Hone on a Speciality
As an inventor, it’s much easier to come up with new ideas and innovations if you specialize in one or two areas, such as computer games, gym equipment or home improvement technology than it is to go off on flights of fancy trying to invent product across the board. Of course, if you do happen to think of a good idea that doesn’t fit your area of expertise and you think it really does have some mileage, then go ahead and pitch it, but it’ll be a lot easier on your poor brain if you have a niche.
If you bear the above in mind, and you never give up, being a full-time inventor could be well within your reach.