A. OK, if you’re asking that question then there’s something you need to know, but it takes a bit of preamble.
I’m a lone-wolf self-employed inventor. I handle everything about my business from idea generation, R&D, accounting, manufacture, marketing, webwork, writing, sales, customer support, etc… Everything…
I’ve computerized everything I can and I’m good enough at all of it to make a decent living. Most inventors don’t have enough business sense to take on being self-employed. My wife helps when she can (she has her own business) and frankly, if it wasn’t for her insight and aptitudes I wouldn’t have done as well as I have.
I do hire contractors from time to time when the workload starts to get too heavy; I don’t like to hire people because training takes up even more of my time, reduces flexibility and I eventually have to let them go, which is really hard for me.My true passion is R&D. I LOVE doing what ‘THEY’ say can’t be done and I LOVE finding PRACTICAL ways to accomplish it. I only do enough of the business stuff to bring in the money to eat and pay bills… So the priority for my business/work time is inventing (I’m trying to have a personal life too, which is difficult because I am a workaholic).I learned early on to build my business around the concept of TEACHING instead of patenting.
I figured out that I didn’t want to spend my time in the traditional concept of patenting (takes time and money, usually wasted in this business) and manufacturing (takes a LOT of time and is very boring for me).
I like to be learning and doing new things, so I’ve learned how to do a LOT of things. The last time I applied for a job (30 years ago) they told me I was over-qualified (I hadn’t learned to dumb down my resume). My resume would now be a book.
I accidentally discovered that if I wrote instruction manuals, telling people everything they needed to know to duplicate my innovation, that I could make money with (after the work time of writing the book) little demand on my time; a concept called ‘residule income’. If I write well, people have few questions. This, combined with computerization and setting up an interactive website, leaves me some time to invent.So I invent things I can use for MYSELF (so I get the benefit first) and frankly are of interest to me personally, then write instruction books (maybe videos), do limited production (to work out bugs and prove efficacy/practicality) and then sell the books. I do a very limited manufacture of a few of my innovations because the book sales act like marketing and create a demand for the product from people who don’t want to (or can’t) take the time to do it themselves. But this manufacturing is strictly limited to a very few of my innovations because, again frankly, I do not want to take the time to manufacture.
Manufacturing to make real money is a full time occupation all in itself. I’d have NO time to invent, which is my true passion and, while I’d be good at it, manufacturing is not the best use of my unique talents.
Back when I was ‘working for a living’ more than one of my employers said “George, you don’t make ORDINARY mistakes”. My takeaway on this is that I THINK DIFFERENTLY than ‘ordinary’ people… and that’s a very good skill for an inventor to have.Any one of my innovations could make me rich if I chose to really manufacture them. There are literally Trillions of dollars to be made (which is why Vested Interest doesn’t like inventors like me).
Heck, several of my book customers have made MUCH more money than I have, by following my instructions and making a business selling their version of my innovations.
I choose to be middle class and happy, rather than rich, bored and feeling like I’m not accomplishing what I’m here for.
My 100% satisfaction guarantee makes sure I ONLY get money from satisfied customers. I’ve been successfully inventing, paying my bills and 100% self-financing my R&D since 1984. So, bottom line, I can only support a limited number of my innovations; the rest are ‘on the shelf’ until someone comes along who wants to manufacture them. This is what has now happened to the HyCO 2DT.
If someone else manufactures them, I can sell and support them through my business and website.
Leaving me with time to invent.