product entrepreneur

How to Market Products Globally

For anyone who is a product entrepreneur the Internet has opened up a whole wide world of new customers who are anxious to buy your product. When I first started my business (swiggies, wrist water bottles) I never thought about selling internationally. It was overwhelming enough just selling my product in my own neighborhood. But now 90% of my business is international. The Internet has made international business more accessible for a small manufacturer, and easier to market your products globally. There are multiple ways to sell overseas with the click of a mouse.

How to market products globally

Being in the U.S. I always thought I’d manufacture my product in the U.S. But after trying it once and barely breaking even, I realized I would have to move my manufacturing to China, like most of the rest of the world. It took a few tries to find a good, honest factory, but I finally found the right one. (now I manufacture in 3 countries)

Find a middleman

Dealing with China has its own challenges, like the language barrier. This is why it’s a good idea to have someone there who can act as a middleman. Pay them a percentage. It’s worth it. They have a better understanding of the local culture and can help iron out any problems that arise. They will also be in a better position to negotiate prices for you.

Be aware of foreign holidays

I’ve found that there is a different sense of urgency there, so you want to make sure you allow plenty of time to get your merchandise. Don’t cut things too close. They also seem to have an awful lot of holidays, and some can last weeks, like Chinese New Year’s. So plan accordingly. You never know how many orders they have ahead of yours. Get your order in as early as possible to avoid delays.

Allow for time zone differences

Allow extra time for time zone differences. If you’re dealing with a distributor in South Africa and a factory in China, everyone will be in different time zones. You’ll always have a few days here and there arranging wire transfers and getting art work in. When banks are open in one country, they’re closed in another.

Factor in extra expenses

Factor in all extra expenses and adjust your prices so you don’t get the short end of the stick. I learned the hard way that an extra nickel is a lot of money when the order is 100,000 units. Make sure everything is discussed beforehand and you negotiate for the best pricing possible.

Don’t forget about taxes and duties

When quoting your customer’s prices take everything into account, like the taxes and duties they will have to pay once it gets to them and what kind of certifications you will need, if any, for their country. I always get 50% up front and 50% before they leave the port. Collecting money from a foreign country is a nightmare legal hassle. Make sure it’s all in your bank account before inventory leaves the port.

Use distributors

I’ve found the easiest way to sell internationally is through distributors. They buy in volume and basically run their own business. I just help them with marketing and publicity. They hire their own employees and do their own advertising.

A good way to get the word out about your product is by getting listed in online wholesale directories. There is also plenty of international PR that you can do to call attention to your brand.

There’s a great big world out there waiting to buy your products. They just need to know how to find you. And you need to know how to navigate the international waters.

How a Product Entrepreneur Can Protect Intellectual Property

As a product entrepreneur you’ve spent a lot of time and money developing new products, whether physical or digital. Then one day you Google your product keywords, and up pops a page with your exact product on a Chinese website, or any website for that matter, with a different name. Someone is profiting off of your hard work!

I know how this feels. As an inventor with a patent and trade dress on a product I was shocked to see my own picture of me wearing my product on a Chinese website. As I looked further I saw even more of them. Some used my pictures and some even used the trademarked name.

Protecting intellectual property

I had noticed that business had slowed down quite a bit, but couldn’t figure out why. Now I knew. I spent the next few months contacting infringers to ask them to remove the product. Some didn’t know they were infringing and took it down. Some ended up becoming my customers and bought from me. But I had to fight the ones that were left. And even now I spend up to an hour every day knocking counterfeiters off the Internet.

So, how do you protect what you create from infringers? I posed that question to several product entrepreneurs who each had their own way of dealing with infringement.

Product entrepreneurs protect intellectual property

Sandy Stein – Finders Key Purse (r)

I invented Finders Key Purse(r) in 2004 while I was a flight attendant. I used my flight attendant friends to help me sell in to the retail gift industry, and in 2005 we sold 1 million units. Since this was done with my friends, we were sort of underground, but after those million units were sold, the copies came up instantly.

Luckily for me I had started the patent process when I first invented it in April 2004, so we had that to protect us but soon realized that it wasn’t much in the way of protection as the small companies would give up with a lawyer letter, but the bigger ones decided to keep going. We finally got our patent a few years later, and had to spend $1 million in legal fees to get one of the biggest infringers out of the market. Since Finders Key Purse(r) is our flagship item, I had to pursue this infringer at all costs, or he would have taken over the market with a similar product with a lesser cost. OUCH! We won-the infringer is no longer selling, but he went BK to get out of paying us.

Value of a patent

Lesson learned. If you want to get a patent, that is not too expensive. If you want to protect and defend your patent, that is extremely expensive, and you need to decide the value of the protection. Had we not had a patent, I am sure we would be out of business today with that infringer and several others who said that they didn’t want to battle me since my patent was so good and I was so litigious.

Sandy Stein
President
www.FindersKeyPurse.com

Intellectual property attorney

Stephen Lesavich, PhD, JD. – Founder & CEO of Coconut Avenue, Book Publishers, Intellectual property attorney, and technology expert

Here is what we do to protect our books:

A U.S. federal copyright application is filed for the content of all our books and the book cover as well.

Information on copyrights can be found at www.loc.gov/copyright This allows an infringer to be sued in federal court if the book contents or cover is copied.

If there is a tag line or branding associated with the book, a U.S. trademark application is filed.

This allows an infringer of a tag line to be sued in federal court if a tag line is copied. [Read more…] about How a Product Entrepreneur Can Protect Intellectual Property

How eBay Deals With Counterfeit Products

If you’re going to be a product entrepreneur, sooner or later you will have to deal with counterfeit products. It doesn’t matter if you’re a tiny one item inventor or NIKE, it happens to everyone.

The first time I heard about a counterfeiter I looked up “wrist water bottle” on the search engines and found a picture of me wearing my own product on a Chinese website. Since it had a phone number I called them up. When they were trying to sell me my own product they spoke perfect English, until I told them they were selling a counterfeit product and I owned the intellectual property. Suddenly, “no English”.

When I found counterfeiters selling my product on ebay I called up the company to let them know. As a company that deals with multiple people selling everything from used bikes to used chewing gum thrown away by Brittany Spears, they have to keep a handle on counterfeits. [Read more…] about How eBay Deals With Counterfeit Products

Product Prototype

I remember trying to explain my first product, swiggies, wrist water bottles when I didn’t have a tangible prototype to show. “It’s a bottle that straps onto your wrist and has a pull top like a regular sports bottle.” People were picturing a regular water bottle that simply strapped onto your wrist.

Even when I made a clay prototype, it still didn’t quite register. The clay was molded into a small bottle type figure that sat on top of the wrist and had a vel-stretch band through it to keep it from moving. The cap opened and closed like a sports bottle.

It wasn’t until I had the finished product in the packaging that people finally went “Oh, I get it!”

Because most people can’t visualize something exactly the way you can with your own vision. So, if you plan on licensing, or even manufacturing yourself, it’s good to have some type of prototype for several reasons. [Read more…] about Product Prototype

Product Entrepreneur – Inventor’s Notebook

An inventor’s notebook, or also called a logbook, is a special notebook designed for inventors to keep track of all of the details of their invention. This has always been important in the U.S. because we’ve always been a first to invent country. But that will all change on March 16, 2013 when the America Invents Act kicks in.

The first to invent means that the inventor has conceived and “reduced to practice” their idea. So, until March 16, 2012 the inventor’s notebook will be critical. Even after that date, keeping an inventor’s notebook will still add value to your invention. Why wouldn’t you do it anyway? It’s free. And just added proof that the idea is yours and you have been actively working to get it on the market.

You can technically use any kind of bound notebook that can’t be changed or altered, but I like to use ones like The Inventor’s Logbook: An Essential Record Keeping System It includes everything you need to know to document your idea and shows you how to do it step by step.
[Read more…] about Product Entrepreneur – Inventor’s Notebook