Ranting & Raving

I was frustrated. But why? It was a simple enough suggestion. But for some reason it just got me into rant...

My business buddy had suggested he wanted to see a publically known inventor who was offering his “services” for £250 for an initial assessment, patent search and then if they thought it was a strong enough idea they would help & support the budding inventor for a stake in their company. So it’s Dragon's Den where in stead of getting money off the Dragon's you give them cash up front, and then they take a share of your success later on…

And the thing that REALLY annoyed me more than that was to think that this shower could offer us anything we either didn't know in advance from our own experiences or could easily get from one of our friends / colleagues. We have patent attorneys on hand, normal lawyers, accountants, designers, graphic artists, to name just a few… And never mind that we both have over 30 years of experience in Sales & Marketing…

So why did he need their help? Was it an insecurity that we couldn’t do any of the things that we had to do? Was it a lack of confidence in his idea? If that was the case why couldn’t he take his idea to a consumer panel to get their views? I didn’t understand his motivation for wanting to spend money & give a chunk of cash to these “clowns” (not very professional but I think that’s what I called them in my tirade!!!)

And now a few weeks later, he’s spent his money with this guy and when he told he had had a reply, he was punching the air – because somebody independent believes in his idea. I never thought he questioned his confidence in his idea, but I suppose we all do at some point. And now he has a palpable boost of energy for his idea in a similar way that I had a few weeks ago when I came up with my bodged production line. So I was wrong… it was worth the money to pay these “muppets” (again another word I may have used in the heat of battle!!).

And through all of this, I kept thinking… if they can have a business plan for what they do perhaps I too can beat them at their own game… may be a thought for another time…