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You, the Inventor

You've got a great idea and it's been kicking around in your head for months. It's consuming your every waking moment; you find yourself sketching out new watchamacallits on tiny scraps of paper, being careful not to leave them around in the event that someone might steal your idea. Linda S. Schiffer explores some of the finer points of taking a product from prototye to production.

Linda S. Schiffer is a public relations consultant in Middlebury, Vermont.

Whether it's a consumer product, computer software or hardware, or an industry problem-solver, products take time and, always more importantly, money to develop. So how do you take this wonderful idea you have clanking around in your head and take it from idea to prototype to production to market? This is the question facing would-be entrepreneurs today.

Incubators Are for More Than Eggs

There are several ways to bankroll your new enterprise and earn you the title of entrepreneur. You can always turn to the group of people lovingly known as "family, friends, and fools," and ask them to put up the initial funding you need to get started. If you can't identify such a group, you can turn to a business incubator or, you can use a combination of the two.

By definition, an incubator is a piece of equipment used to keep eggs warm before they hatch or, in the hospital setting, it's equipment used to help weak or premature babies survive. In the business sense, an incubator provides an environment where new ideas are taken from conceptualization to prototype and, depending upon the incubator, final production stages.

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Business incubators provide entrepreneurs with business support that includes mentoring, usually some financial support, and sometimes, a mix of compatible neighbors. Perhaps most importantly, it prepares a business to locate outside the incubator. Most incubators have a "graduation" policy requiring tenants to move from the incubator after a certain period of time.

An incubator can be sponsored by a nonprofit organization, including the government, or it can be a for-profit enterprise. Incubators are often sponsored by universities and colleges or, they can be the result of a public/private partnership, usually an agreement between the government or non-profit agency and a private developer.

In addition to research and development departments, many companies support incubators that will produce a steady stream of new products and/or product modifications that fit within their identified market. Other incubators may be nationally supported, like Israel's incubator system or, supported by local municipalities seeking to draw new businesses to their jurisdictions.

Opening the Incubator Door

Okay, so there are lots of incubator opportunities out there, but you do have to do some work to get yourself in as a resident. Every incubator is different but it is safe to assume you will have to make a presentation of some sort to the incubator's management regarding your proposed product.

You may need to do some research, finding out about your product's market, if a similar product already exists and if it does, why is your new product better than what's out there. If you're lucky enough to be really original and introduce a brand new product, why does the marketplace need your new product if it's been without one for so long already? What about production? Price? Marketing? Lots of questions, all that need to be answered with lightning speed, lest someone else beats you to market with a similar product.

Who's Incubating?

Israel is one of the leaders in entrepreneurial incubators today. Originally conceived to harness the influx of Soviet immigrants, today Israel supports more than 20 incubators throughout the country. In the United States, there are now about 600 business incubators, up from 400 in 1995. The National Business Incubation Association provides information on incubators as well as a listing of U.S. sites.

How to Start

It still isn't easy to take an idea and make it a product, but there certainly are opportunities to help you move from square one. Don't expect it to happen overnight or without a certain amount of problems or hurdles along the way.

If you think a product you're developing could benefit from the incubator system and you're in the United States, check your local or state government to see if an incubator is available to you. In Israel, contact the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.

You'll never know what you can hatch until you try.