On October 20^th 2016, Gabriel Goldstein, Chief Product Designer of Anidea Engineering, the expert in product development, had a great talk with David Alexander, the President of BaySource Global, the expert in business process outsourcing and offshoring, to discuss preparation steps and common issues when outsourcing in Asia, especially China.

Hi David, Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today and share what you learned about outsourcing manufacturing work to Asia, specifically China. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and BaySource, and how you got started?

I was in the consumer products industry and I’m going back to before the year 2000. We owned some brands that went to the value-price-point category and we needed to develop the new brands, new packaging and we were over a hundred-million-dollar company, but we had very limited expertise in our purchasing and procurement department. Really China was just coming on board. It was really all the Fortune 500 companies that had the resources to send people to China. We didn’t. So we struggled getting some packaging done the right way. We were challenged with that, and it dawned on me that there was no enterprise set up for serving small and medium size businesses. To help them navigate China, to become a bridge to doing business in China and you know having a trusted resource to mitigate the usual anxiety, which are costs and quality. And so, around 2004 I put a business plan together to kind of take a look at how we can serve small-middle sized companies in the United States having a trusted bridge to China setting up offices over there, and I kind of felt the opportunities would be enormous. That is how I got started. I left that position to start what is BaySource now. That was 2005.

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Wow. Okay. That is a good history you have there, so when someone’s considering offshoring their manufacturing to either China or other Asian countries, what are the things they should consider?

They have to consider the potential volume of the product they are looking to source. And, more importantly than that, they need to understand how much of their cost of goods labor makes up in term of the total landed costs. So,  if labor is not at least around 25% of your cost of goods, it generally doesn’t make sense to go to China because until you start adding labor vis-à-vis secondary processes, manual processes, finishing, handwork, anything with labor…assembly, that’s when it makes sense for China. And, they should also look at their design. Are they making or designing products, which keep costs, whether involving labor or not…are they keeping the costs of their products to the minimum when designing their products?

All right, very good, so things kind of need to be designed for China and have a good fit for Asian manufacturing.

Not even designed for China. I am just talking in general, you know? Whenever you’re designing or creating or developing a new product, you want to design a product that is going to be suitable to the market you’re serving or you’re selling in, right? That you are not going to out-cost yourself based on either what is currently available or where the costs are going to out-weigh the value.

Sure! Right! Thanks for the clarification there. So, what are some other advantages beside costs to offshoring the manufacturing?

The other advantages we see, mostly now for offshore manufacturing is that there is infrastructure in place, particularly in China. So, China’s benefited from a steep learning curve in the past 15 years. Their efficiencies are up. There’s infrastructure in place, plant property and equipment. The municipalities infrastructures are there, highway systems, rail, obviously shipping. So really startup costs are a huge advantage, when offshoring because you don’t have to invest in assets: equipment, plants, facilities, people, training, all of that kind of overhead.

Well, they really have built quite a system over there and I can really see that if you had the volume to warrant it, they can really turn out a lot very quickly for you. What about some of the pitfalls or disadvantages of outsourcing your manufacturing?

Sure. So, what I like to say is whether you’re making a product in Chicago or China, the product has to be managed: the life cycle, the development, the quality. You have to manage new product development, and so the obvious disadvantages are time and distance. Not to mention the built-in disadvantages which are communication and translation, so a lot of details can get lost in translation. Another disadvantage is that the Chinese are often making products that they have no idea what the applications for those products are. They’re making just literal widgets based on drawings, designs, specifications, but don’t always necessarily know what these product are being used for in the U.S. So there isn’t that proactive nature for somebody at the factory level to say: Hey! We can make this product a little bit better or wouldn’t it work better if we did this? Whereas, you know, locally there is probably more common knowledge built-in around: Hey why are they doing it this way? If they made it this way, we could fit it in a box better or it would be more efficient or it would show up on the shelves better or something like that.  You’re not going to get that sort of proactive participation when you are offshoring.

So I guess in that example, it’s kind of like you get exactly what you asked for, and not much else, which is very interesting… uncounted costs or advantages, which I think is a pretty interesting aspect there. As far as, the kind of person or business… I mean at what scale or where should a personal or entity be at when they consider their outsourcing manufacturing? Kind of like size, volumes, financial, capability and where should someone really to be at when they start approaching manufacturing in China?

Wherever you are going to manufacture something, you need funding. I don’t mean to state the obvious, but a lot of people don’t take into consideration once that product is developed, once you’ve gone through your first article of inspection, your prototypes, your samples….now you’ve got to place a purchase order. So people have been able to float their ideas, their business, their startup up to a certain point but if you don’t have the right finances and resources in place…to place orders, literally just place the first orders, to cash flow those orders, you’re at a loss there, right? So, a person or business should consider creating a budget, you know, startup budget, and understanding what their cash flow needs are going to be when they’re manufacturing, I didn’t even mention the tooling and startup costs that need to be built into the equation.

So let’s be a little more pointed about that. I mean minimum order quantity. It would be easier if you said you had an order of 100 or maybe a 1000 of the product but is that realistic when outsourcing to Asia?

Everybody always asks us, so what is your minimum order quantities, but they’re really not our minimum order quantities? They are a factory’s minimum order quantities. We have a sporting goods client that just placed their first order for a new product. We’ve done several orders for them before but it is a new product for them, and they are going to order 700 of these products, and they are going to order 700 at $40 each. Now, you know now it is a $30,000 order, and that is not a huge order, but their resale on the items, the margin of the resale on that item supports getting into that business, watching that product. The next order will be doubled that or triple that, and also we have found a manufacturer suitable, who is pleased with…..you know who is not stopping at those lower sub 1000 unit orders because they’re a family owned factory, and they have capacity and so they are delighted to help these guys get into the business, because the guys have already proven on other products that they are making, that they’re doing with us. They are proven that they have ability to capture the market. They have already been successful with their other products. There is no one size fits all on the minimum order quantity. The other thing that I’ll mention to you is that freight…any good business decision maker understands that your freight whether in Chicago or China, freight should not eat into any more than 10% of your costs of good. So a container is a container is a container, so a 40-foot container all-in, let’s just call that $5000. So, if you don’t have $50,000 of value on that container, you really should be looking for something else. Likewise, a 20-foot container is generally…you know with taxes and import fees, tariffs, $3500. So if you do not have $35,000 worth of value on that container, you might want to reconsider. We should still do “Less Than Container Loads”, LCL but the trade value at cost of the products on those containers support the exercise.

Very good. That’s good metrics and numbers there. For that one example that you gave about that product, can you give a general category of that kind of product as far as you know, was it a soft good, was it engineering intensive, or would something that ….

Yeah, it’s engineering, it’s sports training equipment and it’s got good margin over here, so they will sell it for double what they pay for it, but they have to work in distributor margins and things like that. For me to say okay that $30,000 order doesn’t make sense even though it is going to cost them $3500 dollars to get it in. The margin on that $30000 of product supports the little bit of overage over that 10% of costs of good.

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Very interesting. You mentioned that there was engineering involved with that, so let’s talk about design work. What should be designed offshore? What should not be designed offshore? And what is available in turnkey design services?

We’re seeing more and more Chinese firms pop up to say we’ll do your design and development work, help you get into prototypes, things like that. Generally, the cost, the managerial cost or the salary of the designer over there, the CAD designers would still be less than over here. However, going back to the original translation issue and application issue, where they can help you design something, but if they don’t know the literal use or the practical everyday use of the product, they are not going to be suited to design nearly as well as the U.S. designer. So, you get what you paid for, right? And also, when dealing with a designer offshore, just the translation, the back and forth, the product revisions, their understanding of what you’re asking them to do, and how you are asking them to change things. When you start meshing creativity with practical services and design work, it’s definitely an advantage to stay local.

Yes. Very good. Thank you. So, wrapping up! if someone has an idea and they have their finances in place and they’re confident they want to go offshore with their design, their product. What is the next step for them to get started?

So that goes kind of to a question you have, it says: How should a person prepare to outsource their manufacturing? I gave a talk out at a tradeshow in Las Vegas last year, which was essentially how to do business in China. The thesis or the main argument of my discussion was sort of from the garbage in…garbage out. You will be received to the degree that you are prepared, meaning you need to have a…it’s not a business plan but a formal product document, product briefing. A little bit of background about you, the business, you know…. where you are selling to. Not that you have to devolve the whole business plan to the Chinese factory, but you want to put a very professional request of proposal together, because the more thorough and detailed that package of information is, the more creditable you will be with the factory and the greater sense of urgency that they are going to share around helping you with manufacturing your product. So we talked about a budget. You shouldn’t even be near China, until you’ve done a budget, and what I meant by a budget is sort of a breakeven analysis that if you’ve identified what percentage of the potential market, whether that would be one percent or one tenth of one percent of the market here. And that should extrapolate into top line numbers. And then what your margin needs to be on those numbers to support the business and help you cash flow the business. So having a budget in place and particularly including those startup costs, those purchase order costs, and then a lot of people don’t even work in the selling and marketing expense. They just think it’s their time but there’s time, there’s travel, the opportunity costs, right? Having a good budget and a sound game plan and a professionally presented package of information around your product.

Very good! So, that last question prompted me to ask something else here. How do you handle IP and licensing issues when you’re working oversea?

So, that is a great question, and you know kind of tongue in cheek I tell people if the Chinese factory or somebody that works in China tells you not to worry about IP…run from that person! That’s just not viable advice. How we help mitigate that is we work two ways. One, we work with reputable people, reputable suppliers that are owned by decent people, and have worked with Western companies before. So, it is kind of on the coattails of other businesses that have come before them and they have had a good track record with supporting the manufacturing businesses, and not running off with their IP. That’s one way to mitigate it. So if ‘Black & Decker’ has been working with the factory for a while, you know that they’ve audited and scrutinized and challenged that factory’s willingness to protect their IP. One is really reputation and experience and knowing where to go, having sort of that extra sense in instinct to understand if the factory is reputable or not. Two is really working with somebody in China that coordinates the manufacturing from a supply chain perspective, and doesn’t necessarily tell the right hand what the left hand is doing. So, we are making injection molded parts over here. We’re doing our SMT technology and our circuitry over here. We’ve got metal parts and components over here. We select the final assembly point which can usually be one of those factories, but the factories we are going to choose are not the ones that are already participating. Meaning, they’re not vertical, which means they are not manufacturing and marketing companies. They were not already at all the tradeshows in those respective industries over here in U.S, right? So, we work with really pure contract manufactures. We seldom work with companies that are already marketing their own products. Another thing I’ll tell you that we don’t work with anybody that doesn’t have a patent.

Got it! So, it helps protect you on the US sale side too. That is very handy.

That protects us, and protects them. We just don’t want to work with someone who doesn’t have a patent because we can get well in the process and find out that our customer has no right to launch the product because somebody else has a patent.

Oh interesting. I wasn’t thinking about that originally. David, very good. This is a wealth of information. I appreciate your time and thank you very much.

Yeah! Thank you, Gabriel.

The costs of creating something. Engineers are generally the ones responsible for creating a product. Depending on what the product is, you could have industrial designers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and software engineers. There are other specialties as well, but most products require these as the core.

Engineers are generally well educated and skilled individuals. People with this kind of expertise usually earn an excellent income. So there is a large human cost to product development. And it takes a lot of time, especially if you want it done right.

The costs of making it. Now that the design engineers have created and developed the product, it needs to be made, and you want it made in mass. While the engineers above could certainly make your product, it would not be cost effective.  Therefore, we need more engineers and resources to reduce the product cost by engineering the complexity out of the manufacturing process.  Only then can lesser skilled labor and machines manufacture your product and reduce overall costs. This can range from robot automation, to creating tools to stamp steel or injection molding plastic, to documentation for an assembly work station. This is all before you actually make the first production part. This is one of the single most misunderstood costs in product development. Then you have to actually produce it, which then requires additional raw materials (read costs) for your tools and your assemblers to actually produce the parts and products you need.

The cost of selling it. You’ve invested money into the engineering and the production. Now I am sure you did not want to fill your garage with copies of your product. You want to sell it. While there are many ways to sell your product, almost none are free. Whether it is traditional advertising, a pay per click campaign, or a crowdfunding platform, they all cost money. It will also take a lot of your time, or at least a lot of someone’s time. Factor that in.

The hidden costs. Ah, the unknown unknowns. This is why you go to experts. If you are starting a company, you may have regulations that you need to adhere to. For any electrical product you develop, you need to consider the FCC regulations. If you plan to sell into a big box store, you may need to adhere to a UL specification. Do you want to sell into Europe? You need CE specification. Does your product have Bluetooth? You’ll need to join their consortium. There are all sorts of hidden costs you may need to consider when selling and marketing your product. Some are governmentally mandated; some are industry specific. Research your industry and consult with experts to learn what these hidden costs are so you can plan for them.

The single biggest problem startups and inventors have is not understanding these costs. It is very common to look at a product on the market that costs $10 and expect that it can be designed and made for $1000. A single, simple plastic part can have a tooling cost of $5000 or more, and that is before the engineering or selling part. A good example is a home coffee maker you can buy for $100 (a nice one). It may have cost the company upwards of $500,000 to get the first one to the store shelves. They only make their money back because they are going sell 100,000 of them. You can see quickly here how volume plays a major role in what a product costs. Investigate and understand the costs of product development, then proceed accordingly.

Please check out my other blog posts Engineering Design Based on Volume and The Missing Link Between Prototype and Production for more information.

As I dug in to my memory bank, I remembered he was also an engineer and my brother-in-law was always bragging about how smart he was.  This should be relatable!  I gave it a shot and I downloaded what was for me my very first podcast.  I gave it a listen, and I was hooked. 

Peter Awad (short a, short i sound) hosts the “Slow Hustle” and chronicles the ups and downs of entrepreneurial life.  As he says, “Sometimes you are crushing it and sometimes it is crushing you.”  I’m not the type of guy to ever use the term ‘crushing’, but now I have become more familiar with this expression.  This is a sentiment I can relate to in my personal life and business.  I could certainly connect with the content here. 

Almost every episode is inspired and well produced.  Some of my favorites are:

SH005 with Arel Moodie talking about the Art of Likability. Arel goes into just some of the basics of being a good person and interacting with everyday people on a more personal level.

SH021 with Amy Morin talking about being mentally strong.  Amy talks about personal struggles in her life which for she creates a list of what she cannot do if she wants to remain mentally strong.

SH052 with Hal Elrod talks about how to wake up like it is Christmas morning.  His concept for the ‘Miracle Morning’ is something that I’ve embraced, executed, and recommended to others.

Corey Blake talk about vulnerability is sexy.  I’m fascinated with the idea and I’ve been working on implementing this in my life and work.

Jason Zook explains the Career Dungeon.  Jason is an all-around great and creative guy.  Fun to listen to.

Jeff Hyman is the Startup Therapist. He talks about ‘Ugly Babies’.  Yes, you may have a bad idea.

Each podcast generally starts out with the back story on the guest.  I think this is the most fascinating part of the podcast.  Then they go into some of the struggles they have had, and how they have relaxed and recalibrated their lives.  That is the “slowness part of the podcast”.

So much of entrepreneurship is a mental game with yourself.  We thrive off mantras like “you only fail when you give up” or “10 years of trying will make you look like an overnight success”.  It is C-R-A-Z-Y.  Obviously we do not live in reality, if we did, we would go get jobs! 

If you have any desire to start your own entrepreneurial venture, or are knee deep in one, I highly recommend you take a listen.  It’s like AA for entrepreneurs.  “Hi, my name is Gabriel, and I’m an entrepreneur.”  And much like alcoholism, I fully believe there is a genetic predisposition to entrepreneurism that you will have to learn to fight or embrace.

Startup Weekend is an innovative concept, where by in one weekend, just a mere 54 hours, you can go from nothing to a viable company.

Anidea Engineering’s owner, Gabriel Goldstein, attended his first Startup Weekend in 2013 in West Palm Beach.  Although not a Startup company, Gabriel knows there is always something to learn. 

It starts with an opening event with a speaker, then attendees start getting down to business: What is your idea?

They make pitches, wait anxiously as their peers choose which pitches seem the most viable, and then, as ideas are weeded out, groups begin to form. Inspirational speakers tell of their entrepreneurial experiences. Then, they get to work.  break for the night. Day 1 is complete. 

Day 2 begins bright and early, with budding entrepreneurs ready to make something happen. They quickly get to work, feeling the pressure as time trickles away, far too quickly for their liking. Day 3, Sunday, they continue working until it is time. The groups present their companies, and a winner is chosen.

Startup Sponsor / Supporter / Mentor

In 2013, Goldstein worked on an app – YO! – that facilitated conversation between bartenders and patrons in a loud, crowded atmosphere. The would-be drinker communicates visually through the app to the bartender, creating an ease-of-ordering that can’t be beat.

Unfortunately, the team did not win. However, Goldstein not only met some great friends but still to this day, is an experienced entrepreneur who avidly supports the startup community.  He was bitten by the ‘Startup Weekend’ bug and his team was featured in a newspaper article about the event.

Being an entrepreneur is not new to Goldstein. After all, he started Anidea Engineering with literally, just an idea. He has since leveraged his experience to become one of the speakers and sponsors at 2014’s Startup Weekend West Palm Beach, and a mentor and sponsor at Startup Weekend Miami-FIU, which took place Friday, Nov. 20-22, 2015.

Mentoring is not new to Goldstein who has worked with various clients for the last 15 years, helping to mold and shape many of their companies. In addition, he is a mentor at FAU’s Tech Runway, a collaborative work space for entrepreneur to house, educate, mentor and fund their companies from inception through venture funding.

Goldstein used his mentoring experience to assist the teams at Startup Weekend.

“I got to work with a lot of different companies,” Goldstein said. “I was a huge fan of it. It is so much fun to see these companies start from nothing and become something.”

 “As a mentor, it was a lot of fun to go around and challenge the teams on their ideas and make them question things. One of the biggest things about Startup Weekend is validation. Everyone thinks they have a good idea, until you go out and test it in the marketplace,” he said.

Testing the ideas led to some of their downfalls, and others readjusted, reevaluated, tweaked their ideas, and came up with something stronger and more viable.

Working with a younger demographic – many of the participants were college students – did not have the same experiences that Goldstein has had, which shaped their projects and approaches. For example, one group learned about credit card processing, and how small transactions do not lend to a profit.

“As a mentor, I was able to bring my entrepreneurial and life experiences to the table to challenge and guide the teams. I’ve had the advantage of seeing technology evolve in the last 20 years that many of the attendees – bright, gifted students – did not,” Goldstein said, explaining that although he has accumulated years, he still has the same energetic, inquisitive, entrepreneurial spirit that helped him create Anidea Engineering.

Goldstein enjoying one of the more entertaining parts of Startup Weekend.

The teams worked hard on their ideas, testing and learning along the way.

“The incredible value of Startup Weekend is that you have the opportunity to go through many of the processes that you would go through in a team format to launch a company, with very little risk involved. It’s a vast learning experience,” he said.

Former attendees have reached out to Goldstein, as a mentor, and a networking connection.

“It’s a really great organization that I highly recommend for anyone who wants to learn about entrepreneurship and starting their own company and to participate in,” he said. “I’ll participate in any one I’m ever invited to, or any other way I can possibly participate.”

To learn more, visit www.anidea-engineering.com or call us at (561) 383-7311. Check us out and see how we can help you. Have an idea? Get Anidea! We’re located at 8020 Belvedere Road, Suite 1 in West Palm Beach Florida. Not local? Call and we can set up a Skype conversation at gabriel.goldstein.anidea.

Kevin Ferguson from Facebook is our winner.  I’ve direct messaged you.  Please contact me for the coupon code to collect your prize!  Thank you to all who entered. 

Original post below from Gabriel Goldstein:

“First, I’m a huge fan of Startup Weekend.  My first time was a few years ago in West Palm Beach at the inaugural event where I attended the first night to see what was going on and to meet people.  Things seemed kind of cool, so I pitched an idea that didn’t get any traction.  I met some guys who seemed very nonchalant about the whole thing.  One of them had this idea for the Yo! App.  It was a way to order drinks in a loud bar.  This seemed like the kind of low impact company that would be fun to explore for 54 hours.  I ended up joining, being a key member of the team, and presenting on Sunday with my team mates.  It was some of the most fun I have ever had, and most of my team mates are still friends today.  My wife will not let me participate for the whole weekend anymore.

The second time I was asked to be a mentor.  The third time I spoke and sponsored.  This time I’m mentoring and sponsoring.  I love the program, it’s a ton of fun, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

So, this year I have two tickets I am giving away to help spread the word about Anidea and Startup Weekend.  Here is what to do:

• Share this or any other content from our website.
• Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.
• Send us a message about it! (So we know you did it.)

Startup Weekend is at FIU in Miami on November 20 – 22, 2015.

We will draw two names Monday, November 16^th.

Thanks!

Gabriel

For the last year or so I’ve given presentations at my local SCORE chapter about how to take ideas from concept to reality.  It’s titled, “I Have an Idea, Now What?”  It’s been very well received and I keep getting invited back so I guess they feel it’s helping people; however, for those of you who don’t know what SCORE is (in which case I hope you will look in to the organization) or don’t live in our local area where I speak, I decided to write a multi-part blog detailing the presentation.  Here is my first installment.

My name is Gabriel Goldstein and I own Anidea Engineering.  I started it in 2001 while I was working in conventional employment.  During that, I was head hunted to work in a startup to develop some automated lighting equipment for music and entertainment venues.  When that startup was written off by our financier, I took Anidea full time.  Over the last 13 years, myself and my company have developed dozens of electronic and mechanical systems.  Everything from little things that blink and beep to GPS golfing assistants, and cow mating detection systems.

Before all that, I attended University of Central Florida and graduated in 2000 with a BS in computer engineering.  I worked as an engineer most of the time I was in school.

I come from a long line of entrepreneurs.  My parents are entrepreneurs, all of my grandparents were entrepreneurs, and 2 of my 3 siblings are entrepreneurs.  You can argue nature or nurture, but you can’t argue it’s not in my family.

Disclaimer

So here is where I tell you what I’m not.  I’m not a lawyer or patent attorney.  The content here is based on my 18+ years’ experience as an engineer and entrepreneur, your mileage may vary.  Everyone’s situation is different and needs specific evaluation. 

How Invention Works

So most people think this is the way invention works.  You wake up one day with this idea and get all excited.  You do some Google searching (maybe), find a manufacturer, then you sit back and wait for the money to roll in.  Keep an eye on the dollar signs in the presentation, they are proportional. 

How Invention Really Works

So this slide is still overly simplified.  There are many, many ways to get your idea to a profitable state.  The key decision is whether you want to start and run a company or license.  Sure there are lots of people who will offer free or cheap help, but you usually get what you pay for.  In this world, the more you put into something the more you get out; the higher the risk, the higher the reward.  There are exceptions (they are called luck), but you should be familiar with these life concepts by now.  There will be more on this later.  The key thing to understand here is that it’s a lot of work and it’s quite complex.

Why Am I not Rich Yet?

So you have this idea, you’ve toyed around a bit with it, and you have expectations that it is really a good idea.  So you may be wondering why the world isn’t blazing a path to your door.  Thomas Edison said “Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration”.  Another famous person, Ashton Kutcher stood up at the Teen Choice Awards in 2013 and stated, “I believe that opportunity looks a lot like hard work.”  He didn’t discover this thought.   Credit goes back to the 1900s or so.  You have not yet begun to perspire.  So yeah, I get that quoting Kutcher may sound strange. For those of you reading this, people used to tell me I looked like him a lot when I was younger and he was more famous.  I’m also just trying to be relevant to the ‘kids’ out there. J

Idea

Time for some definitions.  So an idea is just the most basic starting point.  It has little intrinsic value.  People have lots of ideas, some are good; most are bad.  Don’t get too caught up on any one idea.  Ideas need to be nurtured and researched.  Linus Pauling said, “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas”.

Things to consider:

Do You Have an Invention?

So how do you know if your idea is an invention or not.  A time ago, this would have been a relatively difficult task.  Nowadays, one word, “Google”.  Google it, Google it again.  Use alternate search phrases.  Ask close friends how they might describe it, then Google that.  I can’t stress this enough.  Many times I’ve been sitting in new client interviews and as they start describing their product, I find it on Google, Ebay, or USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) in 5 minutes.  After you’ve exhausted Google, move to the USPTO.gov site and search there for a while, then pay for a professional patent search.

Is Your Baby Ugly?

This is a tough one.  Not all your ideas are good ones.  Some are ahead of their time or just don’t have the marketability to sustain a profitable product development cycle.  Talk to trusted associates.  Get honest feedback on your idea.  Validation is key.  Investors always want an idea to be proved out to some point.  You are your own investor.  Validate your idea before sinking too much time and effort into your idea.  You will need to strike a balance between keeping your idea confidential and talking to enough people and assessing the marketability of your idea.  Remember, you need to think about this like you are starting a business.  If you are not out to make money and run this like a business, it’s a hobby.  There is nothing wrong with hobbies, just keep that in mind as you make what are really business decisions.

Risk Assessment

One should consider what they are willing to put on the line to achieve their dreams.  Not all ideas should be a bet-the-farm, let it all hang out, all-in venture.  Most should not for that matter.  However, this is what sets apart the men from the boys.  All businesses and ideas take risk.  You have to.  Few things in life are guaranteed, just death and taxes.  Do you have a lot of ideas to build a company around?  Are you prepared to quit your day job?  What will be sacrificed for you putting in another 30 hours a week in at night while you do the leg work to build your new business (something will, no exceptions). 

My point here is that you need to take smart, calculated risks.   Don’t dump your life savings into an idea before you know you have a market.  Do spend some seed money for a proof of concept for some market research to prove your direction is solid.  Do get enough validation, convince others, and get help.

This is entrepreneurship.  Believing in something before anyone else believes in it.  If you are going go down this path, you have to be prepared for a rough road.  You get out what you put into it.  At this point you are likely to have more time than money.

Read the next installment.

Thousands of Wellington, Florida residents, including Gabriel Goldstein’s family attend Sunday services at LifeChurch.tv. When this popular nationwide church with 15 locations and a global online audience shared its idea for volunteers to design and build the movie-themed Monsters Inc. art installation in its lobby in Wellington, Gabriel and his company Anidea Engineering, Inc.  immediately signed up, even without any pressure from his two kids aged 5 years and 11 months old. It’s not by coincidence that our company’s tagline is: “got an idea? Get Anidea!”   

“Anidea strongly believes in giving back to the community.” said Gabriel Goldstein, CEO and Chief Product Design Engineer at Anidea Engineering.

Our experienced, Palm Beach County-based product design firm was ecstatic to donate our expertise in design, mechanical and electrical engineering, and implementation in two main areas:  a conveyor system and LED sign.

First and more intense was a pulley, conveyor system that aerially displayed vibrant Monsters Inc. artwork throughout the church’s lobby. This required over 400 hundred feet of steel cable running through seven custom-designed pulley brackets and a motor drive mechanism.

The second major contribution was inspired by the Monsters Inc. movie “Stalk – Don’t Stalk” LED sign. Our efforts replicated the sign and decked it out with flashing green and red lights, surprisingly and resourcefully made from a Styrofoam beach cooler.

In closing, Gabriel Goldstein states, “working with fellow, talented LifeChurch.tv volunteers and seeing the amazement in everyone’s eyes, including my children’s, made this philanthropic effort worthwhile. Give us a ‘monstrous’ idea, we helped make it a reality, and it was ‘monstrously’ fulfilling for everyone!”   

Gabriel Goldstein of Anidea Engineering was at Baron Sign and met Governor Scott.  He was promoting a plan to eliminate sales tax on capital equipment.

https://ideamensch.com/gabriel-goldstein/