Inspired!: Take Your Product Dream from Concept to Shelf - Hardcover

Each year, passionate, hard-workingindividuals launch tens of thousands of new products. Unfortunately, although a great number of these products serve a need or satisfy a want, the majority disappear from the marketplace within two years. It doesn't have to be this way. Most products fail not because they weren't good ideas but, rather, because the entrepreneurs behind them weren't prepared. In Inspired! Take Your Product Dream from Concept to Shelf, entrepreneur Vik Venkatraman provides the expert guidance you need to avoid the common mistakes most people make.

Divided into three sections—Development, Launch, and Rollout—and using what the author refers to as The Inspired Method to help you build mutually beneficial relationships and make informed decisions, Inspired! walks you through each and every step of bringing a new product to market and ensuring that the product succeeds, including how to:

• Use Web tools to determine demand
• Utilize your personal network to gain access to those who can assist you through the various stages of launching a product
• Create a mock-up and a prototype, and the difference between the two
• Select a name that increases your chancesof success
• Negotiate with suppliers, including thequestions you should ask
• Determine whether to manufacture yourproduct domestically or overseas
• Pitch your product to retailers, and how to get your foot in the door in the first place
• Market your product on the Web
• Find financing from angel investors, venture capitalists, banks, grant programs, andentrepreneurship competitions

Inspired! also includes sample letters to potential business partners, invaluable insights from successful entrepreneurs, and exercises to reinforce what you've learned.

Launching a successful new product requires much more than just a great idea. Inspired! arms you with the knowledge—the knowledge most entrepreneurs lack—that can help you save time and money, and ensure that your product is one of the 10 percent that proves to be a huge success.

"Vik's passion for entrepreneurship is so contagiousyou can catch it by reading this book."
—Mark Peter Davisentrepreneur, venture capitalist and community organizer

"Thomas Edison remarked that 'genius is one percent inspiration andninety-nine percent perspiration.' Inspired! will help you find the right balance of strategy and execution to bring your idea to the marketplace. Throughpractical case studies and insights from real experience, Vik's book isessential reading for any entrepreneur, marketer or innovator."
—John GerzemaChief Insights Officer, Young & Rubicam and coauthor of Spend Shift

"Pushing a new product idea out of the brain and onto the shelf requires a unique skilllset and a lot of tenacity. Vik has both and gracefully shares his lessons learned. Stop dreaming about your great product idea and read this book."
—Scott belskyFounder and CEO, Behance and author of national bestseller Making Ideas Happen