Inventions for small business. Unusual business on interesting inventions
Modern production unthinkable without the use of advanced technologies. They play a decisive role in its development, and also contribute to the prosperity of the business and ensure its competitiveness. Innovation is mainly aimed at the rational organization of the workflow, at providing the latest technical equipment production and modernization of products. The funds invested in promoting your company are quickly compensated and turn into a stable source of income.
Innovation
General concepts
The functioning of a business entity specializing in the production of products is impossible without the use of raw materials, materials and equipment. Their characteristics must comply with the requirements of international standards governing the rational use of natural resources and the safety of personnel involved in the production process. Certain requirements are also imposed on the result of labor, consisting in its characteristics and in ensuring the absence of harmful effects on the consumer's body during use.
The use of modern business technology makes it possible to improve all parameters and declare such an achievement in the industrial market, which will distinguish the entrepreneur from the general background of other participants and ensure an increase in his competitiveness. To maintain its advantageous position, it is necessary to constantly improve production and improve the quality of labor results due to this. This is ensured through the commissioning of modern machines and equipment, the use of industrial innovative technology, automation of the technological line, as well as the introduction of energy saving systems, industrial water treatment and industrial waste disposal.
Innovative production technologies
The structure of production development is carried out in all areas of activity according to an identical scenario. As a result of the invention or creation of know-how, an idea arises to use such an innovation in one's own enterprise, which, if successfully implemented, is transformed into an innovation. Its scaling generates positive results, resulting in innovation.
Search for innovative ideas
Theoretically, changes in the structure of production should attract the consumer, as they meet his requirements, and are the reason for the increase in profitability. However, in practice, most innovations do not translate into innovations. Without additional efforts, this effect is typical only for unique products, which have no analogues. We can talk about innovation if competitors cannot produce similar products due to lack of knowledge in the field of technology or because they do not have production subtleties that provide high profitability.
A business entity that has achieved a predominant position in the market should strive for a sustainable result, which is possible only if its invention is protected from copying by other manufacturers. To do this, you need to patent a new technology.
Cause of innovation failure
main reason unsuccessful activity is the promotion of products that do not meet regulated requirements or certain criteria.
Therefore, before starting the production and sale of a new product, it is necessary to carefully evaluate all the nuances, since if any fundamental moment is missed at the stage of developing a new project and preparing for the launch of a new technological line, the enterprise may suffer losses. Statistics show that most innovative solutions are not radical, but they can be the reason for success if the advertising information is properly presented to consumers.
Read also: How to make money in your spare time
Rationalization of production
Risk factors in innovation
Manufactured products become obsolete, and the consumer is fed up with them. Therefore, the manufacturer must constantly work on improving its offer, monitoring sales performance and striving to ensure that they correspond to the overall demand for the product in the region of its promotion. Each product has its own life cycle, consisting of:
- implementation of the proposal;
- ensuring production using innovative technology;
- increase in demand;
- maturity due to peak sales;
- decline in interest.
Changes in consumer preferences and competition significantly shorten the life cycle of products. A company that does not strive for improvement is forced to give up its positions to dynamically developing enterprises, whose leaders pay attention to the modernization of the technologies used and the results of labor.
If an entrepreneur makes every effort to improve production, but cannot achieve stable results, then he needs to think about a new sales market, since only in this perspective can we talk about the possibility of stable development.
The life cycle of products is not distinguished by high marks. Due to the many similar proposals, its obsolescence is fast. In order to maintain positions in the competitive market, innovative marketing activities are carried out. They are aimed at improving product quality, introducing new developments and timely removal of obsolete products from production and replacing them with new offerings.
The role of technology in business promotion
To date, the global industry has been placed in a rigid framework of competition, which can only be overcome by creating the best offer, which is distinguished by comparative reliability, safety and low cost. All these product qualities depend on providing production with innovative solutions.
Management Requirements
At large enterprises, production and marketing activities are always planned for several years in advance, so it is not easy to introduce new technologies into production, since already established processes must be rebuilt to implement the operation. For this reason, it is easier for small and medium-sized businesses to rebuild, because they are able to quickly respond to all innovations that would be useful to them in promoting an entrepreneurial idea.
New technologies in production provide cost savings for small businesses and increase their productivity. The introduction of innovations contributes to the growth of competitiveness, since they avoid the financial and economic costs of development.
How to stand out from competitors
The opening of any enterprise and the definition of a niche should be accompanied by a study of consumer demand and potential markets for the results of labor.
There are many companies specializing in the same activity, but each successful business entity has a secret that distinguishes it from competitors. Simple ideas with a little improvement turn into unique ones. Innovations are effective if they are aimed at transforming the way the results of work are promoted. To date, such progressive methods as vending, frontend and vanselling are known.
Vending
A great idea to announce your offer is a vending scheme. Its essence lies in the sale of products through the machine. In this way, you can sell any objects of a traditional and specific nature. Convenient sales of coffee, tea, soft drinks, fruits, sweets and chewing gums. A good example of the popularity of vending and the possibility of selling specific goods under such a scheme are sales of live crabs through vending machines in Japan.
Good afternoon, readers of my blog. Today we will talk about a rather unusual business, which is based on the sale of interesting inventions that greatly simplify our lives. If you have watched the program Crazy Hands before, then you can already understand what will be discussed. I'm sure Ben Kaufman, the founder of Quirky, had no idea such a transfer existed, but the idea behind his business is pretty interesting. He sells other people's inventions, while paying the author, or a team of inventors, a certain percentage of the proceeds.
The Quirky Company: Let's Look in the Middle
Evening, Thursday, the headquarters of the Quirky company - this is where all the fun happens. Every week, Quirky's cozy office turns into a TV studio. Not so long ago, in mid-April, there was a rather interesting and diverse audience at the headquarters - young people slowly drinking beer, businessmen in good suits, mothers with their children, and many others. At the center of all the action, dressed in a black T-shirt and casual jeans, was Ben Kaufman, CEO of Quirky. He decided to attract the attention of the public big words- "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to testing Quirky products"
Such meetings are called "Assessment". It is on them that the 26-year-old businessman Kaufman invites his guests to evaluate and analyze more than a dozen interesting ideas that were proposed in the half-million community of Quirky. Among the proposed inventions, there can be anything, everyone studies the subject in detail, dissuades, and then it is put up for a vote. That's all, this is how this whole unusual business looks like. Quite funny, but at the same time very correct. The product passes the first stage of testing, it is evaluated by several control groups consisting of different segments of the population. Already at this stage, we can conclude what will be sold in the future and what will not.
Thanks to such an interesting business and a non-standard approach to the choice of goods, quite popular and useful inventions appeared in Quirky:
Pivot power This is a very practical extension. Its main value is that it is flexible and convenient.
Crates is an invention that basically uses a crate of milk bottles. As a result, we get quite interesting modular furniture.
Silo- a container in which you can store various cereals. Convenient in that you can control the amount of poured product.
Travelstacks, is a mini box for various knick-knacks, which you can fix in the car cup holder.
All the same, most of the products sold are all kinds of kitchen appliances, electronic inventions and storage containers.
Quirky: prospects for the development of an interesting business
To say that investment firms love Quirky is an understatement. Since starting the company in 2009, Kaufman has raised more than $90 million to this day, most of which came from the Andreessen Horowitz fund. If we talk about the value of Quirky, then according to the latest calculations, which were carried out in September 2012, the company is valued at $150 million. Not bad for a young businessman and a recently launched project.
Over the entire period of its existence, the company was able to launch more than 120 new, innovative and interesting items. Total Quantities sales amount to about 2.3 billion items. It should be noted that the main points of sale are retail chains in the US and Europe. While Quirky had $18 million in revenue in 2012, Kaufman says the company is still unprofitable. But, as you understand, if there were no prospects, then investment companies would not pay such attention to Quirky.
“In 2013, we plan to raise more than $50 million, which gives us a chance not to stay in the f..ne,” says Ben Kaufman.
As I said, retail chains sell 95% of all goods of the company, but the board of directors is already starting to think about how to create their own chain, which will bring even more profit. This is logical, firstly, Quirky will develop its brand, more recognition, more information from the buyer, more profit. Secondly, the cost part will decrease, because it will not be necessary to pay a percentage of retail companies for the sale of their goods.
Ben Kaufman: where did it all begin?
If you think that Quirky was Kaufman's first project, then you are deeply mistaken. He started his first business at school. Ben was a C student, and once even scored 4 points out of 100 in a chemistry exam, but this did not bother him much. During the lessons, he tried, unnoticed by the teacher, to listen to the Ipod. It was then that the idea came up to develop a cord that would hide the wires from the headphones. The idea was realized and then Ben decided to put it into production. The only problem was where to get the money. Fortunately, the guy's parents were not poor and could afford to sponsor young Ben's startup.
Mindy Kaufman, that was the name of Ben's mother, was a specialist and developed retail strategies. It was she who set the conditions that the money would be allocated only if Ben wrote a detailed business plan. The startup was named mophie. Parents allocated 190 thousand dollars for the development of the project.
“Over the past 5 years, I have attracted more than 100 million investments, but it was money from my parents that was the hardest deal,” Kaufman says in one of his interviews.
There was a week left before graduation, but Ben decided that he needed to take the bull by the horns, he flew to the manufacturers in China. Without knowing anything about production, sales, management, logistics, supplies, he acted and was not afraid. As he later admitted that his parents' money successfully disappeared somewhere "in the factories of Shenzhen", and this despite the fact that he changed the design of his invisible headphones five times. In parallel with the development of headphones, Kaufman begins the production of cases for the iPad and attracts an additional $500,000 in investments. The ultimate success comes in 2006 when his cases receive a Best in Show nomination at MacWorld. That's when mophie receives another $1.5 million from investors and quickly begins to develop. Due to his youth and experience, Kaufman loses control of the company. Investors, seeing real prospects for big earnings, hire a new CEO, and the 20-year-old creator is forced to leave his project. To date, mophie sells more than $150 million worth of accessories for Apple products.
Quirky: a new stage in the life of Kaufman
Although he lost his first project, he gained tremendous experience and had enough money to start a new, more ambitious startup. It took almost three years to develop a working scheme for a new online community. This is how Quirky is born. As we see today, the company is doing well, and many analysts even say that Quirky could be worth more than $1 billion in the future.
Of course, Quirky is still in the process of becoming, although the company is already showing a good trend, but this does not mean that it will be so. Eat a big difference between forecasts and real development. The course to create your own network of retail stores can be wrong, and many experts point out this fact. When creating an offline store, you have only one chance, there are no options that suggest the possibility of error. In case of failure, it will be very difficult to rise again and change something. Kaufman again risks losing his business, but as we know, fate loves brave and risky guys. Perhaps in a couple of years I will write an article about Ben Kaufman's most successful and rather interesting business, which brought a billion dollars to a young entrepreneur.
Have you once again opened the hot water faucet, left the tub to fill and forgot? Then new invention in the form of a water meter with a lock made just for you.
This device is mounted on a tap, on it you set the volume of your bathroom and turn on the water. After the volume of water that you specified flows out of the tap, the meter will simply turn off the water.
What is a good idea?
The idea is good because the use of the meter allows you to achieve significant savings. This business know-how will insure you both from flooding your neighbors from below, and from overspending very expensive hot water.
Bicycle with hand pedals
Reinventing the wheel is pointless, that's a fact. However, the same was said about the bike. It would seem, how can you change the design of a two-wheeled transport familiar to everyone?
And like this - now you can buy a bike with pedals, which are located instead of the steering wheel. That is, you will set the wheels in motion with your hands. Although the inventors did not abandon the foot pedals, offering to combine both options if desired.
Who needs it?
Anyone who cares about their health. Thanks to this design, now not only Bottom part torso, but also the upper. So, health will be twice as much.
Airbag for cyclists
Continuing the theme of two-wheeled transport, we will touch not only on the health of cyclists, but also on their safety. If motorists are protected by both belts and a body, then cyclists are completely defenseless.
But now they sell a scarf that hides an airbag. The situation is monitored by special sensors, which, if necessary, give a signal and in 0.1 seconds an air cushion is formed around the cyclist's head.
What is the price?
The cost of the accessory is quite high, about $450. But, as they say, they do not save on health.
Electronic plaster
If, nevertheless, injuries are received, electronic gypsum will help to survive the time of bone fusion. The gadget differs from the usual one in absolutely everything - the material of manufacture, functionality and capabilities. At the same time, the main task is to fix the hand, the electronic plaster performs perfectly.
Who will suit?
To everyone who just can't appear on the street with a regular cast. The electronic version does not cause regret, but interest. If you have broken your arm and have a business meeting ahead, this is for you.
dog communication device
Did you want to understand your pet as a child? Now there is such an opportunity. And it provides a headset, which is a very complex device.
The point is that the device reads the readings of the animal's brain, and then translates them into a language understandable to humans. Your pet is hungry or wants to walk - now he will report it himself.
Constructor car
Do-it-yourself dream car? This is a reality, thanks to one Italian company. You choose a kit, complete it with components for assembly and get spare parts.
Of these, the car you will have to own. By the way, this is a great gift for a man. True, to be able to handle tools in this case is simply necessary.
Interactive sandbox
Imagine that you create mountains, volcanoes and depressions with your own hands from sand. Interesting? The creators of the interactive sandbox thought so too. It is based on ordinary sand, which is illuminated by a complex device, which gives the illusion of the reality of what is happening.
Surely in schools, and in entertainment facilities, the demand for it will be enormous.
snow clearer
This is the last one I would like to mention today. Because nothing could be more brilliant. The invention is a hybrid of a snow blower and a conventional sprayer. Only the latter does not supply water, but salt.
Can you imagine how easy snow removal is? And it was invented by two seventh graders. There is something to think about, right?
