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Do a professional information sheet on your product

Include these items and a picture of your prototype or a drawing if possible.

1. Brief product description.

• Why you developed the idea.

• Target customer: be specific about the target customer, don’t say everyone. For example if you have a kitchen item, you might be tempted to say everyone, but that is not nearly as effective as stating people who buy three to five new kitchen utensils per year, and buy new pots every five years. People want to know that you have narrowed your market.

• Main product benefits.

• The products people are buying now to achieve the same purpose your product fills. (It is extremely helpful to have brochures, or print outs from web pages.) Be sure to check out an industry directory for products and not just rely on your local stores. You can typically find the directory at trade magazine web sites. You can find the trade magazines by checking Gale Research’s Directory of Magazines and Broadcast Media which is available at larger libraries.

• Target price.
• Sales outlets, where the products will be sold.

• Distribution outlets, what type of distributors or manufacturers representatives can be used to sell the product.

If you don’t know this information you can get help with your specific product from SCORE, which are retired business executives who offer free help. Find your local contact at http://www.score.org . Another good source is your local Small Business Development Center which you can locate at http://www.sba.gov. Both of these organizations can help you define your distribution channel and also the sales outlets where you will sell your product.

You should put all this information on no more than two pages of paper. Then whenever you talk about your interesting idea you can show someone that you have in fact done your homework. The brochures about other products can be attachments.