Hi, I am Dug Patt. And this is the How to Architect Anything Series Part 6, Using Professionals. My business partner and I were able to sell one of our companies. One of the reasons we succeeded is that we use professionals to develop and grant the product.
Let is review four professionals in my pay to get involve in newer project. Number one, a financial person, the person we work with happened to be the CFO for a company. We got this person involved to help us put together a detail business plan. That is the statement of your business schools including financial informations. It was important because it forced us to lay out our present situation, our history and estimated future of our business.
The other reason that is so important is that every person or organization we approach to raise money required a business plan to review.
Number two, a branding person. The person we chose to work with was trained as a graphic designer but he also happened to be experienced in doing branding for a very large global business. Branding is not only the trade markets associated with your product, but it’s also considered the overall image or experience of your product. It is a big deal and it is also why I think we were able to sell our company for a lot of money.
Number three, a manufacture. My experience tells me that making your own product can payoff. We decided to make our own product rather than simply sell or license the idea. Once the product was on the market, we found that the enthusiasm for the product only increase the value of the idea in our company. However, do not be fooled. I had to become a relative expert in the material our product was made from. As well as the manufacturing process that took a long time. We went through a lot of factories, experts and prototypes before we were able to go to market with the product ready for retail and we had a pretty simple product.
Number four, lawyers. Bottom line, lawyers can be very expensive but they also play a critical role in creating the intellectual property that will make your product more valuable and hopefully a target for licensing or purchase by a large company. If you are lucky enough to eventually have someone approach you to purchase your company lawyers could be also be very valuable in terms of helping you evaluate your position, your company’s monetary value and preparing and reviewing contracts.
So, there are plenty of people you can get help from and plenty of ways to be held when taking the product to market. Use your network of friends, family, business associates, and school when finding those critical teammates, coming up discussing your goals. We will see you next time.
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