Wife came up with a business idea any help

Krosset.G · 23-01-08

This idea my wife came up with I've been looking everywhere and nobody as thought of it and i can't sleep the idea is so good.

I remember a TV program last week where a lady gave up work to look after her two children but very near asked her former employees to take her back when she came up with not sure if this was the name but child charts where they are rewarded for being good and doing what they are told and when they did everything they then where given a choice of what they would like to do.

Anyway to cut a long story short both of her girls loved it and there behavior suddenly changed and started looking forward to the next day and so on and within a short space of time her sales for these child charts rocketed.

Now she said she wasted 40k taking her idea to exhibitions etc and if given the chance again would not of I'm not quite sure how she marketed it after that.

So my question is where do i go with this idea I've heard of these companies that tell you to submit your idea and if they think there is a market for it they will get back in touch but I'm worried they would just pinch it,

Just a couple of points this idea would not require any new manufacturing because the products already exist and it's not just one item it's many items put together to form one package and would not only save mums and dads lots of time but there are many other benefits.

So any ideas please where would we be best taking this idea for instance would we need a patent etc.

endevours · 23-01-08

Here you go - the kings of the infomercials.

endor2 · 23-01-08

well, if you think its a unique idea, make a sample and get it patented or copyrighted, then send it off to the businesses, a cheap way to copyright is to send a package with the idea to yourself using recording first class. Dn't open when you get it, keep it safe, the way it works is that you have an independant dated package so if someone claims it to be their idea afterwards, you have proof of having it before them or if you have faith in the product, just fork out a wee bit and get it officially patented;

squirtell · 23-01-08

Try Dragons Den, thats a serious comment btw

frogler · 23-01-08

Another question this idea involves lots of items put together making up 1 package would it be legal to use trade mark named products within this package or would we need to use none trade marked goods.

Masher87 · 23-01-08

We have decided to go shopping and get this idea packaged and show it to retailers so we get some feedback does anyone think this is a good step and also any thoughts of trying it out on eBay?

And before doing the two above should we get some sort of copyright first?

drphill · 23-01-08

Hey mate, I would say get it copyrighted before you show it to retailers etc, just work on the belief of trusting no-one for the initial phase, your idea is worthless without a copyright or patent because any Tom, Dick and Harry can copy it for cheaper and for lower quality