My plan (needs advice) I have questions!

Ok guys. This is really the first time I have actually written down my plans.

I know the formula (process) to a product that is absolutely dominant in its market.

The product is a headlight restoration kit. I am looking to keep it a "trade secret".

Although their are patented headlight restoration processes, I don't think this process infringes on any patents.

I have added up all of my money, and all I really have right now is about 1.1K
Keep in mind that I'm only 18 : ) Ok, no more excuses.

--My basic goal is to start my own company and warehouse that will produce my product, and then sell bulk individual kits to a larger company.

One problem with this is I don't know where to start. Do I just call up a store like Autozone and ask to meet with a representative? I really hope you guys have advice, because I have 6 days free and want to tear the fast lane up!!!




- I now need to throw a demo kit together and demonstrate how it works to potential business partners.

- I need to find potential business partners. I guess I'll start with cold calls and e-mails.

With the limited money I have, I only really have enough money to travel to a few big company headquarters.


Also, with my limited money I can't produce an individual sample kit that is already packaged to show them what the final product would look like. Do I need to do this?

Also, I have savings bonds and other assets I could access that would give me around 1.5K if ABSOLUTELY necessary.

Do I need to get a business license before I start trying to get potential business partners?

Also, I'm thinking if I do get a contract with a company, I will try to work a deal with them to front me some of the money.

Sorry, I have a hard time organizing my thoughts.

Any advise/questions/answers are greatly encouraged!!!!

Since your plan is to produce and sell a new product:

- Get a patent
- Produce a prototype
- Conduct a very limited production run
- Find distributors

You already have enough $ to do step one, and possibly step two.

Yes, but doesn't the patent process take about two years?

For the USPTO to process and publish your patent it can take anywhere from a couple of months up to 2 or more years. My patent is supposedly to be published in around 6-7 months. Once your patent has been accepted by the USPTO (usually 30 days after your attorney sends out the papers) you can use the patent-pending phrase on your product.

Since you only have $1,100 to startup with, the patenting process would swallow up almost if not all of that cash. You need to do so more research about the patenting process with formulas and find out if you can use a provisional patent on formulas.

Good Luck!

Spare: I was guessing this was your process. We used a similar kit online to fix the headlights on Jill's Jag and it worked very well.

A couple thoughts:
1. You do not need a warehouse and can't afford one
2. When I threw out my idea about how to make a business of this and then sell franchises to others I figured your process was this or something similar.
3. If you want to go the other route - selling it to companies.... Not to be a wet blanket but I think that's going to be tough and it's a one shot deal selling them the patent if you can get one. By all means, pursue that but I believe that RIGHT NOW you could build the kits, market them off your own website and setup a business in your town to make some serious cash. Go to the mall, put a flyer on every car windshield where you find cloudy headlamps. The kit we bought cost us like $30 online, my guess is that cost of materials is negligible. I think 3M made the pads for polishing. Offer the service for $100, see how many calls you get. Do it yourself ten times then teach some friends how once you get overloaded. ...then sell others the product, training and franchise in their area. On your website you can show all the locations and turn this from an S to a B to a fastlane B but only after you roll up your sleeves and prove it works. At a mall, stadium or other large lot let's say you can find 100 cars who need it... get ten to call you and boom - instant $70/hr job at age 18.

Do not do not do not do not tie yourself to expensive rents or massize loads of product til you prove it.

The stuff you need isn't complex, you could make kits and distribute them to automotive shops if they don't carry one and you can do that yourself.

Websites are cheap, you can store a HUGE amount of product in a $100/month storage unit somewhere. You can get the kits made and packaged cheaply in China - for less than you can produce it here.....

Wow, great advice. I didn't even think about making a website.

Also, I didn't even consider outsourcing the production of my product. That's genius!

I think, because I currently have so much free time, I will start building up my website with a program, and then buy a domain.

Also, I want to sell bulk kits to dealerships. I could sell them for $500, and they have 30 uses. If they charge $120 to do a set of headlights, that's $3,100 profit for them after 30 cars.

Thanks again for the advice!

Do you know any good website making programs?

Edit: speed for you : )

If you aren't a web developer then I would not recommend focusing on becoming one. That's become a commodity. Checkout 99designs.com and scriptlance.com. You can run a contest to let people design your site and then just update it or outsource it to someone in India for $10/hr while you get your tail out there and polish some headlamps.

Happy that the ideas are useful to you, the whole point of this forum is to make you say "Shit! Why didn't I think of that!" at least once per day.

Once you get the site up, there are lots of threads here about increasing traffic and making it better. You could cheaply produce a demo video, videos get clicked and if you show a quick demo of foggy headlamp to clear headlamp ....easy money.

Sic'm tiger.

buy your domain names asap before someone else does. they are only 10$ a piece per year. i own 250 or so web names for various reasons.