Continuing the discussion from Thoughts on small business or entrepreneurship:
Count me in. 20chara
I’d be interested in the class.
I’m interested as well
Another interested party here.
I’m definitely interested.
Leadership?
You are leadership. I am leadership. We are leadership.
Any member has the power to submit a class or event to the calendar. And any member can teach a class or host a discussion. Go for it…
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Most of my graduate education was in connection with the small business administration and helping entrepreneurs stay afloat and helping them write and understand business plans.
With that said - you might have 25 members anywhere near the massive leap you propose from tinkering with an idea in the shop to a full blown business. And that might be the group size you hope for.
For the rest of the 1400+ folk, though, they’re not quite ready for any such leap - which is why I’d asked about patents and patent lawyers in another off-topic thread.
You might get many more takers if you started with the baby step of a seminar on what’s involved in filing for a utility patent and a copy-right. -
Have the brilliant idea - make the proof of concept piece - protect your idea - THEN decide - sell or lease the patent - or grow it into a business. You bury this notion in the middle of your post and most will gloss over the topic entirely as WAY beyond them.
Even having my background and MBA, I’d want to start with the utility patent seminar…
From experience, one of the hardest realities for entrepreneurs is they don’t honestly have anything in hand with a big enough market interest to try to found a business off of. They might have something worth a utility patent which could later be sold or leased to a larger interest. It’s a good place to start.
A friend of mine patented a laser technology to harden bearing races. He also patented a few other ideas close to the working idea that didn’t work to make it more difficult for someone to make minor changes. That was one of his advice to me. He also never had previously filed for a patent & received it on the first go around. His patent lawyer friend was surprised because he never usually gets them the first shot.
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I am so interested in the topic I have written a site and formed an LLC expressly devoted to this topic:
I love to have members join and discuss business ideas, and I just added a calendar showing the buzz of events kicking off that members can join. Example, single wheel motorcycle build kickoff meeting this weekend, a flying car in the works (actually a couple with one built and operational already). I got the facebook join working (and no I don’t get access to all this data like this, its just easier for members this way). And I also reduced the fields so manual join is much simpler.
I have heard a lot of interesting stuff about patents lately including the notion that it may not be a good idea to back off a project just because the idea is patented. It depends. And I would love to explore those nuances. Also, being fluent in patent searching is critical IMO, as it seems like it would be quite easy to overlook something extremely relevant to an idea. And finally, I would like to better understand how to word my patent submissions so that they are broad enough to not be easily circumvented. I have a cousin who designed the newer style golf putters a few years back (railgun.com) and the big companies just went around his patent and sell his idea by the droves, and I am sure they are all very thankful, but this didn’t pay for his time and expenses.
I am very interested in the class. and in the group discussion.
I’m in! Count me plus one!
The Business Side of Inventing - Getting Started
Wed Mar 22 7pm — 8pm
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I would DEFINITELY be interested. Specifically in how to legally start a freelance/make-and-sell-things type of side business. Unfortunately they don’t teach you anything about taxes or how to be self-employed in Art School, even though a good chunk of artists are self-employed.
I feel like I’m getting nowhere with trying to research how to do my taxes for the small amount of money I make on the side. I know I can’t be the only person with this problem. While I don’t have much of an interest in creating a business where I’d be employing other people and inventing new products to market, I desperately need some guidance when it comes to freelance for photography and graphic design. Does this sound like something that could be offered? I’m sure other makers would love to know how to properly sell their creations.
Don’t know about a formal class. But willing/able to help. The taxes regarding self-employed = really pretty easy. Wonder if THAT should be a class?
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+1 on this 
Interested on the patent development idea, and I would like to check my understanding on the taxes thing, as well.