Innovators' Resource Network

Bringing Your Products to Market   

Louis J. Foreman is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for innovation. He started his first business from his college fraternity room and, for the past 20 years, has been starting and building successful companies. Louis is the founder and CEO of Enventys, a product-development firm working with major consumer product manufacturers and leading retailers. He is a patent holder, the publisher of Inventors Digest magazine and executive producer of the Emmy® award–winning PBS show Everyday Edisons. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has co-authored, along with patent attorney Jill Gilbert Welytok the new THE INDEPENDENT INVENTOR’S HANDBOOK, published in August 2009.

 The INDEPENDENT Inventor’s Handbook, according to the publisher, “gives aspiring inventors the real deal: Understanding the difference between a good idea and a marketable idea. Why investing too much money at the outset can sink you. The downside of design patents, and how best to file an application for a utility patent. Plus the effective pitch (hint: Never say your target audience is “everyone”), questions to ask a prospective manufacturer, 14 licensing land mines to avoid, “looks-like” versus “works-like” prototypes, 10 things not to tell a potential investor, and how to protect your invention once it’s on the market. Appendices include a glossary of legal, manufacturing, and marketing terms, a sample nondisclosure agreement, and a sample patent, deconstructed.”

 

William McHenry: After twenty-years in the corporate world, Bill decided to use his talent for business as a vehicle to pursue his passion to help other people. In 2003 he took a chance and launched a company of his own in Illinois. Entrepreneur Sales and Marketing, or ESM, was designed with the specific purpose of aiding those with an entrepreneurial spirit. Bill's unique and successful business plan provides businesses with individualized and cumulative services in areas of business development with an emphasis on sales and marketing. Bill's vast professional expertise has helped to launch a number of exciting new products and companies, building them from the ground up, such as the Poultry Pal and the Vac-It, by offering a number of valuable resources. ESM stands alone as a unique opportunity for small ideas to become profitable businesses, providing assistance from concept to completion and sales. Entrepreneurs are able to capitalize on Bill's vision for establishing a wide market for their products through prospecting techniques, as well as his commitment to the formation of internal and external relationships. Bill has recently launched Widgeteer, Inc, featuring the Vac-It as its flagship product. With a focus on kitchen gadgets that will make life simpler for the modern consumer, Widgeteer looks to become a premier manufacturer of innovative and exciting products. Bill has proven that an emphasis on building relationships is a key component to success in the business world. His desire to make a difference in the lives of others has inspired his partner companies, his staff, and conference audiences alike. These core values have made ESM the perfect place for building dreams.   

  www.entrepreneursales.com