If you currently do not have a business and it is your desire to build a business around your invention, you can do it, but it becomes a much more risky proposition. In the example above, the business owner can lose some money if the product fails, but he is not likely to lose the entire business unless he has risked the company’s stability on the success of that product.
If you choose to build an entire business around a new product, not only will you need a substantial amount of start up capital, including enough to survive until the company becomes self-sustaining, you will need to be virtually certain of the success of the product. There are some astounding success stories of people who have built profitable businesses around a single product. It can happen. But, the odds against huge successes with businesses built around a single product seem to be getting steeper. One important reason is that the buyers for the major retailers will not even allow single-product vendors an appointment to show their product to them.
If you have only one product to sell to a major retail chain, you are not likely to be given that opportunity, no matter how great your product may be. While the retail stores are made to look cheerful with bright colors, bright lighting and background music to enhance the shopping experience, to the retailer it is very serious business and each inch of shelf space is allotted to a particular manufacturer in a map of the store, known as a planogram.
Getting your product on that planogram is not an easy task if you have but one product.