Inventors often have great ideas they can't afford to introduce effectively. The traditional way around this is to license your invention to a manufacturer. But there's another method that offers many advantages over licensing: arranging with a manufacturer or a distributor/wholesaler to sell your product on commission. Selling on commission is an ideal approach if you see a market opportunity but don't have the expertise to develop the product. Essentially, the other company handles product design and engineering, and pays the person who knows the product best?you?to sell it.

Recently mainstream media coverage of the packaging industry is more in-depth than usual. I see several articles about packaging every week. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the news articles deal with negative perceptions of packaging and its influence on society. In fact, dozens of articles were recently written in response to the Consumer Reports "Oyster Awards" with such titles as: ?Today's Packaging Can Drive The Mild-Mannered To Rage" and "Open UP." Most of what was written in these articles did not bode well for packaging. So how can you get your product packaging seen by the media in a more favorable light?

What is the biggest problem for inventors who fail to sell their product? Is it a poor marketing campaign? Is it the product wrong for the market? Are customers not ready for a new product in that category? Is the pricing wrong? All of those things might be the case for sales failure, but the biggest problem inventors have is their emotional attachment to their product.