I guess I'm a little crazed right now. I recently finished reading a fascinating story on James Dyson, the rich and successful inventor (or as most of us know him "that vacuum guy"). He warned inventors about a lot of the crushing realities of bringing something to market. There were some very hopeful tidbits extracted, and those are the things I recall on the good days. Then there are the days when I vividly recall the harsher truths, like "expect it to take 10 years". I make various models of what I consider to be the best new, most pragmatically effective nail pullers. The first one is called the Nail Jack, and it is the first of the only family of nail pullers on earth that dig the nail (by tapping on the "hammer tap" at the back of the tool's head) GRIP the nail, and pull the fastener using the built on fulcrum. You dig, grab, push down the curved handles, and up comes the nail! Spring loaded jaws open and you rest the jaws again down to the based of the now fully exposed body of the fastener and crank down again and voila! The only nail puller design that truly works efficiently with the least damage to the wood! Inventing is probably like trying to be a famous actor: you have to survive long enough while staying focused long enough to keep paying the rent and feeding yourself (and your family). I am sure that the best things don't always become the standard (Beta versus VHS), but it ends up being about marketing and business. I have found, when googling nail pullers, that there are these "mystery blogs" that post about nail pullers every day! It seems like it's done by a robot or something. If anyone knows how these work, tell me! I have not seen a great way to sell my tools online yet, but I am working toward it. Amazon gets no sales, ebay is one tool a month, and google adwords tends to take all of your profit, so I guess it's on to the catalogs next! Stay tuned!
I sure would welcome suggestions for how to get the most effective and cost efficient method of getting the word out! I wanted to let Hammacher Schlemmer know that I had the best new tool in decades but the Everyday Edison folks turned it into a contest, which is great, but would probably require me to license my tools to them when I am already manufacturing them. President Obama, we are going to get through these dramatic times. Just make sure you bet on the great American worker!
