In this Ask Evan video, Evan Carmichael responds to a viewer, Michael, an inventor with a successful track record in the ski and snowboard market who wants to start his own business and secure funding. Evan advises Michael to write his own business plan rather than hiring someone, warning that most successful businesses are built on founders' own ideas. He cautions that government funding can be slow and come with restrictive strings, suggesting it may not be the best route. Instead, he recommends leveraging Michael’s industry reputation to connect with individual investors in the ski/snowboard sector, focusing on funding the next specific invention. By using the proceeds from that first product, Michael can finance future inventions, either with the same partners or independently. Evan concludes with a call for viewers to like, comment, and stay tuned for future episodes.
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Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael, and welcome to a video edition of Ask Evan. In today's video, I'm going to answer a question from one of my readers, Michael. Michael is an inventor. He's created a lot of products towards the ski and snowboard industry, and they've sold for a lot of money, but it's always been for somebody else. So now he wants to branch out, create his own business, and reap the rewards from his own inventions. He's trying to raise money to create a business plan to go for government funding and ask my opinion on what he should do. So first of all, congrats, Michael, it's a great step to go on your own, start your own business instead of working for somebody else. It takes a lot of guts to do it. For writing your business plan, I don't recommend that you hire somebody to help you with your business plan. It doesn't have to be a super complex document. But you want to make sure that you have your own ideas in there and it's not somebody else doing it for you. You don't really see a lot of successful businesses that have been set up by somebody else writing their business plan. So I encourage you to, to write a business plan and try to do it yourself if you can. In terms of government funding, it is an option, but it may not be the best option for you to look at. Government can be super helpful, but it can also take a really long time to get the funding, and often there are strings attached to it that you may not be able to go with. So I would encourage you to try to look at other options. If I were you, I would probably try to contact some people in the ski industry. There's a lot of investors who put money into various ski products. Figure out how much you need for your next invention. So don't think about your whole suite of new ideas coming out. Think about what's the next invention that you want to launch. Try to find some people who know some of the products that you've created and believe in this investment. And encourage them to want to get involved. And hopefully they have money to bring, but also a little bit of experience and connections within the ski or snowboard industry. And then use the money that you make from that first invention to fund future inventions. And it could be again with the same partners, or you can go out on your own and do it yourself. That's what I would do. I would try to connect with people who I know or who know me through the products that I've created, because you have a big track record of success inventing cool products in the ski/snowboard industry. And I'd try to focus down that route instead of going for the business plan and government route. You can still try it, I just think you'll have a much greater chance of success working with individual investors who know your industry and who believe in some of the products you've created. So I hope that helps, Michael. For everybody else, if you enjoyed the video, I'd love it if you can give it a thumbs up and we'll create more videos just like it. And I'd also love to hear your thoughts and feedback if you want to leave a comment below the video. And stay tuned for the next episode.
