Have a great idea, what do I do with it?

Question

I literally had a dream last night that God had given one of my friends a great product idea that she made tons of money from. I asked God for an idea of my own. When I woke up I realized I knew what her idea was - and it doesn't actually exist.

So now - I'm thinking, I might want to pursue this.

However, I'm broke - and the patent lawyer I called said it runs $3,500 MINIMUM to get just the patent on a product.

After that, then what? Am I responsible for building the item to try and sell to a company or is just the idea with the patent and drawings enough to sell?

After you get a patent, then what? Is it worth my time?

Answer 1

First of all going to get a patent should be the last thing on your mind.  You should have a completed idea and product before you do that.  Too many people go straight to the patent office and lose their idea to someone else because they simply just made it better or different.   The following is a decent article:

http://www.tenonline.org/art/9010.html

Answer 2

I have discovered that there is so much more to a product than a great idea.  Be prepared to put in a lot of time and money for maybe no reward.  It is especially hard for a brand new product because you have to do a lot of marketing to get product awareness, and that's not just advertising.  There are business mentors out there if you can tap in to them.  We have them through our local councils or small business (govt. funded) groups.  Pray, pray, pray!