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Shoestring Budget™ inventing does not mean cost-free inventing. If only that were the case! It means that you must contribute, at least some of your own money, to the project. You may be saying, “But, I don’t have any money!” If that is the case, then you might as well stop now. Almost anyone can tap into savings or plan for future expenditures by saving small amounts as they can for something that is really important to them. As we mentioned in an earlier chapter, an inventing project does not require that you have the entire amount at the start. It is very possible to pay for your invention in segments as you move through the steps. In fact, that is the way it must be done since product development, protection and marketing take place over a somewhat extended period of time and the expenditures are made in different areas, such as prototyping, legal, and so on.

When we were first inventing our product, Ghostline ®, we were the epitome of Shoestring Budget™ inventors. We were a couple of wives and mothers who were working full time jobs and we did not have a lot of expendable income. We did have faith in our idea; enough faith to dip into our savings to get our first prototypes made. We did it in bits and pieces.

First, we each contributed about $200, when that money was exhausted we each dipped into our savings again to replenish our “company fund” in order to have the money to continue the prototyping process. Thankfully, our first visits to patent attorneys were free (we interviewed several patent attorneys before selecting one) but when the time came to start the patent application we each dipped into our family savings again. If you truly have faith in the potential of your idea, you will be willing to invest at least some of your own money. If you do not have enough faith in your idea to put your money, even if it is limited, where your mouth is, stop now. Do not waste your time or anyone else’s.