February 1, 2001

New NDSU Web Site To Promote Business Success

The NDSU College of Business and Institute for Business and Industry Development (IBID) have developed a Web site to help entrepreneurs and inventors develop and market their products.

The site, "Business Success, Step by Step" is located at: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/small_business911/strategy/ and was developed with the beginning entrepreneur and inventor in mind, according to Wally Eide, director of IBID. He says the majority of beginning entrepreneurs and inventors that have an idea are unsure about the process of eventually getting it to market.

"To get an innovation into the market you must do more than just develop an idea that works," says Eide. "You must have a plan for mating the technical with the appropriate market and business processes. This coordinated linkage of technical, market, and business development of a new technology comprises the ‘Innovation Process.’ Without understanding that process you can’t plan effectively."

"While developing a new idea most innovators tend to focus on the invention itself: Does it work? However, the most crucial question that confronts any new technology is not ‘will it work’ but will anybody buy it at a price that will make an acceptable profit?" Eide says.

The Web site lays out the product development process in both a table and graphical form. Information there explains the development process from idea evaluation through startup. The site breaks down each stage into three parts: technical, marketing and business.

"The technical development step is only one of the steps, and should occupy only a portion of your time" says Eide. "The tasks in the market and business steps must be done as well. They don't have to be performed exactly in the parallel time frame the table suggests, but if you get far down the road in one area while the others lag, you will eventually get bogged down and may actually waste valuable resources."

Links to other useful sites on the internet are also provided.

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Source: Wally Eide, (701) 231-1001, ibid@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, Richard_Mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu