These schools can be a low cost source of help during the research and development phase of your invention. You will need to work closely with them and, of course, have them sign the contractor’s non-disclosure agreement beforehand.

You are undoubtedly saying to yourself, “This all sounds great, but what is the catch?” You are right. There is a catch. Class projects usually take an entire semester to complete. If you are in a hurry to get the results of a marketability study then you will have to pay for the quick results by hiring one of the legitimate professional firms that perform this service. If, on the other hand, you are trying to save every penny possible, it may be worth it to you to wait a semester for the results. It’s your call. Colleges and universities are not the only sources of free marketability studies. High schools all over the country are starting entrepreneurial programs for their students. Often these programs are willing and anxious to perform market studies, surveys and focus groups for new products.

Using your product as a class project is a serious commitment on the professor’s part. You will need to approach it in a businesslike manner and be prepared with a list of what you hope to gain from the project. If you go with unclear objectives the professor is not likely to take you or your project seriously.

The marketing department of a nearby university can be an extremely valuable yet inexpensive resource for inventors on a shoestring budget. Professors often jump at the opportunity to involve the students in research for an actual product that is in development. Many times it becomes a semester assignment for the students to do a thorough market search and evaluation of the potential viability of a product. This often includes the students conducting visits to local stores, thorough internet searches and catalog searches. The work done by the students is often more thorough than the work done by the independent inventor simply because many students are involved in the project.

Do not assume that a thorough market search will replace a patent search. It will not. Many items are patented that never make it to the marketplace.

Scattered across the country are approximately sixty Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries. Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries (PTDL’s) are housed within existing public, academic, state and research libraries. The librarians who work in the PTDL’s are specially trained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and can help inventors perform patent and trademark searches using the printed Gazettes of issued patents as well as the latest computer programs and technology for patent and trademark searching. PTDL’s have all the listings for patents and trademarks that are found in the USPTO’s Virginia offices. There is no difference. This means that you can accomplish as thorough and complete a patent search at one of these PTDL’s as you can accomplish at the USPTO in Virginia.

With the advent of the Internet, the information you are able to access through your local library expanded  exponentially. Now, if a book on a particular subject is available at any library, it is available to you. You simply submit a request and the library will have the book sent to your local library for you to pick up. Inter-library loans are now quite common. Libraries now have large collections of “how-to” videos. Check it out! You may find instructions on how do the very things you need. For example, they may have videos that show you how to make plastic molds, or how to solder, etc.

You may find, after looking through an issue of Inventors Digest, that you want to subscribe in order to build your own library of these informative magazines. If you choose to subscribe to Inventors’ Digest Magazine, you may order a regular subscription that will come to you in the mail or you may subscribe to the online version. The online version of Inventors’ Digest Magazine is especially valuable to independent inventors since it allows you immediate access to current as well as past editions.

Some funds have learned to avoid wild swings in value. They do so not for your benefit, but for theirs. The goal of fund management firms is to gather and hold ever-larger amounts of your money. Fund managers are paid a percentage of funds under management. Fees are not based on returns or other criteria that benefit you. The larger the fund, the larger the fee. Primarily, though, fund managers must assure that funds never close.

And in fact, they rarely do. Since 1970, the number of funds has declined in only one year, 1975. Even in bear markets, the number of funds grows. This game is too good to give up, for the fund managers. The average fund manager earns more than $430,000 per year, despite the fact that Morningstar data shows that the average fund manager has never outperformed the market over a single five-year period.

Mediocre funds with low volatility tend to grow their assets under management for decades. You may be happy to pay fees for mediocre results as long as you avoid the roller coaster. Or, you may feel the fund takes advantage of your loyalty. You may find that mutual funds cause resentment. This is not surprising. Your loyalty is being manipulated.

Mutual fund complexes promote their newest and hottest fund. Investors pour cash into the fund. The manager’s ego soars. He buys more of the same stocks that drew in investors, puffing up the price of the stocks and the return from the fund. The hot fund is discovered by the financial press and more money pours in, more stock is purchased, and returns look even better. When all the buyers are in, a chat room rumor declares the fund and its stocks as over-valued, investors panic about redeeming shares, the fund manager is forced to sell at any price to meet redemptions further depressing stock values and the fund asset price, which panics more investors who redeem and send shares lower still. The depressed fund manager then abandons his old investment style, unloads the rest of the stocks at still lower prices, and moves into stuff remaining shareholders have no interest in owning. They redeem and send prices down again.