Do you have a great idea for an invention?

"Try, try again" it's the motto of anyone looking to take an idea and make it into a product people will buy.  People hoping to break in with a big idea sit through pitch sessions for products with business executives and an inventor.

Brian Fried had a suitcase full of products, but there was only interest in potentially one product, "A lot of inventors, myself included, you get emotionally attached to a product. At the end of the day you have to put that barrier up," inventor Brian Fried said.   For every 100 products Media Enterprises sees, they might take one. That's why many inventors use middlemen, people like Fried, to pitch their ideas.
Even if an item is turned down by one company, there might be other ways to make money.  Media Enterprises passed on Fried's pull tie gadget that closes packages, thinking there were too many similar items already on the market.  "QVC is good," Fried said. "Had the pull ties on and did close to a million in sales."
"Honestly, I never would have thought that," Bill McAlister, President of Direct Response & Product Sourcing said.  While it's called As Seen on TV, inventions are not just for TV.  Fried's collapsible egg tray is taking off on other platforms.  "Now it's going to be in four catalogs, and Bed Bath and Beyond is going to do a test," Fried said.
Testing is key to getting a product to market. Ask everyone you know what they think about your idea. Many of Fried's ideas come from daily life, "I came home one night from dinner and there was no room in the fridge and I opened up the egg carton and there was one egg in there and it drove me crazy. So, I came up with the collapsible egg tray."
Once you have an idea, and have researched your competitors, make a prototype. Test, test, and do some more testing on that prototype. It takes time, money and connections to get an item on store shelves.