Jerry,

I hate to break this to you brother, but there is absolutely no way anyone is going to loan an independent inventor 2.2 mil, I don't care what the invention is. Let's say it's the cure for cancer for instance, there's no money in that! No repeat sales, that's the way a potential investor sees it.

There are only a handful of people worldwide, compared to the rest of us that is, that can actually borrow that kind of money on a signature. Having said that, there are almost none of those people that would be willing to dump that much into an invention, ANY invention, regardless of it's merit.

I don't know if you are needing that kind of dough because the invention is that expensive to develop, or because you are planning a very large scale manufacturing outfit to produce it for that figure as well. I'll tell you though, if it was me, and it is as I'm in rather the same situation, I would go with something cheaper. That invention of yours will still be there, but perhaps you need to put it on the back burner and develop a cheaper one, a much cheaper one!

If it's that good, you should at least get it patented, which is considered to have "constructively" reduced it to practice, if it's that far along. A patent won't cost you nearly that much, even if you use the most expensive patent attorney in the country your not looking at more than $20,000 for a patent and that's way to much as well. The average patent attorney is able to get you a patent for around $5000 max for a pretty complex invention, as cheap as $2000 for something simple, or you can do it yourself for under a grand.

If you had a patent, you could market the licensing on the patent to companies who can afford that dollar figure to go forward with it, and receive a royalty for allowing them to do so. Stay away from the invention development firms as they only want to rip you off, and even if you did find a legitimate one, they aren't going to have millions of dollars to throw at ANY one thing.

This may sound hard to believe, but coming up with a new invention is the easy part! It's the rest of the process which often brings the inventor to his or her knees. The patenting, manufacturing, marketing and the entire lot of headaches that goes with each and every one of those steps.

In the last couple of weeks, I have seen countless "cheapo" inventions. The first one that comes to mind is a simple plastic slide clip that slips over a toothpaste container, allowing you to slide it up to squeeze the toothpaste out. Simple to prototype, simpler to patent, and a relatively easy sell to a manufacturer who already makes products within a similar market base. Think simple, and most importantly cheap!

If you have young kids, or kids at all for that matter as you said you do, financing is often very difficult to come by in any sense of the word. It's really tough to tell the kids they can't eat this month because dad is buying a patent! That's the exact same situation I'm in currently, and trying like hell to get out of.

It sounds like you could qualify for some financing, but try to keep that to a minimum as well. If you read the article above you can tell that I'm not a big fan of the Small Business Assassination either! They are there for what we independent inventors would consider to be big business, not small business. Again, they get around this term by calling us, micro business or the like. There is very little in the way of opportunities for the independent inventor as far as financing goes.

Again, if you can qualify for a small loan, keep it as small as possible. Consider what you will need to do to make the thing, think about getting a patent in there somewhere. If it's a small injection molded plastic product like the one I mentioned above for the toothpaste, you should talk to a local molder in your area, and find out what they will want to make you a mold, or molds for it. The parts are practically free with injection molded plastic, but the mold itself is expensive. Think about all these things as you go into it and try to figure out a minimum dollar figure for getting a simple invention off the ground. Don't sell it to short, because you don't want to find yourself %90 through with it, and unable to afford to go on. Now you have more bills and nothing to show for it but another kick in the teeth.

If you can obtain 10-20k worth of financing, you should be able to successfully launch just about any simple invention onto the market and see some profit from it, again and always depending upon complexity, but try to keep that to a minimum. If it's to complex, it's back to the drawing board. If you are worried about coming up with something else, spend more time thinking about it! The inventions will come to you, as I said coming up with something is the easy part, especially something simple.

Once you have the profit from a couple, even a few simpler inventions coming in, it will be much easier to obtain financing for a larger project, or even finance it youself. Think of it as a very annoying set of stairs that must be climbed, one at a time.

Last but not least, I am currently having funding difficulties of my own, as I have all my life. I certainly wasn't born with the silver spoon in hand as the old saying goes, and we are still fighting like hell to stretch a nickel until it squeaks. After creating my site, loneinventor.com (opens in a new window) and coming into contact with a plethora of inventors like myself, and you who are unable to find financing etc. I decided to create a manufacturing company that would be built on innovation, not opposed to it like so many large companies are. I would take inventor's like ourselves and produce thier invention, and give them a fair royalty, which is all most of us want anyway.

I therefore am about ready to file a corporation which will be able to obtain financing on it's own. I am waiting for the ability to finance that filing, around $125 which I should have any day now. At that point I will begin to build the credit of this corporation, and obtain financing. Within this year I hope to be able to begin producing inventions of other independent inventors like yourself. I doubt (okay, I'm certain I won't...)I will initially have millions of dollars to throw at any one project, however by this time next year that could be a whole different story. Long story short, I am working on that, and have been for quite some time and it's about to come to fruition.

Now don't let that stop you from trying on your own though! Continue to believe in yourself, and more importantly your inventions, dedicating every spare moment of time you have to their development, and the rest will eventually fall into place. Trust me I know that's not an easy answer to swallow, I know personally. I have fought looking for financing for literal years for a variety of projects, and finally got tired of the run around. I got tired of asking others for approval, when I was all the approval I needed anyway. Anyway, please don't give up hope, and more importantly, don't give up the fight!

Please visit the main site, and sign up for a free user account. We have forums, chat etc. all designed to be resources for the independent inventor. I have also conducted several interviews, InventorViews I call them with people just like you and me who have been there and done that, and they can be very encouraging. My interview with Heather Allard, inventor of the swaddleaze is posted here in the blog as well, definitely encouraging to the independent inventor.

I really hope some of that helps you out my friend. It seems pretty bleak right now, but hey, no where to go but up, right?

You can contact me anytime at one@loneinventor.com that's also my MSNIM address if you want to chat with me on there as well. I wish you the best of luck, and please keep in touch. I will have that deal off the ground in no time, and in the mean time perhaps I can give you some links to resources, information or something else you might need which I might have.

Good luck brother, keep the faith!

The Lone Inventor