Taking Your Product To Market

So often a product comes to market because someone is looking for something and can’t find it, and so they take the plunge and make it available.

Well since my toe surgery I can tell you there are no ready-sized dressings for big toes.  Fingers, thumbs, knees even elbows, but nothing for toes.  So this is my gift to any enterprising soul out there – develop one, I can tell you there is a market for this product.

Mind you, I have to say I have become quite skillful at improvising and making my own dressing but it would have been so much easier if something had been available, ready to go.

It takes real guts to bring a product to market.  I wouldn’t have clue where to start with the whole manufacturing piece. That’s why I am looking forward to hearing our panel on May 23 when three women entrepreneurs will share just how they did it.

I know for two of them, it was identifying a gap that led to the development of their product.  Jacqueline Sava, for example, could not find a safe detergent to use for washing knitted clothes, so she developed Soak, which is sold across North America. 

When Marissa McTasney was taking a skilled trades program she found that there were no work boots or hard hats that suited or fitted women.  She set off on a journey to bring those products to market and right now they can be found in over 250 retail stores across Canada.

Rae Lindsay, our third panelist, on the other hand, became disillusioned with her day job, and decided to pursue her passion – baking – and she sells and produces a line of biscotti that is also sold in Canada and the United States.  As a single mother, she truly had a lot at stake, but it paid off and today she is among the top 100 women entrepreneurs listed by PROFIT magazine.

I could say more about these three enterprising women, but I don’t want to steal their thunder.  Come and hear them for yourself.

And as for the toe idea – put your best foot forward and go for it.