Want Some of This?A good product is nothing without a customer who wants to buy it.

Last year, 32,025 new domestic products wereintroduced-more than twice the amount in 1991, according toresearch from Market Intelligence Service. The sheer volume of newproducts coming out creates problems for inventors; retailers andcustomers can only buy so much. But this obstacle is notinsurmountable, as evidenced by the many inventors who succeed allthe time.

The secret to raising your odds of success is to carefullyresearch your market ahead of time to determine whether potentialcustomers are really interested in spending their hard-earneddollars on your product. The right strategy requires three keysteps, each of which can be done inexpensively: 1) find out aboutsimilar products that already exist on the market; 2) ask userswhether they see the same problems you do with current productsavailable; and 3) get real-life input from actual users willing totry out prototypes or models of your product. Neglect any one ofthese steps, and you're looking at a challenging roadahead.