Shed Simove is ‘The Ideas Man’ and is possibly the best example of an entrepreneur in the UK at the moment for bringing a multitude of creative ideas to
fruition. He’s sold over a million products in the novelty gift market, his best selling products include, ‘Clitoris Allsorts’, The Martin ‘Loofah’ King and ‘The Flying Fuck’. He’s even changed his name to ‘God’ and got rejected by HSBC when trying to get a credit card in his new name, God.
I personally really advocate reading his book, The Ideas Man – it’s an awesome read.
I managed to grab a few minutes of his busy schedule and caught up with him on the phone. Here’s what I asked him:
Shed, you’ve brought so many great ideas to market. How do recommend taking an idea for a novelty gift to market?
Find an expert to help you. If you’re starting out in a new area, go to a trade fair and see the person working on that area. Take their details, don’t try and pitch them there and then – call them two weeks later and say:
“Saw you at the trade fair, do you take new ideas from outside your business?”
If so, go and see them.
{AF template=round_quotes} Get a proper design drawn up. It needs to be drawn up professionally. If you’re not good at graphics, ask around uni or use one of the many freelance sites available. {/AF}
Never go to the meeting with just one idea, always take 4, 5, 6 or even more.
If you’re at uni, it’s easy to make a prototype, there are usually a lot of resources – ask around.
Do I need an NDA (non disclosure agreement)?
I get asked this a lot. First, send the idea to yourself by registered post. If you can afford it, send your idea to a solicitor.
Get a feel for the person, do you think they will rip you off. It’s in their interest not to steal your idea, in case you have more ideas. Have I been ripped off? Of course. But I have learned that you need to develop a relationship with a distributor – do you have a good feeling about them? Do you think they might rip you off? If so, then walk away.
How do you deal with negative people?
I think with any idea, people will tell you why it won’t work. I call these people negnets (negative magnets) – there are millions of those people.
{AF template=round_quotes} Gravitate people to people who love your idea. What you need at the start is a bit of encouragement. {/AF}
You also need to encourage yourself. Don’t put a lot of resources into it, i.e. Money. Worst case scenario is you’ll waste some time but you’ll always learn something, and learning is hardly wasted time, is it?
{AF template=round_quotes} If you aim to ‘fail’ 3 times before a success, then you’ll get there in the end. It’s very rare that someone is creatively brilliant all the time. Not all of your ideas will be brilliant but some will. {/AF}
You’ve got in a bit of hot water with Apple with your iNotepad and iPood products. Has this cost you money?
It hasn’t cost me any money to get in trouble with Apple, I usually do these type of products for the press. You can talk everything out. I took some legal advice on the Burberry check on the Chavstick product. I know where the line is and I don’t cross the line. Any problems with big companies can be talked out, it’s no biggie.
Apple should be delighted that I am bringing their products to life in the novelty arena. The honour is all theirs.
And finally…
I just want to say as a side a note: {AF template=round_quotes} I think students should start more businesses. I worry that uni’s and schools don’t encourage entrepreneurship enough! {/AF} There are no barriers to entry with starting a business with Ebay and Alibaba.com – both give you the ability to source products quickly. It’s a great time to start something cheaply. Even setting up a website or blog costs next to nothing. You don’t have to work 9 to 5, you can create money for yourself! You don’t have to be told what to do by some **** – live the life you want to live. Start today!
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Great interview Shed – thank you! Check out his new book, ‘What Men Think About Apart from Sex‘ – it’s a thriller!