In the three years I have been running Motivating Mum, I have come across so many mums with many great ideas, be they product or service.  They say 'necessity is the mother of all invention' and it seems they were right on many fronts; having babies seems to highlight areas lacking in just the right product or service and it is the mother doing the inventing.

I asked Cally to contribute this article as I know that although you have the ideas and the passion, the know-how is an area that many of you could use a little help and who better than the founder of She's Ingenious herself?  Cheers!  Alli 

An article by Cally Robson, personal business coach and Founder of She's Ingenious! www.ShesIngenious.org

While grant funding gets harder to win, organized awards and showcases are on the up. Here are some pointers to help you find the pick of the bunch for your idea and stay on top of deadlines.

  a.. Try to compile a list of relevant annual awards about a year before you think you'll be ready. That way you will be less likely to miss a deadline for the award that works best to promote and get profile for your new product or invention. And you have fixed deadlines to reach to get your idea developed to a stage that best shows it off (including packaging and branding, which makes a huge difference).

  a.. Check out and sign up for alerts from awards listing sites like www.awardslist.co.uk and www.awardsintelligence.co.uk (get the level 1 free
subscription)

  a.. Unless they are specifically for business IDEAS (like the Shell LiveWire Great Idea Awards for the under 30s www.shell-livewire.org), if you're still in development with your idea, or haven't started trading yet, most business awards won't be applicable. Trading figures are often required as a basis for judgement. You can cut out a lot of work if you're aware of this from the outset.

  a.. Most awards and showcases don't offer cash prizes and funding. Some do, but it's best not enter into awards looking for the pot of gold. Very often prizes stated as having a cash value are in fact donated items and services from sponsors, with advice and mentoring added in.

  a.. Design and invention awards are usually a good starting place for innovative new products and gadgets. They usually come attached to shows that you may have to enter and exhibit your idea at. Don't forget that to be taken seriously, you'll need a working prototype of your concept to show at the very least. Ideas themselves are not enough!

The main general design ideas and inventions awards that apply to solo developers in the UK are:

BFIIN  www.bfiin.com

EUWIIN  www.euwiin.eu Now posted at www.gwiin.com

The British Invention Show  www.britishinventionshow.com

Design Week http://awards.designweek.co.uk/dw/categories/index.php

  a.. Revisit the list you made of industry exhibitions and trade shows when you were first researching your concept. Or review literature for events you attended. These can give you a headstart on finding accolades targeted to your kind of product. More industry awards are introducing awards for innovative new products. For example, the European Office Products Awards 2010 have just announced a new category for unlaunched products - so no trading history is needed www.opi.net/future_events/european_op_awards_2010/categories

  a.. Often the shows included awards that aren't well publicised (This seems to be the case with the Top Drawer show www.topdrawer.co.uk (usually held in January) for new product launches for buyers looking at the following Christmas - see Jane Rafter's interview at http://www.shesingenious.org/public/188.cfm . Be prepared to do some digging, because a commercial industry award can be an important endorsement of your product or design.

  a.. A good lising site for upcoming industry exhibitions in the UK is at www.exhibitions.co.uk But check for other listings springing up - and don't assume that any single listing is completely comprehensive.

  a.. Special competitions are sometimes put on, often as one-offs, by businesses looking for innovative new products to add to their books. The prestiege of being associated with a large brand might be tempting, but always, always read the small print. 8 out of 10 times I find that somewhere buried deep in the paperwork are terms that weaken the Intellectual Property rights of the inventors/ designers in favour of passing rights to the sponsoring business. Watch out for this even in competitions that are endorsed by bodies you trust - sometimes the smallprint just won't have been combed in enough detail.

  a.. You don't have to win top prize for an award to be useful. Very often being shortlisted as a finalist or award entrant will give you enough of a publicity hook.

  a.. Be aware that some awards and competitions (especially TV competitions and shows, which like to have the "scoop" on something) may require that you haven't already won an award, or even previously entered one. So check criteria and prioritize your preferred awards ahead of time.

  a.. You don't need loads and loads of awards to do the job. As if you'd have time! Be strategic in your approach and aim to enter for a couple of select ones that "say the right thing" about your product.

  a.. If you really don't feel confident or able to go for national (or international) awards, don't rule out competitions in your local or regional area. Especially if you concept somehow promotes or is about things like locally grown foods, tourism and leisure, healthy schoolchildren, reducing waste and landfill. Check your local council websites, local weblistings, and even set up a Google alert with local keywords.

  a.. Similarly, don't forget that international awards can be powerful too.  Especially if you see your product selling in foreign markets. One example of this is the gravity-defying Faveo www.faveo.co.uk bra invented by in Megan Powell-Vreeswijk and Dr Joanne Morgan near Nottingham, UK, which won a gold medal for innovation from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). They picked up the award at the Korean International Women Inventors Exposition in May 09.

  a.. The USA is usually the obvious place to find inventor and designer competitions to enter. Simply on the basis of the size of the market (about 50 to 80 times bigger than the UK for some consumer goods), and the fact that the solo-inventor industry is much more developed there.

  a.. US-based Edison Nation www.edisonnation.com is the best known site for running competitions to scout for original inventions and gadgets for industry giants, like Walmart and Petsmart. While they offer prizes and seemingly good royalties, again, you must always work through the terms to make sure the deal is really what you're looking for.

  a.. For designed products, it's worth looking at the international Spark Awards www.sparkawards.com which are run out of San Francisco.

  a.. TV Competitions/Pitching. Love em or hate em, they are probably only going to get bigger. And they have such reach your fortunes can change almost overnight, even if you don't "win".

Cally Robson is a personal business coach and Founder of She's Ingenious! a website and network that supports women developing and marketing new products and inventions www.ShesIngenious.org