Rhian Allen shares 7 tips for bringing a new product to market becasue "The amount of work, money, time, effort, and research that went into creating and launching my own product was about 50 times more than I expected." In the article we provide a short summary as well as the link to the original article.

1. Set a product development and research budget and be realistic.

Always have a slush fund for extra and unexpected costs and expect your product to have 5-10 phases of formulation and re formulation before you will be happy with the result – and make sure you are employing experts on the creation of your product.

2. When you are happy with the end product put it into independent tests and trials;

just because you like it – it doesn’t mean everyone will. The customer is king so get customer and your target audience feedback before going into mass production.

3. Ensure you have an independent body testing or reviewing your products

o you can take on their feedback and make any further changes necessary.

4. Work through a solid marketing and PR strategy plan

as no matter how good your product is if people don’t know about it they won’t be able to buy it and it won’t survive. Ours included a mixture of magazine editorial and advertising, blogger trial, online PR, independent nutritionist endorsement, email marketing and social media.

5. If you don’t have enough funding yourself then look at investors to help you launch your product.

There are many Angel Investor companies who are looking for good companies and ideas to invest in and are a good option if you are short on funds.

6. Expect a number of challenges along the way and hidden costs at every stage.

If you are passionate about your product and have a brilliant development team around you then believe in yourself and have faith. It may take time and hard work but you will get there.

7. Make sure you have a launch strategy.

You need to work through how you will bring it to market and reach your audience. We launched with a variety of marketing and PR.

Source: http://buildalittlebiz.com/blog/7-tips-for-bringing-a-new-product-to-market