They say necessity is the mother of invention.   And in these economic times, its been a necessity for many of those out of work, to invent new ways to make money.   That could be why so many people are now working on turning their ideas into inventions of sellable products.

One of those people is Twanda Mobley, who is hoping others’ trash will become her treasure.   Mobley lost her job in banking compliance about a year ago.   She says it was the incentive she needed to push ahead with her invention for a convenient but attractive portable garbage can. “I said to myself, you know I have this great idea and I’ve been working on it so let me move forward on it”.     Mobley says she got the idea after picking up trash that had blown onto her yard, and feeling frustrated there wasn’t a nearby container to toss it into.   She had her nephew make drawings of what she thought it should look like, then took it to a company called C2R Product Development.  They created the product, which she named the Glam can.  Now she sells it directly from her new company website. 300 sold so far.

Experts say tough economic times often lead to new ideas and new business ventures.   Its a commonly repeated fact that more millionaires were created out of the Great Depression, than at any other time in U.S. history.   It could be because people have more time available to conjure up new ideas, or because they’ve got nothing else to lose so they’re more willing to take risks.

Tim Grieff thought up the “Loc-In” plug after watching his 2 year old son trying to pull electrical chords out of the wall.   Grieff was worried for his son’s safety and wished he had a device to secure the plug into the wall…so he invented one. “Its an adaptor and you plug it in, any power chord you plug it into it locks onto it permanently and then whenever you plug that power tool into a an outlet it stays locked in until you push the release button and pull it out” Grieff wants to sell the Loc-In for about $5.99 a piece and is already talking to home improvement stores and online shopping networks to get it in the hands of consumers.

But turning an idea into a marketable product isn’t as easy as it may seem.   Bruce Nemec, president of C2R Product Development, says it can take a long time to turn a concept into a viable product, and the process can be very expensive.  “I give people a ballpark of $50,000 to $100,000 that they have to have set aside to cover design, development and engineering, prototyping, …tooling, molding, manufacturing, assemblying.  You have to have that financial backing in order to cover those costs just to get in the game”.    Nemec cautions that wannabe inventors need to be careful about where they take their ideas.  There are many get-rich-quick companies out there that will make you promises they can’t deliver, for a large fee up front.

Overall, economists say all these new ideas and inventions could sprout new companies, and jobs will be created.{VignetteVideo assettitl=”Inventers” id=”7DE2F37F681F804FA7195344075B4824″ aspectratio=”1.77″ autoplay=”off” width=”375″ height=”211″ }