ABC's Shark Tank: More Lessons from the Tank

A few months ago I mentioned that "ABC's Shark Tank is quickly becoming a powerful force in its timeslot on Sundays at 9/8c." And while it was questionable whether the Sharks would return for a new season, the rumor mill has it that they are back. Presently, there is some confusion about when the episodes playing now were filmed, but that, in all honesty, doesn't matter. What matters is that they are indeed back. For now. According to tvbythenumbers.com, this season, after only two episodes, Shark Tank has increased its overall viewership by about 13% and, in its new Friday night slot, placing first and second in two critical viewer demographics.

And that is more good news for fans and those who should be watching (potential business people and inventors). As a refresher for those of you who don't know much about Shark Tank here's my quick summary (found in an earlier review): "The show teaches the audience about cut-throat business in a way no other shows in this genre (for example American Inventor) has ever done, by immersing the audience and the contestants in often hard-nosed deals."

The next four lessons learned by watching Shark Tank are these:

1) Make a business plan; set a date for success (having a livable profit). If by that date it's not there, cut and run. Ditch it. That wonderful advice, in part, comes from the wonderfully blunt Kevin O'Leary, the somewhat irascible Shark who sold one of his companies to Mattel for 3.7 billion, who told the Wee Can Shop people that they need to set limits.

2) Make sure to have "proprietary content" when asking for an investment: This is content that is held privately through a copyright, trademark or patent. In other words, there's gotta be something clearly marketable; just a trademarked logo is not marketable (or at least marketable enough to make lots of money from), but a well done logo and a good product are, especially if the product is highly marketable and inexpensive.

3) Consider self-marketing through places like mail order catalogues (and don't forget, as I mentioned in a previous piece, to also get thee to tradeshows!). Two such places are ThomasNet and Alibaba.

4) Similar to the issue with ensuring you actually have proprietary content, consider the importance of packaging too. The Sharks seem to be very interested too in the question: How will the packaging attract the customer? The Sharks, initially, were not impressed by the Grease Monkey Wipes people to begin with, but after a wonderfully well-spoken and convincing argument by one of the "inventors" (no patent, so technically not an inventor) the Sharks bit. But they bit more so because the packaging was unique and would off-set the product itself. A monkey smiling at you is not something one can easily miss after all.

5) Don't forgot to find a manufacturer (if you aren't able to do it on the cheap yourself) who you can work with. While not discussed on the show, an internet search turns up these three databases of manufacturing companies you can peruse through.

6) One consistent theme has been getting sales before asking for investments. One contestant with a sun bathing device called the Podillow-something similar to the head of a massage table that allows you to lay comfortably (though laying face down in sand is not my idea of comfortable-had listed his invention in a few mail-order catalogues such as Lillian Vernon. Get your product out there in the simplest ways you can ... and get confirmed sales!

As I also mentioned in my earlier stories about Shark Tank, there is a bit of irony in learning things from the show. I'll quote myself: "If you do all this work, you should have no need for the Sharks in the first place. So the Sharks are doing potential business people and inventors looking for investors an unprecedented chance (in American reality shows that it) to glean hints of information from their years of experience in different fields like real estate, finances, fashion, and television marketing. And all that advice is free and entertaining. Not a bad combination of advice when you're trying to get your idea out there." I think that sums up this update too.