Engineering is the most crucial part of any product because if it is not designed correctly initially, it jeopardizes everything else about the products function, price point, everything. Our Engineers are very skilled, and the greatest advantage you have by using our firm is that we have a team of engineers, not just one opinion. We use all of our skills as a combination and joint effort to ensure that your product is creatively designed to be the best thing on the market.
Do I Get a Patent?
This can be a major investment of around $3-$12,000 if done through a registered patent attorney. The charges here are for doing a full- fledged Non-Provisional Utility Patent Application. I never recommend doing this initially because it is premature for a product in the concept stage. It will be needed when you have proven product sales in the market. I only recommend doing a Provisional Patent Application ($110 filing fee with the patent office) and you can do it with all of our Engineering reports and 3D Drawings after engineering and prototyping is complete. It’s basically a copy and paste with the detailed information you receive in our Concept Design Report. I recommend the provisional after engineering because you can call the product patent pending. This makes the most sense, and buys you 12 months of time before you need to file for the non-provisional mentioned above, of which you can do with money received on the product. We can offer an affordable Patent Search once the engineering is done, and if our designs aren’t patentable, then we will make Engineering changes at our expense! Will my prototype be as good as a finished product?
There are various levels of prototype development, and a first run prototype will not be a finished product, although with a full Engineering and design proposal, our team can get you ready for production affordably. We do find it very valuable to build 1 prototype and then evaluate and test it. Most of the time, this evaluation will lead us to make more changes and provide design refinement on some of the components. Then a 2nd prototype is built. After 2 or 3 prototype versions, we are generally about 90-95% ready for production, and in some cases, the product is 100% ready for production. We can explain much more about this process, but the short answer is that 1 prototype will not allow the product to be 100% ready for manufacturing.
Am I an Entrepreneur or Licensing my Product?
If you become an Entrepreneur, we need to know this, because our Engineering services will be geared towards getting your product ready for the production setting. In production, we will work with your manufacturer and provide them with all of the engineering files and working prototypes they need to further produce the product. Becoming an Entrepreneur is typically the most lucrative way to recoup your investment, but requires the most investment up front as well. If you choose to license your product for royalties, then you may only need a proof of concept prototype and full engineering specifications with reports and product documentation. Our Concept Design Engineering Reports, Material Selection Reports, and final Virtual Renderings as well as physical prototypes will make a huge difference when presenting your product to existing manufacturers. They key here is to give the manufacturer enough information to make an informed decision so they can evaluate the opportunity to invest in your product.
Is PRG, Inc. Limited to Plastics?
No! When we started this company in 2004, we provided just plastic consulting services. Since then, we have added Plastics, Mechanical, Manufacturing, Electronics and Industrial Design Engineers. We are very skilled to handle any type of plastic, metal, electronic, wood, and textile fabric project. If you would like us to evaluate and quote your project, we provide free quotes to everyone with no commitment up front.
Does PRG, Inc. provide Manufacturing Solutions?
This depends on the product. We can provide some light manufacturing in our facility of around 100-500 units. We are primarily a product development firm, but are always willing to see if we can help. We do work with over 20 different manufacturers in a variety of industries that we can put you in contact with. We will then assist those manufacturers in any way we can by providing them with all of the file information, engineering reports, material selection, and a variety of other things. We are here to ensure your product goes to market; otherwise there would be no point in investing in our services.
Does PRG, Inc. provide Package Design?
Our engineering team and graphic designers can create virtual realistic renderings of what your product packaging will look like with the product in it! We can also provide you with all of the necessary logo design, website design, UPC code placement, and if needed, we will gladly build you a prototype of the package to represent your product in.
What is the typical Time Frame for Development?
It depends on what the product is, and if our clients are willing to dedicate the time to spend reviewing our information. Our standard time frame is around 4-12 weeks for Full Engineering and Functional prototyping. More time may be needed if the technology is more difficult, but 4-12 weeks is standard.
Does PRG, Inc. provide Marketing Services?
We do not market your product for a percentage of royalties, although marketing is very important to us, because if you can’t sell your product, then there is no point in doing any Engineering or Prototyping. Our President has licensed 8 products, and has extensive experience in marketing, advertising and other areas of selling a product. Our Goal is to assist you with Engineering, Prototyping, Manufacturing, and then if you need a marketing plan, we will send you an example to fill out your information in. If you need a sales letter, we will write it for free. If you want us to review your marketing campaign, we review it and make changes for free! There is no reason you can’t sell your product on your own, and we will help you get the contacts you need free of charge. Again, we want you to tell everyone that PRG is the place to go when inventing a new product! Our President has also written a Mini E-Book called Marketing Made Easy, and has everything in it to successfully license your product to a company. The E-Book also includes 3 sales letters that have been successful for us in the past. The E-Book can be e-mailed to you immediately for $150.
How do I advertise my new product?
Advertising online with google, yahoo, and msn is easy to do on a budget. With Google Adwords, you can set a daily budget for whatever you want to spend, $10, $100, $1,000, sky’s the limit, and we have been doing keyword advertising for a long time. As for websites, you can create these on your own with new services from companies like Godaddy.com that are very little cost. Most graphic designers also offer website design services, and we can also provide web design services for you.
What does PRG, Inc. charge for Services?
We provide all of our Services on a Fixed Price Agreement. We do offer Free Quotes to everyone. We operate on a fixed price so we allow for the necessary revisions and engineering changes that a product will go through in the development cycle. We believe that it is best to quote a price, provide a high quality service, and do not go back and charge the client unless they require additional services or additional prototypes. This value driven approach allows our clients to collaborate with our Engineering team without the fear of being charged high hourly rates and billable hours. This approach has worked well for several years, and the vast majority of our clients are very pleased with the fixed price approach. We know that when we go buy almost anything, we want to know the cost so we can comfortably budget for that expense. Generally, depending on the services you need, the pricing ranges from $2,500 - $10,000 for full-scale development and prototyping services. Some more simple projects can be purchased for less money, and more complex projects can be more expensive.
Is the Plastic Resource Group Reputable?
We are very proud Premium Pro Certified Members of the United Inventors Association, and we advertise extensively in Inventors Digest. These 2 organizations do a very good job of ensuring that all of their service providers are fully reputable and to not take advantage of Inventors / Entrepreneurs. We also have several references that we typically provide up-front to our clients in an e-mail. There are many other clients that are willing to give a positive reference that you can call. Just ask us for more. We have designed and developed many products that are currently on the market, and we are proud to share those with you as well. We have a perfect record with the Better Business Bureau and have never received a complaint with them or the Attorney General’s Office. To our knowledge, we have only had 1 unhappy client that complained online with Rip off Report, and Consumer Complaints. This can be found by searching our name on Google. It is a very frustrating complaint because we were not going to make this person happy, so we decided to refund her money to her. After we provided her with a refund, she then went out and complained online. We feel it is best to be up-front with you rather than have you go find it and choose not to do business with us. If you would like to know more about this complaint, please call and speak to our President Tyler Harrell.
How long has Plastic Resource Group, Inc. been in Business?
Tyler Harrell graduated from Pittsburg State University in 2001, and started this business in 2004 as a part-time plastic consulting company, and after 2 years of success, hired the first Design Engineer to turn the company into a full service Product Development Firm. Tyler was previously the Vice President of a Product Development firm in Kansas City for 4 years before starting the company, and has extensive experience in Product Development, Engineering, and Marketing. After operating 4 years as a Sole Proprietor, Tyler formed an S-Corp on January 1, 2008. The business has experienced great success over the past 5 years, and we are proud to have now become a leader in product development and we now have Engineering and Support staff consisting of 6 in-house employees. Although we are not a huge firm, our clients have grown to appreciate our very fair prices, and the fact that you can still call and speak to our President personally, and our High Level of Customer Service and Weekly updates have been a smashing success to keep our clients highly involved in our Engineering and Prototyping Collaboration. Although we can always learn more every day, we invest in our employees and technology to keep us at the forefront of creative innovation and excellent product development. We have developed hundreds of products, and are even now focusing on developing some of our own In-House Products that will hit the market the beginning of 2010.
