As you know if you’ve been reading our blog, we invented the category of folding table risers because our employees strained their backs standing to work at folding tables. Which is how many inventions get made: the inventor sees a problem, can’t find an existing solution (or one that works well), and develops their own.

It’s National Inventors Month, and chances are if you’re experiencing a certain problem, others are too. Why not be the one who solves it?

What’s your problem?

Many people find something that just isn’t quite working either at home or at work. You might have developed a temporary fix, but you don’t think it’s permanent. You’re still using it because you haven’t had time to think of anything else, and it’s working. At least for now.

It doesn’t have to be a major problem, like cancer (or even back pain!) It could be something small that still impacts you in a negative way.

What solutions are already out there?

Fortunately, the internet makes it very easy to see if anyone else has an answer for your problem. Try some of them to see if they work. And if not? There’s room for your invention.

Before we invented our folding table risers, we found a number of ways that people tried to lift up folding tables, and we tried them too. Bed risers don’t keep the table stable, and neither do bricks or cinder blocks or anything along those lines. 

What constraints does your solution have to manage?

Believe it or not, having some parameters can actually make you more creative! You don’t want to box yourself into what already exists. But at the same time, with no boundaries, it’s hard to reach a decision when there are endless possibilities.

Does your solution have to be a certain size? For example, maybe you’re fixing an issue that you have in your home office. It has to be small enough to fit into a room that already has existing furniture. This might mean that it folds up after use, or slides under a desk for storage, etc. 

Should it come in different sizes to accommodate different uses, people, industries…? Does it need to be portable, or will it stay in the same place? Maybe the solution requires a certain color, or material, or price range, or all of those things. 

One answer to our back pain problem with folding tables being too low might have been to manufacture a table with longer legs. But because our staff typically works at the customer’s site, we needed a portable solution. Dragging around a table with giant legs wouldn’t work.

Yet our solution couldn’t be too flimsy, either, because it had to maintain the table’s structural integrity.

Do you need help with the design of your solution?

Not everyone is gifted with good drafting or programming skills, or even being handy! You might be able to conceptualize the fix you’ve come up with, but not be able to draw out specifications for it. Or if your solution is an app, you might not be able to program it.

If you’re lucky, you know someone close to you who can help. (We have a handyman in the family who was able to figure out the specifications for our folding table risers.) Maybe you have a child who programs, or someone who’s good at drafting. 

If you want to learn a new skill, you could absolutely learn what you need to know from free resources, especially YouTube. But if you don’t have the time, you can find freelancers to handle this for you. Check out a site like Upwork or Fiverr to hire someone to get your idea moving.

Testing

You’ll need a prototype to make sure your design works. You might be able to run them up yourself (or have your handyperson do it) in your home workshop. That’s the easiest way to get started. If you have friends and family who can test out your fix, give them some prototypes to try out too.

Trademarking

Once you’ve got a fix that works and you’ve tested it out in a variety of environments and uses, it’s time to consider trademarking your solution. The Small Business Administration has lots of information on what you need to know to make sure others can’t copy you before you start selling it widely.

Congratulations, inventor! Now running your own business for your invention is a whole other story…

Need our solution for folding tables that are too low for you to comfortably stand and work or craft? Check out our online store here.

Lift Your TableⓇ… SAVE YOUR BACK!