National

If you've ever wondered how to get your products on television, the Home Shopping Network (HSN) offers an answer. The St. Petersburg, Florida, TV retailer recently created the HSN Institute to find new products to include on its broadcast. Entrepreneurs can submit any type of product to the Institute, whose personnel will evaluate it for visual and commercial appeal. According to Marty D. Smuin, head of HSN Institute, products should make life easier or "be a better mousetrap."

If the evaluators think a product is saleable and HSN's quality assurance lab finds it does what it claims, a product description is written, air time is scheduled and a shipment of products is requested from the vendor.

Realizing that filling large orders can sometimes be a problem for smaller companies, the institute offers assistance ranging from suggesting alternative manufacturing sources to getting involved in product development.

The Institute is also conducting a series of trade fairs where people with products in all stages of development can go to submit their ideas. The next fairs will be held this fall in Seattle and San Francisco; the Institute hopes to visit every major area of the country within the next year.

There is no cost to submit a product for review. For more information about the trade fairs, or if you can't attend but would like to request a vendor package, call (800) 436-1010.

This article was originally published in the October 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: National.