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Master Plan If you want to see your product get on store shelves, you'd better have more than one plan in place.

By Don Debelak

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Kevin Ridolfi figured he had a million-dollar idea: a productcalled the T Mate that would help new and high-handicap golferswith their errant golf shots. Unfortunately, success didn'tcome quite as easily as he had hoped. What Ridolfi learned duringPlan A-selling the idea himself-was a lesson that speaks to allinventors, high handicap or not: "No one will hear about agreat idea if isn't marketed with the right promotion,"cautions the 29-year-old Centereach, New York, resident.

Still, the slow start didn't faze Ridolfi, who quickly movedon to Plan B: licensing his product to another marketer of golfproducts. Well, Ridolfi isn't counting his money just yet, buthe still believes in his idea, and he's prepared to move on toPlan C-distributing the product through instructional activitiesfor young golfers-if his current licensing agreement doesn'twork out. In a nutshell, he's not stuck on just one option forhis product. And that could be the key to getting it on theshelves.

The Initial Stages of Development