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

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