Experience in development, not in planning...

**simplicity** · 09-28-2009 10:22 PM

Hello all, I am looking for some planning help in the general sense.

I have an idea for a shock absorber, the mechanics of which has been proven in the lab already by two research groups working independently at two different universities. To my knowledge, the research has never been transformed into a working model, though a group of students at MIT recently developed a much more complicated system to accomplish the same goals (check out Levant Power's GenShock).
The goals of the final stage of development of this system can be summarized as follows:

-generation of electric energy (current) to charge the vehicles storage device
-infinitely adjustable compression and rebound damping, giving the ability for the suspension to adjust to any terrain
-theoretical lifetime equal to or greater than that of the vehicle on which it is installed.

Currently I am unemployed and taking a leave of absence from school, so this is an ideal time for me to be developing a buisness plan to get this product to market. Alas, I have no idea where to start. A google search for investor listings brought me to this site, but now I am hoping that someone here will be able to give me some planning direction first.

I have the basics of the products marketability in hand already. Initially, I would like to aim the shocks at an already in place market of vehicle owners known for their liberal attitude toward gas consumption: Prius drivers. In my mind, for this product to be marketable to them it will have to reduce their gas consumption by enough to offset the shocks cost. A Prius gets 45mpg on the highway, but I live in Canada so am partial to metric. That would be 19.13 km/liter, meaning that the first 50,000 km's would cost roughly $2614 (in Canada at the dollar/liter we have now grown to love). Because of the mechanical simplicity of the system I have designed, and through comparison to other shock absorbers on the market, I believe that I can make money on a mass-produced system with a sticker price of $700 CAD. The price of the system (minus the system installation) is then 27% of the cost of gas for the vehicles first 50,000 km's. The goal of the first stage of development would then be to improve the fuel efficiency by 30%. According to the research mentioned previously, this should be well within grasp even after accounting for energy lost in kinetic to electric energy conversion.

Now, with a goal in mind for performance to make the product viable to customers, where do I start with the buisness plan?