In addition to the above mentioned items, the final model will help you psychologically. There is no better feeling then to be able to physically see and touch the creation of your own mind! The fact that you are touching the real-life model of your final design will give you positive psychological boost equal to no other you've experienced during design process, motivating you even more to succeed!

The best way to approach this step is to try and draw on a piece of paper the final version of your product, the way you see it at this point in time. Your drawings should show your final idea/product under different angles, in a 2-D and 3-D. The picture might not be pretty because not many of us have the necessary drawing skills. However, this drawing task will help you immensely solidify your design and pin-point items that you still need to work on. In addition, I strongly recommend that you generate your initial product prototype from clay or any other material that is readily available. Why? Because this prototype along with initial drawing will help you explain your idea to technical person who, in turn, will transform your design into highly technical engineering drawing.

Once you prepared your model, try to determine what materials will go in into construction of real-life product. Will your product be build of plaster or metal? If metal, then what kind of metal - is it aluminum, copper or some type of alloy? Once you determined the necessary materials, estimate production cost because the price that you'll charge for your product will depend on the production cost of each individual unit. You don't have to be 100% correct at this stage with your material selections, but it's very good to know what materials will go into production of your product so that you have a ball-park figure on the final cost of your product.

Step 6 - Estimate Cost and Gross Profit

Once you determined who will use your product and where (or your product's market), it is time to think "big" - try to work out cost/benefit analysis of your product. Below is a case study:

Mary A., a homemaker with three little children, designed a plastic bottle holder for babies and small toddlers. Her bottle holder was designed in such a way that it would hold both the bottles, spoons and bottle caps. Mary A. created numerous drawings of her product and with the help of her husband managed to produce a full-scale version of her product made of clay. Before involving an engineer, Mary A. estimated that her product will be made entirely out of plastic. The estimated production cost of 1 bottle holder is $3.00 (we presume that the manufacturing plant is located in China and shipping costs are already factored in into the estimated production cost). Mary A. did comparative shopping and determined that other types of Baby Holders are selling around $15 dollars. In addition, Mary found out that three local baby stores each serve 1000 shoppers per day (including online purchases); in addition, each stores requires a 40% commissions per each purchase - meaning that $6 is paid as a commission to the store for each $15 purchase. Mary A. immediately figured out that her total profit will be $6 per each bottle holder ($15 - $6 - $3). Presume that one third of all shoppers in each store have either babies or toddlers who still need bottle holders (approximately 330 consumers per store), Mary A. can generate profit in the amount of 330 X 3 X 6 = $5940.