Attention inventors!

[Betho]

If you have an idea that is very marketable and doesn't seem to have been thought of yet... but it woudl require some technical skills to build a prototype, and you have ZERO technical skills, how do you go about getting that prototype?

I have an idea for an appliance that I think would be extremely marketable, but I have absolutely no techy skills and I wouldn't know how to build a prototype, even by modifying existing appliances that might be similar.

Any ideas? Are there companies that help with this sort of thing? Or would I be better off finding someone who can build it for me and hope they don't steal my idea (or patent it first?)?

[Beaners]

Sell the idea itself, without doing any of the model-building business?

Kayleigh

[Goatguy]

There are lots of metal working/fabrication shops out there. However it will cost you BIG bucks. I once got a quote from the local shop to build me an aluminum goat milking stand, they wanted $550 for it in alluminum, or $350 in steel. Absolutely terrible pricing.

[Windy in Kansas]

You might start with a Google patent search to see if it might have been made before.
http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en

Protecting your idea is something you need to do but I haven't a clue how to proceed with that.

This might be a good site to do some reading at: http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol81/protectidea.htm

This Web site also gives some insight: http://www.ehow.com/how_2311477_prot...ng-patent.html