What's the big idea? LI inventors give it a shot

Albert and Terry Morris of Wheatley Heights had already invented a nonslip, antimicrobial gym towel when they came up with their moneymaking concept for a better washcloth four years ago.

Albert, now 49, had retired after 22 years in the New York City Police Department. Terry, younger by five years, had earned a marketing degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, and had worked in corporate employee relations on Long Island. With time on their hands, they were always jotting down ideas for inventions that could increase their income.

"Everywhere, you read that if you invent your own product, if you go for it, that's where you can make the money," said Terry, who left the corporate world in 2005 to start her own business.

One day, her husband wondered aloud why their two daughters, Brittany, now 14, and Autumn, 11, were using so much scented body wash in the bath. That set their inventing wheels in motion, which led to the Lather Cloth.

It's a standard washcloth on one side, a loofah on the other. Not only does it conserve soap by creating richer lather than a washcloth, says Terry, who sewed the original prototype, it also has "handles" so even larger people can exfoliate their backs with the loofah side.

More than 7,000 Lather Cloths have been sold since they were introduced in 2007. They're offered online, through mail order catalogs and in New Jersey and California boutiques. The couple earns as much as $15 for a set of two, which sells for $19.99.

Some play the lottery, others head to Vegas to seek fortune. But for hopeful Long Island inventors in their late 40s and older, the road to retirement prosperity is paved with ingenious ideas, prototypes and patents for new products that will be a hit with the masses.

The very lucky ones come up with a product or service that they successfully market on their own, or that gets picked up by a major manufacturer.

But many inventors don't even come close to a jackpot, and some invest tens of thousands of dollars on inventions that flop. To learn more about the pleasures and pitfalls of conjuring new products, Terry Morris attends the monthly Tuesday night meetings of the Suffolk County Inventors & Entrepreneurs Club at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge (631-853-6993). The club has more than 600 members, according to founder and president Brian Fried.

Fried, 36, of Melville, is one of the lucky inventors. Author of "You & Your Big Ideas" (Wingspan Press; $12.95), Fried has had a couple of his inventions featured on QVC, the TV shopping network.

These days, he said, many inventors are retirees who hope to supplement a fixed income by coming up with a moneymaking product. Their invention is often "something they thought about in the past, and now it's time to take advantage of their idea," Fried said.

While hopes are high, success can be elusive. Fried estimates that about one in 20 inventors "see their invention get to a point where they have an opportunity to license or manufacture their idea." Even fewer make a profit.

However, Fried advises that you needn't deplete your 401(k) through payments to patent attorneys or online invention consultants who promise to help you develop and protect your invention.

Everything an inventor needs to know, "from patenting to prototyping and production," can be learned at the Suffolk inventors club, which is free, he said. He's also a member of the New York Society of Professional Inventors, which meets at Farmingdale State University during the school year. (The society charges a $10 admission; e-mail dan.weiss.pe@juno.com.)

Fried also suggested using the free resources of the U.S. Small Business Administration (sba.gov), SCORE (score.org) and the New York State Small Business Development Center at Stony Brook University.

Inventions that can be marketed to the masses have the potential to be the most profitable. But luck and timing are key.

Twin brothers Kevin and Dennis Murphy, 51, who are members of the Suffolk club, own a sporting goods store in Babylon Village with another brother, John, 55. The twins developed Connector Protector, a plastic cover that keeps holiday light plugs dry outside.

Before investing time and money in their device, the brothers combed stores to see if any similar products existed. After their research, they made a prototype and paid to have a mold made. During the 2008 holiday season, about 10,000 Connector Protectors were sold at $1.99 for a pack of four - not enough to profit from their $40,000 investment. "We were a victim of the recession," Kevin Murphy speculated.

Undaunted, they're preparing for a relaunch. In late July, a Pennsylvania manufacturing company agreed to produce and distribute their product for sale in major stores, but not until the 2011 holiday season. The Murphy twins will make five cents on each one sold. There's one glitch, however. Despite all of his prior research, Kevin learned recently that he may have to change the name of the invention because there may be a product on the market with the same name.

They're hoping the second launch will be more successful because they plan to donate a portion of their profits to the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind in Smithtown, in honor of their brother Terrence, 46, a college professor who is blind.

While fortunes can be made on inventions, thousands can be lost on ideas that don't click. Joseph Fabrizio, 51, of Williston Park, was a real estate broker until he obtained his funeral director's license about 10 years ago. Embalming bodies, he says, has made him "germ-phobic" and wary of communicable diseases. His turning point was an upstate July Fourth picnic where drinks were served in identical red plastic cups.

"I didn't want to take a chance of drinking from somebody else's cup," Fabrizio recalled. His solution? A sanitary invention he calls Whose Cup's Whose. It's a drinking cup you can write on with a black felt-tip pen.

Fabrizio said that he paid an attorney almost $5,000 to obtain a patent in 2005; he paid another $7,000 to a so-called inventor assistance firm, which he said failed to find a buyer for his cup. When a manufacturer said it would cost $85,000 to create the mold for his product, Fabrizio balked.

"I was afraid of putting too much money into it and not getting anything back," Fabrizio said. He later learned that another inventor had appeared on television, hawking a product similar to his. But Fabrizio, who also invented a freeze-dried lemon product, hasn't given up on mass-marketing his cup idea.

"As an inventor," he explained, "you have lots of ups and downs."