I can offer some ideas but wouldn't consider myself an expert by any means (otherwise I wouldn't be driving a desk for someone else from 9-5 lol). I've been a part of many product launches under the umbrella of a large outdoor products company. Mainly supporting the design to manufacturing phase of the launch. We obviously had brand recognition, design, manufacturing, marketing, sales, distribution and all other aspects of an established products company already in place which is much different than launching a product and company on your own.
I think #1 is having a solid product that fills a market need that can be sold for more than it costs to make, with enough projected sales/margin to make the venture worth it (obviously). If you've gotten as far as developing a functional protoype you're doing well!
Protecting IP as Treeshark mentioned is important as well in some cases but as WapitiBob pointed out it doesn't always pencil out. There are design and utility pattens but i'll assume you understand their differences.
These are just some opinions and observations I'll throw out there...
The guys I know that have done well in the consumer products space have always started out slow. Built a few prototypes and got them in the hands of folks that would run it through the paces. That's where you're going to get honest feedback and learn about areas you might have overlooked with your design. I don't care how good of a design it is; someone will find something or have recommendations on how to improve it.
I have rarely seen people be able to sell a design or strike a royalty deal successfully without some sort of sales history or track record behind the product. Most companies have detailed product road maps and capital already budged for projects. The likelihood of them just buying up an idea isn't the norm. They also have customer commitments and an inhouse design team full of good idea fairy's keeping the pipeline full. Obviously, there's exception but if it's that good of an idea then you'd definitely want some sort of utility patent and NDAs in place before you enter into discussions.
An approach I've seen work is to create a direct-to-consumer website or work with local gun shops/outdoor stores to get your product on the shelf. Once you build some sales and a reputation it becomes significantly easier to sale the idea or strike some sort of royalty deal.
Mistakes...I'm a bad salesman and don't like relying on influencers....It's a competitive space and unfortunately it often comes down to who is promoting it more than what the product is anymore. Linking up with someone with more reach and influence has become one of the most effective forms of marketing. If it's a great product, you could send out samples to influencers and ask them for product reviews in exchange. In some cases, it may be worth paying them to review your product. I've never personally done any of that, but I know it's worked for friends that have started successful consumer products companies. I throw a lot of shade at youtubers but it's often where I go to learn about products before purchasing them myself. Anymore, major companies are doing the same thing and allocating lots of marketing money to product reviewers on youtube.
I'm not sure if that helped but there's a lot of ways I could of went with that question.
