Tweet

How to protect your great business idea

Guest post by: Helen Dowling

Article Overview: One of the things that new business owners tend to be very scared of is someone else stealing their business idea. After all, they’ve spent a lot of time, effort, energy and money developing the idea and the last thing they want is someone stealing the business idea and developing it instead.

How to protect your great business idea

One of the things that new business owners tend to be very scared of is someone else stealing their business idea. After all, they’ve spent a lot of time, effort, energy and money developing the idea and the last thing they want is someone stealing the business idea and developing it instead.

I’ve even known a new business owner who completely abandoned his idea when he found out that a competitor had started more or less the same idea as him a couple of months before – what a shame!

Let’s break this down a bit and look at some facts and then I’ll explain how to protect your business idea, but also why you shouldn’t be too afraid of other people finding out what it is.

Right now, at this moment, about 60% of the working population are sat in businesses all around the country dreaming about starting your own business. However, only about 3% of people actually will start their own business.
Why is this?

Well the most common reason that people don’t start their own business is risk and fear of failure. It’s hard work and risky to develop a business idea and have the confidence to actually start up. And, I believe it takes a special type of person to actually have the courage to go for it.

So, don’t worry too much about other people finding out. Even if they think your idea is fantastic and the best thing since sliced bread, it would take someone in the 3% of the population to actually go for it. Chances are that the people who find out are in the 60% of people who dream about starting their own business, but never will or in the 37% of people who don’t have any aspirations at all to start their own business.

OK, I hear you cry – but what if I tell someone and they happen to be in the 3% of people who really want to start their own business and they steal my idea?

Well, yes there is a small possibility. But, let’s look a bit more closely at this too. Whenever people start up in business, there is a part of them who want to have something unique and a bit different from the competition. So, if they talk to you, they’re likely to abandon any thoughts of stealing your business idea as they’ll want their idea to be unique to them.

And also, the likelihood is if they’re in the 3% of people, they’ll already have a business idea and they’ll be equally as protective about that idea as you are about your idea. Why would they want to steal your idea when they like their idea better?

So, does this mean then that you shouldn’t worry about telling people your business idea? Should you not bother protecting your idea at all?

No, I didn’t say that. I do think it’s worth protecting your idea especially when you’re in the early stages. All I’m saying is that don’t panic if other people find out. Plus, there are some people that you’re going to have to tell i.e. the bank manager if you’re looking to get some money.

How then, should you protect your business idea?

The first thing you should think about is drawing up a non-disclosure and non-competition agreement. If you put in this term on the internet, you should find something that you can adapt to your business. A non-disclosure and non-competition agreement means that if you give it to someone to sign before you tell them about your idea, they promise not to share it with anyone or start a business that’s similar to yours.

You should also avoid telling too many people until you’ve got everything in place to start up. Even if someone else did want to steal your idea, they’re much more unlikely to do so if they can see you’ve got everything in place to go already – they’ll be months and months behind you.
You could also think about creating a patent for your business idea and you may want to think about having a chat to a patent attorney or contact the Patent Office for advice. Developing a patent on an idea really does protect the idea, but also be aware that you will be charged to do this.

My final point on the matter is that if you’ve developed a completely unique, great business idea from scratch and then find out two days before you launch that someone has got there before you, please don’t be put off. There’s room in the world for all of us and the additional marketing that they’ll do will help you too. Go for it, have fun and be passionate about your idea.

Related Articles
  Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality
  I've Got An Idea
  When and How to Copyright Your Book
  Your number one investment
  Who's Drinking All Your Link Juice?

Article Tags: aspirations, best thing since sliced bread, business idea, business owner, business owners, competitor, confidence, courage, fear of failure, money, new business, population, risk, starting your own business, time effort, what a shame



Related Forum Posts
Is it worth it to apply for a provisional patent - I've designed a baby blanket/car seat cover that is unique, but simple to make. I plan on going to market with my idea via my website and baby boutiques. I want to protect my idea from people copying me on platforms such as Etsy. I have some money to get it off of the ground, but I need to be strategic about where I spend it. Long story short, do you think it would be worth it for me to apply for a patent? I have thought about applying for a provisional patent and hopefully would have more money within a year to apply for a regular patent. Does a provisional patent give me any rights at all? I've read about it, but I can't decipher what benefits I would get from one. My main concerns are someone copying my design and selling it AND particularly someone copying my design and trying to patent it themselves (not sure if a provisional patent would protect me from the latter). Thanks.
Better to Be Prepared - [quote="jvprosperity":3m5dngre]That's a good point... What are you currently doing to protect your business? Do you have insurance on your place of business? How are you protecting your information? How are you protecting your assets? Do you keep offsite backups of data? How do you protect your intellectual data? Are you protecting your business from being sued?[/quote:3m5dngre] It is much better to prepare - of course we can't prepare for everything. But there are many things we can do to be ready. Since we never know when a disaster - natural or otherwise will happen - its good to be as prepared as possible. Chris
Banks - Your bank often has great resources to help you start out - indeed they often want you to have a great plan to protect their investment. Regards
Trademarking a Brand - I have a brand that I want to protect. Kind of like the "For Dummies" books. I'm curious if a trademark is the way to go. Any thoughts? I know to copyright the books, but this is to protect a potential series. Any ideas? Shri
Re: Kevin's Case Study #2 - The Art of Pitching - [quote="bmueller47":2b727h54]Hi Kevin, I often thought about that. How can you protect good idea? If it is a novel idea, one can have it patented. However, that is not the cheapest and easist route. It requires research and development, often with a prototype etc. If know somebody you can trust to assist, that would be ideal. Lets see, what our friends of the forum have to contribute.[/quote:2b727h54] Hi Beat, The problem is that without a strategic partnership, I don't my t-shirts could stand on their own as it would be too easy for more established competitors to copy the idea. And therefore, it wouldn't be practical to trademark the design before a partner was even found.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Sales Training – Top Salespeople Are Not Dunces

Adjusting Your World

How to Develop Your Powers of Thought.

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.