Readers question:

I have an idea which I believe has a wonderful opportunity of making a considerable amount of money if approached correctly. However I am very loathed to discuss the idea with anybody who I feel I cannot trust in case they steal my idea. What can I do?

The reality is that very few business ideas are truly unique. No matter what your business idea is someone else has probably already though of it and may even already be doing it. In fact success coming from the “big idea” is one of the common entrepreneurial myths. The business idea is a very small part of success, what matters more is the execution of the idea. Consider Richard Branson, a self made billionaire, yet the businesses that made him rich were not new ideas they were businesses entering established market places and they succeeded due to the execution rather than the idea.

That being said you should still take reasonable steps to protect your Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) through the use of Trademarks , Design Rights, Patents and None Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). However many Venture Capitalist and Business Angels will not sign your NDA as they see hundreds of ideas and they might already be looking at an idea similar to yours, so can not risk the legal implications of having signed the NDA, i.e. proving where they heard the idea from first.

They are unlikely however to steal your ideas, as they have plenty of new ideas coming to them every day. They are also well aware of the importance of the execution, which is why they are evaluating the entrepreneur and his team as much, if not more so, than the business idea.

Asking John:
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