Embedded Files
Date: 9th November 2024Average Read Time: 3 mins 40 seconds
As a new entrepreneur you worry about lots of things including someone stealing your business idea.
How do I know? I’ve been that new entrepreneur….
The moment my brother and I came up with our business idea for Doormarked we were worried someone else would take it from us. We wanted to talk to others about it (we needed to in order to start making progress with the idea) but there was this constant fear that these conversations would lead to someone else copying it.
To protect ourselves we tried getting as many people as we could to sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) before we had conversations but in hindsight this really was time wasted.
Here are 3 reasons why I wouldn’t worry again about someone stealing my business idea & why I wouldn’t ask someone to sign an NDA.
1% inspiration and 99% perspiration
I remember hearing this quote at the start of my entrepreneurial journey “starting a business is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” and I kind of did but also didn’t believe it. I realised it was a lot of effort to start a business but I still thought that others would be prepared to put that effort in should a good business idea come their way…. I’ve since realised just how hard it is starting a business and how much effort is needed. There is not a single part of me that wants to start someone else’s business idea when I have already got my own to work on!
Anyone who does copy your idea isn’t really your competition.
At the end of the day, any business that solves the same problem your business solves is a direct competitor but what I mean by someone copying your idea not being your competition is this….. anyone who hasn’t come up with the same business idea themselves clearly isn’t as passionate about the idea or as connected to the idea as you are. They might have different skills & connections but you will also have your own skills & connections. Their business will have certain features or a unique selling point but your business will too. You will ultimately always be one-step ahead of them & them copying your idea demonstrates that others see the opportunity, this can give you more confidence that there is a market for your idea!
An NDA (probably) isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
You can try to make yourself feel more protected when discussing your business idea with others by asking them to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). This is something my brother & I did when we started our business Doormarked. It would take a lot of time getting documents drawn up and signed before speaking to people…. It slowed things down A LOT. We recently asked each other, would we do that again? The answer was a confident, no. There are a couple of reasons why this is our answer.
Firstly, despite asking someone to sign an NDA they went on to share information we had disclosed with them to a major competitor (another business which had started just after ours with a very similar idea). This person even became the face of this competitor's website….they are still on it today. Did this make any difference to us really? It probably didn’t. It’s frustrating but we aren’t sure it necessarily resulted in any actual harm to our business.
Then there’s the question, could we have done anything about it and taken legal action against them? We could have tried (if we had wanted to and had the money to involve solicitors) but I doubt we would have ever found any concrete proof that they had breached the NDA they signed with us. It would just have been a waste of time and a lot of unnecessary stress given the size of our business & no actual benefit to gain from going through the process. This arguably would have been a very different situation if we were a multi-million pound organisation but we weren’t.
Firstly, despite asking someone to sign an NDA they went on to share information we had disclosed with them to a major competitor (another business which had started just after ours with a very similar idea). This person even became the face of this competitor's website….they are still on it today. Did this make any difference to us really? It probably didn’t. It’s frustrating but we aren’t sure it necessarily resulted in any actual harm to our business.
Then there’s the question, could we have done anything about it and taken legal action against them? We could have tried (if we had wanted to and had the money to involve solicitors) but I doubt we would have ever found any concrete proof that they had breached the NDA they signed with us. It would just have been a waste of time and a lot of unnecessary stress given the size of our business & no actual benefit to gain from going through the process. This arguably would have been a very different situation if we were a multi-million pound organisation but we weren’t.
As a new business owner it is difficult to know exactly what you should/shouldn’t do because there are certain aspects of starting & running a business which don’t have any concrete rules… deciding to talk to people about your business idea is one of those things!
I would really encourage ANY new business owner to talk to others about their business idea.
As I have hopefully tried to reassure you, it is very unlikely that anyone you talk to is going to steal your idea and the positives you can gain from talking to others far outweighs this potential risk.
You might speak to a future investor, you might find your first customer or you might even get key market insights which help you to steer your business in the right direction. I will go into more details about the benefits of talking to others about your business idea in another post.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide for yourself whether it’s worth drawing up an NDA. Please send me an email (elle@gabrielletodd.com) if you want a template for the NDA we used!
Did you know? You can join me on the Business Idea Incubator programme where over the course of 6 weeks you will learn how to go from “no idea” to setting up your business in the most effective & efficient way possible. I will cover the different steps you need to take to launch your business & start serving your first-customers without breaking yourself or the bank. Learn more about the programme here.
Did you know you can book a call?
I'm always happy to talk about medicine, entrepreneurship or the realities of trying to live a better life! You can use the link below to book a FREE 15 minute call with me to ask me questions, pick my brains or just have a chat over a cup of tea/coffee!
Page updated
Report abuse