A long time ago information was not an important asset of a business. This changed over time because the business learned that the ones that had information could take advantage of it. An example of this is Business Intelligence, where businessmen have taken advantage in order to know about their clients and in this way maximizing their benefits. This is why they protect this information mostly from the competition, because the ones that have access to it are the ones that may take advantage of it.
The problem today in many cultures is that people confuse information and ideas, and entrepreneurs are not the exception. Many times when they have an idea they don’t want to talk about it with anyone because they fear it may be stolen, and as in the case of information they think that the one that has access to it will take advantage. I will show three reasons why there is no reason to be afraid of talking about the business idea.
In first place we must remember that information and ideas are different. This is the reason why you can protect information with patents but not ideas. Ideas are worthless. It is so true that ideas are worthless, that to an investor you present your business plan but not your business idea. He wouldn’t be interested in buying the idea to you, but the now-how of converting the idea to a real business.
The second reason why you shouldn’t be afraid of talking about your business idea is because if you completely understand it, have worked on it and are sure that is a good one, it is going to be very difficult for someone to copy it. But if you still are afraid that someone can copy it maybe your idea is not that great and you still have to work on it.
The last reason why I consider you shouldn’t be afraid of talking about your business idea is because this might help to nourish it. Many times we think we have a great idea but we haven’t seen the flaws it may have and people can help us to see them. Also talking to someone that sees thing in a different way may help us to complement our idea with other elements that we haven’t seen.
Just before I finish my post I want to remind you that you shouldn’t be afraid to talk about your business idea with other people. Don’t forget why:
- Investors don’t buy business ideas
- A good business idea is not easy to be copied
- A business idea may be nourished by talking about it with people that see things in a different way
Image taken from Flickr.com