What if someone steals my idea!?

There are a few important lessons i have been taught in the past year or so, when trying to launch my startup, firstly, since i lack any coding skills, i had to search for a web developer to partner with, however this meant sharing my idea with them, i was extrememly paranoid about the  idea being stole.


But, at the end of the day, and idea is just an idea, its the execution that is the most important factor, it is true that the majority of the people you come across (web developers etc) dont care about your idea at all, they are only interested in the return they will recieve, and have no interest in stealing your idea. This is the reason that the majority of web developers will refuse to sign an NDA, to prevent legal action should they be asked to work on a similar project in the future, this is something they just wont risk.


After all, once the idea is put into practice and hits the market, everyone (depending on your marketing skills) will know about your idea anyway.


So my advice to you, is to fully prepare your business idea, including securing the domain, considering the marketing plans, as well as put together a brief to present to investors, or developers, and use an NDA if you feel it necessary.

Infographic: How does the average person use their mobile

Trying it alone

Since i began my degree ive had a vision of running my own network of online businesses, being just 'ideas' it was important for me to create a detailed business plan before i went any further, the process has taught me a very important lesson.

Everything about the site looked good, the domain, logo, financial data, marketing planning, therefore i decided to try and learn a programming language, i was told from a friend to start with PHP, expecting this to be easy, i accepted the challenge and invested in some study books.

Days turned into months, it was clear that there is a lot more to it, and that 'become a website programmer fast' books were only scratching the surface, needless to say my respect for the programmers had grown considerably having now experienced the commitment and expertise that they possess. At the same time i was becoming increasingly frustrated and felt that i was getting no closer to achieving my business goals - by this time i hoped to be pitching to investors, marketing the site to users and building up a general hype.

I quickly realised that my interest in learning programming was to achieve an end goal, and not because i had an interest in it, i figured that by learning one thing i could move on to the next stepping stone - programming is not like that though, you have to invest real time and have a drive to become good at it.

Therefore i decided that i would not waste my time learning something that i have little interest in and instead stick to the stuff i feel passionately about - the marketing, designing, planning and researching that goes into business ideas.

So on that note, i am finally doing something i never expected, but am so happy to do, i am opening up my start up to a technical cofounder. I realise that my idea is just an idea without a programmer on board to assist, therefore if you are a passionate programmer and interested in working with a passionate business graduate, please do email me at nboswell90@gmail.com and introduce yourself.

Through my experiences, i realise that you and i, working together, with the sum of our skills and talents, can create things better than i can ever do alone, even on my best days.

So lets do this!

My vision for future business ventures

My vision

I am looking to get a couple of my ideas off the ground, having a lack of programming skills is a big issue, therefore i am looking to partner someone with extensive coding skills and keen to get started in small business start-ups, if you are interested in any of the below, feel free to contact me - nboswell90@gmail.com

My Skillset

I am in the process of looking to create an online community where tradesmen of all skills can create a profile, post their skills, the area they work in, how far they would be prepared to travel for job offers.

Customers are able to login free of charge and upload a job that they have, with the potential to upload photos if they want, as well as a description.

The email is then sent out to all tradesmen with the skill if the job is within their target area, they are then able to negotiate a time and date as well as price for the job.

 Online Tutor Site

There is a lot of potential for online teaching, people are constantly looking to improve their skills, therefore creating an online community whereby tutors, teachers or anyone with a skill can create events, customers can book these events and pay the fee, login at a certain time and watch a live stream of it, through the site they are able to message the tutor live to ask any questions they may have, as well as download any materials that are required.

The impact of 'Viral Marketing'

For anyone who is still unsure on the term, its anything that spreads it round the internet like a virus, one example that im sure you will be familiar with is Rebecca Blacks song Friday (dont worry i wont force you to watch it), its reported that the parents paid $2000 to a company to produce the video, and at the time of writing the view count stands at over 78 million and still rising! this is simply from postings on social networking,

Certainly it allows businesses to punch well above their weight, even with a small marketing budget they are able to gain maximum exposure if dont correctly. Companies like Ray Ban  and Levis have used similar tactics to great success prompting online debates and video responses.

Viral marketing is low cost, and allows maximum creativity, in the past i have compiled marketing plans for several small businesses and charities and viral marketing is a key technique that i stress to them, it adds very little if anything to their budget and can create fame overnight.

Thanks for reading!

Nick