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.
Trying it alone
Saturday 2 April 2011
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!
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!
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