I have an idea. And I need some advice..

[Lost It]

I have an idea for a new business, one of those that no-one else seems to be doing.. And that worries me that I'm missing something obvious because the theory for the business seems so obvious to me.

So I think it wise to seek some legal advice to make sure that there isn't something so obvious that I'm missing that is the reason for no-one else doing the service I'm thinking of setting up. It's in construction, related to what I do.

Are there any suggestions who I should be speaking to? It's got to be worth checking I'm not opening myself up to a hard fall before I push any further. There's a business plan not quite in place right now, but initially it will be self funded in case it isn't viable. If itis viable I might have to give up building things...

[Cirrus]

Are there any suggestions who I should be speaking to?

It's slightly odd that you post a note on a forum full of people discussing each other's ideas, only to ask who else to talk to.

Legal issues are less likely than regulatory constraints. If you don't want to reveal your idea to colleagues, you may have industry bodies you belong to, who you can call.

You'd need to tell us a bit more.

[pr1]

BBC Two - Dragons' Den - Apply to enter the Den

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

Idea

Perhaps speaking to your accountant? (sorry NLUK)

[BlasterBates]

You can't patent a business idea, so if it is a good idea it will be copied and you can't stop it. If it is a good idea though and no-one else is doing it, you will be able to establish a business. Sometimes great ideas aren't as great as you think they are, which is why businesses don't exist which exploit it.

[kaiser78]

I have an idea for a new business, one of those that no-one else seems to be doing.. And that worries me that I'm missing something obvious because the theory for the business seems so obvious to me.

So I think it wise to seek some legal advice to make sure that there isn't something so obvious that I'm missing that is the reason for no-one else doing the service I'm thinking of setting up. It's in construction, related to what I do.

Are there any suggestions who I should be speaking to? It's got to be worth checking I'm not opening myself up to a hard fall before I push any further. There's a business plan not quite in place right now, but initially it will be self funded in case it isn't viable. If itis viable I might have to give up building things...

Any local business startup groups near to you ?

[Elliegirl]

I have an idea for a new business, one of those that no-one else seems to be doing.. And that worries me that I'm missing something obvious because the theory for the business seems so obvious to me.

So I think it wise to seek some legal advice to make sure that there isn't something so obvious that I'm missing that is the reason for no-one else doing the service I'm thinking of setting up. It's in construction, related to what I do.

Are there any suggestions who I should be speaking to? It's got to be worth checking I'm not opening myself up to a hard fall before I push any further. There's a business plan not quite in place right now, but initially it will be self funded in case it isn't viable. If itis viable I might have to give up building things...

The British Library Business and intellectual property centre. I shall be making use of their services myself soon as I also have a business idea. But you'll be glad to know, not in construction.
All the best and I hope its a winner.

Business and IP Centre - The British Library

[vwdan]

I don't think there's any choice but to spend hours and hours really getting into detail with your business plan. That's the only way that you're going to spot any obvious weaknesses - let's face it, viability comes to P&L in the end.

What kind of legal advice did you need? If it's things like compliance then you'll need to speak to specialists in that field.

What I will say though is that many great businesses seem obvious in hindsight, or spawn simply from someone wanting to solve a common problem. Mine isn't really a business, but I've made a nice little Plan B out of the latter - wrote some software that nobody else had bothered to write and solved a problem that, seemingly nobody else could. Did a bit of upfront marketing and promotion, and every so often somebody buys it and nets me a cheeky little bonus. Sometimes I show it people and they literally say "Eh, I don't see the point" - but those who do get it love it.

[Cirrus]

I don't think there's any choice but to spend hours and hours really getting into detail with your business plan. That's the only way that you're going to spot any obvious weaknesses - let's face it, viability comes to P&L in the end.

There's lots of ideas that would fail because of gotchas.

A simple example is to replace air hostesses with a Yo-Sushi conveyor belt that goes up the middle of the plane. This would save you a ton of employee costs. The gotcha is the number of hostesses is fixed and mandatory (depending on the number of passengers) because they need to be there for safety reasons.

What surprises me is Lostie is coming up with an idea when he doesn't seems to know the business it's connected with.

It's like saying "I've got a great idea: starting a global bank that lets you deposit and wire cash without having to fill in lots of boring, nosey forms - anybody know a good solicitor I could run this past?"

[Lost It]

Moving forward

It's to do with building homes, new ones, or refurbishments of flats and a little more time spent has shown me that it's not something that only me has thought of (drat) but it's still a viable one.

So I've spoken to someone to arrange me a session with legal person to check that I'm not blindly walking into a pit full of snakes. Well. Maybe not snakes. Smelly stuff.

I've had a lot of good advice in fact.

I'm liking this place, up to now it's convinced me to change accountants, join IPSE+ and check my ideas against the cold light of day.

And I'll be sure to let you know if it has legs...