Came up with a website, how can I protect it?

[safff]

Hey all,

So the short story is that essentially I have come up with an idea for a website as a side-project to my business and got on a roll one night and built the simple site, have the concept, the terms and conditions penned out, the general workings all covered.

Im now at the point where I want it to the market and get businesses signed up to the site which is where I'm a little lost for thoughts.

I was wondering if there was anyway I can protect my concept? My worry is that until Ive reached my target amount of signups and things can keep rolling thereon, its suseptable to copycats cloning the site, devaluing the advantage, undercutng me and saturating the market.

Just wondered if there was any way to avoid this or is it just a case of pushing it and having a little luck?

 

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[loop101]

Hey all,

So the short story is that essentially I have come up with an idea for a website as a side-project to my business and got on a roll one night and built the simple site, have the concept, the terms and conditions penned out, the general workings all covered.

Im now at the point where I want it to the market and get businesses signed up to the site which is where I'm a little lost for thoughts.

I was wondering if there was anyway I can protect my concept? My worry is that until Ive reached my target amount of signups and things can keep rolling thereon, its suseptable to copycats cloning the site, devaluing the advantage, undercutng me and saturating the market.

Just wondered if there was any way to avoid this or is it just a case of pushing it and having a little luck?

You can't protect a concept. I suggest your read MJ's book.

 

[IvanMontillaM]

Sorry, you most likely can't protect a concept.

You can however see it on the flipside, and what's the flipside? Innovating constantly on it. All systems (computational or not) have a natural degradation, have a natural obsolescence, so they must be adapted or improved from time to time.

So your business/systems, requires tweaking. That's the way you kick out your rivals. Do not rely on luck, make your own luck instead. Keep your business profitable. Perhaps make a CANVAS out of it?

 

[Dwight Schrute]

When I walk into the store, I have the choice between three energy drinks.

All three contain the same juice and are produced by the same company.

If I'd ask strangers which one's the best, 90% would say Red Bull. (The most expensive)

People are loyal to a brand and the feeling they associate it with.

 

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[wade1mil]

You can protect is by not telling anyone, and make exactly $0.
Or you can just do it and potentially make more than that.
Might as well not make $0.

 

[AndrewNC]

side-project

What's a "side-project"?

 

[blackhat]

Call 5 managers in big companies that could potentially try to steal this idea. Tell them all about it and how it could be generating money. Odds are they will be too busy to even care.

Until you have users and a revenue stream the problem is getting noticed, not protecting your idea.

To quote Eric Ries, “If only it were so easy to have a good idea stolen! Part of the special challenge of being a startup is the near impossibility of having your idea, company, or product be noticed by anyone, let alone a competitor.”

 

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[obrian]

mark zuckerburg was going through the same thing when he first started but hey looking is running things now facebook. everything on the internet now and absolutely everything is being copied from one another. you just of to know how to turn yours into a brand and communicate emotionally with your customers and do not give them the impression that yours is just another website because they will find another so called "copycat" lol who copied much better.so nothing is wrong with somebody copying your website because i am 100% sure that yours isn't that innovative as well with all due respect, and maybe yours is even similar to some other platforms out there as well. just make sure yours is better or else you get f##k dude.

 

[tafy]

Scarcity mindset won't get you anywhere man, go ahead and tell everyone about it

 

[safff]

I think protect was the wrong word in my original post and I guess 'Mitigate' may have been better - I wasn't going to ask as I thought it was a silly question - but the responses have demonstrated exactly why this is a great place to ask questions, so firstly a sincere thanks for the responses as it's given me a bit of confidence to look at it differently. My experience is more in service provision so you can take a different approach in building a reputation without giving something away, so a web based service business I suppose is a bit of a shock to the system - Not that it's a bad thing

What's a "side-project"?

It's great (and convenient) that you're the one to ask that actually Andrew, as I was planning to message you shortly. I'll explain -

Side project doesn't do it justice - I simply meant a business that wasn't my 'original' plan more than anything, not that it was something I'm putting less energy as it might sound.

Basically I signed up to your course and started digesting your first module. After video one by default I started thinking 'perhaps not for me' because it didn't precisely suit the business I have in progress which is more offline based than online. But wanting to press on, and keeping in mind the points you made in your introduction, another earlier abandoned idea shot to my head. Didn't want to bombard you with questions until I had a bit of a clear picture as to what I would be asking.

 

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[AndrewNC]

I simply meant a business that wasn't my 'original' plan more than anything, not that it was something I'm putting less energy as it might sound.

- Reason I brought it up is because that is a trigger word that brings back memories of my past lol. In my experience, 50% energy into one thing is more effective than 10% energy into 10 things.

Feel free to message away when ready!

 

[safff]

- Reason I brought it up is because that is a trigger word that brings back memories of my past lol. In my experience, 50% energy into one thing is more effective than 10% energy into 10 things.

Feel free to message away when ready!

lol I couldn't agree more with that it's what put the dampners off me exploring the idea in the first place, but at the moment my situation is a little unique in that I have time whilst working away in the day job, where I'm limited to how much more I can develop my business and have spare time in the evenings that I can now exploit a little

Thanks, will be sure to shortly!

 

[Gale4rc]

The question should be:

came up with a website, how do I generate my first dollar?

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Question...

Is TMF the only book on entrepreneurship? Or money? Heck, people have gone as far to copy the name for their own book.
Is The Fastlane Forum the only forum on entrepreneurship?
Is FB the only social network?
Is uBer the only ondemand car biz?
Heck, about 18 months after I started lead-genning the limo space, I had 6 copy cats spring up. A nuisance yes, but I was interested in creating value, they were chasing money.

I wouldn't worry about copy cats, but execution-- erecting solid, customer visible USP's and entry barriers.

 

[safff]

^ Thanks for the re-focus guys, a valuable reality check

Have adapted my thinking a little and have been mapping out all day and had the realisation to make the concept work rather than making the concept profitable. It's helped in eliminating a case of the 'yeah but..'s that were slowing the thought process down a little too

 

[theag]

I'd take it offline, just to be sure nobody can steal it.

 

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[ZCP]

Make it / do it better than anyone else and provide a better value to the consumer. Then all competitors do is keep you working to stay ahead and help bring customers to the space.

Our engineering company regularly helps other engineering companies. We want them to bid on the project as it makes our bid look better. We have more capacity than they do, so often we end up with the good parts of the project anyway.

 

[Daveco]

Any updates?