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Psst — Your “Big Idea” Is Completely Worthless

When I talk to people about business, sooner or later someone will mention that they have a great business idea that they are working on. Usually they won’t say exactly what it is, for fear of someone stealing it. However, they are confident that the idea will fly — big time. They talk about patents, protecting their idea from imitators, and perhaps even selling their idea to a company.

Yes, they have it all worked out. Fame, fortune, and extreme wealth would be right around the corner, except for one tiny detail: Nobody buys ideas.

Customers don’t buy ideas, and businesses don’t buy ideas. It’s because ideas, in and of themselves, are completely worthless. It’s the end result of the idea that is worth something — either an actual new product, or a working business model.

Let me go over a few truths about ideas.

Somebody Else Has Likely Already Thought of Your Idea

I remember a friend of mine who had an idea for a child safety product. He was guarded about the details of this idea, but talked about it constantly in general terms. I finally pried out of him what it was, and I suggested we take a trip to the hardware store. Bam, there was his “big idea,” right on the shelf, for $4.99.

My point is, no matter what it is you’ve thought of, the chances that someone else thought of the very same thing are extremely good. So before you head to the patent office, make sure your big idea isn’t currently being manufactured by nine-year-olds in China.

Nobody Buys Ideas

I don’t know of any company that buys ideas from people. So this whole dream of you selling this wonderful idea is just that — a dream. Ideas are a dime a dozen — everyone has a clever business idea in them.

What can possibly be sold is the actual fruition of an idea. Or the execution of it. In other words, if you have an idea for a product, well, you’re going to have to make the product. Or, at the very least, come up with the exact technical details involved. Not general concepts like “I have an idea for a new door lock.” You need to draw this lock in precise technical terms (not a notebook scribble), including a list of the needed materials. Then do a cost analysis of materials, assembly, etc. Then maybe you have something.

Better yet, just build the lock and shop it around.

This is the part that people trip on. They have great ideas, but when I ask deeper questions such as, “How long does it take to make?” and “Where will you get your materials, and how much will they cost?” the answers are vague. Those darn New Business Blinders are working again.

In order for your idea to be worth anything, you have to take it beyond the idea stage and start actually producing/planning — in detail — whatever your idea is. If you plan a product, you have to start producing a real prototype. This may mean you have to do real research and/or work. For example, if your idea involves something being made out of plastic, well, you may have to find out how/where plastic molded items are produced, and how you can get yours made. Or where you can get the parts you need. The library and the Internet are your friends in this case.

To give you an example, when I was in my making-golf-clubs phase, I toyed with the idea of getting driver heads made with my brand name on them. I did some research and found several foundries in Taiwan that did exactly that. It took several hours of searching online, many emails, and a phone call or two in the middle of the night (so I could speak to someone during the day there), but I finally got what I wanted — a company willing to make my driver heads for roughly $10 each, with a reasonable minimum order (500 pieces). They sent me one generic club head to inspect, and I used it to build my prototype driver to see if I would be happy with it. (I was.)

All told, it took me maybe 40 hours of work to produce my prototype, and 39 of those hours were spent researching and finding the product.

It’s the same if your idea is a service. In order for it to be worth anything, you’ll have to start performing that service on a small scale.

Quite frankly, this “beyond the idea stage” takes a lot of work, which is why most ideas never go anywhere. Everyone can talk about it — few can really do it. So if you take the actual idea to the next level, you are WAY beyond almost everyone else.

But What about a Patent?

In general terms, you cannot patent an idea. If you could, we’d need a much bigger patent office. Now, I say “in general terms” because I know there are lawyers out there who will disagree and will happily sit down with you ($250 an hour, please) to discuss your idea. In fact, they’ll discuss it for hours on end.

You can certainly try to apply for a patent for your idea, but in almost every case, you are going to have to do the “beyond the idea stage” step I outlined above (meaning figuring out the details). THEN you might have a shot at a patent. Again, it takes work (and getting a patent is a topic that can fill another book).

Nobody Is Going to Steal Your Idea

Because of what I outlined above, your idea is largely safe, even if your neighbor finds out about it. Let’s be real: Your neighbors have trouble taking down their Christmas lights. It’s unlikely they are going to start Miller Industries (assuming their name is Miller, of course) based on your idea.

The fear of someone stealing your idea is what keeps many an entrepreneur from doing anything more than dreaming. In my day, I’ve heard plenty of business ideas from various people. What follows are a few that never went anywhere.

The Outlet Protector

This is the child safety product I mentioned before. A friend of mine thought he had the big idea when he thought of a little plastic box that you put over your outlets to keep your kids from fiddling with plugs. He was bummed when he saw the product on sale at the hardware store for less than five dollars.

The Pizza Cheese Stabilizer

About ten years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about business. He confessed he had a great idea he was working on. When I pressed for what it was, he replied: “Okay, here it is: When you pick up a box of pizza, you usually put it on the seat of the car, right? And the car seat is not level, so the pizza leans backwards. And the hot cheese slides to one end of the pizza, making a mess. Don’t you hate that?”

I didn’t have much of a comment, because this was never a big problem for me. On the off chance this happened, I used a fork to redistribute the cheese to its proper balance upon returning home. Elapsed time: nine seconds. But apparently, for some people, uneven cheese is a HUGE issue. Huge enough to warrant a product.

So my friend told me about the handy dandy pizza-cheese stabilizer gizmo. How does it keep your pizza level on your car seat? I honestly don’t know. What’s it made out of? I honestly don’t know. Neither does my friend who told me of this great idea. All he had was the idea — he had no clue what form the product would actually take. But it would level out your pizza, and was a surefire winner, if he could just make it and get it to market.

To the dismay of level cheese lovers everywhere, this product never seemed to go beyond the idea stage.

The Party Place Website

“I’m gonna have a website where people having parties can list their party, and people can pay to see where the parties are!” exclaimed my breathless, unemployed 32-year-old friend.

“What parties?” I asked.

“You know — parties!” he exclaimed excitedly.

“No, I don’t know,” I replied. “None of the parties I go to lend themselves to complete strangers checking a website to find out where they are held. So what kind of parties would advertise on your website?”

His face dropped. “Well, last night this dude said there was a party. I couldn’t find it … so I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could look it up on the Internet?’”

And that was the end of the conversation. Apparently, my friend thought there was this huge glut of keg parties begging to found by unemployed 32-year-olds who still use the word dude in conversation.