Selling an idea online

**seth** · 01-02-2007 02:25 AM

Where can I sell business ideas online? Do I need to invest any money for that?

**SSM** · 01-02-2007 02:41 AM

Originally Posted by seth

Where can I sell business ideas online? Do I need to invest any money for that?

You can get your ideas stolen all over the net. As far as selling one? You'd need a working model/business plan, maybe a patent. Nothing stops someone from taking your "idea" in a capitalistic world.

Look at Microsoft...billions off of copy catting.

**Sam Barona** · 01-02-2007 05:46 AM

The realm of ideas is like the wild west. You have to make your claim for it to be recognised as yours (Patent or Copyright).

This, however, does not dictate if the idea is fertile or not, if its full of oil wells, or excretions from a brazier-wearing, mammal-eating paleontological beastie.

The patent/Copyright just says its yours. Can you sell IP? Yes, if it has inherent value to the buyer.

Reality is that you will get more for your ideas the more developed they are. If you have a working model that proves the idea works and that it can be produced cost-effectively and reliably (for a product); or a business plan that proves that there is a substantial ready market for it (secondary research) and that people will want to buy it and pay what the business wants for it (primary research) then you're increasing your chances/rewards of selling it.

Furthermore, if you partner with a manufacturer to produce the product, and/or partner with a financier to prove the business model works, then you can sell a going concern; etc...

The world is not short of ideas; its not the ideas that are of real value. All you have to look at is the patent office for a list of wonderful ideas that never hit the market.

The world is not short of people with ideas (whether poor, mediocre, or great) who want to take your hard earned cash and try to test them on an increasingly discerning and fickle public. Its not the people with the ideas that are of value. Inventors are one-a-penny.

What the world is short of is of people willing to learn the skills necessary to succeed in business and then willing to apply this knowledge effectively in projects that are innovative. I use the word innovative, rather than creative because reality is that the world does not like too much change at once, so progress is slow. Thus, the most profitable ideas are those on the fringes of creativity, those that improve an existing "something" rather than those that create/invent something radical.

I get so many fresh ideas all the time that its scary. If you find a ready market for ideas, then let me know; I will let you resell mine.

Perhaps you can set up a website where people can vote on the very best idea (as submitted by users) and actually bid for stakes in the venture to take it through the various stages of development.

I am confident that this would not cost you more than $500 by using existing site templates and back-end templates, which are available online. You can even market it cheaply, freely on sites like this one.

You can have a section that is off bounds (pay-only) for those ideas that are not IP protected yet, or for full business plans, drawings, etc; thus, creating a revenue stream for the business for this premium content.

The site becomes a business template site, if you like. You can then develop this into a nursery for businesses as you recruit professionals that can help you take each project that you choose trough its development. Thus, becoming a VC with a difference.

How is that for an idea?

Some are likely to find it of value, but not many will act on it. And of those that do act on it, fewer still will have the resources to see it through to completion.

Sam