Hi, I’m Doug Patt. This is the How to Architect Anything series, part three, who to work with.
You got to need help taking your product to market from a business plan and prototyping to branding, marketing, manufacturing, selling or even running the business. Four things to remember; number one, I was told years ago always work with people that are smarter than you are. Now, that doesn’t mean you’ve got to work with people with a higher IQ but what it does mean is it you want to work with or higher people that compliment your talents and abilities and bring more to the table in some areas than you do.
Number two, it’s also been my experience that people are secret about their ideas and you tend not to get the right people involved in the process. Does anyone tell anybody about their big idea? Do yourself a favor, on one hand use nondisclosure agreements. If you got to be meeting with people and discussing your product and you don’t want them to tell anyone else, use an agreement. In the other hand, it’s been my experience that people don’t simple steal your idea until they know it’s worth something that is until it’s been on the market and it’s making money. That’s when you have to start worrying, so button up your ideas with intellectual property and all goes through packing your products in another video. Use nondisclosure agreements when you can. But don’t be too paranoid about showing people your big idea to get help.
Three, if you get far enough along, you’re going to need to set up a company and have a separate bank account. Whether this is with a business partner or not it’s important to keep your resources and your liability totally separate from your personal stuff. So setup an LLC or a corporation depending on the advice you get from the people you chose to work with, mainly, your lawyers and accountants.
And number four, getting a business partner is a lot like getting married without the benefits if you know what I mean. So make sure you trust the person you’re going to be working. Have a written agreement regarding your partnerships again and keep a very open line of communication. Communication is keep.
So next time, I’m going to show you each step I took to pick one of my products to market online. We’ll see you next time.
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