Web Design & Intellectual Property
Oct 18
I get a lot of calls from people who have a great idea and want a website but they really don’t want tell me this great idea (for which I need info to develop or even discuss their website). First and foremost, congratulations on your great idea; but its usefulness is only to you and maybe to the 0.0000001% of people you will encounter. In other words, no one is going to take the few words you say about your idea and suddenly run with it.
If your concept is truly a good idea, only you know how it will function, who the target market is and how to develop the process. There were plenty of MP3 players out there before the iPod. Was that a great idea that someone could turn with just a few words? No, the iPod is a product backed by a series of decisions
Secondly, you are telling a web designer, not some intellectual property stealer. In other words, we (web designer) are in the business of developing website, not stealing intellectual property.
I recently had someone call me about an idea about a website which was about baby sitting schedules. The conversation is somewhat in-depth, but when they gave me the written outline (which was scribbled in notebook paper, scanned and then e-mailed), it was in some type of code—which I could not understand. The babysitter was now the “said client” and all sorts of jargon to hide what was really going on. Even knowing the background of the project (from our initial phone conversations), I could not make heads or tails of the project based on the cryptic outline I received through the e-mail. I quickly passed on the project. I’m still not going to steal it. It’s a good idea, but a web designer is not a baby sitter scheduler entrepreneur.
In sum, don’t get in the way of your great idea. If you really have doubts about divulging the secrets of your great website idea, then ask to see the web designer in person and develop a trust with that web designer over several meetings. Don’t try to get interested web designers over a phone call and a cryptic e-mail. The only ones you will get that are interested in your project just may be the one will steal your project.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
