Where to turn for support

Getting started can be the trickiest part of any new project, but many entrepreneurs and business leaders cite particular individuals who supported them in the early stages of developing their ideas and business ventures. This support ranges from the informal support given by friends and family through to individuals in their professional networks. Knowing who to approach and where you can go for support can help you as you develop your idea.

Firstly, consider the type of support you need.

• Financial: do you need additional financial support in order to progress your idea? This may be particularly relevant if you are an independent individual creator. The World Intellectual Property Office offers guidance on securing funding against IP which is worth reading before seeking out loans or investors.
• Specialist Knowledge: does your idea require specialist knowledge that you need to obtain in order to develop it further? For example, if you are creating a new type of food product do you need the support of nutritionists to validate it? Perhaps you might consider partnering with a University who does research in this area?
• Professional Knowledge: there are many people who can connect individuals with organisations to help them develop their idea into a commercial venture. For example, literary agents are professionals who help to place literary IP with publishers. They offer professional expertise and an extensive network which you could leverage to develop your idea. This does, of course, comes with a cost which is usually agreed as a commission if they decide to represent you. (If this is relevant, there is more information at the Publishers Association).
• Legal advice: as explained in Steps 1.13 and 1.14, it is important to obtain formal legal advice as you develop your idea and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) handbook is a good place to start.
• Testing and Prototyping: validating and testing your idea is a continual process. As you receive and implement feedback you iterate, meaning that you go back and forth between the design and testing phases as you develop your idea. This link contains some effective ways to iterate on your idea.
• Feedback: obtaining critical feedback on your idea is an important part of its development, to understand whether it could work in practice and to identify where there are potential gaps. For example, authors often join reciprocal reading groups in which other authors will read their work to feed back on whether the story works overall, its strengths and weaknesses. (If this is relevant to you, this LinkedIn article on alpha and beta readers may be helpful.)

Make a note of the kind of support you may need in your learning journal.

Once you have identified what type of support you need, you then need to consider who the best person/organisation is to provide what you need. Here are some ideas you might explore.

• Mentorship: this can come in many forms, both formal and informal. Mentors can help develop your ideas by sharing their knowledge and expertise with you. This article contains tips on how to find a mentor. Mentorsme is an online gateway for small and medium-sized enterprises looking for mentoring services in the UK. Some organisations have formal mentorship schemes for their employees and local authorities may also offer formal business mentoring services.
• Sponsorship: Sponsors outwardly advocate for and support the professional development of others. These individuals use their positions of power or expertise to help advance another’s career or goals. If you are developing an idea from within an organisation, good sponsors will most likely will be senior or executive level colleagues.
• Critical Friend: this is an informal term for someone you trust to provide honest feedback about your idea. As Jurek said in Step 1.8, successful entrepreneurs learn from others.

Confidentiality

It is helpful to recognise, early in the process, what additional support you may need and where to find it. However it’s important to consider how much detail to share, as giving away too much information could potentially weaken the protection of your rights. As discussed in Step 1.7, keeping a detailed log of the development of your idea can be crucial in tracing ownership. Ensure, therefore, that you maintain a robust and consistent approach to innovation capture, use secure communication methods, and time stamp major developments in your plan.

Beyond this, more formal approaches to protection are open to you if you decide to bring in a third party to help you. Non-Disclosure Agreements may be necessary to protect your confidential information. This article on ‘Confidentiality for intellectual property developments’ gives some helpful advice. When it comes to defending your IP (see Step 1.13), we would strongly recommend that you seek professional legal advice.

Learning Journal

Make a note of the type of support you need, who might provide it and who might connect you to the right person to provide it in your learning journal.