Why Should I Just Give It Away?

This is why a lot of successful entrepreneurs become successful jerks, they have very little choice.  You are absolutely right in your belief that you should not be "Giving it away".  Tell them if they are interested in a franchise where you get some percentage or being an apprentice or some such, you can talk about it. If it didn't work that way I would have gone to Bill Gates or Eric Ripert a long long time ago and you would be working for me. Seriously, you might want to contact a business or corporate lawyer type and see what you can do. otherwise may I suggest a "buffer" person, someone who smiles nicely and no matter the insults keeps smiling nicely and saying "No, Mr. Foodnfoto is not available for questions at this time "

Hi Foodnfoto,

I'm interested to know what you do and you just wrote 4 paragraphs explaining that you weren't telling me!...but a few things, if you do it better than the rest you will be the leader anyway. People are desperate to be successful, and their moral lines become some what blurred in the pursuit of it. When people become insistent they have no patience and so ignore them and they will eventually go away, or just tell them some bad advice. 

Cousin Elisabeth is an IP lawyer and the stories some times amaze me. People just don't respect IP, yet others are fearful of it. At the end of the day business and rules rely on most people doing the "right thing" and those that step outside of the legal and moral boundaries dont know or care. 

Consultants charge $150+/hr for mediocre advice. Have Gunnar's smiling buffer person offer to schedule consultation meetings or some such. Most will likely turn away. Those who don't--$$$.

Franchise the concept, Do not sell it. For the time being put the whole idea on paper and send it to yourself certified mail.. I once contacted a patent company and they told me before  they see it or any one else does send it to myself . This as was explained proves  the date that I came up with  the original concept.Turn off your E mail so it lets approved only contacts thru. As far as the phone use an answering machine stating on the phone the franchise fee. The freeloaders will stop calling.  As far as the statement "you  were first and do it better''   Let me clue you in the one with most $ backing is the winner.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chefedb 

Franchise the concept, Do not sell it. For the time being put the whole idea on paper and send it to yourself certified mail.. I once contacted a patent company and they told me before  they see it or any one else does send it to myself . This as was explained proves  the date that I came up with  the original concept.Turn off your E mail so it lets approved only contacts thru. As far as the phone use an answering machine stating on the phone the franchise fee. The freeloaders will stop calling.  As far as the statement "you  were first and do it better''   Let me clue you in the one with most $ backing is the winner.

The so-called poor mans copyright doesn't hold any weight in actual disputes. It's easy enough to send yourself an empty unsealed envelope to seal later when full of stolen ideas.  Terribly easy to falsify.
 

If your taking your business to another level your comments should be " NO COMMENT" don't tell anyone anything about your business. If people want to take pictures of the finished product, so be it. It's up to you to safe guard your operation and not be a "nice guy give away the house" kind of guy. I would also make sure the employees don't have all the answers to the finish product, they could cause problems with knowing to much...........................ChefBillyB 

Foodnfoto,

   might want to think aboutRegistering all names locally.  Usually your LLC will not

cover names locally. Use the curious to build a mailing list. Just direct all questions and emails to a different address and.

require thier email. add.

I'm sure you have a good business attorney.

I am very excited to hear you may have a great concept.!

Everybody and thier brothers think they can get into the Wedd business after finishing a Wilton class. They will blatenly come into the shop

and take pics and ask about ingredients.

I gave up on worrying about those things years ago.

Just try to protect your concept.

I wish you all the luck and prayers for a sucessful concept..

Where I am, there are many independant vendors that represents what your doing. I'm sure it's not close to your quality.

Might want to look into that.

I'm always ready to invest in new concepts  :>D

I'd see about getting an exclusive on the specialty equipment. Persons can get it in the US but may have to go through you.

There is a company that makes fudge ingredients that are cooked in a Groen kettle you can only get through them.

 Let the manufacture know you might be going national.

pan

Talking from a business management point of view... You need to maintain an info@ email address, or better yet - a form-based page that you can redirect people to.

This has several advantages - first, your spam will drop to zero, because you don't publish the inboind email that the form sends mail to.

Second - you add a verification code (those pesky numbers or wierd letters "captcha" - that will keep bots and crawlers out.

Third; You can format the input form to ask specific questions and get some category control on what the email is about. Like a drop-down combo box that a user can select:

1. general Info

2. support

3. franchise information

4. complaint

5. ordering gogo pops

6. whatever

The form also collects a valid email, a telephone number if they want callback, their industry if you want that, and a memo field you can limit to 512, 1024 or 65k characters if you like.

Part of having a business is maintaining your registered agent (business mail address) and your virtual contact portal - being this proposed form strategy or a general info@ email.

I charge $185-260/hr for consulting, depending on what the contract scope is. You can have this one for free - But I would like some of your product to sample as well.  ; )

Hi food,

No, I don't operate an IP concept, but a small "artisan" chocolate and pastry business.  Whether it's good or bad, I have a "bricks and  mortar" shop where customers can come in, have coffee and buy chocolates.

So at least once a week I see "them", people who come in, eyes on the display shelves and cases, and a zillion questions.

"How much is that?" Sorry dude, I have price tags and menu boards for that question.

"Where did you buy this/that?" From suppliers

"Do you supply clubs or Hotels?  Which ones? "  Today's feature praline is hot cinnamon hearts in a 70% dark shell, would you care to purchase a box?

"Where did you train? Oh...Switzerland?  Do you take on any apprentices?" Not at the moment.

And finally.......

"Do you own this place?  How much is rent?  How's business?  Today's feature praline is.....

In short, be polite but don't even give 'em the steam off of your uh... "beverage by-products".... 

It goes by date

Hi again Foodnfoto,

I had a look at your website, simple, creative looks nice, keep up the good work.