Starting my own business - fish out of water!

[AdamM]

Defo get a business banking acc asap. They give some advice but give free banking for the first year or two, abs crucial for keeping the first year costs down

Both Barclays and Nat West turned me away for a business account for gambling related business
Most affiliate payments are done through Moneybookers anyway, so I can live without.

Is it still secret what the actuall business is, or did I miss a post?

[kinboshi]

I think it'll remain a secret until the site's up and running. There'll be a huge benefit from being the 'first-mover', and I'm sure Alex doesn't want to risk someone gazumping him with a similar site before he has the chance to establish himself.

[BangBang]

3) The name of my business is practically the same as another website - although this website's business is nothing to do with my website, except for being to do with poker. Is this a problem? Am I allowed to do this if it's really similar? Can they sue?!

please be calling your business Googol or Amazan or Blandpoker

gatters might just be on the right lines there, even though he missed completely.

Is it www.pokeherstar.com?

Lol. Please sell me some shares in this.

Is it common knowledge what your business idea is? My main concern about it was the legality side and breaking money laundering laws. I've been doing self assessments as a sole trader for 20 years and have always done my own accounts (my degree is in business studies and finance) only ever needing an accountant once in that time following an investigation. My solicitor however gets a visit from me a couple of times a year and always gets a contribution to his staff Xmas party.

Sick I have a Degree brag...  

Okay seems everyone has given you Fundamental advice regarding business logistics and variables...

Here's a Few words of wisdom my Old man gave me before he threw me out the house in 95, it was told to me in Punjabi so I will do my best to translate into English for you...

A good idea will open up doors but Ambition will keep them open.
Hard work will get you so far but it's your reputation that will make you
The difference between success and failure, a successful man learns from failure and a failure learns from success.. (Not sure if this makes much sense to you in English)
Matters not what they think of you, what matters is what you think of them..

Sounds better in Punjabi, but hey, I had a go...

Like I said, areas that I can help are more 2nd round + funding so anything after that let me know, I'll be happy to help...

In any case good luck and I wish you all the best..

[Beaver808]

PM sent Alex - let me know if any of it is relevant.

[ripple11]

PS I'd recommend getting an accountant sooner rather than later. Talk to a few and find one that 'gets you' . They will steer you through the choice of Ltd Co or sole trader and a really good one will have links to grants and to bankers. Initial cost of an accountant will be small, savings on tax may be large.

Key to a startup imo is to work with an accountant that understands your area of business.

I've had the same accountant for 25 years, they understand the way I work, prompt me when things need to be done. Not only save me money, but reduce the stress in dealing with the Inland Revenue.

this and this

good luck!

[tonytats]

I get my accountant to do sales and purchases monthly ,any queries can be dealt with there n then ,try remembering a transaction from a year ago ,isn't easy ,I pay them monthly ,to avoid a big bill , then there's just another fee for putting it all together and presenting it to the inland revenue at year end
Be honest with people and up front ,if you make a mistake put your hands up and learn from it
You will have tax and maybe vat to pay , contrary to what lots of people will tell you ,so put it aside in another account
Good luck with your venture

[MANTIS01]

In order to protect an idea you will need to apply for a patent which is both time consuming and complicated. If the business is set to launch in a couple of months I would assume there are no such safeguards relating to the product. Facebook has 42 patents. And even so they are constantly battling with other sites like Yahoo over copyright issues. I would dismiss notions that because you launch a business first you will get time to establish yourself and thus be the front runner/market leader in the field. If the idea is very good much bigger fish will just launch a similar website and throw enough capital at it to blow any small business away. So if you weren't planning to legally protect your idea/product it was prob worthwhile debating it here before investing a lot of money into it. There is some merit in being the first to launch but don't expect it to afford any great protection from competitors.

[treefella]

 ^^ This.
Without protecting your idea just being first to launch means nothing. Can be easily copied by people with plenty of cash looking to exploit any new opportunities.

[Beaver808]

In order to protect an idea you will need to apply for a patent which is both time consuming and complicated. If the business is set to launch in a couple of months I would assume there are no such safeguards relating to the product. Facebook has 42 patents. And even so they are constantly battling with other sites like Yahoo over copyright issues. I would dismiss notions that because you launch a business first you will get time to establish yourself and thus be the front runner/market leader in the field. If the idea is very good much bigger fish will just launch a similar website and throw enough capital at it to blow any small business away. So if you weren't planning to legally protect your idea/product it was prob worthwhile debating it here before investing a lot of money into it. There is some merit in being the first to launch but don't expect it to afford any great protection from competitors.

And vice-versa, you will also have to ensure your idea isn't already patented...

[cambridgealex]

Thanks very much everyone for the replies.

Very much appreciated. Will try and take as much of it on board as I can.

Watch this space, hopefully everyone will be able to gain some benefit from my site when it launches.

[kinboshi]

In order to protect an idea you will need to apply for a patent which is both time consuming and complicated. If the business is set to launch in a couple of months I would assume there are no such safeguards relating to the product. Facebook has 42 patents. And even so they are constantly battling with other sites like Yahoo over copyright issues. I would dismiss notions that because you launch a business first you will get time to establish yourself and thus be the front runner/market leader in the field. If the idea is very good much bigger fish will just launch a similar website and throw enough capital at it to blow any small business away. So if you weren't planning to legally protect your idea/product it was prob worthwhile debating it here before investing a lot of money into it. There is some merit in being the first to launch but don't expect it to afford any great protection from competitors.

And vice-versa, you will also have to ensure your idea isn't already patented...

In this case being the first-mover will be an important factor, especially with an idea that can't really be patented (I'm not a patent lawyer obviously, but pretty sure the idea for the website would not be suitable for patenting).

An example would be THM and their live tournament player database. Not sure the idea could be protected in law, but as it's the established first-mover in this they have a distinct advantage over others attempting to do something similar.

[MANTIS01]

In order to protect an idea you will need to apply for a patent which is both time consuming and complicated. If the business is set to launch in a couple of months I would assume there are no such safeguards relating to the product. Facebook has 42 patents. And even so they are constantly battling with other sites like Yahoo over copyright issues. I would dismiss notions that because you launch a business first you will get time to establish yourself and thus be the front runner/market leader in the field. If the idea is very good much bigger fish will just launch a similar website and throw enough capital at it to blow any small business away. So if you weren't planning to legally protect your idea/product it was prob worthwhile debating it here before investing a lot of money into it. There is some merit in being the first to launch but don't expect it to afford any great protection from competitors.

And vice-versa, you will also have to ensure your idea isn't already patented...

In this case being the first-mover will be an important factor, especially with an idea that can't really be patented (I'm not a patent lawyer obviously, but pretty sure the idea for the website would not be suitable for patenting).

An example would be THM and their live tournament player database. Not sure the idea could be protected in law, but as it's the established first-mover in this they have a distinct advantage over others attempting to do something similar.

Do you think the THM live player database is a lucrative big money business that generates lots of revenue for the owners? Wonder how much revenue Blonde generates specifically from Blondepedia? If an idea isn't very lucrative protection issues are obv irrelevant.

[ManuelsMum]

In order to protect an idea you will need to apply for a patent which is both time consuming and complicated. If the business is set to launch in a couple of months I would assume there are no such safeguards relating to the product. Facebook has 42 patents. And even so they are constantly battling with other sites like Yahoo over copyright issues. I would dismiss notions that because you launch a business first you will get time to establish yourself and thus be the front runner/market leader in the field. If the idea is very good much bigger fish will just launch a similar website and throw enough capital at it to blow any small business away. So if you weren't planning to legally protect your idea/product it was prob worthwhile debating it here before investing a lot of money into it. There is some merit in being the first to launch but don't expect it to afford any great protection from competitors.

And vice-versa, you will also have to ensure your idea isn't already patented...

In this case being the first-mover will be an important factor, especially with an idea that can't really be patented (I'm not a patent lawyer obviously, but pretty sure the idea for the website would not be suitable for patenting).

An example would be THM and their live tournament player database. Not sure the idea could be protected in law, but as it's the established first-mover in this they have a distinct advantage over others attempting to do something similar.

Do you think the THM live player database is a lucrative big money business that generates lots of revenue for the owners? Wonder how much revenue Blonde generates specifically from Blondepedia? If an idea isn't very lucrative protection issues are obv irrelevant.

I see what you're saying, but I don't think THM nor Blonde are making that much money from the player database and Blondepedia respecitively, so it probably isn't worth forking out money to lawyers/patent agents to preserve their scope for monetization against competition from other sites.

[paulhouk03]

i think alex let the cat out of the bag in a another thread

not gonna say what it is but i am pretty sure i know what it is

[kinboshi]

OK, I'll give you a big money example.

Ebay. There's nothing stopping another site starting up and allowing sellers to sell stuff to buyers via an auction system. Well, nothing in legal terms. Interestingly, in Japan Yahoo already had established itself as the auction site there and ebay wasn't able to move in and become the number one.

Sometimes of course it is possible for someone to come in and better the competition, for example Amazon. There were other bookstores online, but Amazon managed to usurp them (it did take a lot of money and a number of years of operating at a loss in order to establish itself).

Another example is in search. Despite having patents and being the established leader, Yahoo has gone from being the number one operator in search, to where it is now. It bought Overture, which was the first successful mass PPC online advertising system. Then Google came along, with a better search (more relevant results for users) and grew its market share at the expense of others and also 'stole' the Overture model to create Adwords, and the rest is history.

So yes, there's nothing to say that the first-mover will stay indefinitely as the site to go to for a particular service, but my comparison to THM position is probably very valid with regards to Alex's idea. Blondepedia was mentioned, and that actually reinforces my point. It might not have been executed with enough backing or drive, but it had to compete with an established player in that niche competing in a distinct and limited market. Maybe with enough time, effort and of course money it could have been developed to be a serious contender to THM's player database. THM definitely had the edge in being there first.

I don't know THM's traffic stats, but it wouldn't surprise me to find that the player database is the main driver for traffic to the site, and this then translates to a major chunk of their revenue driven by display advertising.