I have had people sit across from me, asking for advice about starting a business, who are hesitant to tell me what the business actually is.

Sometimes they will explain the industry. Maybe give me a vague description of what they want to sell. But they stop short of telling me the actual idea.

They are afraid I might steal it.

Which is always a little funny.

I am a lawyer, professor, run my own business, have two kids, and regularly complain that I do not have enough hours in the day. I promise you, I am not secretly looking for another business to start.

But the fear is real.

A lot of first-time entrepreneurs believe their idea is the valuable part of the business. So they protect it. They avoid talking about it. They make people sign NDAs. They work on it quietly for months because somebody might hear about it and beat them to market.

Meanwhile, they have sold exactly zero of whatever it is they are protecting.

One of the most important things you can do with an early business idea is expose it to other people.

Ideas are cheap. Execution is expensive.

There are exceptions here.

If you have developed a genuinely new invention, process, technology, formula, or other potentially protectable intellectual property, you should be more careful about disclosure. Talk to an intellectual property attorney before sharing it publicly because disclosure can affect your rights.

But most businesses do not fall into that category.

A landscaping company is not a secret.

A bookkeeping service for restaurants is not a secret.

A clothing brand is not a secret.

An online course for first-time homebuyers is not a secret.

A mobile car detailing business is not a secret.

Someone else can hear your idea and theoretically start something similar. In many cases, somebody already has.

That is fine.

The difficult part of building a business comes after the idea.

You have to figure out who the customer is. You have to understand what problem they care enough about to spend money solving. You have to determine what they will pay. You need an offer they understand. Then you need a way to reach those people consistently, deliver what you promised, collect money, manage expenses, and do all of it well enough that customers come back or tell somebody else.

That is a lot harder than hearing someone say, “I’m thinking about starting a mobile dog-grooming business.”

The person who hears your idea would have to care enough to copy it, abandon whatever else they are doing, learn the industry, invest their own time and money, find customers, and then execute better than you.

Most people can barely get through their own to-do list.

Your idea is probably safe.

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Secrecy also creates a bigger problem.

You need information.

This is where the four stages I teach come into play:

SPARK → VALIDATE → BUILD → LAUNCH

During SPARK, you are trying to determine whether the idea makes sense for you. That requires understanding the industry, the work involved, your own skills, the resources you have, and the gaps you need to fill.

Talking to people helps expose those gaps.

Maybe someone who works in the industry tells you about a licensing requirement you did not know existed.

Maybe a potential customer tells you she already has three options for solving the problem.

Maybe somebody introduces you to exactly the person you need to meet.

All of that is useful information.

Then comes VALIDATE.

This stage almost requires you to talk about the idea.

Validation means finding evidence that real people might actually buy what you want to sell. Your mom saying, “That sounds like a great idea, honey,” does not count. Your friends liking an Instagram post does not count either.

You need conversations with potential customers. Eventually, you need commitments.

Someone agrees to meet with you.

Someone joins a waitlist.

Someone requests a quote.

Someone places a preorder.

Someone gives you money.

Every step gets you closer to useful evidence.

Keeping the idea secret makes that evidence impossible to collect.

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Other people will improve your idea.

There is another benefit to talking about your business early.

Your first version of the idea probably has problems.

Mine usually do.

That is normal.

You are making assumptions about customers you have not served yet. You are estimating prices before anyone has paid them. You are predicting what features people will value before watching them use the product.

The goal during the early stages is to discover where your assumptions are wrong while changing them is still cheap.

A conversation costs you 30 minutes.

Finding out six months later, after you spent $12,000 building something nobody wants, costs considerably more.

This is one reason I want entrepreneurs talking about their ideas early and often. Every conversation gives you another piece of information.

You will hear objections.

You will notice confusion.

You will discover competitors.

You will learn the words customers actually use to describe the problem.

You may even discover that your brilliant idea is terrible.

That is useful too.

I would rather find out an idea is bad on Tuesday over coffee than six months later from my bank account.

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Eventually, you have to become very comfortable telling people.

There is also a practical reality here.

A business requires customers.

Customers cannot buy something they do not know exists.

As you move through BUILD and toward LAUNCH, talking about the business becomes part of the job. You need to explain what you sell clearly. You need to tell potential customers about it. You need to ask people for introductions. You need early customers to tell other people about their experience.

Word of mouth requires words.

You cannot build a business while treating its existence like classified information.

There may come a day when competitors pay close attention to what you are doing. They may copy features, offers, pricing, marketing, or even entire parts of your business model.

That would be annoying.

It would also mean you built something worth copying.

That is a much better problem to have than protecting an idea nobody has paid for yet.

Weekend Exercise

This weekend, tell five people about the business idea you are considering.

Do not pitch them. Do not try to convince them it is brilliant. Your job is to collect information.

Try to include:

1. One person who might actually buy it.
2. One person who knows something about the industry.
3. One person who knows you well enough to point out where your skills or experience may be weak.
4. One person who has started or operated a business before.
5. One person outside your normal circle who can give you a fresh perspective.

Explain the idea plainly. Then listen.

Write down the questions they ask, the concerns they raise, the competitors they mention, and anything they seem confused about.

You are looking for patterns.

If three people misunderstand what you sell, you have learned something.

If potential customers keep mentioning the same problem, you have learned something.

If someone says, “I know somebody you need to talk to,” take the introduction.

And if somebody tells you they would actually pay for what you are describing, congratulations.

Now you are getting somewhere.