The Business Idea Paradox: Why Obsessing Over Your Secret Recipe Can Be a Recipe for Disaster

Hello, and welcome to the show. Before we begin, the usual apologies because I'm recording late in the day and so the house is full. My wife is listening to house music in the kitchen while she's getting some stuff made for the little ones. And yeah, of course, children watching TV, you know, running all over the place. So the usual. So expect some of that noise to bleed into the background. Now, I have to apologize that my schedule has been thrown out of whack recently and that's the reason why I've not been able to record in my usual prepared quiet place.

And so I've been doing lots of these hot and about recordings. So, you know, these unusual recordings. Anyway, today I wasn't able to make the record the podcast as usual because I had a training session much earlier in the day lasted for an After that, there was a debrief and then there were a couple of things that I had to attend to outside of the house. So anyway, just a long winning apology just to say there's going to be noise.

So let's just bear with me. Let's let's make do, let's see. OK, so yesterday I think I set a record in the history of the podcast because if I remember correctly, I think I did a 7 minute episode yesterday or maybe two days ago. So for those of you who liked that episode, you know, who like the brevity of it, let me know. Maybe it's something I should continue doing, but if you guys think there's no problem with the 2030 minute rambling episodes that I do every now and again, please let me know,

especially when you hit me up on LinkedIn or on WhatsApp. This your first time of listening to the show and you'd like to be in touch? I always give my contact details at the end of the episode. So currently we are looking at I've been addressing people who have limited business experience and who want practical guidance. That's for people who are first time entrepreneurs. And that's the question that I have been looking at.

The summary of the question now I broke it down into a couple of things, 5 tips that I think first time entrepreneurs need to know. And if this is your first time listening to the podcast and you've missed a bunch of stuff already because three days ago I tackled one, which was that your business name is not as important as you think. So don't spend too much time on it. If this sounds counterintuitive to you and it sounds confusing,

then just skip back two episodes when you're done with this and you will get my ideas in the in the full nuance, in the full context and you get what it is that I was trying to talk about. Then two days ago, I think we did branding, yes, your branding is not as important as you think. So don't spend too much time on that. Then the next one, OK, yes, that's the one that we're going to tackle today. That's your business idea is not as important as you think.

So don't spend too much time hiding it or trying to protect. Then what we're going to do after that is we'll look at the idea that there's no business idea that is so good that it is going to sell itself. Because for those of you who are newbies, some of you are laboring under the fantasy that you're going to find something, some products, some some service, some something that is so good that the thing will just sell itself.

It'll just fly off the shelf. As in people will beat themselves to your door. It happens to some people once in a while. But truth be told, you're the first person in the eye of the tornado. And so yes, you make a killing. But The thing is, there's nothing that cannot be copied or replicated. And so everybody else goes in and then, you know, the windfall, the competitive edge, the whatever just disappears. So in actual truth, there's no idea that it's going to sell itself.

If you happen to find that kind of thing, just know that your your head start is going to be eroded pretty quickly. And then the final thing that I'm going to look at at the end of the series is to show that business is a team sport, even for those of you who want to be lifestyle business owners. And the example that I gave in one of the episodes was the lady who makes a car not far from here. Saturday mornings, Sunday mornings, I don't sure whether to buy the akara is a cottage thing.

So she's wearing the akara. Her daughter is helping her. The sun brings in firewood. But you can see that even at that level, you can see that there's some sort of a team. So it's the same thing. Those of you who rear snails at the back of your house, you think that it's a solo thing. It's not really a solo thing. You have a delivery person who has to deliver the snails. Let's see what else you have a what are they called Minder?

Are they minders? And I'm not an angry person anyway. But the person who comes and looks after the snails and cleans and, you know, cleans the pen and all of that. So it you think like you're doing things by yourself, but The thing is you actually do have some sort of team around you. So the sooner that we realise and start anticipating for that, I'm planning for that what the team is going to look like, the better. So business is a team sport.

There's no solo sport, there's no self-made, there's no self-made that there's always a team. It just depends on how extensive or how simple the team is going to be. So those are the things that I think first time entrepreneurs need to know. If you're curious as to why not for those of you who are listening to the show for the first time, why I said that your business name is not important and branding is not important.

Then skip back three episodes and then the one before now and you'll get I'm caught up to speed. Now today I'm going to look at the which one? OK, yes, that your business idea is not as important as you think. So stop spending too much time hiding it or trying to protect it. Now, this is the one that my brothers and sisters who have legal backgrounds are going to take serious contentions with me over. So yes, my academic background is in law.

And some of you who have legal backgrounds will be saying, look, you're a learned fellow. How can you say that your business idea is not important, so don't protect it, blah, blah, blah, intellectual, intellectual property law, IP protection, international property protection, patents, copyrights, you know, blah, blah, blah. So lawyers, you'll be up. Now I'm saying that, look, this guy, what are you talking about? So like I've been saying,

there's some nuance here. So listen to me, or rather just be patient and listen. So this is my rationale. Everybody always thinks that they have a great business idea. Believe me, everybody does. I went through that phase and we all go through that phase like you feel like homo, this idea is the bee's knees. Like this is the best idea ever. I need to protect this thing. I can't talk about it. If someone finds it, they'll run away with it.

They'll do this, they'll do this, you know, the whole thing. And then people see one thing is one thing we need to understand is that ideas in themselves, you know, do nothing. It's the execution that counts. So actually might be a great idea, but if you're spending so much time consulting with lawyers, drafting non competes, drafting Ndas, that's a non disclosure agreements, working in secrecy and stuff like that, you're losing momentum over the execution of the idea, which is the main thing.

It's not that this idea is fantastic, it's whether you do anything with it. That is the main thing, especially for those of us in the SME space, you know, small and medium enterprises. If people like Samsung, and I'll get to them, Samsung, Apple, all these people. If I want to be playing such fancy games, you know, work in secrecy, you have such a big thing, blah, blah, blah. Who will be the first to market? Let's protect this, let's protect that.

You know, like the whole thing with the large language models going on right now, charging PT, Charging PT, That's these people. OK, What's their name again? That's Microsoft in partnership with this guy, this billionaire, I can't remember his name. And then Google on the other end. So if they're playing all these games, you know, who has the better technology, who has the better algorithm? Let us patent this. Let us whatever you know.

Yeah, let those big boys and girls play at that level. But on the SME space, like just let's get real, it's not about the idea, it's about the execution. So while you're hopping from lawyer to lawyer, you go to Abuja or you go to Lagos, you're trying to do Ministry of Commerce, you're trying to protect your idea and everything. You're losing momentum and the execution is the main thing. Now, if you guys don't believe me, let me just share a couple of statistics to bring you guys in on what it is that I'm trying to say.

So if you try and do some research over the number of ideas that people painted or that people have some intellectual property protection and do absolutely nothing about it, you'll find some interesting statistics. Now First off, I've not been able to find any single definitive answer. And of course that makes sense because the world is a big place. So to compile that statistics, I mean like what? I'll be work, but I found some interesting things coming from the OEPM.

It is a very funny unofficial Espanola, the patent E Marcus, that is the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office. So for those of you who are Spanish speakers, forgive me for murdering your language. Yeah, forgive me for murdering your language, but I think you should give me maybe 50%. I tried, hopefully I tried. So according to the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, around 36% of the ideas that people have IP protection for,

they do nothing with. So about 1/3 of the people have these fancy ideas. They go through all the stress of protecting it and then they do absolutely nothing with it. So they have figures ranging from 36% all the way up to 80%. I mean, think about it, in some cases, 80% of the people who thought they had the best idea in the world, they met with lawyers, they did everything. You go and do the patent, you go and you know all your legal gish bound, protect everything.

And then 80% of the people do absolutely nothing. So this is what I'm talking about. Now in Niger, of course, figures are hard to come by. So I don't have the the figures on Niger. But back when I was still in uni, and this was a long time ago, in my intellectual property classes, my law classes in the OAU, one of my, my, my IP professor lecturer, this was just classroom banter. So it's unconfirmed and it's unverified.

So don't you know, go to any trade journal and quote me on the statistics. But you know my professor just talking at the time, he said that over 80%, he said in fact over 90% of the intellectual property protections that are issued, you know for commercial case applications in Nigeria, people do nothing with them. Not like I said, he was not quoting, he was not saying this like statistically or as per he has done the study and all.

So this is just classroom banter. So he was just levelling with us. So you have seen that between Niger and between OEPM. What was that again? So let me check my notes. Where's that Espanol Espanola, Spain. So between Nigeria and Spain, between 36 and 80 or 90% of people go through all the trouble, get the lawyer, do all the legal dish bound and do nothing. So that's what I'm trying to tell you guys. That is the execution that counts.

It's not about how fancy the idea is. Now, there are lots of reasons why people have patterns or different kinds of intellectual property protections and do nothing with them. Or sorry, if you're a first time listener. When we say intellectual property protection, this is what we mean. When you're running a business, you have all kinds of property. Sometimes you have physical property, like let's say Coca-Cola. Yeah, Coca-Cola will be a perfect example in Nigeria.

Coca-Cola is NBC, Nigerian Bottling company. They're the ones that have the rights for distribution. So Nigerian bottling company, they have physical property. So the factory in Alausa, in Niketja, that is physical property. The machines, that is physical property. The land, that is physical property. So all of that is physical property, but then NBC also has intellectual property. That means property that you can't see property that is an idea.

So the branding, the logo, the trademark, the the non tangibles, the property that you can't touch, that is intellectual property. So when we say IP protection, it just means we're using instruments of the law to protect people's idea or non tangible property. The idea behind it is you can't put your blood, sweat and tears and develop something. There's somebody to come and steal your idea. So NBC in Nigeria, they're the ones that own Coca-Cola.

If I decide to start another business and I say let me try and pull the first one, instead of calling my own Coca-Cola, I will call my own. I'll call my own cola Coca. They can take me to court and most likely they'll win. They'll say, look, Mr. Judge, this young man is trying to pull the first one. He's hoping to sell his cola Coca, and you see people into thinking it is Coca-Cola and the court will say, yes, young man,

look, you can go and do your own drink, but you can't call it anything that sounds close to Coca-Cola, which is why in Nigeria the NBC owns Coca-Cola and Fanta and the rest. But then you have other companies like Biggie. Biggie has their own Coke kind of things. There's Biggie, there's what else? La Casera. OK, no, La Casera has like a Fanta ish thing and a Sprite ish thing, but the Coke competitors, there's well, and it is Coca-Cola, there's Pepsi,

there's Biggie, I can't remember. Let's just leave it like that. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Biggie. But they all have to sell on the different trademarks, different logo, different brands, different everything so that there's no confusion. So when we say IP protection, that is what we mean. So back to where I was, yes. So there are lots of reasons why people go ahead do all this, Viola, and they don't do anything. Now, one idea for people not doing anything about it is because you go through all this trouble, you get the lawyer, you do everything, you drop the paperwork, you do non disclosure agreement.

You don't want anybody to come people with you, everything. And then when you enter the marketplace, you just realize all more this thing is not commercially viable. Like I thought this was a good idea. We've entered into the marketplace, but man, nobody wants this thing. Let me give you a real live example. Cement. Cement is used all over the world. People build buildings, build bridges, build whatever. There's some people that have come up to say environmental concerns, blah, blah, blah.

We need to come up with an alternative, you know, all kinds of things. So the search has been on for something that will be better than cement. And yes, there are some products that people say technically are better than cement. Now, I am not an engineer, so don't go and ask me if these things are better than cement. Whether the environmental, whether the strength is better, whether the environmental impact is better, I have absolutely no idea.

But I know that there's some people who came out into the market with this ground breaking technology. They're trying to move into Nigeria and Ghana. And the idea was that you should be, they will be able to what's it called Uproot Dangote, because Dangote is the big cement guy with this fantastic, wonderful idea. And you go ahead, you patent it is patented, the protection is there international everything. But nobody is having that.

Everybody just wants to continue using cement. People will go and buy Dangote and give, buy all the, all the other stuff. And then, but then you know, like what's this fancy thing? So you spent all the money, all the whatever to try and develop this thing. I'm not saying you shouldn't try and compete with Dangote, you know, if you want to because it's a big industry, it's a big business, cement. So yeah, if you're able to come up with something that cannot sit down with you, you know,

it's all good and you make good money. But for now, all that work and it's not commercially viable. So the patent is just sitting there like that when you never know what the future might hold, you know, maybe things might change. So you have this fancy idea by the end of the day, it's not commercially viable, as in there's no demand for it. So the money that you wasted in lawyers and everything is just wasted. Now, some people also use these things to play games.

It's defensive patenting. That is where you hold the patent. You don't intend to do anything with it. You just don't want your competitors to do anything with that idea. So it's your way of just holding them by the balls. So if you have a patent and they're trying to do something, you say, hey, Mr. so and so, Madam, so, so and so. You can't do this thing or cease and desist. I have the patent. If you try yourself, I will call my lawyer.

That's, you know, you're just trying to stop the competition. So these are some of the games that people play. Like I say, it's mostly a big boy and a big girl thing. So those of us in the SME space, let's forget, you know, forget these games. We will get there. You know, when we hammer, we're multi millionaires and billionaires, yes, we'll start playing games defensive and patenting, but we're not there yet. And then sometimes people don't do anything because of funding limitations.

So it's a good idea. You've registered, you've gotten patent protection, you've gotten whatever protection it is that you need, but you don't have money. So because you don't have money, you can't produce. So these things happen. Then there's also market saturation. You go and protect this thing, you come into the market, but then the market is saturated because they are kind of similar things. And it makes it difficult for this, your new idea, to gain traction.

So look at the mobile phone situation now. So Apple has their own patterns, Samsung has their own patterns. But for you and me, the consumer that uses these things, like, man, we can't tell the difference. Money is just that. I take your phone, I rip it out of the container and the thing works, the underlying patent thing. So at the end of the day, really like how much protection is it really? Or at least on that stage.

So it happens, you patent, you enter market exaggerated. The cost of my mind doesn't even know what the difference is. So at the end of the day, you know, was awesome. Then let's see. So these are lots of reasons why people don't, people go through all the stress of intellectual property protection, but then they don't do anything. But now let me try and put the counterbalance what I've been saying, intellectual property protection is not a bad thing.

If you can and if you have the money, yes, travel to Abuja or go to no. I think it's in Abuja. I don't think they have an office in Alausa anymore. So it'll be Abuja, it'll be ministry of, is it commerce, minister of Commerce or ministry of I can't remember. Anyway, that's where you will go to go and lodge your, to apply for your patents and apply for whatever it is that you want to your trademarks, you know, and all those things.

That's where you go to go and register all these your ideas, you know, so that nobody will steal your ideas. So intellectual property protection, it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing because after all, you don't want people to spill your to steal your ideas. But the point I'm just trying to make is that most of you who are worried about somebody stealing your idea, you are doing all this IP stuff, all this intellectual property stuff, you are doing this thing prematurely.

What you should be doing is this, make sure that the idea is commercially viable first. It's also something I've spoken about in the previous episodes. You want to make sure that the idea is commercially viable first. If it is viable. And it looks like on Monday, some traction here, then you know, Russia and protect everything and then wrap it up because you've seen that it might work. So for those of you who are trying to build stuff, because I'm talking to someone right now, it's an app anyway.

It's not like the guy is going to be a client or anything, but it's an interesting conversation. I mean, I promise you guys that when the MVP is out, we I'll make a podcast episode on that. Not like I'm trying to promote the guy's stuff, but I'm just trying to show how lots of sharp boys and girls in Nigeria are working on different things. So a minimum viable product is the smallest version of your product or your idea that somebody can order or somebody can say yes to or somebody can say no to, or somebody can try out and say this thing is good or somebody can try out and say this thing is bad.

Put out your MVP, put out the smallest version of this your idea 1st and then you will get feedback from all these people when they say are correct, this is a good thing. Figure out why they're saying yes and why they're paying you money. If they say no, I'm not going to use this thing, it is bad. Find out why and then you take this feedback and then throw that back into product development. And then you can now go and patent your stuff and you know they have something good,

something good on hand. Another benefit of this whole thing of trying to validate your idea first, moving out into the market, trying to do some sales, trying to sell, trying to give people a version of your product or service that they can use is it'll give you a sense of who your ideal customer is. So that when you patented and ready to hit the market, you now have a clear idea. OK, OK, we are going to now start chasing these people that we list our product, our service.

We should be looking at buggy people and dear people living in the FCT, between FCT and national state who are between the ages of this and this and blah, blah, blah. You have a very clear sense of who it is you're chasing after. And when you have clarity on these sorts of things is the best way to go about it then anyway, so that's my idea. Show you people are just doing premature IP. So be sure that this thing works first before you now wanna start doing your intellectual property and protection.

Now, defensive patenting, like I said, eventually we'll get there. You know, small by small. You know, a baby crawls first, then you walk and then you run. So we SME folks know Allah. We're at the stage of crawling and walking. Now. Eventually we'll be running. I'll be driving for Ferrari and Lambo and everything. So we'll get there. So when you get to that level, the whole thing about defensive patenting is you're trying to get a competitive Moat.

You're either trying to stop your competitors from doing something because they try to do anything. You say look, or boy or girl, hold yourself. I have the patent. If you misbehave, I'll call my lawyers and we'll shut you people down. So that is one idea, competitive move. Sometimes it is to force people into collaborations. Like, look, I want to do this thing, but you know, conditions are not pure as in I know to go,

I don't have enough you, you also want to do this sort of thing. I have this IP. You, you have this IP. Let's collaborate and let's make this thing work. There's no need for this thing to be a fight. In that case, people are taking a collaborative approach. They're trying to increase the size of the pie. And that is precisely the sort of thing that Samsung and Apple have done in collaborating over the different IP intellectual property that they have.

So they have been those sorts of collaborations. You know, so Apple will say, Samsung like guy, there's no need to fight now. Like let's just cooperate. After all these African markets, this Asian markets, there's money to be made there. So let me bring my own IP to the table. You bring your IT IP to the table, you collaborate, let's say, how much money we can make, you know, selling phones to Africans and Asians. And then they cooperate and then they enter the market and everybody's fine.

So those are some of the games that they play at. The big boy had a big girl level. So we'll get there in Jesus name, like barrel alone, as my your bad brothers and sisters will say. Then for the other ideas where people don't do anything with their IP protection, with their intellectual property, with their fancy ideas, you know, the solution is still the same funding limitation. Are you broke? That's the reason why I've been talking about validating your product, the service or the idea.

If you show that there's demand, you'll be able to raise money from investors. It doesn't have to be a fancy thing. Your rich uncle from the village, you can want to talk to him like uncle, I have this idea, this one I'm doing. I've already gotten the patent. I've locked this thing now. But uncle man, Broco, this is how much I need to set up the factory. What is how much I need to buy this raw material or whatever. Have that conversation.

If you can show uncle that people are buying. People are rushing this thing. He might say, OK, this my nephew like you're a serious boy, you're a serious girl. I know how this thing is moving. So how much do you need? What am I getting in return? You can start the conversation then market saturation. If you try to validate your business idea, you're not going to get caught in the saturated market because you going out and doing the the leg work, the body work, trying to talk to people,

trying to sell something, putting out your minimum viable product so that people can test it. People can see it, people can buy it, people can criticize it, people can whatever it you get caught in a saturated market because this small, small moves that you'll be doing will show you that, OK, there's room to continue or there's no room to continue. So if you validate, you won't get caught in a saturated market, that ain't gonna happen.

So summary, what I'm trying to say is protecting your business idea is good though, but you want to be sure that the idea is workable first and that there's market demand or there's room for economic growth. You get my point. And this is the sad truth. Very few ideas are completely novel. Somebody's already working on your secret idea and they're going to beat you because you're taking too long developing the idea and talking to lawyers and everything.

Meanwhile, competitors are out there doing great stuff. If you don't believe me, watch any documentary. Who Invented the tire? There's dispute. Was it the American guy? Was it the Scottish guy? Sometimes it's just like the idea was out in the ether. The American guy was working on the idea. The Scottish guy was also working on the idea. You know, these sorts of things, they happen at the end of days. Who got to the market first?

Who was able to market more? Who was able to sell more? These kinds of things? Who invented the TV? Similar debates here and there. Who invented the light bulb? Similar debates when you give credit to the American guy, what's his name? What's his name now? The one that is supposed to be an inventor. I can't remember the one that was the patent on the light bulb, you know, So it's not as if his own was the, and I don't know the technical stuff because I'm not an electrical engineer,

but he was one that was first in the market. So truth of matter is, no matter how great your idea is, somebody's probably working on something similar. So don't see how quickly you can get to the market, see how well that you can execute. But then again, please take my comments with a grain of salt. When I say validate your business idea, I don't mean go and run and start sharing all your ideas and business secrets on LinkedIn.

That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying just do some small activities. See people are even interested. If people even want to buy this thing in the 1st place, then you can now start calling your lawyer to say this is the idea, this is how it works. I think the instruction here, is this a novel idea, Do you think this qualifies for patent protection? How can we lock down the trademark? How can we lock down our logo?

How can we, you know, blah, blah, blah, all those sorts of things. So that's summary of what it is that I'm saying. So my loyal friends and those of you have been to law school, my educated colleagues, hope you guys can see that I'm not saying that legal services are not required and that IP protection is a bad idea. It's a good idea, but let's not put the what was I saying? Let's not put the cart before the horse. Abhi, how do you say it?

Just things in good order, in due order. Let me put it that way. Let's be sure it's a good idea and that is workable before we now through time and money behind it. So that's all for today. Please connect with me on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140. The country code is +234. And also connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tabishima Ayedia, I'm the host of the show. You can confirm the spelling of my name and e-mail address from the link.

We're currently listening to this episode. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode. And for those of you who've been able to hear the music bleeding in from the background, I hope that this is great testimony that my wife has great taste in music. Maybe I don't, but she definitely does. And I hope you are entertained at the very least and maybe not distracted by all that noise bleeding in from the background.

So I'll catch you guys tomorrow and we've done three. I think we have maybe another two or three left and then we'll be on to the next section.