Ideas are great, but until they’re put into practice they’re essentially worthless. I’m not saying that you’re idea (whatever it is) is a bad one, just that I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on it. The execution of your idea is generally what will determine if it’s going to work or not. Yes, someone could steal your idea even if you have them sign a confidentiality agreement. An agreement is just a piece of paper and good luck enforcing it if you’re going over international lines for development. That being said, if you’re so sure of your idea that you believe it’s execution is foolproof and worth a fortune, then I would recommend finding yourself some venture capital and retaining your own in-house designer. If you’re not that committed to your idea, then I wouldn’t worry about someone else stealing it.
This all depends on how much money you’d like to spend and the caliber of work you’re looking for. Keeping in mind that generally the bigger your budget, the better development you’re going to get. Sure, you may run across a genius who is just starting out and is willing to work for next to nothing, but I wouldn’t bet on it. If you’re looking for low budget development you could head over to www.elance.com or www.guru.com and hire a freelancer. Just keep in mind that with rock bottom prices comes rock bottom service and generally non-portable code. If you have the budget, call up a half a dozen web development shops in your local area/country (Google it) and interview them. Go with the folks that look like they will be able to still keep their doors open in 12 months when you need updates.
Absolutely you are the owner. Hopefully the relationship is never finished. If you have a blossoming idea, you’re going to need constant updates and improvements to grow the project. I can’t think of a single successful project where development went stagnant once it was launched. My point here is that you should budget for the long-term and plan for a long-term relationship with your development team.
Agree with Jeff. If idea is really good people will steal it AFTER you finished your project, not BEFORE. Instagram wasnt the first app to post process photos and facebook wasnt the first social network and twitter wasnt the first project where you can share what are you doing.
So basically its all about final product, not about the idea.
I ve done quite a few successful start ups (working in a company with over 250 employers which is basically developing ideas into working products) and the way to create something meaningful is this: you invest around 10k pounds and create working prototype within 3-6 months, then you try to find investor for your project who is willing to spend 100k+ more and create something meaningful. Generally speaking a lot of people are willing to invest into apps now so shouldnt be a problem if idea is really good.
Wow that is a great point. It is the constant updates, the constant bug fixing the constant new features that you are going to always be working on.
It is incredible how much rubbish there is to go through. I would hire someone who you can easily communicate with as it is likely you are going to be talking to this guy every single day. I have one guy who works for me and we are finally meeting this December.
I actually remember reading this article about hiring a programmer. let me find it.
I’m based in the UK and there was certainly a lot of issues around this in the past actually; a lot of web design companies would register domains in their name and claim copyright on the code and SEO, so you would be the owner of the concept for the site, but the nuts and bolts that put it together would belong to the web designer, you have to make sure the issue is covered in the contract agreed between you and your supplier.
I’m based in the UK and there was certainly a lot of issues around this in the past actually; a lot of web design companies would register domains in their name and claim copyright on the code and SEO, so you would be the owner of the concept for the site, but the nuts and bolts that put it together would belong to the web designer, you have to make sure the issue is covered in the contract agreed between you and your supplier.
It was really common with web design companies (not really with solo freelancers I should add), the company I work for now used to use it and still occasionally does as a sales technique; “you own everything!”. Typically it’s because a lot of companies sell the design quite cheap and make their money off of long term hosting and maintenance contracts, if someone wanted to leave for a cheaper package the company could then say “well, OK, but we have to take all our work back unfortunately” or charge them a severance fee to buy out the copyright on the code/seo/design/etc.
Totally immoral but entirely legal, whoever creates owns the copyright as a basic legal principle, unless a contract exists specifying otherwise, like I own the copyright to everything I’ve written here, but there’s probably some clause in the terms and conditions of the forum licensing the forum to reproduce it, store it, etc.