Set Your Ideas Free

Anyone in a professional services business understands the marketing and selling power of even one good idea. Clients seek out the advisers they believe have the best ideas. And projects are often won or lost on the strength of ideas, which are like currency for the service provider. They can help you gain access, influence, and work.

With all that at stake, it’s no wonder so many service providers are protective of their ideas. As a result, they may hesitate to offer their best ideas until clients sign on the dotted line. This reluctance is most often rooted in two fears.

The first fear is that someone will steal your ideas and use them without giving you due credit. Second, you may worry that prospective clients will take your idea and try to run with it on their own, leaving you out in the cold.

Your ideas aren’t meant to be bottled up. Still, lots of people are swayed by that little voice in their head that warns them, “You’re giving away too much. If you provide free consulting, they won’t need you.”

If you fear that people will use your ideas without giving you credit, no need to fret. If your ideas are any good, someone will definitely pilfer them. Sometimes you’ll get credit and other times, you won’t. You can be sure, though, that anyone who needs to steal your ideas probably won’t be able to do much without you.

As to clients snatching your ideas and attempting to do the work without you, I’ve seen that happen, and you may have too. But this tactic rarely pans out well for clients.

The beauty of a good idea is that it’s your creation. Someone may pinch your general idea, but they’ll have a tough time trying to generate the results you’d create. An idea isn’t really a good one until someone makes it a reality. If you’re not there, it’s a lot less likely that your idea will succeed in the way you intended it to.

Sure, it’s frustrating when you suspect that someone is trying to pick your brain without any intention of hiring you. Sadly, it happens more than any of us would like. Obviously, you have to keep your antennae up to prevent that situation, and walk away when you think someone is taking advantage.

But resist the urge to be stingy with your ideas. Have confidence in your own brain power. As a colleague once remarked, “Let them take my ideas. I have plenty more.”