SmallBusinessNewz

There's little doubt that big corporations sometimes steal ideas from small businesses, and after this occurs, the small businesses can be screwed.  Still, rather than keeping tabs on something with a board of directors and a stock symbol, you might want to stay aware of much more minor competitors.

Big corporations have access to remarkable research and development resources, and undeniably pose a huge threat to anything in their sights.

Yet by and large, they tend to follow rather structured lines of thought.  Radical ideas get voted down in the midst of boardroom meetings, and executive types may even view some niches as too small to be worth investigating.

G.L. Hoffman once had this sort of thing in front of his very eyes.  "When Scott Drill and I started Varitronics, the company that owned the existing market for the product even ridiculed us and our new product," he writes.

But entrepreneurs can, within reason, embrace any path that interests them.

So, if corporate espionage isn't a problem, there's a concern that any sort of outside-the-box thinking that led you to your current position could take another little guy to the same place.  Sound far-fetched?  Investigate the idea of "multiples."  If it happened to Descartes and analytic geometry, it can likely happen to you.

Hoffman recommends, "So don't worry about the big guys; worry more about the guy just like you, with a slightly bigger garage."  Or even a smaller one, as long as we're assessing threats.

After all, even if a big company and a little business copy your idea, you'll have a better chance of competing with the one lacking a fleet of private jets.