Advice about building managment teams

[manuel]

Hi my name is Manuel, I'm 24 and I'm what I guess you would call a serial entrepreneur as I've been running various projects for about 10 years with various degrees of succsess.

After looking back on some of my earlier project I can see that my main downfall would be that despite almost all of my ideas being potential winners, my lack of skill in the area tends to be overwhelming and lead to me being bogged down in the paperwork rather than concentrating on what I'm good at.

My latest project, would be based in the investment area but since all my formal training has been within the I.T. sector I'm confussed about where to even begin with all the red tape that is now employed in Investments.

While finding "some" startup money wouldn't be very difficult for me, I'm worried that I keep overlooking basic problems with the project and am reluctant to shell out huge amounts of cash for professional advice which would then fall at the first hurdle.

What I would like to do is chat to people who would be interested in becoming part of the managment team (even as non-execs) should the project ever happen as a strong management team is key.

So my two key questions would be:

How do I protect my ideas if i were to discuss them?

How would find people who might be interested in building a managment team? (with the correct experience)

Many thanks for any advice you might be able to give.

Manuel

[Statler]

Hi Manuel,

To answer your first question, you can draw up a Non-Disclosure Agreement, aka a Confidentiality Agreement, and ask people to sign it before you talk to them about your business idea.

The second question is a little more tricky. Ideally, the people you bring on board will be people you know you can work well with and trust, etc. Have you got any contacts who may be interested in your venture?

Alternatively, you may want to pose this question to our online community, as several of our members have management experience. E-mail me to find out how you can become involved with the community: lee.longstaff@pne.org

Or you may want to seek venture capital, as most venture capitalists will not only invest money but also will provide expertise.

Good luck,

Lee