This weekend I took the advice of a comment left on one of my business blog’s posts and I told a bunch of my friends and family about my business idea. Needless to say, it was one of the best things I have done as I’ve attempted to start my business; not only did I receive great questions and constructive criticism, but I also received several great business ideas that weren’t even on my radar.

I thought (as probably most people who want to start a business do) that you should probably keep things close to the vest, sharing only minor details with those close to you. This weekend I learned that is probably the worst thing you can do, especially in the beginning stages of planning a business. While I’m sure it’s a good idea to follow my Grandma’s advice of, “make sure you don’t give away ALL of your secrets,” it’s probably not a bad idea to share the basic premise of your business, your products, services and features, and why anybody would want to buy this from you.

By being willing to share your business ideas with, at the very least, those close to you, you are doing yourself and your future business a great favor; you’re allowing people outside of your “business team” the opportunity to objectively look at your ideas and processes and offer a new and sometimes better perspective.

For example, today I shared my business idea with over ten relatives and ended up having a conversation that lasted close to two hours. We talked about the basic premise of my business, various features I expect to offer, pricing, who the customers would be, how we plan to market the product - pretty much anything that could have been brought up was!

In the end, I felt like I had solidified my business idea and product/service AND saw that I was missing out on several other markets where I could grow my business and several other businesses. So, instead of staying tight-lipped like I usually am, I opened up, shared my business and ended up with a bunch of great ideas that will make my product/service that much better.

Long story short, sharing your business idea with people that are close to you is probably the best thing you can do in the early stages of putting everything together.