This is my first time setting something tangible up for sell online. How do I address my concerns over intellectual property and what advice do you have for taking steps to lower the risk of someone just flat-out copying my idea?
A friend used to fly to Bali to get clothes she'd designed made for sale back home. She had to learn to shrug off her anger at seeing her clothes already being sold (without permission) in street stalls before she'd even picked up her orders. Accept that people might copy your idea but it's still worth trying to protect your business. How hard would it be for someone to reverse engineer your product? How cheaply can someone in another country produce your product? How easy is it to access your target market? How brand loyal will your target market be to you? How much of an advantage to you get for being "first to market"?