[daveymck]

Without knowing the area of sodtware then who knows, but if someone brings out somthing and it is making lots of sales then there is bound to be competition to follow although more likely from a smaller software house than microsoft etc, by the time you have sales that might interest them chances are you can sell up and retire anyway.

The way you compete is being first to the market so having a good customer base that you can sell upgrades too, as well as having excellent support and aftersales care.

You need a good business plan one that plans at different levels of growth dependant on small, medium and large growth of the sales otherwise you may grow too quick and not have enough staff etc to cope with demand or you have too many staff and have too high costs.

If you know nothing about business I would suggest going into partnership with someone with good business experience or maybe selling the product to a larger software house retaining a percentage of the sales income as part of the deal.

Your biggest enemy and concern at this point is not future competition its getting your business setup and off the ground cos that is a hell of a battle in itself.