These days, everyone seems to want to be a startup, or help startups get started. The term “startup” is so overused it has become cliche.

Public and private organizations everywhere have jumped on the bandwagon, offering classes on how to pitch your idea, how to market your idea, how to build a website for your idea, how to make money with your idea, where to network with other like-minded technorati hip to the next big thing.

Built-In Chicago #builtinchicago, is one such online community. The Illinois Small Business Development Centers throughout the state provide live support and classes. There’s SCORE. There’s the MIT Enterprise Forum, the Illinois Small Business Advocacy Council (not connected to the SBDC), the various incubators (Evanston, Lake Forest, 1817, Matter…) and Ground Floor Inventor’s meetup in the back room of the Independence Tap.

But with the focus of these, and other organizations, to Kickstart, to pitch, and to launch, that is, to TALK about one’s invention, who is telling people how to protect their ideas, how NOT TO TALK? If you are serious about your invention, the advice and peace of mind you will get from an hour with a business or patent attorney will put you on the right track from the get-go. There is no quick and cheap way to make money from your idea.