Talk to an attorney familiar with the industry. Perhaps file a patent.
If that doesn't seem like a good investment right now, lawyering up when someone violates the terms of whatever "idea protection" document gets cooked up is not a better investment.
I've come to agree with the common wisdom that improving execution is better than protecting an idea. For a customer adopting an existing implementation is faster than building something in house. On the other hand, implementing an idea in house may be faster than relying on an external company.
I like this essay: https://sivers.org/multiply
