Protecting my property

Since my idea for my business is something that has been done before, the key to protecting my property is patenting it. My idea is something I personally have not found in real life yet, so I would have to search for any business that is similar to mine. Once I have done that, I could decide to either patent it, or having the people I work for sign a nondisclosure document. This would make anyone who works for me unable to talk about my idea. I have not come up with the name of my company yet, but when I do have it, I would go ahead and trademark the name. I think overall, I have to look more into the process of protecting your intellectual property, because what do you do when your idea has already been thought of?