Non-Compete Clause For Employees?

Business By ellepal Updated 16 May 2007 , 2:02am by indydebi

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ellepal Posted 14 May 2007 , 7:09pm
post #1 of 6

For all those folks who have a business with employees, I need some help. I would like to know if anyone has a non-compete clause and a non-disclosure clause they have employees sign before working.

I have a wonderful lady who wants to work, and she is going to be moving next year out of state, but wants to learn how to do cakes well to open up her own shop in another state. I think she is sincere, but I want to be more safe than sorry. I am going to have her sign a non-compete clause.....what are your experiences, thoughts, opinions, and perhaps even samples of non-compete clauses?

I don't want to train someone on everything I know (which took me years), take my recipes and techniques, and my clients and become my biggest competitor.

Any opinions? Thanks!

5 replies
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calvarykari Posted 14 May 2007 , 8:05pm
post #2 of 6

If you have doubts I would not hire her. Having her sign a non-disclosure and a non-compete will not mean anything unless you are willing to follow up in court with a lawyer if you need to. If you still want to include these thing the one resource is: http://contracts.onecle.com/art/singh.noncomp.1998.08.18.shtml

I do not mean to be a kill joy but my husband ran into this problem with his business. Fortunatly what goes around comes around and the service contract the kid stole he is doing a bad job at.

Best of luck!

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ShirleyW Posted 14 May 2007 , 8:21pm
post #3 of 6

I understand the royal family in England has employees sign agreements not to write books or disclose family information. That hasn't stopped people from doing those very things. I doubt a clause such as you suggest would hold up either.

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Alligande Posted 15 May 2007 , 2:01pm
post #4 of 6

Unless it is an iron tight contract, drawn up by a very good lawyer, and you are willing to go to court, it won't work. Most people I know who have had no-compete clauses have been principals of companies that they have sold and as part of the contract, they agreed not to start the same business for a fixed period of time.

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MichelleM77 Posted 16 May 2007 , 1:10am
post #5 of 6

I believe the same thing happened between Step2 and Little Tikes (one left and started the other company, just can't remember which way it went).

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indydebi Posted 16 May 2007 , 2:02am
post #6 of 6

If she's moving out of state to start her business, is she really competing with you? icon_confused.gif

The required disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I do not play one on TV. (Although I do watch a lot of Law and Order!) icon_lol.gif

A very knowledgeable friend told me that non-compete clauses are not holding up in court because in a lot of cases, you are stopping a person from earning a livelyhood. For example, if a person was a stop sign pole painter and he'd spent 35 years painting stop sign poles, and all he knew how to do was paint stop sign poles, and all of his training and schooling was in the stop sign painting field, then if you prevent him from getting a job painting stop sign poles, you are preventing him from earning a living, since that's all he knows how to do. It's not holding up.

However ... if a secretary for an insurance company signed a non-compete that she couldn't work for another insurance company, you would not be preventing her from earning a living because she could be a secretary at a million other kinds of companies.

It depends on how focused the job skill is. And how transferrable the skill is to another industry.

Don't take my word for it. Consult your attorney.

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