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No more non-competes?

I have been subject to non-competes over the years and they are onerous, nasty knife-in-the-ribs things that should have been illegal the minute they were first thought up. I've see so many good air talent forced to uproot their families and leave a market because of them, or forced out of the business for months at a time due to bastard employers out for vengeance. Under any sane person's definition, non-competes qualify as restraint of trade.

-- Doc
 
Well, I sure have a different view. If I were to hire someone to work for my small, niche business, they would learn about my customers, vendors, and proprietary information. In working for me, they would basically be training to become my most effective competition, knowing my business's strengths and weaknesses from the inside. Why should I hire someone without any assurances that an ambitious employee will not set-up shop and compete for my clients using the vendors and trade secrets I worked hard to develop? I guess you guys see the issue as big corporate America vs. "the little guy," but I'm a little guy, and I don't think it is so wrong to want a non-compete agreement to protect myself from having my business hijacked by an insider.
 
BigCrap said:
Well, I sure have a different view. If I were to hire someone to work for my small, niche business, they would learn about my customers, vendors, and proprietary information. In working for me, they would basically be training to become my most effective competition, knowing my business's strengths and weaknesses from the inside. Why should I hire someone without any assurances that an ambitious employee will not set-up shop and compete for my clients using the vendors and trade secrets I worked hard to develop? I guess you guys see the issue as big corporate America vs. "the little guy," but I'm a little guy, and I don't think it is so wrong to want a non-compete agreement to protect myself from having my business hijacked by an insider.
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Egads...so radio has to work differently than any other business? non-compete's are plain wrong. In terms of proprietary information, this is why you have people sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) which would protect you regardless of whether they are working for or against you. Non-compete's basically prevent people from earning a living, which is just plain "right to work." This is AMERICA, we have certain unalienable rights and one of them is the freedom to work and earn a living.
 
djmimi said:
Egads...so radio has to work differently than any other business? non-compete's are plain wrong. In terms of proprietary information, this is why you have people sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) which would protect you regardless of whether they are working for or against you. Non-compete's basically prevent people from earning a living, which is just plain "right to work." This is AMERICA, we have certain unalienable rights and one of them is the freedom to work and earn a living.
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Perhaps non-compete agreements should work differently in different industries and/or for different sized businesses (it's not like different industries and business types are not already regulated differently). While I can easily see the burden a non-compete agreement puts on radio talent, the situation is completely different than my niche business, where an employee would have a real (and, in my opinion, unfairly gained) advantage if they decided to use proprietary information to compete directly with me.

If you want to work with me for my small niche business, I would like at least the opportunity to try to protect myself by having an agreement with you stating that you will not take all the proprietary knowledge I've acquired over the past 20 years and use it to compete directly with me. I don't want to spend a couple of years training you to go after my small stable of clients clients with the advantage of knowing my vendors, techniques, and my pricing structures (so you can slightly underbid me). From what I've been told, only a non-compete agreement addresses these issues directly. If a non-compete says you will not start a copycat business and go after my clients, and then you start a business similar to mine and go after one of my clients, it's not so difficult to prove you violated the terms of our agreement (which, by the way, was freely entered into, because this is America, and there would be no coercion to make you sign the agreement). However, if a non-disclosure agreement was used, it's practically impossible to prove a former employee slightly underbid me because of knowledge gained in my employment (even if that is exactly why he slightly underbid me).

I'm no lawyer, but that's my understanding of the differences between a non-compete and a non-disclosure agreement. Yes, this is America. Yes, earning a living is a right. But is stealing my business model and customers an unalienable right? How does a small guy like myself protect the business I've dedicated my life to developing, the business that supports my family? In my case, why is an non-coerced agreement between two parties unfair? I think you see this solely in the perspective you are used to seeing it, whereas my relationship with non-compete agreements is very different. I just don't think NDAs address the issues I am concerned with in an enforceable way.
 
Wow, BC, I understand where you are coming from, but I can't agree. Unfortunately, this is America, where people do leave businesses only to start their own business to compete against whereever they left! You see this happening quite frequently in the big agencies where agents leave and take their WHOLE stable of talent.

What you need to do is make sure you have great communication with your employees and ensure that they are happy where they are. If it means giving up equity in your small company, then you have to consider that measure because you don't want them leaving and taking away your business.

Meanwhile, you must take heart that all your hard work and dedication to your clients means that they stay with you whenever a valuable employee leaves. If you don't treat your employees with the same respect that you give to clients, then you 'reap what you sow.' I hope you have the confidence to know that your business will not fall apart just because some schmuck leaves!
 
Wow, I could say more much more because I've been on both sides of the equation. In this country and in this state if that's a problem, you'll lose in court because lots of info cannot be defined as 'proprietary' and therefore anyone can leave and compete. They can hang a shingle above their door right across the street if they want. Even if they 'signed' an agreement. Take it from someone who knows.
 
Yeah, you only hope that you hire great people who have enough integrity that they won't steal proprietary information and use it against you. I would never think of going against people I like...unless I got hired away somewheres, lol.
 
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