Serious question, what changed your mind about non-compete clauses?

Was at a bar in Atlanta after a conference last month and a freelance creative director laid out how his old agency used a non-compete to block him from working with 3 key clients for 2 years. He showed me the actual contract language and it was way broader than I assumed was standard. That made me go back and look at our own client agreements... has anyone else had a client try to enforce a non-compete that felt unreasonable?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse9942d ago

I mean honestly, I've seen the other side of it working at a small agency where we poured months into building relationships and proprietary strategies for clients, only to have a senior guy walk out the door and pitch those same people with our exact playbook the next week. It's not always about being evil, sometimes you're just trying to protect the time and money you invested, especially when you're covering overhead and salaries for people who are basically using your network as their personal job board.

caleb2622d ago

Read a piece on this exact thing the other day, where a smaller agency got burned so bad they started putting anti-poaching clauses in their client contracts. Made me think of what @jesse994 said, because it's a real gamble when you invest months of overhead into someone's network and they treat it like a free ticket out the door. Heard the owner of that shop had to eat the cost of the junior staff that were left holding the bag after the senior guy left with half the clients. Felt for them honestly, it's brutal when you're covering payroll and someone just walks out with your whole book of business.