One of your greatest assets is your intellectual property. The secrets behind crafting your product or service are what sets you apart in the marketplace.
When you hire employees to support your company, they can help you grow your business. However, the employees you trust to build your company can be a liability if they leave to work for your competitor.
Here’s what you should know about adding non-compete agreements and the value they could add to your business.
Increasing value
Non-compete agreements can be valuable both for you and the next owner, should you decide to sell. In the short term, a well-crafted non-compete can help you retain your employees and avoid losing important trade secrets to your competitors.
As you look toward the future, a non-compete can assure potential buyers that they will not have to deal with massive turnover after the sale. When employees have limited options to work for the competition, they have more incentive to stay.
Adding non-competes for existing employees
Non-compete agreements can seem like standard paperwork since they tend to come during the onboarding process for new employees. However, when you add a non-compete for your existing employees, it makes a significant change.
When your employees started, their terms of employment gave them the freedom to work for a competitor after their time with your company. A non-compete agreement asks the employee to forfeit that option (or have limitations), so you may need to offer an additional incentive like a bonus or a more desirable work schedule.
While a non-compete agreement can become a source of conflict for an employee looking to leave, a well-crafted agreement can help you secure your company’s secrets.