Q: One of my former employees has started a competing business and is calling my clients and trying to steal their business from me. Do I have any legal recourse against him?
— Brad J.

A: I hate to break this to you, Brad, but unless this former employee signed a noncompete agreement while on your payroll, there is probably very little you can do to stop him from wooing your customers. You should discuss the situation with your attorney, but unless this person is also breaking the law in some other way (using stolen trade secrets, for example) your attorney will probably concur with me.

Renegade former employees riding the free enterprise wave is one reason noncompete agreements are gaining in popularity among employers who hope to use them to help protect their business from competitive threats launched by former employees. Many employers are now demanding that key employees sign noncompetes as a stipulation of employment. While signing noncompetes usually doesn’t sit well with employees who view them as potential roadblocks to their upwardly mobile career path, many businesses will not hire a key employee without his or her signature on the dotted line.

A noncompete agreement is a formal contract between you and your employees in which they promise not to use information or contacts pertinent to your business in a competing situation. In other words, they agree not to take everything they learn working for you and put it to use for someone else. This could mean going to work for a competitor or starting a competing business of their own.

While not popular with employees, noncompete agreements are a good way for employers to keep key employees on the payroll and protect the company’s proprietary information. That said, do not go overboard with noncompetes: not every employee should be required to sign one. If an employee does not have access to sensitive information, customer or accounting data, or is integral to the overall success of your business, there is no need to have them sign a noncompete. The janitor, for example, poses very little threat to your business if he gets a job with a competitor. Your sales manager, on the other hand, can devastate your business by hooking his wagon to a competing horse.

Which employees should sign noncompete agreements? While the prerequisites vary from business to business, the following is a good general list. The term “employees” represents executive level, management, supervisory, and non-management personnel relative to that example:

– Employees involved in research or product development. – Employees involved in the design, fabrication, engineering, and manufacturing process. – Employees who service products made and sold by your company. – Sales and service employees who have regular contact with customers or sensitive customer information. – Employees with access to sensitive business information or trade secrets. – Most importantly, employees who have sufficient information about your business that would allow them to start a competing business.

Most business experts agree that noncompete agreements are generally a good way to protect your business. The downside is that noncompete agreements are often difficult to enforce and in some states, may not be enforceable at all. Many state courts have ruled that noncompete agreements are too restrictive on an employee’s right to earn a living.

In California, for instance, noncompetes are generally only enforceable in connection with the sale of a business and not for employees. In Alabama, noncompetes are generally enforceable in only two contexts: the sale of a business and in connection with employment – but even then the enforcement requires that there be a valid interest worthy of protection.

Some states require that the noncompete be signed at the beginning of the employment relationship and will only consider the enforcement of a noncompete signed after the initial employment date if the signing of the noncompete was accompanied by a promotion, raise in pay, or other event that elevated the employee to a more important role within the company.

To be enforceable, noncompete agreements must be reasonable on three accounts: Time, geography and scope. Regarding time, you can’t restrict someone from competing with you forever, so one to three years is the accepted time period for most noncompetes.

As to geography, you can enforce restriction in the general area where you conduct business, but you can not enforce the restriction beyond those boundaries. And for scope, the agreement can restrict certain actions on the part of the employee, but can’t be so generally restrictive that the employee won’t be able to earn a living working in the same industry in a noncompetitive position.

One interesting thing to note: noncompete agreements are not enforceable against certain “professionals,” like doctors, CPAs, and lawyers (who do you think writes all those noncompetes).

At this point, Brad, the best thing you can do is contact your attorney to see if you have other grounds for suit, then contact your customers and let them know what’s going on.

Explain the situation regarding the former employee, but do so calmly and resist the urge to tell them what you really think of this guy. Showing your anger to the customer is not going to help you keep their business .

Reaffirm your relationship with the client, tell him how much you value his business, remind him of your track record and level of service, then ask one simple question: What can I do to make sure your business stays with me?

Here’s to your success!

Are you in the throws of building a new team? In that case, whether its a sports team, youth group, cultural group, or corporate team, youre going to need plenty of ideas for team names. Thats no easy task! So, here you have a few ideas as to how to go about choosing a terrific team building name.

First and foremost, the team leader should get together with all team members, and ask each individual for their ideas. Youre bound to be presented with many and varied suggestions, so it will be no easy task making the final choice. But, its extremely important that everyone has their say, and approves of the name picked. For, this is a team and, as such, youll want everyone to feel happy about the name, believing that each and every one of them has participated in its selection.

However, before letting your team loose on volunteering all their suggestions, you may like to mention the following tips to them.

Your team will need to consider its function, and come up with a name that complements this. If its sports oriented, a strong even aggressive name could be appropriate like the Chargers or Raiders. On the other hand, a cultural group might prefer a gentler-sounding name, whilst a corporate team would do better to choose something to match their business aims and standards.

To get some ideas, your team members may like to look at names chosen by well-known teams in their field. Sometimes these are names of birds or animals, like Panthers and Sharks, and may be accompanied by a colour. Often the names are based around different types of groups. For example, Pirates, Indians and Angels.

Is your team purely local? Then why not make the town or city part of the team name, accompanied by an appropriate adjective, noun, or color. Or, if the team is part of a company, why not use the firms name in the same way? Make use of words such as “champions”, “heroes”, etc.

A team name needs to be as short and snappy as possible. Dont worry about it sounding slightly exaggerated rather that than having it too mild and anaemic. And, consider using rhyming and alliteration.

Yet another way of coming up with team building names is to take the initials of all its members, juggle them around, and make them into suitable words. This way, everyone has a share in the name.

Once youve decided on a name, youll then want to come up with a suitable slogan for the team. To do this, take each letter of the name, and think of an appropriate descriptive word which begins with that letter. To give a short, easy example, if your teams name were the “Reds”, youd make your slogan something along the following lines:

R resolute E efficient D determined S steadfast

And, voil!… There you have your teams slogan or war cry, absolutely perfect for boosting morale, and making everyone feel part of a true team.