As an employee - I feel that a non compete contract is complete BS!
I've been an employee and understand, but now as an owner I feel it's necessary to have one. A trail period before the contract is binding is a good idea though. I just don't want to share my knowledge and train someone for a year to have them go two blocks down to a sign shop that's less skilled for a dollar more an hour. Hopefully I can take care of an employee enough that they won't want to do that, but...
Will you still qualify if your employee is only part-time help ?? Usually, you have to have 30 or more hours a week in, to be eligible for some of that stuff.
I will have to look into that, thanks for brining it up
What kind of sign designer.. your basic sign shop designer? digital/vinyl/wrap? electrical? or edging toward higher end electrical/architectural?
I will be looking for someone to design for print mostly, but will also be training in sign layout (all types of stationary, posters, logos, digital, vinyl). I also want to train them in other aspects of the business as stated below.
I kinda of agree on the non-compete for shop employees/designers.
I'm thinking of training this person in a lot of the aspects of the business. Taking orders, basic pricing, designing layouts, getting approvals, production (printing, cutting, appling), and possibly placing orders through printer resellers. I can't take the chance of training this much of the business without some protection. I know it sounds like a lot for 20 hours a week, but I hopefully by mid summer I will need to hire this person on full time.
You could always hire it out to a freelancer and save the headaches of an employee.
I'm sure I can't prepare myself enough for the headaches of an employer, but I really want to have a person in the shop for a set amount of hours a day. That way when I need to be out, I can plan to be out during that time. I will definitely keep you in mind though Neato...you work is inspirational.
Hire a production guy... that wants to get into design but isnt afraid to lay some vinyl. He will understand the needs of production and pick up design easily.
The "here an there" employees I have had were all productions guys, and while it was nice, now that I have a printer a lot of the labor has gone down. In the summers I used to keep a guy busy 30-40 hrs a week just in weeding, masking, and appling. There is still a lot of labor but it doesn't seem to be as much.
I appreciate all the feedback so far, you have all brought to light some good points and look forward to hearing more!
There were two contracts my lawyer drew up. 1st was the non-compete contract, which I would be somewhat flexible on (without letting the employee know off the bat). If the employee wanted to go up the road 20 miles, I probably wouldn't have a problem with that. It's mainly to keep them from going to a direct competitor in my small town or going into business in my town. If they wanted to go into business 50 miles down the road I would congratulate them and have another friend in the industry.
2nd was a contract that all files created would be property of HSC and would not leave the business, as well as all existing files. It allows the designer to take medium res jpegs for portfolio purposes. depending on the files I would be somewhat flexible on this too.