Just Say No to Non Compete Clauses in Employment Contracts

     If you are looking to make a $100,000 mistake, sign an employment contract with a non compete clause.  Just as your career is shifting into second gear, you are offered a job with a competitor.  Your current employer reminds you that, when you started here, you signed an employment contract agreeing NOT to leave us and go to work for another employer in the same field and the same area.  WHAT!  I signed WHAT?  Read the employment contract before you sign it.

     Who benefits from the agreement NOT to compete in this area for two years?  The employee?  I don't think so.  The employer?  YESSIR.  The employer gets the benefit of the employee's work.  The employer pays for that.  That is fair.  The employer also gets an agreement not to compete with him for some period of time after termination of employment.  Does the employer pay for that? Nope, not one penny.  That is grossly unfair.  Wait!  The employee agreed to it.  That was before he read this article.  Is this agreement enforceable in court?

No non compete clause in your employment contract

     It was for me.  In 1996, I went to work as a part time real estate instructor for a real estate school in Orlando.  In 1998, I left that real estate school and opened my own real estate school in Orlando.  My old employer reminded me that two years ago, I had signed an employment contract agreeing NOT to compete with him for two years after termination within fifty miles of his location.  He sued me.  He obtained an injunction from the court ordering me to NOT teach any real estate classes within fifty miles of his location.  I moved fifty one miles away to Daytona Beach.  I opened Climer School of Real Estate.  Twenty four months later, I moved back to Orlando.  That was my $100,000 seminar.  I was a lot smarter after that.

     Just say NO to non compete clauses.  There is no upside for the employee.  It may be ten years later when a competitor offers you a opportunity as a sales manager.  Your old employer gets a court order stopping you from working in your field in his town.

     I promise that you will feel violated.  You are.  Do not let this happen to you.  Learn from my mistakes, not your own.  Just say no to non compete clauses.  www.firstrealestateschool.com