Category: Business

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!

Franchising is known to be among the available options that businessmen and entrepreneurs can use as business opportunities without having to go through the usual motions of having to brainstorm and hypothesize on studies that most business tycoons would initially make. Franchising can be seen today in local food chain stores like McDonald’s, Burger King and Subway. They are practically seen in all countries of the world.

Mixed Origins of Franchising
Franchising does not really have a clear trace of its background. There has been various information as to where the franchising business originated. These include countries like China, England, and Europe and of course the United States. It is even traced as far as the Middle Ages where the business opportunity issues back then was more on the lack of transportation for the goods to be transferred from one place to another. Other considered franchising as well as a means of establishing stands, vendors and a better means of being able to offer goods towards customers in other places within the coverage area.

Franchising at a Glance
Franchising is not a new term for defining business opportunities. It extends as far as home business opportunities for people who would want to be their own boss and hold their own business hours. Franchises would usually depend on the location to which franchisees would want them to be located, ideally in populated and commercialized areas for maximum exposure. Depending on the product or service to which the franchise caters, people can even do business from their own footsteps at home. This way the expenses to be incurred such as rent or warehouse allocation expense can be avoided, an expense that is certainly something tough on the budget allocation constraints of franchise owners.

Think Big but Start Small
A franchising business does not have to start big. Just like any ordinary business, it can start from the simplest and smallest business. Like most business endeavors, as long as they are managed properly, business can grow at an instant at any time. Franchises are not different from conceptualized businesses and the varying factor would be the people who would run it and how they would view such a business at a glance.

Placement and Scope of Target Market
Placement of franchise establishments, just like any other product that most people would be interested in today would have to analyze and survey the market class to which they would want to serve. It is not merely a place and operate venture. It requires gathering strategies and putting minds into action, the usual backbone towards success in business ventures.

There will always be issues concerning the target market and identifying what product or service to serve. This has always been the issue that makes businesses different from others and unless it is properly defined, a franchise or business will falter eventually if franchising business owners are not careful.

You have a dream of starting and managing your own catering company. You have the drive and a flair for cooking delicious food that is to die for! Now you are doing research about how to run a catering business and you are thinking about if you really have what it takes to manage your own catering business.

As a small business owner, you will have more responsibility and work longer hours than you did as an employee. It’s almost impossible to truly separate your personal life from you business life. Running a small business is a lot of hard work and far more than just a full time job — it’s a lifestyle.

One part of your job will be getting clients and then the second aspect is preparing for and managing the catering job itself. Once the job is booked, there are a lot of details and organizational skills required in order to complete any catered event.

First you will need to get the event basics from your client: What type of event is it? How many people are expected? How formal or casual is the meal? Does the client have a theme in mind and know exactly what type of food they would like to have served? If not, you will be expected provide appropriate menu suggestions based on the event and the client’s budget.

For larger or more formal events, clients usually request a “tasting” to sample the items from the proposed menu. The client is expecting to not only sample the food, but to see the caterer’s presentation skills.

If you and your client are in agreement about the menu, this will be a wonderful experience for both of you. However, some times the food or menu does not match the client’s expectations or perhaps the client has simply changed their mind. Either way, having a few alternative suggestions is always a great idea, plus your client will feel secure in both your abilities as a caterer and the success of her event.

The number of people attending and the formality of an event will help you determine the amount of catering staff will be required for the event. Many catering companies use freelance staff, so it is a good idea to have a list of recommended people you are comfortable working with that you also know are professional and reliable.

For many people, when they think about how to run a catering business, they focus on the food preparation and cooking responsibilities. In fact, many people start catering businesses simply because they love to cook and do not mind doing all the cooking themselves.

As your business grows and you book larger events or multiple events in a short period of time, it is definitely much better to hire additional cooks and also servers who you have trained to make sure the level of serve offered meets your standards.

In addition to meeting with clients, food preparation and staffing, there are a few other details ever caterer must take into consideration. For example, how will you transport the food and equipment to event? Is you current vehicle large enough to handle the job or will you need to consider alternatives?

Prior to the event, you will need to order the ingredients, cooking and serving utensils. The amount of time required to shop for and prepare the food needs to be taken into consideration and you will need to create a schedule to properly manage all of these details. Most caterers are also responsible for at least minimal cleaning after an event, so keep this in mind when deciding upon your staffing requirements.

Now you have a better idea about how to run a catering business. Running a catering business is not difficult, but it does excellent organizational skills and a realistic time line for each event. Creating and managing your own catering business will give you amply opportunity to be both creative and a strong entrepreneurial manager.

Today we live in a highly modernized period where we can find lots of innovations, practical techniques, and technological advancements compared in the past. Business industry is one of the industries that benefits to the modernized revolution of science and technology. Thus, business communication has a great factor and mean contribution to the success of different businesses. However, computer era invaded the communication world and people thought that the growth of this new dimension will get rid the usual paper we used when it comes to business correspondence. But business correspondence can be use in papers as well as in electronic mail. The types of business correspondence that are use in the business community are business letters, business reports, faxes, memos, and email. Every company uses email to communicate internally and externally to colleagues and clients which is of course related to the field of work. Business letters are commonly used in companies as to request payment, thank customers or to solicit business. There is also a reference line that includes important details such as relevant account, order or purchase number. Remember to include the contact information where the recipients will be able to easily reach you if they have questions or concerns. Regardless of the details, all business letters should follow a standard format which includes the date, the name and address of the recipient as well as sender name and address. Memos are little documents with demanding requests and written properly. Memos should include To, From, Date and Subject. There should have a brief explanation on the exact information or clear instruction which is conveyed to the employees. Business reports refer to a variety of reports including a business proposal, marketing plan, project analysis, or financial overview. To make business reports effective, include summary or recommendation that is not based on personal opinions and make sure to find out exactly what kind of information youre client wants and the questions they want answered in the report. A good communication aids in the exchange of intelligent information or ideas, and with great agreement this may lead to a very successful business. Anyone who is involved in a business must know the importance of writing a good business correspondence. The techniques and style must be simple and the words should be clear and comprehensive. And most of all, it is easy to understand and there must be sincerity behind it.

Of course I understand that the sentence “Regular photography business is dying” in this article title is too strong. The most talented photographers will be in business forever. I used it just to grab your attention to the problem that regular photography business got recently after starting a digital era.
Nowadays photo companies like Canon, Nikon and others are making simple to operate yet more and more advanced photo cameras and lenses, adding more new and useful features to the cameras, improving quality, sensitivity, noise reduction while at the same time cutting the price. Now everybody can buy a Digital SLR photo camera, read a photography book and take pretty good quality photos. Now we have more very affordable ink jet photo printers available in the market that can produce decent prints. There are many powerful photo editing programs for improving the images and making nice looking collages. The entire process of making nice pictures today is not difficult compared to the same process 10 years ago and much less expensive. That is good for the consumer but has put a great pressure on the professional photography business. Today anyone can buy computer, DSLR camera, ink jet photo printer and call themselves a professional photographer.
Today many people prefer to invite a friend to take their wedding photographs rather than use a professional wedding photographer. Those that do use a professional are expecting lower expenses as there are many standard photographers to choose from.Now many people prefer to make the photos by themselves without going to professional photographers and photo studios. That is why we can say that regular photography business is under huge pressure.
Over the years digital photography has become common place and technology has simplified and improved the resulting pictures to the point where even large companies in the photo processing industry are closing down outlets. Those that remain are trying to regain business by offering large format prints or prints on canvas, things the general public cannot produce. Many large stores which do not offer those services do not have photo departments anymore where previously they had big profitable photo departments.
But there is a new way for photo business, the business that is not easy to repeat by everybody and with very attractive product for customers! I am talking about 3D photography business.
3D Photography Business
There are several ways for taking 3D pictures and for most of them the viewer needs some special glasses for seeing 3D effect. That is not convenient for customers and not good for business. However there is one technology that does not need any kind of glasses. That is 3D lenticular technology.
3D lenticular technology is the most suitable for customers because people can hold the picture in the hands and see 3D, without crazy “crossing eyes” or having the special glasses. 3D lenticular pictures have the regular colors like regular photos; they can be in any sizes from small wallet size to big size for putting on a wall, they look like the regular photos just more alive because of the depth. That is why regular people prefer 3D lenticular images compare to other types of 3D pictures.
One of the main problems of making 3D lenticular images is a difficulty of taking the pictures and a very long and labour-consuming process of creating the pictures. For example,even couple years ago we spent at least 2-3 hours before getting an image, because almost all stages of process of creating 3D picture were manual.Of course, it is not acceptable for business because the price of each picture was very high. But luckily now, with modern 3D lenticular technology we can receive 3D lenticular picture in just 10 minutes and even less and most of this time is spending on printing because almost all steps of lenticular technology are automated now, for example, process could be so automated that period of time between triggering 3D camera and starting printing could be as low as 40 seconds. This In-Depth Image System was developed for covering all technology steps in process of producing of 3D lenticular pictures from taking the frames to creating 3D image. This system is easy to operate, for example, we can teach the people how to work with In-Depth Image System and produce 3D lenticular images during 3-4 hours and people do not have to be the experts in photography or in computer.
In-Depth Image System can be successfully used in many different photo market niches. There are:

Portrait photography;

School and graduation photography;

Event photography;

Pets photography;

Advertisement photography and so on.

In-Depth Image System could be used for establishing of 3D photo business because:

In-Depth Image System produces High Quality 3D Lenticular pictures in different sizes;

This system is simple to operate;

In-Depth Image technology of producing 3D lenticular images is easy and rapid;

There is no necessity to have very experienced staff;

The prices on 3D pictures are very competitive with the prices that ask regular photo studios for regular flat pictures;

It is almost impossible to repeat this process by customers themselves, so you will be the only expert in making 3D lenticular pictures in your area;

It is profitable.

Please, look at the real sample picture that were made by In-Depth Image System below. Unfortunately that is impossible to show the depth on that picture because computer monitor can show the flat images only. That is why I created animation GIF file from the frames taken by our system. Originally we shot 12 – 18 frames, so 3D lenticular pictures are much smoother and without any rough jumping like on animation pictures.