I think one of the important concepts to toss around is the notion of acting as someone else's agent. if you're acting as their agent, then you are acting on their behalf. If you then turn around and take their customers when you move on, then you weren't acting on their behalf. You were merely pretending to act on their behalf while looking to steal their customers.
This is one of those arenas where salaried (vs. hourly) employees are constantly in a grey area. If your best friend does business with you while you work at XYZ Co, then you strike out on your own, then what? Your best friend was buying from XYZ co only b/c you were there. Once you move on, he no longer has any brand loyalty to XYZ Co (he never had any to begin with), and so XYZ Co's claim on him as a customer is tenuous. If you made the initial contact "after hours", then you can make the case it's just a friend following you, not the company. If you make the contact "on the clock", then its a company relationship. Its still grey, but better than being salaried when there really is no on/off the clock.
Being permitted to work in your field is different than taking customer lists. You can work in your field and not (unless the company is a monopoly) need to take the same customers. Usually there's a cooling off period built into any employment contracts. If not, you better get one.
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I think one of the important concepts to toss around is the notion of acting as someone else's agent. if you're acting as their agent, then you are acting on their behalf. If you then turn around and take their customers when you move on, then you weren't acting on their behalf. You were merely pretending to act on their behalf while looking to steal their customers.
This is one of those arenas where salaried (vs. hourly) employees are constantly in a grey area. If your best friend does business with you while you work at XYZ Co, then you strike out on your own, then what? Your best friend was buying from XYZ co only b/c you were there. Once you move on, he no longer has any brand loyalty to XYZ Co (he never had any to begin with), and so XYZ Co's claim on him as a customer is tenuous. If you made the initial contact "after hours", then you can make the case it's just a friend following you, not the company. If you make the contact "on the clock", then its a company relationship. Its still grey, but better than being salaried when there really is no on/off the clock.
Being permitted to work in your field is different than taking customer lists. You can work in your field and not (unless the company is a monopoly) need to take the same customers. Usually there's a cooling off period built into any employment contracts. If not, you better get one.