hellow to every one. I am not sure if this is the right question to post in here. as i am reading to some post I here alot of of say dont leave you day job if your thinking of starting a business. but my delema is there is NO WAY I would be able to do that . thats becuase if my company would find out I have a shop I know for sure they would fire and I think they would even try to take me to court for some dum reason.(can they really take you to court for starting a business just like theres.) anyways has anyone been though this.

I worked for a shop for a while a few years ago. I didn't sign any non-compete agreement. But when I left there I visited some customers of theirs looking for work. about a week later I got a nasty letter from a lawyer threatening a suit if I didn't stop visiting their customers. They accused me of steal a confidential customer list.
This was bogus and I asked my lawyer about it and he said that there was nothing they could do about it, and that they were just making idle threats. Even non-compete agreements usually won't have any standing after about 6 months or so.

I'm sure that if they find out that you have a shop they can find a reason to fire you. But if you didn't sign any agreement, and you aren't stealing some proprietary information, they can't touch you for starting your own shop. they can however, make it hard on you to get started, word of mouth goes a long way in this business. I know I went thru that when I started my shop. Certain customers wouldn't even talk to me.

Jim

As a locksmith the complaint contract is normaly 3 years. As long as you didn't sign a contract with a complaint clause, your ok. You can allways claim it's for hobby and personal uses only.

build your buisiness on ground work and ethics the customers old will come to
you. do a better job but not an extension of what ever you left
cabnet