Undercutting Current Employer

I belive sometimes your contract will say you cannot go into business in that indsutry within 12 months of leaving.

So unless you would be willing to pass your ideas on and work with your current company I don't think it would be viable I could be very wrong though.

I work for the Public Sector - it is very rarely they put that sort of clause into their contracts. However, to be on the safe side, I checked my contract, T&C's, spoke to solicitors etc and I am fine in respect of going into the same sort of business I do now for my current employer and I can quite easily approach their current clients / customers without any legal problems.

I would be very careful although you could be right you might be able to do it, Stealing someones client base isn't something you want your business to be known by I would go careful look into it and make a list of things you will need to be able to get your idea going!

PM me if you would like some more help

Welcome aboard!

Contractual issues aside (which would be your biggest issue, but sounds like you have that in hand), if you were my account manager and told me there was a possibility of me reducing my spend by 50%, and would I be interested... guess what the answer would be!

Without having any more information, which understandably may you may not want to reveal, it's all a bit woolly.

But, whatever the service is, can you at least provide the same level of service, or even enhanced, without the support/logistical/operational framework of your employer?

Many times I've thought in the past, I could do that so much better, but the cost to deploy the required infrastructure was too prohibitive, even though I knew I could have offered a better service.

A lot depends on the type of clients, if its SME's, then cost and performance will be primary drivers, so you will get a responsive audience. If it's older established blue chips, with cost issues hidden behind 4 layers of management, then you may get your customer reporting you to your boss, and you looking for a new job.

Take a step back, try and find a trusted 3rd party and really analyze your plan looking for flaws. If you think there is the risk of your clients reporting you, then distance yourself and use a marketing company to do your research.

Public sector is notoriously inefficient, so if you think you can see a genuine opening, go for it! Just tread carefully and triple check yourself legally

Due to my nosy nature, I'm obviously curious, so feel free to PM and reveal all

Thanks for the replies and welcome.

I can give some detail here - basically it is confirming in writing certain entitlements that employees have based on current statutory requirements and policies / procedures adopted by their place of work. I am certain I can easily undercut by 50% +. This would depend on the volume of work I could attract as cost after setup would be minimal. If anyone wants exact details, let me know. Also I can probably enhance the service compared to what it is now.

I have spoken to a solicitor and they can't see a problem with the actual idea, but obviously they cannot say whether I can attract the interest from customers and therefore make any money. This is why I need to do the research prior to starting up. If I did start up I would have to leave my current job for obvious reasons. After this, there would be no problems taking the work on but I need to make sure I can attract the customers (the market is definitely out there).

If I was not employed at present it would not matter - I could contact potential clients freely asking what they thought. My current problem is contacting the potential customers while I am still employed - this is why I am trying to look at contacting them discreetly.

Thinking about trying to take an aspect of my current employers business from them is not the most honest thing to do I know and I have wrestled a bit with the morality of it.

Thanks again and I look forward to any further comments and advice.

How do you private message? Do you need to have posted so many times?

Ahhh, we disabled this for newbies as johhny spammers kept harrasing members

Once you have 10 posts, then you can PM, drop links, use the village market etc...

Fair enough - don't blame you.