#freelance-gigs
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Thread
those of you who work in very specific/small niches—do you ever have clients ask for a non-compete? for context, I have several years experience as a content marketer working in-house in an industry where it's almost impossible to find qualified writers (corporate ethics and compliance), and I'd like to use that to my advantage now that I've gone freelance. I'm really not sure how non-competes work for freelancers, or if they're even a thing.
I always view it as a red flag, tbh. I mean, the whole point of going freelance is the ability to work with different companies.
If I do get them (which has happened maybe once in the past two years of being a niched freelancer), I've pushed back on them. I usually ask why they need it in the first place and then explain how it impacts my business. They either pay extra to compensate for the loss of revenue or remove it.
I won't sign a non-compete and I'm a niche writer in fintech. I've had companies ask if I'm working with any competitors and I'll let them know if any of my clients seem closely related. But I can't limit my business by way of a non-compete.
@Anna Burgess Yang when your clients ask and the answer is yes, do you move forward/how do you manage that conversation? I have contacts at companies who offer exactly the same solution, with the only tangible difference being their target customer size (SMB vs enterprise)
If I'm working with a competitor, I'll name the competitor. It's up to them to decide if they're ok with me working for both. (In this case, they were fine with it because it was also targeting different audiences, even with a really similar product).
If they'd said they weren't fine with it, I would have had to end the conversation (unless the current client was one I was looking to drop anyway - but I still wouldn't sign a non-compete)
Definitely no non-competes here. I had a client include one in their boiler plate contractor agreement. I asked them to remove it and they did. 😆
Big red flag to me, I’ve never worked with someone once they asked that. If you want to ask me for a non compete you’d have to pay me like triple my regular rate so I can make up for any potential lost revenue. I STILL might not sign it lol
As a writer, no way I'd sign a non compete unless they're willing to compensate me for the income loss.
This framing gets your point across without outright saying "no" since they run the math and figure out they'll have to pay you triple and that doesn't make sense.
I've only signed one for a company I also do fractional content planning for. I have access to all their proprietary process and backend tech, and I've learned enough to be able to 100% duplicate their products if I wanted to. But not for standard content.
80% of my clients are in the HR/L&D tech space and I’ve never been asked to sign a non-compete (yet). Confidentiality clauses yes, which is completely understandable.
If clients did ask me to sign a non-compete I would turn down the work tbh. I started my freelance biz for the flexibility to choose who I work with.
No, I've been asked a few times and asked the client to remove it from their contract (though now I know better, I always get clients to sign mine). A single client should never dictate what other business you do.