#freelance-talk
Thread
How do companies handle freelancers who may be writing for their competitors? I've seen language in freelancer contracts that state they will not work for two competitors at the same time, but how do you manage the writer's access to upcoming launches and new features. Is it just best practice to not use a freelancer who writes for your competitors?
(not a lawyer, yadda yadda)
You could put a clause that they can't work for competitors — but that's hard if you're in a niche industry and want folks with relevant experience.
What makes "a competitor" is also confusing once you're thinking about things like SEO vs. direct product competitors.
At Dock, we have this clause:
> (ii) Consultant will not engage in any activity that is in any way competitive with the business or demonstrably anticipated business of Company, and Consultant will not assist any other person or organization in competing or in preparing to compete with any business or demonstrably anticipated business of Company. Without limiting the foregoing, Consultant may perform services for other persons, provided that such services do not represent a conflict of interest or a breach of Consultant’s obligation under this Agreement or otherwise.
We let writers work for competitors, but not share competitive intel (incl. things about our content strategy, roadmap, etc.)
Love that way of putting it @Eric Doty (Superpath).
I did have a client ask about this once because we have definitely worked in a similar industry for clients who would consider each other competitors. The way I tend to look at it is that these “competitors” all have offerings that target different customers/use cases. So there could be some overlap from an SEO perspective but it’s really that unique brand position that drives what we go after and ultimately limits the potential for overlap.
From an ethical standpoint, it’s important to track keywords so you can refer back to historical optimizations and see if a new project may be unintentionally hurting another client so that you can do what you can to try another angle/position.
got it - thanks for your insights
There’s also this, which I think is related and specifically for the U.S.:
(Reported by a game industry news website, but seem to be reporting on something with a wide effect that includes games but isn’t exclusive to them.)
Also not a lawyer, but I think @Eric Doty (Superpath) made a good point, there can be a difference between working for competitors vs. sharing competitive intel (neat way of phrasing that, and I think that sort of thing would be like kept exclusive under an NDA or something).
And I think by nature of freelancing, freelancers normally have to work with multiple clients.
“The FTC found that trade secret laws and non-disclosure agreements were already effective measures for companies to protect their proprietary and sensitive information without resorting to non-compete clauses.” (from the article above)
It's a grey area for sure. Some freelancers charge more for clients who ask for non-competes, since it effectively takes away a chunk of their potential business. I avoid signing them when possible, but I think it's totally fair to ask freelancers to sign an NDA for early access information.
NDA, yes. But if you want a senior freelancer with industry experience, it's likely they'll have worked with/work with a competitor.
We're only as good as our last jobs and our reputations; if we get known for trading in secrets, we'll be out of business very fast.
Not a lawyer, but speaking to personal experience, in California to my knowledge non-competes are not enforceable and I make it very clear with consulting engagements that I won't blanket block myself from engaging in industries.
That said I have no problem signing NDAs. For standard article writing I've never really had issues with engaging multiple clients in an industry. They're giving you information and you're just processing information based on that input.
For projects involving content strategy or advising on product development where I'm using knowledge to provide advice/strategy and it's clear that my knowledge of one company impacts another (e.g. Dell is launching a new monetization strategy and I'm advising IBM on their price strategy) then that's clearly an issue.
On the other hand, if Dell has me doing copy for a new laptop launch and IBM has me doing copy for a new laptop launch - from my standpoint relatively speaking, it's not like I'm using proprietary knowledge to shape the copy for the competitor.
To the point of @Ann Storr reputation is everything.
When I was doing freelance full-time I generally worked with many companies in the same industry - clearly defining the scope of work so I didn't inadvertently violate confidentiality/ethics was always ongoing.