After years of struggling to run the show by myself, I’ve finally given in and hired a Virtual Assistant. Basically I came to realize that my time could be better spent doing things that will grow my business, rather than doing things I could easily train someone to do. It came down to.. I was holding me back and I had to make a change. It’s always been my concern that if I were to hire someone, what would stop them from absorbing all that I show/teach then and hit the high road a few months later to copy or clone what I’m doing.

Here’s a little bit of advice. Get your employees to sign a non disclosure agreement.

A non-disclosure agreement makes the employee promise not to disclose or profit from company confidential information, such as trade secrets and customer lists.

A trade secret is a formula, information, process or device that is not generally known outside of the business and gives the business a competitive edge. A customer list is generally considered to be a trade secret if the same information is not readily ascertainable from a source outside of the business, such as public records.

You may use a confidentiality (or nondisclosure) agreement if you’re worried (like in my case it would be basically evrything I teach my virtual assistant) that your employees have access to confidential information — known as trade secrets — that could potentially harm your business should your employees use it for their own gain, or disclose it to business rivals.

This agreement main goal is to protect a secret design, and idea for a new website, financial information…and more.

Important to Know:

* A nondisclosure agreement is only part of the solution — you must also take steps to restrict access to the information you want kept secret.
* It’s best to have a new employee sign a nondisclosure agreement immediately. If you want a current employee to sign a nondisclosure agreement, you will probably need to provide an incentive, such as a raise or promotion.

What’s The Difference Between A Non-Disclosure & A Non-Compete?

Non-disclosure agreements — sometimes called “confidentiality agreements” — are designed to protect sensitive technical or commercial information (intellectual property or “IP”) or trade secrets from being shared with others. Simply stated, when you sign a non-disclosure agreement, you swear that you won’t reveal anything that the company considers to be proprietary or confidential, such as details of new products, technology, business plans, financial information, models, sketches, and so on. It doesn’t mean you can’t work for a competitor; it simply means you can’t use what you learned or obtained from your former employer with your new employer.

Meanwhile, non-compete agreements are designed, too, to protect employers but they are a different breed. If a former employee moves to a competitor, there is often a transfer of knowledge. To prevent this, many companies routinely ask new employees to sign statements restricting them from working for a direct competitor for a reasonable length of time and within reasonable geographic limits after leaving. In other words, you’d violate a non-compete agreement if you took a job at the only game developer in your state, learned all you could while you were there, and then quit and tried to start your own development studio right across the street.