I am trying to find the problem with letting former clients know of the move, AFTER you have made the move. I get notices from lawyers, real estate agents, engineers, and wetland scientists all the time, when a professional has changed employment.
90% sure that they would hire you? If they don't, you will have ruined the relationship between you and your current employer once the client tells them what you were trying to do. Go solo if you want to go solo. Make your rounds and drop off business cards and expect to get small lots and clients that are price shopping for the first couple years. But trying to steal a 100K client off your current employer is not the way to handle this.
foggyidea, post: 411528, member: 155 wrote: I am trying to find the problem with letting former clients know of the move, AFTER you have made the move. I get notices from lawyers, real estate agents, engineers, and wetland scientists all the time, when a professional has changed employment.
I agree. There shouldn't be any problem at all.
The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery...since that point firms can no longer own clients.
Maybe it's because I've worked at large firms, in a large market for the last fifteen years but the unspoken consensus in my market is that client "belong" to the rainmaker. If that wasn't the case, then there would be no purpose to the odious non-compete agreement and companies wouldn't be recruiting managers from their competitors just for their Rolodex (or the modern digital equivalent thereof).
Good morning and thanks for posing the question to the fox den. I would hope that you are also posing this question to your attorney, clergy, dentist and barber keeping in mind that your actions will not affect your relationship with them. Strike that.
I have no direct experience with your conundrum but please keep in mind that feelings get hurt not to mention pocket books. You may have more to gain by not poaching clients then if you do. Someday you will need to talk to your former employer(s) to get information or at least pass them in the court house or at a conference or professional society gathering.
A Harris, post: 411407, member: 81 wrote: Sounds like they are your clients to begin with.
They come to that company because of you.
I had clients that followed me around since the 1970s to what ever company I worked for and moved with me when I hung my shingle solo and now I survey for their children.
I also had clients follow me, even into retirement.
as said above, if you want to market your contacts After you leave there is absolutely nothing unethical about that.
Peter Ehlert, post: 411553, member: 60 wrote: I also had clients follow me, even into retirement.
as said above, if you want to market your contacts After you leave there is absolutely nothing unethical about that.
Well said. There is a finite point at which one passes from employee to competition.
foggyidea, post: 411528, member: 155 wrote: I am trying to find the problem with letting former clients know of the move.
If you work for someone, they're not you clients. They're you employers clients, regardless of whether they were acquired by you.
Robert Hill, post: 411517, member: 378 wrote: Sorry if you couldn't read between the lines.
Oh but I did, and understood perfectly, it's called "speaking in tongues".
Robert Hill, post: 411517, member: 378 wrote: But yesterday, I did take pause that our moral high ground in the world subsided a lot with yesterday's events.
If you have a different opinion... keep it to yourself.
I certainly will provided you do the same with your "religious/political POV"
I think that I would let the clients decide if they were my clients or the firms clients. I know that my previous place of employment would not give anyone my contact information after I left. In our profession there is a certain comfort for a client to rely on the same surveyor that is the surveyor of record. Clients should have the opportunity to follow, or not.
foggyidea, post: 411596, member: 155 wrote: I think that I would let the clients decide if they were my clients or the firms clients. I know that my previous place of employment would not give anyone my contact information after I left. In our profession there is a certain comfort for a client to rely on the same surveyor that is the surveyor of record. Clients should have the opportunity to follow, or not.
agreed.
It is kinda important to have people know you by name, your full name.
by knowing my name I had a couple excellent clients hunt me down to assist with projects that I had worked on years before, or provide some comfort in the known.
Good for me, and for my current employer (I never moonlighted).
FL/GA PLS., post: 411591, member: 379 wrote:
I certainly will provided you do the same with your "religious/political POV"
I certainly will not.
Robert Hill, post: 411602, member: 378 wrote: I certainly will not.
touche, end of conversation.
In 2015, I went to work for a small Survey and Engineering firm; 10-12 people, for about 6 months. While I was there, about 75% of the work I was bringing in came through my cell phone. I had been in business for myself since 2006 and had a pretty good word-of-mouth reputation going. Since I left; they have called me a few times and asked if I'd like to do some extra work for some clients I had while I was there. I also got them the engineering on a couple of jobs I was doing.
I don't know where the OP is; but around here, I can't keep up...
I've never moonlighted at any of the companies I worked at because I was too busy taking care of business and they mostly paid me well for my 60-70hr work weeks.
At the last company I worked for, the clients always ask for me and it really eat at the owner to the point he let me go.
When I opened my own shop clients continued to call and ask for me and the A$$:manhole: actually told clients I was dead.
:p still kickin' dude
When I left my last place of employment, they told people asking for me that I was in the field and would get bsck to them. That was 6 months after I left. Only found out when one of them called my cell phone. ...
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billvhill, post: 411578, member: 8398 wrote: If you work for someone, they're not you clients. They're you employers clients, regardless of whether they were acquired by you.
True, but the employer does not own the client.
Over the years I have worked (for and with) almost every conceivable type of arrangement with employers, partners, owners and clients. I have had clients that "followed" me through several of these changes. I've forgotten more stories about clients leaving firms to follow ex-employees than you guys can tell.
The simple fact is a client that is paying for services has the right to consult with anyone they feel is competent unless there are existing contractual obligations. I've seen lots of people get their feathers all fluffed up because a surveyor walked away, started his own outfit and eventually wound up with the lion's share of the old firm's survey work. So what? Being afraid of an ex-employer is just flat foolish. There is nothing illegal, immoral or even unprofessional about being a superior provider of surveying services. And being a good business man is definitely not unprofessional. The clients that are familiar with your work are probably your best asset,
I know a lot of surveyors my age that have been successful. We all have a drop or two of blood on our scabbards.