hiring a sales person to promote your business

I have a coupon busines that I'm doing well with. I provide free coupons to stores to promote there business & I then hire 2 high school kids to go to neiborhoods to sell the coupon books. The problem is I want to get more stores in different areas.

Since this is a easy business to start up, how do I hire a salesperson without training them to be my competition?

Thanks Sam

This is a touchy subject... And I am certainly no attorney.. But what about looking into some type of non-compete contract? Similar to what business owners agree to when they sell a business...

Again, the legality of this and even if it's enforcible in your area would be left up to a lawyer (or someone more knowledgeable then me in this area). But it's worth explorig.. I'll be interested to follow the advice you get from this message thread.

> I have a coupon busines that I'm doing well
> with. I provide free coupons to stores to
> promote there business & I then hire 2
> high school kids to go to neiborhoods to
> sell the coupon books. The problem is I want
> to get more stores in different areas.

> Since this is a easy business to start up,
> how do I hire a salesperson without training
> them to be my competition?

> Thanks Sam




GetMotivation.com ...

Sam....I sent this to you in an email but I thought I'd share it here so others could use;

I'v hired many salespeople in my day and in the beginning I had 2 problems;
1) Some of those I trained thought that the program was so simple that they could start up their own deal and make the profits. So I, in essence, was training my competition.
2) Because direct sales isn't that easy...many I trained would go into the field and find this wasn't their cup-o-tea so they'd just go look for something else to do and KEEP MY SALES MATERIALS! Never call me or even bother to tell me they were quitting.

So...one day I put on my thinking cap after I spent the day hunting down a salesperson to see what he was doing because I hadn't heard from him in a week.

I stopped this stuff cold by doing 2 things;
1) Get them to sign a "Non-Compete" Agreement
2) Call your local Small Claims Court and find out what the Max is for Small Claims. Then make up a "Promissory Note" for the max amt of the Small Claims and HAVE THEM SIGN IT!

I don't think I have these Forms around any more BUT...you should be able to find them OnLine or at local Stationery Store.

I had sales people sign a Promissory Note, meaning they owed ME $2500 (the Max) and all I had to do was present it to the clerk and I'd get an automatic judgement for that amount.

I NEVER had a problem with either them competing against me or them running off with my sales materials. If they even THOUGHT they weren't going to last...they'd be in with ALL my ssales materials....just so I'd tear up that Note.

Don Alm

> I have a coupon busines that I'm doing well
> with. I provide free coupons to stores to
> promote there business & I then hire 2
> high school kids to go to neiborhoods to
> sell the coupon books. The problem is I want
> to get more stores in different areas.

> Since this is a easy business to start up,
> how do I hire a salesperson without training
> them to be my competition?

> Thanks Sam




Some of my UNIQUE home-based businesses