Dear Sean,

Someone who worked at my firm left to start their own business, which I initially supported. Now I’ve heard that they are speaking to some of my clients, and I’m concerned they’re trying to poach them. We don’t have a noncompete agreement. I’m feeling betrayed, but I feel like there’s nothing I can do to force clients to stay, or to stop this former employee from going after them. What’s the best way to deal with the situation?

Sincerely,
Hands Tied

Dear Hands Tied,

My definition of entrepreneurship is different than most. It is the drive to convince others to think and act as you would have them think and act. You have to be a little bit delusional to get there. If you believe your toothpaste is better than all other toothpastes out there (hello, Tom’s of Maine), you will go all in on the premise. You cannot force anyone to do anything. They have to willingly choose to believe in your voice and act accordingly.

What does this have to do with your question? You are looking at the wrong person if you are focusing on your former employee or your client. Once upon a time, you were the entrepreneur I described, and for whatever reason, your voice has been muted. Perhaps it is from compromising too much for what the client wants as opposed to what you and your business actually need. Perhaps the pressures of the size and scale of your firm (sooo many mouths to feed) has forced you to go away from all that made you, well, you.

Now comes an employee who has the drive to go out on her own. You see yourself in her—until you see that she might actually be able to be you. Then you get scared and realize she is doing the work of conviction and you are not. She is unburdened by your past and can make promises of a cleaner future that may very well serve your clients better than you do now.

I loathe the idea of trying to win by rigging the game. Noncompetes (which are beyond difficult to enforce, by the way), bullying a client to stay, and any other external barrier you might choose to erect because of your fear of losing what you believe is yours (ahem, it never was and never will be) are acts of cowardice. In the end, the barriers are just excuses to do nothing.

Whatever you have done for your clients only earns you permission to do it again tomorrow. Permission, not the right. And as the Will Rogers saying goes: Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you stand still.

Here comes your former employee offering your promises to your clients. Perhaps she is able to live up to them better than you can. That is a you problem, not a her problem. So the best way to deal with what is happening is to look in the mirror and find the entrepreneur again.

Ask yourself what you can do to be better at making and fulfilling your promises to your clients. Remind yourself of all that you have built, and strive tot entertain your clients from your first meeting to the moment you light the candles on your finished project. “Entertain” not in a rom-com way, but in the sense that you will provide them with those elements that they would certainly miss if they did not receive them.

I am not naive to the power of personality; however, it only gets you so far. Clients today seek designers capable of elevating the experience of creation and ultimate manifestation as a business, rather than any single individual. They want to know you see them and can embody all that they wish for their home. It’s far beyond choosing pretty things.

The combination of talent, wisdom and experience you possess certainly dwarfs that of your former employee. It is your choice to sit there with that knowledge and convince yourself it is enough, or to get to work showing what your talent, wisdom and experience mean in the fabric of your business. Be better because you can and must be.

I believe opportunity is infinite, and am rooting for your former employee. If she has the fire you taught her and can serve your clients, then she should. It is up to you to remind your clients that having been where your former employee never has, you know how to go even further. The student becomes the master only when the master stops being the student. Good luck.

____________

Sean Low is the go-to business coach for interior designers. His clients have included Nate Berkus, Sawyer Berson, Vicente Wolf, Barry Dixon, Kevin Isbell and McGrath II. Low earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and as founder-president of The Business of Being Creative, he has long consulted for design businesses. In his Business Advice column for BOH, he answers designers’ most pressing questions. Have a dilemma? Send us an email—and don’t worry, we can keep your details anonymous.