What would you do?

[zukracer]

First off, that question should be raised with your company attorney. If they say its legal and you can find their names via another way than the current company's contact list, then go for it. The trick as mentioned previously is what will the current company do if they find you are at the new company and taking their accounts. If its legal to do and your attorney assures you that you can survive any type of legal action they might bring, go for it. You might want to socialize it with a few folks you know personally to simply see if they are interested in moving their business. DO NOT tell them you are involved at all just simply mention you've heard there's some other players in the market and were curious what they had heard or if they had thought of making a move. Do it as if you are concerned to lose their business perhaps but you need market research before its worth making any jumps.

If however the only path forward you can identify is taking the current book of business from the current company to a new one...eh, you probably need to re-evaluate your plans. You will not grow if you cannot find customers without the current company's data.

 

[skydivr]

Now you are finding out just how hard it is to actually start a business without running afoul of legal problems. Maybe, given light to what you just found out, your idea and her idea of what it's worth might be coming closer together. You could still approach her; she may ask for alot but if she's got any sense she may see that it's better than letting the thing fail if you leave and the kids break it.

P.S. Make sure you LLC your new company in order to create a corporate veil and protect your personal assets in event of a failure.

 

[Skydyvyr]

The catch is, I have to have owners on the program to start the company. Without units on the program, the company is a blank sheet of paper. Nothing on website to show potential owner etc. So taking what most ppl say here. I should start the company, but not call cabin owners. Without calling cabin owners I might as well not even waste my time or investors money and my current job.

I thought it would be ok to contact owners via email or phone call to let them know that I had left and let it take its course from there.

I never suggested you shouldn't contact the cabin owners, I just suggested that it is best if you are able to demonstrate that you got their contact info from someplace other than your current employer. If and when you contact them it should be after you've left your current employer, and you should make absolutely no mention of your previous employer. Your conversation needs to be about what you are doing now, not about where you used to be and why you aren't there anymore.

Setting all of that aside, how did your current employer build her list of owners? Are there association groups, subscription based websites (similar in function to the .Org) for owners? Can you reach out to groups like that and purchase, rent or lease their contact lists? Can you buy advertising in their newsletters, or on their forums that would cause them to call you?

As was asked earlier, what is your plan for adding owners over time? Assuming you did reach out to your current employer's owners, unless all of them switched over to your newco, wouldn't you still need to keep adding more? How would you find them?

You may want to consider the answers to these questions as starting and maintaining a business is usually more difficult than it seems. You do have a huge head start as you have been doing it for some time now for your current employer.

--Sky

 

[GoldenChild]

I would as an employer see you in a better light, if you laid it all on the table. Give her the option, to let you take over and pay her a stipend each month or you walk it's that simple.You need to open her eyes about the hrs truly spent of the kids working and how it's a cancer to the bottom end of the company.You will either own the company without any out of pocket,cause her foot is halfway out the door already after the conversation or you will be the future owner of another cabin rental company... You win either way...It is harder than you can imagine to build a business but easier to take over and established one. You also elimiate any lawsuits, no compete issues all in one shot. She may be waiting on you, and if it's a small town, she knows your plans are in the works most likely anyways. You and your partner would make money just taking it over.. Best Of Luck

 

[MO-BUSA]

just remember this, anything you do with starting the other company, get everything in writing and have a lawyer of somekind, you can get hurt really bad by peoples word, people mean well things just happen.