Should I tell my current employer about my side business?
Career Management Series
By Laura Lee Rose
Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff. I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.
At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.
Today’s comment came from a busy professional and entrepreneur:
Should I tell my current employer about a side business I am working on?
I am not sure whether I need to or should tell my current employer about a side business I am starting. It is not competitive with the company I work for but I don’t want anyone to get upset if they find out about my business.
If it’s not competitive, then you don’t NEED to tell. Should you tell? That’s up to you. If it’s not competitive with the company, then on the surface, there is no reason for anyone to get upset if they find out. So the only reason “not to share it” is if you are uncomfortable sharing it.
It will cause issues if …
It only causes issues if you start to take advantage of the situation.
Reasons for manager to be upset:
1) You are no longer doing exceptional work for the company
2) You are no longer working your full 40 hours for the company
3) You are using company equipment and supplies for your side business
4) You are doing your side-business on company time
5) Using the company’s client-information for your side-business
6) Approaching the company’s clients to sell your side-business’ services
7) Selling your side-business’ services to your co-workers without clearing it with your manager first.
Slippery Slope
As long as you keep your side-business totally separate from your current-employer’s assets, you will be fine. But this is actually tougher than it seems. You may start with little things like: making a few flyers on the company copier, using their paper/markers/labels, taking a few minute during the day to answer your side-business emails/calls, or regularly taking longer lunches to run your side-business errands.
These are the things that will soon be noticed but your co-workers and management.
Once noticed, regardless if the true or not, your performance reviews may start reflecting these distractions and minor infractions.
So – if you are doing anything that you would feel uncomfortable doing while your manager is standing next to you, then you are probably stepping over the line.
Conclusion:
Keep your side-business totally on the side. Make sure it doesn’t affect your day-job at any way. Then, let nature dictate the rest. As you go about your company business and your side-business, there will be opportunities to comfortably share your side-job with your co-workers and managers. You don’t have to push it; and you don’t have to hide it. Just let nature take over.
For example – I worked in corporate for many years. I also teach social, partner dancing (like Ballroom, Salsa, Cha-Cha, etc) and Line Dancing. During an “employee-day event” – I offered to teach Line Dancing to the group.
If you need additional help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info
I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally. It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ