Training the Competition?

Up until now, you’ve been the jack-of-all-trades for your business, but it’s getting beyond your control to do it all. Because you’re an independent jewelry store, you have a little more leeway when it comes to pricing. You’ve decided to pass your knowledge relating to cost calculations, for example how to calculate custom orders (gold prices—the price of raw gold to a finished product, labor costs, melee costs, etc.), but you’re worried you will be training “the competition.” You know it tends to be former employees who’ve acquired these secrets in the context of their job activity that end up at your competitor’s store.

The reality is that every business has a strong interest in protecting its trade secrets, not only your technical information such as design tools or computer source codes, but also the store’s business information—customer lists, employee lists, financial and accounting data, etc. Trade secrets cover anything that could have a disastrous effect on a business if it wound up in the hands of a competitor.

Your jewelry stores trade secrets can be valuable to your company’s growth and competitive advantage. In many cases, today’s employees and customers turn out to be tomorrow’s competitors.

So, do you train your staff on the business ins-and-outs, knowing if your employee leaves for a competing jewelry store or to start her own business, and takes with her valuable confidential information, it may wipe out some of your sales? Do you worry training your employees mean they will have a grasp on how to run the business? On the other hand, do you go forth, hoping they turn this kind of knowledge into larger sales for your store?