I am currently working full time at a consultancy firm, and I have a few months of notice period before my assignment is terminated. I am thinking whether I should start my company now already or wait until I leave.
The advantage of starting it now is obvious: I will be able to sign contracts already now with the company all set, and it is more time efficient to be done with the administrative stuff now.
However, I am worried about the loyalty clause with my current company. There is a point in the contract that says that I should not conduct any business that competes with the company while I am employed there.
So, my question is whether opening my own consultancy company now and potentially signing a contract but without actually doing any work, would cause me legal trouble?
I have never heard of anyone getting in legal trouble for starting their own company during the last period of their previous employment, but strictly speaking, your current employer would probably have grounds for bringing it up in court should you do so. At the same time, depending on the circumstances, bringing a former employee to court is probably not deemed as good employer branding by most people, which they might take into account.
Keep in mind that it is your current employer that needs to provide evidence if they want to take legal action. Some things, e.g. contracts, are not inherently public, while other things, such as company registrations, are.
Good to know that it’s not common that companies sue employees for such cases in Sweden! I think my safest option to avoid any risk, especially since it would harm my immigration process, is to ask for a written permission from them, and accept whatever answer I get back.
Thanks for your reply and for the valuable information!
Thanks for the great question @ImmigrantFreelancer and reply @martin ! I totally agree with Martin and I believe that it is completely safe to start your own company whilst being employed. Actually conducting work is another thing. I would not do that until I have left the company this area is a complete grayzone - to the benefit of the employer! They write these things in the contract to protect themselves and I believe they want to make them sound fuzzy intentionally just to make you question yourself it is certainly not in their best interest that you start your own company so whatever they can do to make you question that decision, they will. That is my personal opinion though. I have never heard of, and don’t ever think they would actually, act on the competitive clause. But that is just my opinion again Best of luck to you!!
To be clear, I think what Anna is refering to is technically starting a company (or owning a company) vs “bedriva verksamhet” (or “competing business”). It’s not the company that’s (supposedly) unallowed as per your contract, but what you do - within the context of your company, or any other way. You can technically do things that are not only against your contract, but the general spirit of employment such as “lojalitetsplikt” - without starting a company. And starting the company is not necessarily in and of itself against the contract.
Even if it was against the contract - it might not be pursued and used against you.