I'm curious to find out if when hiring an employee for a small business I can draft a legal document that would be a binding agreement that the person wouldn't take trade secrets/technique they learn while working for my company, and then be able to go out and start their own business.
Is this possible?
If state issues matter I'm in Georgia.
In Georgia as well, and I have a buddy who has a contract similar to that. It states that he can't use the trade secrets/technique for 3 years whenever he decides to retire or be terminated. 
yeah, sometimes they can be held unenforceable if it's not drafted specifically enough. Hire an attorney who does that type of work.
Pay a firm to draft employment agreements with limitations in time, scope, and manner, and to determine if the UTSA or other trade secret act applies locally.
You're paying to protect your future business and to have someone to hold liable for professional input. The OG won't accomplish the latter.
Google is for curiosities. You get what you pay for otherwise.
non compete clause, that's what I was thinking of.
Thank you so much. I'll do some research and find a lawyer in the area for pricing.
My wife's business is doing very well however it's easy to pick up if you have the funds, so she's afraid that when we hire someone could quit after a few months and be significant competition.
What kind of business? 
Antitrust laws are your friend.
It's going to sound funny (maybe not) but it's a furniture business.
My wife and I buy furniture (mostly wooden but tables and chair sets, dressers, buffets, etc) and use chalk paint/distress and give them the "shabby chic" look or whatever you want to call it.
While this is something anyone can go online and learn to do easily no one else in our area turns out furniture like we do. We not only sell pieces we buy and paint, we also do custom work for a persons current furniture. We've been VERY successful so far in our first year. We're set to make $20k by our anniversary/fiscal year end and this is something that so far we really only do on the weekends.
We've recently become a distributor for a brand of chalk paint and we are about to be the only store in a 60+mile radius to purchase chalk paint. There are several competitors but again their product doesn't come close in quality and price and they haven't been able to put out as much product and we only do this in our spare time.
We're looking to buy/lease a store in a revitalized downtown area, but we simply don't have the time to do all the custom orders we have requests for plus prepare and sell our own product. The goal is eventually to have my wife be able to quit her job and focus 24/7 on the business but we need to be able to hire someone to pump out product to see how viable that is. Her fear is that without legal recourse someone would learn her exact technique and be able to start their own business which could negatively impact us.
If I could hire 1 or 2 people I've run the numbers and I could get anywhere between 2.5 to 3 times the current profit based on man hours-payroll costs. It's the only way we can make it a viable option to look at running it full time down the road.
NDC's are standard aren't they?
Just an example would be a bedroom set a couple brought recently for their children. 2 single bed frames, 2 dressers, and 2 night stands. Paint ran us $30, it took 10 hours to complete and we charged $425 so we made roughly 39.50 an hour for the work.
It's really not a bad side business but demand has been through the roof. As soon as we post something to our website/FB it's pretty much sold. We probably get at least 2-3 custom jobs a week so we just don't have enough time on the weekends to get everything done and have product in the space we are renting at a local boutique.
Thage - Just an example would be a bedroom set a couple brought recently for their children. 2 single bed frames, 2 dressers, and 2 night stands. Paint ran us $30, it took 10 hours to complete and we charged $425 so we made roughly 39.50 an hour for the work.Perfect. Now that I know what your profit margins are, what would a custom entertainment center run me? Post some pics of your work. Step your marketing game up!
It's really not a bad side business but demand has been through the roof. As soon as we post something to our website/FB it's pretty much sold. We probably get at least 2-3 custom jobs a week so we just don't have enough time on the weekends to get everything done and have product in the space we are renting at a local boutique.
At a practical level you are far better off planning on having competition than trying to prevent it.
At the financial level, a contract's value runs only as deep as your pockets.
At a psychological level, a non-compete puts you at direct odds with your employee & often does more harm than good.
You need to be aware that most non-competes are unenforceable garbage that are easy to circumvent & by definition have a specific end date, usually a year, at which time your secret plan is fair game anyway. They work well for protecting things like sales client lists but not much else
So please think carefully about this.
Just to note it will probably be un-enforceable.
In most states the employee needs to be in sales with access to sales lists or be an exempt employee (salaried) with management duties.
If the employee is just a worker or skilled laborer it will likely be un-enforceable.
If it is enforceable it usually is very limited. Cannot work for direct competitors for a limited time usually only a few months. So they may be able to start there own business.
Check with lawyer to be sure .
After I left Ashley Furniture (as a low-level exec) they actually sued to enforce the NDA I didn't even remember signing to prevent me from taking a position with Broyhill. That was serious business, and I accepted a small payout to not even bother fighting it, then transitioned back into hotel work.
Written correctly, they may or may not be enforceable depending on your location, but can provide enough lawsuit ammo to be self-enforcing.
BarkLikeADog - At a practical level you are far better off planning on having competition than trying to prevent it.Spot on. VU.
At the financial level, a contract's value runs only as deep as your pockets.
At a psychological level, a non-compete puts you at direct odds with your employee & often does more harm than good.
You need to be aware that most non-competes are unenforceable garbage that are easy to circumvent & by definition have a specific end date, usually a year, at which time your secret plan is fair game anyway. They work well for protecting things like sales client lists but not much else
So please think carefully about this.
^I wrote that before you revealed what you're doing. Definitely applies to you. There's zero chance you can protect that secret with a piece of paper.
Your best bet here is probably to hire kids that couldn't care less about your industry, have no intention of keeping at it forever, & have no money to invest in a competing business anyway.
Mark It Zero -Thage - Just an example would be a bedroom set a couple brought recently for their children. 2 single bed frames, 2 dressers, and 2 night stands. Paint ran us $30, it took 10 hours to complete and we charged $425 so we made roughly 39.50 an hour for the work.Perfect. Now that I know what your profit margins are, what would a custom entertainment center run me? Post some pics of your work. Step your marketing game up!
It's really not a bad side business but demand has been through the roof. As soon as we post something to our website/FB it's pretty much sold. We probably get at least 2-3 custom jobs a week so we just don't have enough time on the weekends to get everything done and have product in the space we are renting at a local boutique.
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10176085_839241059438541_4281672473635249290_n.jpg?oh=6ac528efa2b6eedef0f4648faa60a72e&oe=5445A52C
This was a custom job, $600
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/941523_781830161846298_869541177_n.jpg
This was purchased for $75, sold for $425
https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10447126_896648893697757_7670536864857406515_n.jpg
This was table set ran about $125 total, sold for $600 as well.
I do build some pieces from reclaimed lumber I gathered from a 60 year old barn but can't find any pics of those. It's far more practical to buy and refurbish or do custom work than spend the time and energy to build custom pieces.
^
$600 custom job 
I've changed my mind about hiring you to build me am entertainment center. I'm not feeling the "Recovered Titanic Furniture" style. Not hating, keep hustling those golden girls and make some money!