A contract clause restricting one party from working with competitors or in the same market for a set time and area after an engagement ends.
A non-compete says: after we stop working together, you can’t turn around and do the same thing for my rivals for X months within Y area. Clients use them to stop a freelancer from taking everything they learned straight to a competitor.
For sellers, a broad non-compete can quietly wreck your business — if you design restaurant websites and one client bars you from serving any restaurant for two years, that’s most of your market gone. Push to narrow it: specific named competitors, a short window, a real geographic limit, ideally with extra pay in exchange for the restriction.
For buyers, understand that overbroad non-competes are hard to enforce and increasingly restricted by law. A tighter, reasonable clause protects you better than a sweeping one a court might throw out.
Enforceability varies a lot by state — some ban non-competes for independent contractors almost entirely, others enforce narrow ones. Before signing or requiring one, confirm the specifics with an attorney. If your real worry is confidentiality rather than competition, an NDA is usually the fairer tool.