Keeping and losing them
Exclusivity, dependence, notice, restrictions — and what long continuous engagement does on its own.
Reads as a businessReads as employmentCuts both waysDepends where you are
Four factors, and no total. Every bar is the same length: the side is the claim, the size is not. Nothing here was decided; it accumulated, which is how most of these arrangements change.
Exclusivity, and What It Costs to Ask For
Requiring that somebody work only for you removes the thing that makes them an independent business, and it is usually asked for to solve other problems.
The Only Client They Have
A supplier whose entire income comes from you is in an employee's position without the protections, and it is reached without anybody agreeing to it.
Notice That Runs Both Ways
Notice in a commercial engagement protects both sides from an abrupt stop and nothing more, and the longer it gets the less it resembles commercial supply.
Restrictions After the Work Ends
Clauses restricting what a former supplier may do are copied from employment contracts, and are often worth far less than the business relying on them hopes.
The Rate Nobody Has Reviewed
A rate that has not moved in four years is not a saving, and the conversation that would have moved it is one both sides avoid for different reasons.
The Engagement That Never Ended
Most problematic arrangements are well-designed short engagements that nobody ever closed, and the missing ending is what produces everything else.
Who Owns What Was Made
Work produced by an employee and work produced by a supplier default to different owners in most places, and the difference surfaces when it is expensive.