Client list ownership

Definition

Whether the salon or the stylist owns the client names, which turns on secrecy.

Why It Matters

Walkout risk is the number and this is the document behind it. A client list is protectable only as a trade secret, and a trade secret is information that has value from not being generally known and that is the subject of reasonable efforts to keep it secret. A shop where stylists book on their own phones and keep their own numbers has made no such effort and owns nothing. A shop with salon-controlled booking, restricted export and signed confidentiality terms has an asset. The other lever is weaker than most buyers assume. Washington voids a non-compete against an independent contractor earning under a high threshold, and the earnings are measured from the party enforcing it, so a booth renter who pays the salon can never meet it. From the middle of 2027 that state voids them all. What survives is the confidentiality and non-solicitation half, and only if the list was kept.