Legal Question in Business Law in Illinois

If you are asking whether a person can start a new business on their own time, provided that it doesn't interfere with any of their obligations to their employer, the answer is yes. However, there are ways that a side business might violate your duties as an employee even if the new business you are starting doesn't compete directly with your employer. You can't work on a different business on your employer's time and you can't use any assets of your employer, whether they are physical assets like materials, tools and equipment or intangible assets like customer lists, trade secrets or confidential information.