Non compete agreements -- anyone have experience of these?

[Lexual]

Hello people.. I'd like some help please..

I am quoting for quite a substantial job at the moment where I will be using a 3rd party supplier to supply goods directly to my client.

My supplier is giving me their 'trade price' that I am then adding my little bit on before quoting my client. If I get the order I will then be wanting my supplier to deal directly with the client with regards to invoicing and deliveries and I will want to make an agreement with my supplier that they pay me my cut/commission from the gross. I obviously want to protect myself from my supplier just going directly to my client in the future and cutting me out completely, I don't really want to rely on a 'gentleman's agreement' so I would need some kind of non-compete agreement? signed to protect me for the next 3-5 years or so (the order is placed annually for their yearly stock)

Is the non-compete agreement the correct contract? I've done some googling and found templates but some of them didn't seem to give quite the protection I'm looking for.

If anyone has any experience of this or knows of someone who could best advise me I'd be very grateful!

Thanks,
Oliver

[Lexual]

I can invoice the client directly and the supplier does drop-ship, it would be up to 5 large deliveries through the year. My main problem is the cash flow, I'm a relatively new business and I don't have enough cash in the bank to cover my costs to the supplier for each order before receiving payment from the client if it's going to be on a standard invoice schedule. Unless the client is willing to pay me upfront for each order, I would need them to invoice my supplier and for the supplier to pay me my bit.

Any suggestions welcome as to how I can go about this as I am a little lost and this would be a big chunk of income for me..