Recently, I have been contemplating making a career change. I am considering starting my own independent sales rep business. Does anyone have any advice on how to get started? Or has anyone also done this? Thanks in advance.
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Hi @suzym. I have also been through the same dilemma. Something that really helped me make my decision was an article I found on CommissionCrowd that does a good job on explaining what to expect. They give great insight on how to build a successful independent sales career. What I liked the most is how they highlight the challenges you will encounter. While I myself didn’t make the change due to personal reasons, I hope you find this article helpful and it makes your decision easier. Here us the link and good luck! https://blog.commissioncrowd.com/how-to-build-your-own-freelance-sales-business-heres-the-recipe/?locale=en_us
I did go into the independent sales rep business 18 years ago. For my industry I felt the two biggest challenges were 1. Most of my new potential customers had a product that was similar to mine. 2. They didn’t know me yet. The trust factor was not established yet. For those two big reasons, I don’t think I could have survived if I had not saved a lot of money to get me over the hump of the first two years. There are plus’s and minus’s on both sides. Independence is great but you can work really hard to build up someone else’s business and they can decide at any time to move in a different direction. Looking back on it now, I am glad I did it but the first couple of years were rough
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