Small bussiness owner loophole?!

[Anonymous]

I recently just got a job with a referal company. At this company and many others like it their is kind of like a flow process: field agents collect lead info in person -> phone agent calls afore mentioned leads and patches em over to->some random company. They do this by commision obviously, $2.50 for field, $1 for phone, $10 lead. I have been trying wrap my head ariund this, who has thebest job?i suck at math so I dont know if any of this will make sence in anyone elses mind other than my own, but I think the field agent has the best job. Everybody loathes this line of work, struggling to find people to approach and only getting $2.50 per person which doesnt seem like it could ever be a source of decent income yet completely consuming all your time. This I what made me think of being what I have officially dubbed an “Event Chaser”. Instead of hanging out infront of walmart passing out flyers until you get the boit, you can make an event schedule. This is my tentative plan (i live in florida): one day of the week, probably monday since it is the mist uneventful day of the week, spend your day online and on other sources finding large events in your state. Find one event for every day of the week. go to the event and start talking! If an even has 1000 people there you have to be able to get atleast 100 names right? Thats $250 you made in one day. Deduct $50 for a tank of gas n $20 for a day of food if you didnt pack a lunch and you still made $180 in ONE DAY! Do that everyday and thats…idk…alot lol (its 6am and I have been up 48hrs straight, yes im too lazy to do the math..or even to grab a calculator lol). This can be run as if it is your own personal bussiness. Even though you were hired by somebody it all ends up in a grey area. I cant seem to see the difference between owning a company in which you make a prophit from offering a service, and working FOR a company in which you make a prophit (commission) by providing them with your service. Now heres the best part: ITS TOTALLY ADD FRIENDLY! Whereas your “employer” has all kinds of bookkeepping and organizing and multitasking etc inorder to keep their bussiness running, all you have to do is find events, talk, pass ouy fkyers, and one bad part: DO NOT LOSE THAT LIST OF LEADS! and its still not tooooo high of a chance of losing the list, you would give it to your “employer” (or as I prefer to call it, you CLIENT) at the end of the day each day. The company I work for accepts each lead one at a time via txt message as soon as the field agent gets it from the person he approached. This pretty much ensures that the person will answer the phone and allow us to transfer them to a company so the phone agent will get her $1 and the referal service will get their $10. Idk…maybe there is a catch in all of this that im missing but if not, I think I just found a loophole for the ADDers desire to be a small bussiness owner but not pursuing it because of the officey, accountant stuff. I think im going to pursue this…unless I shouldnt…should I?

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[memzak]

As far as the math goes, I was an insurance agent for awhile and I could sit down and do 200 calls in a day depending on how many people I would actually talk to. More talking = fewer calls but more money since I got a percent of each sale. In your situation you, depending on how much time you spend on each call, could make some nice money where you are. The field agent spends a lot of time out in the field “hunting” people. Your plan sounds like a winner as far as the number of people you talk to. Wether or not you persue the agent job should depend more on how much you like to talk to people face to face and how comfortable you are in crowds. If I were you I would go to some of these events as you discribed them and see how close you get to the event and the people going in and out. Security may prevent the senerio you discribe and again there may not be any security and you can talk to as many people as you want. It may help you make your decision.

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[Patte Rosebank]

It’s exciting to start a new job, and you’re full of enthusiasm and new ideas, but be very careful.

There’s a big difference between being the owner of a company and being an employee. And it’s not just the bookkeeping. There are liability issues as well.

I’ve worked for some of these types of marketing companies, and a lot of them are quite unsavoury.

Since you are only being paid commission, you are not technically an employee of the company, but a contractor. Read through that contract very carefully. It will list all the terms of your job, and will include quotas and other responsibilities, and it will be weighted in favour of the company, not you. You will have no job security, and YOU will be responsible for paying any income tax. The company may also have a “delay” clause, which allows them to withhold any commissions until they’re sure that the lead is a GOOD one—i.e., the sale has completely closed and there’s no chance the buyer may back out. And beware of promises of “free training”. That just means, “We won’t pay you for your time here.”

Be very careful with this company, and with any other company that pays only commission, no salary. Such companies have an extremely high turnover of employees, because the work is so soul-destroying for so little money.

Google the company name, and see if other people (employees and customers) have posted stories (good, bad, or otherwise) about their experiences with it. Talk to other people who work for the company (not just the few top-sellers that the company wants you to talk to), to find out just how long they’ve worked there, and what their average daily and weekly earnings are. Some of these companies will claim to have big-name clients. If this one does, contact some of those clients directly. (I once interviewed for a job at a marketing company that claimed to have worked for some major sports teams. I phoned the offices of those teams, and the teams were very interested to hear that some shady marketing firm was claiming to have worked for them!)

Check with the Better Business Bureau and the Department of Labour (Employment Standards Office), to see if anyone has filed complaints against the company.

Be especially careful if the company asks for your bank account information, so they can direct-deposit your commissions. This is often the classic set-up for a scam to steal your identity and clean out your bank account.

And don’t underestimate burn-out. You may be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the first week, but all that rejection will take a toll, especially on the fragile ego of someone with ADHD. I was lucky to last a month in a job like this. I tried two other ones, and lasted only a couple of weeks in each—making it very clear that this wasn’t the right sort of job for me.

As for your belief that by going to an event and handing out flyers, you’ll be able to get 100 names, my experience says that the rejection rate is around 98%. People may take a flyer, glance at it, then throw it away. A lot won’t even take the flyer. Even by talking to them directly, you won’t do much better than that, particularly now that people are so concerned about identity theft. They’re much less likely now to provide any personal information unless THEY have made the first move. You’ll be lucky if you get 20 good leads in a day.

So do your homework first, and then, if you still think it’s a good idea, then give yourself a week to try it and see how you do. (The company itself may give you that trial period, by setting a quota. If you don’t meet the quota, then you’re out.)

Don’t lose your enthusiasm, but DO use your head!

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[memzak]

Listen to Larynxa. Her experience is closer to your company than my experience.

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[Wgreen]

Great post Larynxa. Well done.

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[Patte Rosebank]

<blush> 😉

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[Anonymous]

…i had a long detailed responce with pros and cons..idk what happend…youd think a site for ppl with add would have auto save. Any way…i didnt get the job as an agent, its my friends husbands xompany and hes been doing tou lead referal thing for awhile by advertising but it got expensive so hes trying the agent method out for the first time with hopes that he gets the benefits of advertisint without the cost. Also itd be fair cuz each phone person and field person would directly earn their money. His clause only includes that someone one must amswer and state they have an interest/need for the service, it doesnt need to close. This and ither things you mentioned that are kinda rip offs are probably part of the reason whyafter doing billing and payroll for him for a week among other tasks that give me an indepth look at hiw his company operates, ive concluded that im on the wrong side of the desk lol. He doesnt have all those horrible scammy things that the other companies are apparently using for cheap labour. Iur field person WOULD be making good money if it wasnt for the fact that each employee is screwing over the company by not working together…on days that we have one personin the fiels and one person making calls within th hour of getting the lead, its like a 90% suess.but on

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[Anonymous]

Sorry it was messing up at the end again so i hit submit. That was supposed to say OUR field person. But yeah whats been happening is we hire ppl to work and say the phone person doesnt come in one day or slacks off one day or doesnt keep a good record. Our fieldbperson would end up losing out because of that. And then he gets his meager check that friday n gets fed up so he doesnt try hard on monday n then our phone person gets mad cuz shes not getting a high enough volume of leads to ensure her chances of making a transfer and getting pai her commision…so then the next day they both threaten to quit. We havent actually had too much problems with getting ppl to stop and talk on the field. I havent done it that muchbut i know when the owner goes out n does it with a new hire for an jiur they come back with like 20 leads…he does have a way with words tho lol idk maybe if i suggest to him he try n make it a family bussiness so that none of the employees think its a possible scam and they all do their part or even try to out do eachother itll work out. But unless we have atleast one person in each department going gung hoe, we’re all gonna go broke…

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[allan wallace]

Ye Gods, I can’t imagine myself doing that! Gambling appeals to me, but I lack the discipline to do it effectively…been hammered by the bookies too many times! 😆 Gah, money is so vulgar. It’s a shame that we need filthy lucre to get by, no? 🙄

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