You can be your own boss, choose your own hours, and even come to work in your pajamas by becoming an independent sales representative. To be successful in the field however you must be self-disciplined and very hard working.
Start your Business
First things first, if you want to start your own business you have to get registered. Choose a name that you like and also one that’s easily associated with your line of business to make it easy for your contacts. You can speak with an accountant to figure out what the best business option is for you, depending on tax benefits and liability etc. (LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp).
Administrative Business
Take care of all of your administrative tasks; get a new phone line for the business that’s dedicated strictly to business correspondences. Create a professional e-mail address that includes your name and the business’s name. When you go to set up a new bank account for your business make sure it’s a checking account. Some people may choose to pay in checks and it will make recordkeeping less of a mission.
Business Plan
Impress people with a detailed business plan of all of your goals and objectives. Your business plan should include; the industries you plan to cover; revenue sources; preferred market segment; organization structure; and the focus of the product or service.
What products will you sell?
Trade publications and websites can help you find directly industries you’re interested in, and if you sign up on their site their reps can alternatively find you if they’re searching for independent reps. Attending conferences and seminars along with trade show events are a great way to meet vendors face to face and speak about possible independent sales opportunities.
To Whom will you sell?
Establish clients. Getting new customers is considered 50% of the sales effort. Once you’ve landed the right group of consumers to listen to your sales pitch the rest is history. You can find this ‘right group of consumers’ by attending networking events. You never know who you may meet that could be the key to a whole room full of clients, so meet as many people as you can! The Internet is full of resources to find events, try meetup.com or Craigslist. That being said, develop your online presence as well. Create a business website and set up social media accounts that are relevant to your business. Start a blog filled with content related to the business and the content will attract appropriate people to your page.
The Home Office
You have the freedom to roll out of bed in the morning and be in the office 5 minutes later. Take advantage of this situation, with out exploiting the situation however, it’s more important now that you remain more organized to stay productive. Choose one room you can make into your home office, this way papers won’t get lost and you can mentally prepare yourself differently when you enter that room. Also, make sure you take advantage of tax payments that can be deducted when you use part of your home for your business.
So what do you think? Are you ready to start your own sales rep business from home?
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