The simple meaning of a person involved in a job which involves commission refers to the transaction of providing services to people and the amount or payment earned by the individual is known as the commission earned. This is possible in certain type of commission only jobs.
The people who render these services to others are known as ‘agents’. The commission or amount earned by the agent is termed as their profit on the sales rendered by them and with this they earn their livelihood.
The job of having a commission only job sounds as easy and profitable but always there are certain pros and cons alongside it.
So when one wishes to enter the career of becoming a career agent they need to ensure that they are fully aware of the advantages as well as disadvantages which go along with it.
So firstly let us now look at some of the pros which may benefit an individual when it comes to choosing a career as a commission agent.
| Benefits of Commission Only Jobs | Disadvantages or Cons of Commission Only Jobs |
| Flexibility | Over-Confidence |
| Sales Job | Resentment |
| High Income | Deadline targeted People |
| Selling Skills | Early Pay-out Expenses |
| Independence | Aggressive Approach |
| Hard working attitude | Unpredictable Work Load |
| Less of Monitoring | Not a Steady Income |
| Freelancing | Percentage basis income |
| Passion and Dedication | One man show |
| Benefits of Allowance | Challenging Competitive nature |
Benefits of Commission Only Jobs:
1. Flexibility:
When one wishes to become a commission agent, the job is very flexible in nature which is one of the biggest advantages in having a job as a commission agent.
The job can be rescheduled as per the wish of the agent and they have complete control on the time needed for the completion of the job.
Thus with the ability to have control over time, ways of how profit and sales can be maximized can be given more thought by the agent.
2. Sales Job:
As we have seen before the basic meaning of a person having a commission only based job refers to rendering sales to people and earning income.
So the job mainly is a sales job by which the agent renders the particular sales or services which is desired by the individual for which they approach the commission agent.
And after their desire for the sales is fulfilled they pay the necessary amount to the agent which is commission and he earns his profit.
3. High Income:
When an individual is a commission agent, they can earn a higher amount of income in comparison to the salaried class of professionals who have or have practiced the same knowledge or having the same education along with the required training and experience.
If there is an increase in the sales or demand for particular sales by the people, then the agent sells more and receives more income on a monthly basis which can be far more in comparison with a salaried person.
4. Selling Skills:
Whenever an individual wants to achieve success in their own business, their skills of influencing and attracting customers towards the products and services has to be very good.
The same is for the career of a commission agent. It basically means that the greater the talent, the better and faster is the success achieved.
So if a person has excellent skills in selling then there is an increase in the sales thus increasing the money made by them.
5. Independence:
Independence is one of the most important advantages for a person who is a commission agent. The success that a person wishes to achieve as a commission agent can be achieved faster due to independence as the person is free in working and puts in his efforts to achieve the success that is desired by them which is beneficial for the present and the future.
6. Hard working attitude:
When there is an increase in the sales of the commission agent, the agent realizes that his income is also about to increase.
This motivates the agent in working hard everyday to complete the daily assignments or sales as they realize that with every successful sale they will reap the rewards in the end.
The person who is a commission agent eventually realizes that by working hard the skill of accuracy and punctuality develops as hard work pays off in the end.
7. Less of Monitoring:
The monitoring for a commission agent refers to lack of monitoring by the employer. As the job of a commission agent is self employed in nature there is no monitoring as there is no boss of the agent and they are free on selecting their appropriate working style which suits them as long as they are making the profit which is desirable by them.
The same can be said for a commission agent who is working in a company as there is less monitoring on them as long as they are earning or generating adequate amount of profits for the company.
8. Freelancing:
An individual can take a freelancing job and can benefit a lot with this by accepting or refusing any job according to his comfort.
There are a lot commission based job through freelancing where an individual can easily sit at home at their comfort and choose any job and earn commission according to the percentage they decided to be agreed upon.
A commission based job is not only confined to the instruction given by the freelancer, the individual can use their own creative ways to increase production without any pressure.
9. Passion and Dedication:
An individual when chooses to be a commission agent as their career, there is a certain passion for doing the job by the person as they know that they are good at it and realize that success can be achieved in that field by them .
As there is passion for the individual in achieving success as a commission agent, the feeling of dedication automatically arises within the individual as hundred percent of the efforts are put in towards the job by the person.
10. Benefits of Allowance:
The person who has opted for commission basis job gets a lot of benefits like allowance, medical insurance, laptop, cell phone, gas, food expenses, tuition reimbursement and the list is endless.
Company pays or the employer pays the person who is doing their job by basis of commission to get all their expenses paid because they are the sole reason of generating direct income and they do their most of the job which is 99 % of the work allotted.
As we have learned now the advantages or the pros’ of the Commission only Jobs, so now let’s focus on their cons:
Disadvantages or Cons of Commission Only Jobs:
1. Over-Confidence:
The Sales rep or the people who do only commission based jobs may or may not become over confident about the sales they made or the services they provided which in turn becomes a disaster for them if they over do things which may create havoc for themselves and the company.
If that person makes good sales in that particular month and has received its commission, that individual after getting its commission may get greedy and get anxious about selling more products quickly in that process and in turn that person may lose his quality service.
2. Resentment:
When a individual does more excellent job than others, the resentment and jealousy will follow up behind because the one who has done the excellent job may get more recognition and goodwill.
After doing a good job if the fellow workers ignore or show resentment this may ultimately motivate that individual more positively or de-motivate. This can affect that particular person’s job if gets into that trap of getting de-motivated and can decrease its future earnings.
3. Deadline targeted People:
People who are getting paid commission after every few months will work hard at the end of the every month or will be targeted driven deadline person which in turn is not good for the company and the organization as whole.
Those people will only work hard one day before the deadline, this will make the customer/Client unhappy which will make them think of leaving that company.
This will only hamper the growth of the organization. That client may also tell other people to not to go to that company because of the low quality services provided.
4. Early Pay-out Expenses:
To increase the revenue of the company, the manager may think of giving the commission to the employee right after the purchase of the product but the payment hasn’t been made immediately.
This may give difficulty in planning and deciding about the budget of the company because this will create more expenses in the present and profit later in the future but the company may suffer at the present to get returns in future.
5. Aggressive Approach:
This approach may or may not create more income by aggressively showing who is the boss or the champion in that particular department which may create distance in fellow workers and create jealousy.
There should be smooth functioning of the services provided nothing should disturb the growth of the firm.
This tactic can even drive the customers away because the pressure thrown and the attitude will give a very bad impression on the clients.
6. Unpredictable Work Load:
The Commission based jobs are always unpredictable. Anytime many customers can come at once which can create work load among employees.
It is advantage for the company that they are generating sales but for the workers it’s a disadvantage because of the pressure coming towards them and even though if there are a lot of customers they have to give quality service and have patience with them. They cant take 10 customers one at time, they have to give adequate attention to everyone.
7. Not a Steady Income:
The income for the commission based jobs are not steady they keep on fluctuating with the latest trends changing or according to the customers desire.
The regular employees who get steady income every month with incentive has more security and reliability in doing job. But this is not the case with the commission based jobs.
This creates a worry and tension among the employees if they are going to get the customers or no which create instability in their head about the job security.
8. Percentage basis income:
The income that they get is always percentage basis. Now it depends how much percentage they are getting from their every sales. The percentage also sometimes fluctuate, it may be more sometime or less.
If the percentage is less the individual will not be motivated with the job and may not give the quality service to the clients and the percentage of the income of that individual may either motivate or de-motivate and create less opportunities.
9. One man show:
Commission based job needs a one man show personality where that person can do the most of the job alone without feeling very depressed about working alone.
To do this job a person has to make a systematic and proper schedule so that the work doesn’t become a burden and the job should go smoothly. That individual should be mentally strong because of the market out there.
The market is pretty rough and cut throat therefore the individual has to smartly do the work which is allotted.
10. Challenging Competitive nature:
Commission based job is very challenging because there are lot of people looking out there, to steal clients and keep up with upcoming competitive environment. All the people who work as a commission based job has to look out for clients who are searching for such individual or the job seekers and therefore ultimately it is a race to the mountain where one can fall and the other may reach to the top.
Final Words:
Commission based jobs carries a lot of opportunities and risk with itself. It can sometimes provide more income or sometime less, depends about the seasonal demand about the product.
The changing trends may affect the crowd and the clients or the customer percentage may be less or more, depends on the customer’s desire and wants.
It’s a great option for the part time job seekers because they can set their time aside and perform their service but for the employee at the other hand is difficult if they are going to get steady commission every month.
