Hello, new salesman member here smaller city.

[CLE]

I'll give a brief history on myself so maybe someone can tell me if I've got a chance or not. In the mid 2000's I started a lawn care, snow removal, and firewood sales business. I did ok and survived but it didn't take me very long to realize I had way too much competition and that my competition was composed mainly of people who didn't pay taxes or insurance so I wasn't landing the work as much as them since I was trying to be legit. In 2012 I went to work as a salesman for a small local business selling mainly construction related items. I had no experience in this field but they needed someone and I was also ready for a change. Turns out I had a decent knack for it. I was able to negotiate pricing as well as expand product lines. Without raising prices profits went up due to the higher volume and better buying. I felt great about what I was doing. Now the issue I'm having is its been about since years since a raise. My job performance review is based solely on my sales numbers while that's only about 60% of what I actually do. I do a lot of warehousing, cleaning, shipping, etc. So even though I do well with my sales for how much time I spend in the office I'm not happy with that being the only thing taken into consideration when its time for evaluation. At this point in time my main goal is to start small selling products in my spare time and once I get to where I am doing $50K profit yearly I could jump fulltime with it. This weekend I realized how pathetic I was when my wife and I were looking at new cars for her so she could have reliable transportation to get to work. A loaded Ford Focus was out of our current comfort zone. That was kind of rock bottom for my self esteem. I really knew I was in a losing situation when I couldn't afford a lower end auto.

 

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[CLE]

I've been doing some reading in the forum here and there is some sound advice for sure. I just got set up with a company as an independent dealer and will be selling their products in my spare time from my full time job and later will move to importing large off shore items at deep discounts for U.S. sales. Just going get my feet wet slowly so I don't get in over my head. One thing I've learned in my life is that your friends and family will be the first to try and keep you from a new venture and act negatively. I grew up being treated like crap by two parents who repeatedly told me they never wanted me and were only together for my sake but reminded how I "ruined their lives". For years I struggled with self confidence and always felt worthless. After I left home for the military and was on my own I was able rebuild some self esteem and realize I had much more to bring to this world than my family made me out to be. I found who is now my wife back in 2001 and we have now been married for 14 years. Honestly it was great at first but as the years go by she started to be less and less appreciative and for several years now is just flat rude most of time. I'm at a point where I don't feel like I need the negativity and stress. I had my own business years ago when I was a little younger, not as informed, that particular industry was saturated, and the '08 collapse hit during my run as well. Because it don't go the best she acts like I have no business trying to run my own business again. Kind of funny, I basically run every aspect of the business I work at now doing far over $1 million in gross sales and $375-400K net. Just thought I'd share a little more history on myself.