? about becoming a frame rep

[stephanie]

I have thought about becoming a frame rep since no one wants an experienced optician in MS. Can someone give me some details about what exactly and how exactly the job works and is it worth it? Thank you.



Steph

[optigrrl]

I love my job! I thought it would be quite an adjustment sitting on the other side of the dispensing table - selling instead of buying - but for me it has been a great decision.

Being self-motivated is important, along with time-management skills because you are no longer keeping regular hours. Budgeting is key, most (almost 95%) of rep jobs do not pay any expenses and your income does fluxuate.

I love being my own boss, meeting all the other opticians in my state and I love the lines that I carry. Cold-calling is as hard as approaching a pt. browsing in your dispensary. And so far, everybody has been very nice - unlike some patients!

And you have to love travel. You are in your car, by your self all day long.

Feel free to PM me with any other questions you may have - I hope this gave you some insight to see if it might be something you would like to do!

[Chris Ryser]

Being self-motivated is important, along with time-management skills because you are no longer keeping regular hours. Budgeting is key, most (almost 95%) of rep jobs do not pay any expenses and your income does fluxuate.

Optigirrl has just about said everything in her post...................

During a 20 year period when I had my frame company I used to have 9 sales reps. Some of them worked exactly like above description and stayed many years while others did not and their carrier lasted not very long.

These days I can assume that it is even harder to succeed as there are more companies and frames than ever.

One thing Optigirrl has not mentioned is th return business which results in negative commission, which means every time a customer returns frames, the commission paid when they were sold, will be deducted again from the present commission.

In the 70's we used to have 7-10% returns on frames sold by reps, not talking about direct repeat sales, these days, I hear, it can go up to 50%.

You also have to make up your mind if you want to work for one company or become an independent rep carrying several lines.

[stephanie]

Thank you for info!! I need to do something since I don't guess I am going to be able to find a job in MS. I don't mind traveling or being alone...I do an hour into Memphis now and my boyfriend lives 2 hours and I do that every week too. No big deal...I like idea of being alone and my own boss...so far not sounding too bad. Yes being an optician takes off commission when the pt refund or remakes too so that hurts too.