Great experience but not a career
Pros
-You will learn a ton by meeting with hundreds and even thousands of small biz owners over your first few years. -Money was much better than where I came from so that was a huge plus at first. -Work life balance is great, meaning once you realize you will never get fired, you pretty much start working 10-15 hours a week. -Company does a good job with payroll product (for the most part), so your not too embarresed about having Paychex and your name on the same card. -Most of the reps are young and fun to work around. Highly competitve environment. -You will learn the basics of hard closing, fast selling, and cramming as much into an 8 hour day as humanly possible (when you work a full 8 hours that is). -Recruiters love Paychex reps. Hard workers who salivate over opportunity to make real money. Further explanation is below.
Cons
-Pay is sooooooo weak its insulting. It takes 90% of the reps about 2 years to fully realize how bad the pay is. Once they realize this, they start working 10-15 hours a week. Their production plumets, and then they move on, usually, to someting a lot better. -Nearly impossible to make $100k plus. Top rep in region might crack 6 figures. A good year in core sales at Paychex is $80k. Even though they give you an expense allowence ($300 tax free every two weeks), it doesn't come close to covering the amount of wear you will put on your car because you will be driving A LOT. As in 30,000+ miles a year a lot. So do not allow them to sell you on the idea that a "grossed up" extra $10,000 (meaning the expense allowance with the 'tax free' factor) to your salary to make it seem as if you make more than you do (like $45,000 to $10,000 = $55,000 base). It's simply not accurate, and its a tactic managers are taught in training to keep reps happy for as long as possible. You will make $36-45k depending on where you live, plus $10-30K in commission. After 2-3 years you are burnt out, tired and ready to leave for more money. -Management is underpaid and overstressed. It is honestly a sad sight. What they do to District Sales Managers is downright unethical. These guys/gals make a few dollars more than sales reps but are constantly threatend to be fired by their bosses if their salesforce numbers aren't higher, their closing %'s are higher, their CPA visits aren't higher, their referral partners aren't happy enough, and of course, if their number is anything shy of 100% of quota. You will see a young fun manager become a grouchy, mean micro-manager inside of a year. No exaggeration. -Outside of payroll, products are not very good and anyone who has touched them (meaning client or CPA), knows that they are awful. Constantly having to clean up the mess from another division to keep a CPA happy so they will keep referring you. However, the time spent dealing with these issues isn't outweighed by the commission from the referrals. So, yes you are losing money. -Very cheap orgainization. Will make you pay for you cell phone and internet. $150 per month.
