Agreed commission not being paid

[Thefailinghousewife]

I am just wondering if someone can tell me the right thing to do here.

I applied for a job in October for sales / admin part time for his start up. I came on board eventually in nov as self employed (I have a virtual pA business ad he decided this was better than employing me direct) with agreed rates in writing of £14ph and commission based on 10% initial contract and 5% return business.

The business was very young - he had no website / procedures etc and I spent all before Xmas putting this stuff in place, before returning to work 2 weeks ago after Xmas break to concentrate on recruitment and sales.

last week I secured 3 contracts, the smallest was £5k, the largest was potentially worth £200k per annum (absolute minimum of £65k)

i received a call yesterday from the guy I have been working for saying that he would feel resentful paying me ongoing comisssion on these jobs as “all I did was send an email” and so whilst he is happy to pay 7% on initial work, he will not be paying ongoing comission on these or any other work brought in.

I am gutted, not least because I loved working there, but also because I am trying to become financially independent from my husband, and I genuinely have worked my ass off for these leads. These contracts are on a rolling basis, so the initial job will be a weeks work, whereas the total job value (and ongoing comission) would have been much higher.

can I do anything legally? Is there any point chasing this? At this stage, NDAs between the 2 companies have been signed but that’s all.

@Thefailinghousewife you need legal advice probably from a contract lawyer, this will be dependent on the contract you signed as to how water tight it is.

Think about this a different way and play the long game. He phoned you but hasn’t put anything in writing, what you need is to buy time to get legal advice.

See this as a negotiation and wait for him to bring it up again. If he does say, if it was as simple as me sending an email why did he employ you as he could do that himself. Point out that website you designed and built gave professional credibility to his firm together with your sales pitch was what brought in the contracts and that you can continue to do this for him. Explain that the contract relationships will need to be managed and you will be doing that on an ongoing basis. You deserve to be fairly remunerated for your skills and expertise in the long term and that is why you both agreed to the current contractual terms.

If he keeps pushing, and once you have got legal advice, think about offering 10% as agreed on initial business, 5% for repeat business in first year then 2%on repeat business ( quote a reasonable figure based on your industry knowledge and legal advice) thereafter.

This is where you get canny - spend the next 12 months bringing in new contracts, keeping all the contracts happy (manage them) as you do build your skills (and CV) claim your 10% on initial business. (Not sure where 7% comes in) etc. As you have managed to build a website, procedures and attract 3 clients in just a few months you have highly marketable skills. Expand your virtual PA business offering new company set up services and over the next 12 months build your client base, you can then look at whether or not you continue to work for this client.

A key part of this will be what non-compete part of your contract says and notice period. If he starts to reduce commission and changes the contract insist on similar changes to your benefit I.e. you can work for other businesses, shorter termination of contract, no non-compete clause etc.

He is being greedy and underestimating the part you have, and will play, in bringing in new and repeat business.

He sounds like a chancer, I have been SE and have met a few. One of which only paid me the money owed when I took him to Small Claims.
Be very wary, not least because you sound like you are actually employed but he is avoiding his responsibilities
If you want a proper job PM me as I am looking for someone, it’s PAYE

Yes, you can do something legally. The agreed rates in writing are contractual. He must pay those. You can take legal action to recover the commission owed. However, as you are self-employed and have only been there a few months, he could dismiss you. In that situation you could recover the unpaid commission but you wouldn't be able to get the job back.

Thank you for your replies - I have already lost the job now! I told him I would be happy to renegotiate the long term commission rates, but would not accept zero commission. He said he wasn’t prepared to pay this or negotiate, then deleted all my log ins. He then emailed me saying he had made a business mistake and should have just employed an administrator not a sales person.

my concern was that these contracts are not yet underway (although i would have bet my house they would go ahead), and the initial job will be a smaller segment of a weeks work (about £5k) as a tester. The value of the contract as a whole is much larger. If I proceed legally how can we calculate that? I have WhatsApp messages saying well done for getting this in and that even conservatively it will make the £65k figure.

I don’t have a signed contract, but a bullet pointed email setting out the terms which I have replied to agreeing to proceed.

I will pm you @Hoppinggreen thank you so much!

A bullet pointed email and your reply forms a contract. The fact there is nothing signed is irrelevant.

All he is liable for is the commission you earned up until he sacked you. I'm afraid you can't claim future commission you would have earned.

Oh, and he's an idiot. Sacking a salesperson because you don't like the amount of commission they earn is always a bad move. I know a number of businesses that went under after sacking their best salesperson.

@Thefailinghousewife @prh47bridge is spot on he is an idiot.

Sorry about him ending your contract but hopefully you will find something quickly.

@Thefailinghousewife
please do, it’s a good opportunity with progression and you might have transferable skills
I had someone due to start on Monday but he’s had to pull out due to (genuine) family reasons