How to Become a Sports Agent

How to Become a Sports Agent

You need more than just the dream to become a sports agent but that doesn’t mean that dream isn’t out of reach. Sports agents are those who represent the professional athletes and sports players, whether you enjoy football, baseball or want to represent an Olympian. It takes time and experience to hit the big leagues and that involves climbing the ladders—everyone has to start from somewhere!

It may take time but there are things that you can do to help yourself. The earlier you start with the following tips, the more experience you will build and the more chance of being the agent for the biggest stars.

Get the Right Type of Education

You may be surprised to hear that sports isn’t all you need to know about. Being a sports agent involves a lot of business transactions so you need a good head for that. There are negotiations to be made, contracts to sign and decisions to make throughout your career. Getting at least a bachelor’s degree in business would be a good place to start.

Sports management could be a good option too. This will give you the best of both worlds and there are a solid number of schools that are currently offering this. The North American Society for Sports Management is a great place to start looking. If neither of those courses appeal, consider business marketing at least. This will give you the skills to at least find new clients.

Part of your courses will involve some law but you don’t need to know it all. Any good sports agent will have his own lawyer to help decide whether a contract is worth signing or not.

Learn More About All Sports

You don’t want to find yourself pulled into just one area of sports or just fixate on your favourite options. Take your time to learn about all of them, including the likes of figure skating, tennis, golf and gymnastics. You want to gain as many clients as possible and this often means working in different areas than you would originally think. You never know; you may come to love them!

Really pay attention to the news surrounding the different sports. You want to watch as players are signed up by new teams and how the negotiations work. It’s important to keep on top of every single sport and build your experience this way. Learning and news watching never stops for a sports agent, even when you do get your own clients.

Gain the Experience of Being a Sports Agent

You will always hear that you need experience—real, on the job experience. You need to find someone who will give you that experience. Finding a mentor is a great option but who do you choose?

It is really important to find someone who has the time to teach you how to become a good sports agent. Not everyone will have the willingness to make the time and it can be a full-time job in itself. At the same time, you need to research into the different agents and find those who have manage to build themselves from the ground up and taught others how to do it—they’ve proven that their tips work for others, so you’re not wasting your time.

If you are really stuck, you could offer to volunteer or intern for an agency. This will at least give you the experience that you’ll need to get a paying job in the future. You don’t need to volunteer for too long but make sure you do get something out of it. The last thing you want is to be the person getting the coffee for everyone but never actually sitting in on a meeting.

While working with someone, you need to know about the contracts and the hardest parts in them. It is essential that you sit in on some negotiations to see how they work and develop into the type of sports agent you want to be. Some will the ruthless to get the client while others will sit back and let others do the work for them. Another part is the branding and you need to find out just how that works, what it means to be a spokesman and what companies want in their agents.

Pick Up the Important Skills

There are some skills that you can learn from others but will require some practice. These include communication, positivity, negotiation and networking. They are all just as important as each other and will get you the clients of your dreams. You can’t just expect all the clients to come to you, especially as a new agent.

Network with as many people as possible, including in marketing, business and sports. You want to stay in touch with the people you meet as you never know when they will pass on a lead. There will be events and if you know the right people, you’re more likely to be invited so you can introduce yourself and start getting the ball rolling.

Focus on communication. You want to be professional, positive and have personality that will help sell yourself so you gain more clients and get into the right circles. Practice your communication and introduction skills in the mirror, until you have the confidence to get out there and meet people. Before you start at the big events, you could always try local events that may have nothing to do with sports to practise introducing yourself to complete strangers.

Start with a Larger Agency

When you do start working as a sports agent, you need to start with an established company. Octagon is one such company. A simple Google search will turn up many more. Look for those with positive reviews (with clients and in the media). The benefit of larger companies is that you get the experience of working with different types of sporting stars and will gain more work. Your experience will grow much quicker than if you instantly started your own business.

This also helps you gain more credibility. People will hear your name attached to the larger company and trust you sooner than if you were a nobody. When you do decide to branch out and start you own business (if that is something you want to do), you will be able to carry that credibility with you, which will help you gain more clients in the future.

It can be competitive to get with the larger companies. If you need to, you could look at some smaller ones but make it an aim to work your way up that ladder. You don’t have to run your own business in the end if you enjoy working for someone else; there may be further opportunities by remaining as an employee.

Starting your own sports agency takes time, effort, knowledge and money. You will need to decide whether to be a freelancer or start an actual business. Then there is the gaining of clients, the negotiating against the larger businesses and the marketing so athletes know that you exist.

Become Certified as a Sports Agent

To be able to represent the bigger named stars and work for the larger companies, you may have to become certified. This will depend on your location and the board that you are becoming certified with. It can be a long process but it is more than worth it when it comes to getting bigger clients and becoming more respected in your line of work.

This is really beneficial if you decide to operate your own business. It gives you the authority, so more potential clients will listen to you contact them. You will also have the support of the authority that has given you the credentials but will need to stick to the rules and regulations in place.

It takes time to become a sports agent but is a great career as long as you’re willing to put the effort in. Focus on the schooling first and then build your experience. During schooling, stay on top of the news for the different sports, even those you’re not really interested in, and you could look at volunteering or interning somewhere. Every little bit of experience will help when it comes to finding work and building a client base.

Author

The Mercy Rule is all about providing information on anything sports related. It is designed by Phil Aye who also maintains a blog at Sports Fantasy Drafts.