Time to Meet Your Business Persona: Your Agent…

Welcome back to week 5 of my sports business blog, where were continuing to dive deep into the sports business industry. Today we are talking about an integral role in every professional athletes camp, the sports agent.

What is a sports agent you ask? Simply put, a sports agent is a professional businessman who is hired to manage certain aspects of an athlete’s career. These certain aspects include managing legal duties and disputes, negotiating contracts, and even providing advice about signing other types of deals such as advertising, sponsorship and any other type of off-the-field endeavor that an athlete that would want to be apart of. Sports agents can also play a major role in managing an athletes finances to make sure that they are making smart decisions with the millions of dollars that they make each year.

This is probably the most important part of a sports agents duties because, believe it or not, about 60% of all professional athletes in North America’s top 3 leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB) file for bankruptcy just 5 years after retirement. It is the agent’s duty to make sure that all of his or her clients are making smart financial decision to ensure that they do not become a part of this statistic, as well as make sure that all of their other business affairs are in order. As you can see this is a very time consuming and tedious occupation that takes a lot of dedication and patience.

Now, it takes a certain type of person to be a sports agent. The first and most obvious quality needed in a sports agent is likability and the ability to establish a close and personal relationship with each and every client. This is crucial due to the fact that the agent will be dealing with their clients basically 24/7. This skill is also crucial because the agent needs to be likable in order to deal with potential sponsors and organizations on behalf of the athlete.

Next, it is very important for an agent to be very honest and straight up to their clients and always have their best interest in mind. This is the best way that sports agents not only earn the trust of all their clients, but also it allows them to earn trust with other important people in the sports world that they negotiate with regarding contracts, advertising, financial details, and many more business related practices.

The last major ability that is necessary for a sports agent is the ability to plan for the worst and be able to adapt on behalf of their client in the most dire or extreme circumstances. Whether it is a last second contract negotiation or simply being able to manage or advise their client if they are trying to make a rash or impulse decision financially. This ability to adapt and plan for the worst give a sports agent something to differentiate them from the rest of the pack and allow them to work with bigger and more popular athletes.

Now, In today’s day and age the media industry is growing and becoming more and more apart of sports business, and big name celebrities are getting involved in the industry by creating their own sports agencies. Most notably, rapper Jay-Z has created a sports agency that is growing and growing by the day. His agency, Roc Nation is also becoming one of the biggest agencies in the country and is starting to work for some of the most popular athletes in the country, including Robinson Cano and Dez Bryant.

This new influence of celebrities in the agency market allows the media industry and the sports industry to become evermore intertwined, and it will continue to stress the planning and people skills of each and every agent in order to deal with media personnel and make sure the reputation of their clients is seen in the best light possible.

To conclude, we can see that the position of sports agent is a position that is time-intensive and takes an incredible amount of people skills. We can also see that since we are dealing with sports, each and every sports agent must be able to be financially savvy in order to help manager their client’s money. Last but certainly not least an agent must be honest and straight forward in dealing with negotiations on behalf of their clients in order to gain trust throughout the industry. Now that you know what it takes to be an agent, are you willing to try your hand?

Next week on my sports business blog I will be talking about what is essentially the trickle-down effect in sports. How the money goes from the owner all the way down to the least paid player on the team. Stay tuned.