Pros
Independence for scheduling work. Company vehicle with gas card. Front line employees are great and good friendships can be developed.
Cons
Terrible management at multiple levels. Upper management unsure of business structure they want to utilize. Vertical structure. No, wait, we'll make it horizontal. Next year.. nah, lets go back to vertical again. No culture of assistance to remote areas. No expectation of knowledge transfer from many individuals with decades of experience. Old culture of having a good time with team building is gone. Thanks to new ownership being a venture capitalist firm, the new culture is about sell, sell, sell, and push price increases even if the industry being served is taking huge market hits. Training department lacks many training skills. Zero career development. Annual reviews can be done by distant management with little to zero first hand knowledge. Employee reviews can be tied directly to the price of final products of the customers. I.e, if the price of gold goes down, sales people to gold producers can expect a bad review. Many of the most talented people in the company have been driven off. New management positions are being given to long standing employees with histories of being deeply condescending and sexist.