A question posed to our agency management faculty: “I am an agency owner. At one time we changed to an ‘S’ corporation and our CPA told us it was best to be a ‘C’ corporation. We changed and since then I’m of the opinion we should have remained an ‘S.’ Can you give any insight…
Inertia is the greatest force against progress and change. Too often, agencies run into the “Inertia Wall.” The Inertia Wall is invisible. It is soft and comforting. It is “the way we’ve always done it.” It doesn’t stop progressive change. Rather, it simply absorbs it. What causes Inertia to become such a strong force against…
As a cluster matures, you can actually see the lines between agencies blurring. The Virtual Insurance Agency (VIA) takes a maturing cluster to its logical conclusion, a mega-merger of all of the agencies into one corporate entity with several owners based on the values of each owner’s business as it converts into the VIA.
As an agent, you have knowledge of other agents telling their clients not to list youthful drivers. After all, the ISO PAP covers resident family members automatically whether listed or not. Is this fraud? Is it unethical? What will you do, what will you do?
Many smaller agencies would like the market clout and economies of scale of larger agencies. Historically, about the only way to do this has been through mergers or clusters. Now there’s a new way that has benefits for all parties involved.
Our father’s agencies are gone. If you wish things were like they were in the “good old days,” please remember that, along with 25% commissions, more respect and customers seeking agents services, came polio, high infant mortality rates and world wars. The past is, indeed, past. Look to the future and grow and profit and…
Much of the call on consultants has to do with breaking through the barriers to natural growth that agencies experience at different stages of growth. Agencies find it particularly difficult to break through the $1, $2 and $3 Million revenue marks. Once the $3 Million ceiling has been broken, agencies seem to be able to…
Change is hard for all of us. It is easier, however, for those businesses that face failure and losses due to performance-related problems. Change out of weakness, while difficult to implement, is always easy to reconcile and rationalize. The most difficult change, on the other hand, is changing from a position of strength. In this…
The last three agencies we visited had problems so similar that we decided to see just how many agents have the same experience – and the same problems. The key issue for each agency owner was EXTREME FRUSTRATION. When probed for more information and better focus on the issues, the owners in each agency echoed…
In the past year, we have averaged an “Ask an Expert” question about every other month involving agency clusters. In this article, we’ll present the questions, our faculty responses, and an article by Chris Burand on cluster tips. In addition, an article and FAQs by Al Diamond are presented on an alternative concept he calls…
