Summary of Success

Summary of Success

Episode 72 - If you’ve been listening to the last few episodes, we’ve been breaking down the steps you need to consider before starting a business. The concepts shared in these episodes are the foundation of building a successful business, no matter what kind.

Bottom line in business is You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

You see, too many people jump into starting a business without doing any planning. Then they wonder why they aren’t finding success, as if business should just fall from the sky!

For some people even if they don’t plan, they might get lucky but the majority of people put in a lot of hard work, time, money and sweat equity to get their dream of owning their own business off the ground.

For many people it’s trial and error

It’s figuring out what to do as they run into trouble or finding answers when they least expect to. 

Even if you do extensive planning and research before you start your business, you will hit obstacles, but the more you are prepared with your foundation, the better chance of success you will have.

In this episode I want to recap the top 5 things I think you should focus on when planning to open your business. I’ve talked about these before, but I’m hoping that if they have their own episode, you’ll pay attention.

Quick recap

• Marketing Plan

• Focus

• Business Team

• Capital

• Contracts

• What’s your end game

Ideas To Consider

• Have a plan. You can take courses on how to create a business plan, and your plan can be 30 pages or 3 pages. I’ve even heard of a one page business plan, but it’s hard to get a lot of details on one page!   There’s two things I think are essential in your plan. 

  1. The first is marketing. And I think this needs to be very well defined. Maybe you need to do a little market research to test your idea before you can create a solid marketing plan, but without this, you are doomed. I also think that when you define your marketing plan up front and look at the costs for each tactic you want to implement, then you can budget accordingly which is the se cond part of the plan that I think is essential. I’ll get back to that part but let's talk about marketing first.

  2. The second is financial - For someone like me, this is the toughest part because while I understand math and some accounting, financial projections aren’t something I can easily wrap my head around. I see this part as start up costs - what you need to really open your doors, how much capital do you need to pay yourself or a staff for the first year while you are growing your business and how much reserve do you need in the event things don’t go as planned? Map this part out, give it to your banker friends and ask their opinions. This is essential and often overlooked by many startup entrepreneurs. It’s why first year entrepreneurs have such a high failure rate.

• Focus on what you want to do - It’s ok to pivot down the road as many companies do, but if you are starting as an agency, an insurance company or a related insurance partner, be focused. Don’t try to be all things to all people. It is the greatest component of success for startups.

• Put together  you business team. I’m not talking about staff but the other professionals that can guide you. Don’t hire your family member if they don’t specialize in what you need. For example, you need a business attorney, not the family law attorney. Get a good business accountant, and make friends with your banker, payroll, bookkeeper, human resources and even other insurance professionals that aren't doing what you hope to do.

• This ties into the financial piece, but having enough capital to get you through is essential. This is really the hardest part. So many people want to start but don’t have the capital. They bootstrap it which can work but it would be so much easier if there was capital. If you are working as you are thinking about starting a business, get your loan while you are working for someone else because once you become self employed, the lending rules change and it’s not easy. In 2023 when everything is out of whack from COVID, getting a bank loan is really difficult so get it before you leave your salaried income.

• Contracts - Be sure to read all of your contracts thoroughly. I would strongly recommend having them reviewed by your business attorney. It might cost a few extra dollars, but trust me, they’ll see things in a different light than you will and offer good tips for negotiation. If you have a partner, have a contract - the more detailed the better. It needs to discuss what is involved if there is a breakup. Better to get it right before you start then pay thousands when no one is talking to each other. A business breakup is no different than a marital breakup. Your business pre-nup is the most valuable document you can create. Have contracts with business vendors, employees and review your insurance company contracts thoroughly. Don’t sign on the dotted link just because you get offered a contract.

• This last one is a bonus idea but I think it is essential to set yourself up with the end in mind. It doesn’t matter if the end is 30 years away, be thinking like that. Build a business you can sell if you need to. We don’t know what life will bring us tomorrow so if you set it up right from the beginning, you don’t need to worry about a surprise obstacle getting in your way. 

If you can’t tell from the past few episodes, this is my passion. I love helping people get started in business. I’m not as good with someone that already has 100 employees, but for the start up, my heart sings! 

If you have questions, feel free to reach out. You can find me on LI and FB. I have a group called The business of insurance, but it’s not that active. If you want to be a part of it, let me know and I’ll let you in!

Thank you for listening to this series on how to start a business. If you know someone thinking about getting started or someone that has been in the business for a short period of time, please share this information with them. 

It’s free and valuable!

SHOW THE LOVE

If you haven’t done so already, please follow, like or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast player. The terminology for this has been changing, but we want you to get our podcast when new episodes are published, so check the platform where you listen to podcasts and make sure we are in your playlist!  We are on all of the platforms including spotify, IheartRadio and Apple podcasts.and Google Podcasts.

SPONSOR

Insurancemailboxpower.com

CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST ON SOCIAL

FACEBOOK GROUP

FACEBOOK PAGE

TWITTER

ABOUT THE HOST

This episode of the Business of Insurance podcast is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA - an entrepreneur, business advisor, insurance professional  and content creator. Her goal is to inspire you to think differently and explore ideas that disrupt the status quo. 

Debbie has an extensive business and marketing background with a focus of helping insurance professionals be more successful. She also works in the health insurance space, focusing on helping people navigate the Medicare Maze.

She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals.

Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.  

Business Pre Planning Part 2

EP -71  If you haven't listened to episodes 65-71, they set the stage for this final episode on things to think about when starting your own insurance business. Regardless if you are starting an agency, an insurance company or a related business to the insurance industry like technology, claims or risk management, the concepts of starting a business are the same. These are discussed in these episodes and can help with your thought processes and planning.

Pre-planning, part 2 provides ideas to implement 6-12 months before you are ready to open your doors. If you don't have a year to plan your business, you can fast track these ideas. It's the concepts that you want to consider to assist in starting your business with a greater chance of success.

Months 6-9

• Define business objectives 
• Pick a name for your business 
• Look for office locations 
• Write a business plan 

Month 10

• Decide legal form for your business
• Set up recordkeeping system
• Establish a relationship with a banker
• Open a business checking a account

Month 11-12

• Prepare cash flow projections
• Define amount of investment you’ll need
• Prepare financial statements
• Obtain license insurance, permits
• Secure financing
• Set up office and operational space
• Purchase business cards, office supplies
• Hire staff

SHOW THE LOVE

If you haven’t done so already, please follow, like or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast player. The terminology for this has been changing, but we want you to get our podcast when new episodes are published, so check the platform where you listen to podcasts and make sure we are in your playlist!  We are on all of the platforms including spotify, IheartRadio and Apple podcasts.and Google Podcasts.

SPONSOR

Insurancemailboxpower.com

CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST ON SOCIAL

FACEBOOK GROUP

FACEBOOK PAGE

TWITTER

ABOUT THE HOST

This episode of the Business of Insurance podcast is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA - an entrepreneur, business advisor, insurance professional  and content creator. Her goal is to inspire you to think differently and explore ideas that disrupt the status quo. 

Debbie has an extensive business and marketing background with a focus of helping insurance professionals be more successful. With over 30 years in the industry, mostly on the property and casualty side, she currently works in the health insurance space, with a focus on helping people navigate the Medicare Maze.

She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals.Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram. 

Business Pre Planning Part 1

EP - 70 This episode provides additional insight into starting your own business in the insurance industry.

We'll cover ideas to help you map out the process over the course of several months so you don’t have to do everything at one time. We'll talk about tasks that can be broken down over 12 months or done in 30 days if you don't have much time.

Month 1 -2 

Define your ideas - what area are you going into? Agency, carrier, claims, Life, health, will you just do something like work comp, airlines or medicare? Maybe you are thinking technology in the form of a CRM for insurance, maybe you’ll white label a product that is working in another industry. There are a lot of things in between, these are just examples. But give some thought to your direction. Will you set up your business like everyone else or do you have ideas for being innovative? I don’t believe any of this is incorrect, you just need to define what you want to do and make sure you have done the research and have a great plan for moving forward.

Month 2-3

Assess the impact on your life and family - I believe this is often overlooked and is an essential component of going into business. A business is like having another child. It is expensive, it takes a lot of your time, it can eat up your resources until you start making sales. Your spouse needs to buy in emotionally and financially. When I started my first agency back in the early 90’s I thought I had my husband's support. We agreed that I could tap into our home equity loan which was $25,000. Our marriage was set up where we each paid 50% of everything so I needed that money to pay my portion for awhile.( 2 kids with childcare, mortgage, groceries, and a car payment, along with the business expenses) 6 months into starting my agency, my husband was freaking out. I was making sales, but not enough to pay 50% of my bills around the house. Since I was home based, he thought I was doing nothing all day and that we could stop sending the kids to daycare and same some money. He just didn’t get it. Ultimately, we got divorced and while it was over a completely different issue, my being self employed weighed into it heavily. When I went looking for another partner, I wanted them to be in sales and understand being in business. I wasn’t going to be with someone else that did not understand you have to make some sacrifices short term for long term success.  I can’t stress how important it is to get complete buy-in from your spouse or partner about how the finances and time will be for the next 2-3 years. If you aren’t making money after that then you might need to reassess!

Month 3-6

Locate sources of business advice and support - in the last episode, episode xxx, we talked about different members of your team. This wasn’t people that would be on your payroll but people that you would get advice and wisdom to make sure you are successful. If you missed that episode, please go back and listen to it again.

THIS EPISODE OF THE BUSINESS OF INSURANCE PODCAST IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY INSURANCEMAILBOXPOWER.COM

How will you announce your new business? How will you thank all the people that support you? Consider insurancemailboxpower.com. This great platform lets you send gifts, cards, direct mail and other marketing pieces to your clients, prospects and those that are supporting you along the way.

Since we are talking about getting started in business in this episode, once you decide on your company name and logo, you can create a few custom items to see how it feels. Put the name and logon on a coffee mug, order yourself  some custom pens. Just test it out to see how it feels before you commit to the final copy. 

Use my affiliate link and go to insurancemailboxpower.com where you can set up a free 14 day trial  account. Send yourself a few products and see how it feels. 

When you sign up for a pro or executive account, I’ll share some of my designs with you that have been generating results for me!

Continuing in month 3-6

Obtain necessary skills - depending on what type of business you are starting, will depend on the types of skills you need. If you aren’t good at sales, take some sales classes. If you aren’t good at leadership, take some classes, if you don’t know what is involved in running a business, take some classes. Do this before you get started, so you have a better chance of finding success earlier, not after you open your doors. You’ll always need to be learning and there are different ways to get the information that you need, but the more you do this before you open the doors, the less mistakes you’ll make when the doors open.

Research carriers, IMO’s, Aggregators,industries etc.If you are going on the agency side, who will you write your business with? I think it is really important that you really do your due diligence here. Get the contracts. Read them. Have your lawyer review them. Sit on them and make sure you ask questions. Don’t take anything for granted. It’s easy to sign one, it is not always easy to get out of one. It might mean going to a few industry events to ask people who they are using, getting some feedback from others before moving forward. By doing this part before you open your doors, you will save yourself a lot of time and aggravation down the road. 

• Topics to consider:

  • What are the sales expectations, what technology do they provide? 

  • Can you test ride it? 

  • What type of support is available? 

  • How are commissions paid? 

  • What about overrides and contingencies? 

  • What happens if you want to leave or move to another organization?

  • What happens if you sell your business?

There’s a lot of information you need before you sign up that will help you to be more successful. 

Since there’s a lot of information to planning to open your business, we are going to stop here for today. We’ll pick up what to do in the next episode. 

So until then, KEEP CREATING OPPORTUNITIES

SHOW THE LOVE

If you haven’t done so already, please follow, like or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast player. The terminology for this has been changing, but we want you to get our podcast when new episodes are published, so check the platform where you listen to podcasts and make sure we are in your playlist!  We are on all of the platforms including spotify, IheartRadio and Apple podcasts.and Google Podcasts.

SPONSOR

Insurancemailboxpower.com

CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST ON SOCIAL

FACEBOOK GROUP

FACEBOOK PAGE

TWITTER

ABOUT THE HOST

This episode of the Business of Insurance podcast is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA - an entrepreneur, business advisor, insurance professional  and content creator. Her goal is to inspire you to think differently and explore ideas that disrupt the status quo. 

Debbie has an extensive business and marketing background with a focus of helping insurance professionals be more successful. She also works in the health insurance space, focusing on helping people navigate the Medicare Maze.

She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals.

Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram. 

Who Should Be On Your Team

EP 69 - We get training for being an insurance agent but we don’t get training for being a business owner. They are two completely different hats. If you want to succeed in Business you need to have a team. I was recently listening to another podcast with an angel investor and she said the first thing she looks for is who is on the team and what is their experience.

You need a team. It’s nice to think you can do everything yourself, but something will be lacking if you don’t bring on help. So here’s what your team should look like.

Accountant 

• Consult with an accountant for guidance on your entity choice.
• Have your accountant show you how to initially set up your books - 
• Use your accountant as an advisor to different financial decisions you can make with your business.
• Meet with them quarterly for business planning ideas

Bookkeeper - someone that can help with commissions, payroll, balancing your accounts 

Lawyer 

• Get guidance on your entity structure
• Let them review and create different documents for you

Marketing 

• Let them help with your webite, branding and a marketing plan

Insurance - if you aren’t doing commercial P&C on a daily basis, partner with someone that is and let them be your agent. They can talk to you about the newer coverages like cyber and  AI but also make sure you know about the other coverages usually offered in a BOP., 

Banker 

• Get to know several bankers. They can be your best friend.
• They work with a lot of other businesses, they have their pulse on what is going on in the economy and they know who is lending, who isn’t and where you can find money.

Human Resources  

• Find an outsourced HR firm that you can use. Maybe you need them once a month, or once a year,  having the professionals at your fingertips is a great way to keep yourself out of hot water with employees. 

Mentor / Coach 

• They can save you years of mistakes because they’ve been there, done that. Rather than trying to figure it out for yourself, they have the answers.

SPONSOR

Insurancemailboxpower.com

CONNECT WITH THE PODCAST ON SOCIAL

FACEBOOK GROUP

FACEBOOK PAGE

TWITTER

ABOUT THE HOST

This episode of the Business of Insurance podcast is produced and hosted by Debbie DeChambeau, CIC, AAI, CPIA - an entrepreneur, business advisor, insurance professional  and content creator. Her goal is to inspire you to think differently and explore ideas that disrupt the status quo. 

Debbie has an extensive business and marketing background with a focus of helping insurance professionals be more successful. She also works in the health insurance space, focusing on helping people navigate the Medicare Maze.

She is the co-author of Renewable Referrals.

Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.  

Understanding The Business Owner Mindset

Today’s episode is one of several episodes about how to get started in the insurance business. I’m not talking about becoming an agent, I’m talking to those of you that are thinking about starting an agency, an insurance company, or an an insuretech business. There’s a lot more to hanging a shingle that says you are open. As part of the planning process for starting a business there are some concepts to consider, these are about yourself.

As exciting as it is to start a business, there’s a lot to consider. It’s not all glamor and glory!

Most business owners would agree it’s a lot of hard work, a lot more than they expected. It’s long days, weekends and holidays. Many business owners lose their marriages over their business. As I mentioned in the last business, 90% of business fail in the first year. 

The circumstances around why they fail vary, but often it’s with the concepts I’m discussing today.

In the last episode we talked about why business fail:

• Lack of a marketing plan 
• Missed market shifts 
• Ignoring the customer
• Lack of financial understanding
• Poor management
• Location 
• Motivation 
• Life’s distractions 
• Lack of planning 

INTRO FOR PART 2 - RECAP THE ABOVE AND THINKING BIGGER AND W HY YOU WANT TO START A BUSINESS

The first thing I want to talk about is 

Thinking Bigger

• As you are thinking about starting a business, don’t think about something small to just pay your bills or starting something as a hobby while you raise your family. Think in terms of building something that you can be proud of, that you can expand, most importantly, that you can sell!
• Think in terms of how you will build a team, how you’ll grow so that it isn’t just you doing all the work all the time. There are a lot of companies that encourage you to grow your business by recruiting - that’s not what I’m talking about. Build a business where you own the business and the people on your team are your employees. While the network marketing concept works, I personally don’t think that is a good business model at all. You don’t have much control and it’s not a model that you can scale and sell! One day I’ll really talk about how I feel about network marketing and recruiting, but for this purpose, I want you to think about a team that supports you, that helps you to be more successful, that you can delegate to and have them expand your brand.
• Women who start businesses often have a smaller vision. Don’t get mad at me for saying that but after teaching this presentation for over 5 years, it’s something that I’ve witnessed firsthand. Women who start businesses often think about a business that is close to home and around their family and not something that is  scalable. I can’t tell you how many women want to start a baking or food business or a party business for kids. I’m not saying that’s a bad idea but after many of them have done their market research they realized that it wasn’t a business that they could really make a profit or build to sell. 
• Insurance is a little different. Since COVID, a lot of people have realized that they can run this type of a business virtually, but I’m not sure if that is sustainable long term. Good market research will help to prove that. There are so many different type of insurance businesses that you can start: i.e. an agency, a brokerage, an FMO, an insurance company, a captive, a direct writer. You can focus on life, health, personal lines, commercial, yachts, tech or international. Under the umbrella of insurance, you have a lot of choices!
• This is why you need a plan. I talk about having a plan all the time but remember fail to plan, plan to fail. 

ADVERTISEMENT

This episode of the business of  insurance podcast is brought to you by insurancemailbox power. Part of being a business owner is implementing systems and processes that can be automated as much as possible. 

As you are planning your new business, you need to be thinking about your marketing. Insurancemailboxpower.com is a great platform for this.

You can send post cards to prospects, regular cards to clients and referralpartners

You can test the markets with just an investment of a few hundred dollars and send a mailing to a list of prospects. 

When you start a new business if you are going solo, there are a lot of balls to manage at one time. 

The more you can automate, the more time you will have for business development. 

If you want to learn more, go to insurancemailboxpower.com. Sign up for your free 14 day trial and see how you can automate some of your marketing.

Understand yourself better: 

• Why do you want to start a business? 
• This is the most important conversation you need to have. I mentioned it a little in the last episode, don’t go into business because you think you can do it better than someone else….unless you really can. 
• Here’s some reasons why people go into business:
• Create a career for yourself - while there is plenty of employment opportunities today in 2022, that wasn’t always the case. Back in the 80’s a lot of people went to college and couldn’t get jobs. When we went into lockdown with COVID and a lot of people lost their jobs, and the entrepreneurial type started delivering groceries and filling grocery orders.  People will find work when they need to. Starting an insurance business can be a great career - the question is, are you better as a business owner or as an employee or subcontractor to someone?
• Some people go into business because There’s a demand for what you are selling. Insurance is a product that people need, but not all people know they need insurance. Not all people want to spend the money for something they may never use. If you are connected to a few auto dealerships, it’s easy to get auto insurance from new car buyers.There’s a demand because people can’t drive their car off the lot without car insurance. If you are connected to some mortgage lenders, it is easy to sell homeowners insurance because people can’t go to closing without homeowners. I was speaking to someone recently who couldn’t understand why she had to pay money for automobile insurance all of her life and she’s never had an auto claim. Money spent for nothing is the way she looked at it. So while people need insurance, it’s not always an easy sell like a new iphone or a new tesla!
• Another reason people go into business is because you want to make a difference - wanting to make a difference can be a good reason to go into business, especially insurance, because you can really make a difference in this industry. But are you setting up your business to make a profit while making a difference? Just something to think about.
• An obvious reason why people want to go into business it to make money - when you work for someone else, they often determine your salary. If you are on a commission basis, then you will determine your salary but not all commission positions pay fairly. And not every position can be sales…..it’s a good reason to want to go into business, but it is also important to understand what it costs to get started and the ongoing business expenses of running a business. Money for marketing, taxes, general overhead can be more than you think. The expenses are ok so long as you are generating reven