Advice and Direction for a Newbie!

[gcthornton11]

Okay so to begin, I am new to the forums, but have spent weeks reading in them and finally decided that it's time to get a plan in motion.

First off, I live in a small town in south MS, and I am licensed in life & health and P&C. I do not currently work in insurance. I work doing manual labor around 70 hours a week for close to minimum wage. I am 22 years old. I do not know very much about the insurance industry, just enough to get licensed basically. I got licensed with the intent to do something with them (obviously, it costed over a weeks paycheck to do so) but I don't know where to start. I don't really like the idea of working a 9-5 sitting in an office with a cap on my earning potential. I have been really looking into becoming a final expense agent primarily and am looking for ideas on how to start the correct way. Captive or non? Or is selling final expense not a good way to start? I want to devote myself to whatever I do full time. So any advice would be great for a newbie that is too scared to take the risk to jump in full force and try to chase a career I feel I would really enjoy!

Thanks for the responses, and I hope that I can continue to learn and be apart of these forums for many years to come!

 

[Jerard]

First of all, how long can you go without a paycheck? If you try to go independent it may be weeks before you stumble into a sale. Your best bet is to get hired by a captive company (meaning you can only sell their products). Most of those, such as American General, for example, will pay you for awhile while training but you have to go into the office every day. They will ask you if you know 100 people at the interview (for the sake of selling polices to). Since the fail rate of new agents is very high they want you to sell all your family and friends before you blow out of the business. Your first year will be the hardest but if you learn how to prospect past your family and friends you should last awhile. This is one option, others will chime in with others. In the immortal words of the movie Taken.... "Good Luck'.

 

[Stephen]

Okay so to begin, I am new to the forums, but have spent weeks reading in them and finally decided that it's time to get a plan in motion.

First off, I live in a small town in south MS, and I am licensed in life & health and P&C. I do not currently work in insurance. I work doing manual labor around 70 hours a week for close to minimum wage. I am 22 years old. I do not know very much about the insurance industry, just enough to get licensed basically. I got licensed with the intent to do something with them (obviously, it costed over a weeks paycheck to do so) but I don't know where to start. I don't really like the idea of working a 9-5 sitting in an office with a cap on my earning potential. I have been really looking into becoming a final expense agent primarily and am looking for ideas on how to start the correct way. Captive or non? Or is selling final expense not a good way to start? I want to devote myself to whatever I do full time. So any advice would be great for a newbie that is too scared to take the risk to jump in full force and try to chase a career I feel I would really enjoy!

Thanks for the responses, and I hope that I can continue to learn and be apart of these forums for many years to come!

If you can make adjustments in your personal life/finances, final expense would probably be your best shot with your background.

At 70 hours a week, I am assuming that you are working your butt off to pay bills. If you can get a roommate, move in with mom, turn something off, or something else to free up a couple of days per week to start part time, you could make it work if you can find someone to show you the ropes.

You would only need to sell 1-3 FE policies per week to make what you are right now. You could sit on the side of the road with a sandwich board for 70 hours per week and do that.

 

[gcthornton11]

To answer the questions that y'all asked, I don't really have any bills right now. I had an apartment with my girlfriend, but even working the crazy hours I am I couldn't afford to keep up the rent and sadly we had to move apart from each other back in with our parents. So for the past few months I have been really thinking hard and doing research on what I would like to do with my life. Being from the small town that I am from, everyone works in the oil field and believes that is what I should do but I've tried it and just want to do more with my life and believe insurance is definitely what I want to do. I worked too hard in school and graduated at the top of my class to break my back forever and that life just isn't for me. I have an uncle that has been very successful in insurance and has his own agency, but now he has fallen under the NAA spell so he would rather try to recruit me to them than give me any actual advice. But point of the story, I'm not stressed over bills, I would just like to start making enough money to get back out on my own and make a decent living! I can't really go at it part time because the company I work for me wouldn't let me work any less than the 70 hours a week I work now!