From Beginning to Grand Opening

[sparta28090]

Good Evening to everyone! My name is Steve and I am from North Carolina. I have been in the automobile business for 23 years and an owner/operator for 11 of them. I had to close my independant dealership 2 and a half years ago due to such dreadful economic times.

I am giving serious thought to opening my own insurance agency as I have ample office, office equipment, and parking space to do so.

My only inquiries of information has been to the NCDOI Commissioner's website thus far

I would definately love to hear any input, advice, or weblinks that my fellow posters could point me to.

I would encourage any advice that you yourself we tell yourself today if you where to start your own agency.

I thank you in advance for any input

 

[Insuranti.com/south]

If you are going to start out as an independent broker find a mentor. Or get with a GA that has the time to help develop your business.
I started out reinventing the wheel and blowing more money than I needed to.
Find local or regional players that know the carriers in your area and what sells.
The biggest difficulty I had was trying to manage a group of agents on my own as well as commissions. If this is the direction you are going see if they have the ability to manage that side of the business. Any help with training and back office B.S. will help you immensely.
Like I said I started out on my own, contracting direct. I wasn't even a number. Later I found a GA that was able to help me through my learning curve.

 

[sparta28090]

Seeking a mentor is an excellent idea, so thank you for that!

I am looking to open an office to sell auto, home, life, health and supplemental to medicare. So, realistically, I am thinking that most clients would be walk-ins and referals from the small knitted communities that I served in the aforementioned auto dealership.

My only experience in insurance is related only to what a car dealer would do such as:

1) Bank-Financed Life/Accident and Health, Gap and selling the product but the Bank got most of the retention on those products.

2) Calling my client's agent recording the lien and making the apropiate changes that reflected the deal.

So, as you can see, I am very wet behind the ears from start-up to opening the door.

The communities I would serve are small and knitted (nearest McDonald's is 15 miles away and other things). So I would also offer:

1) Notary
2) Faxing Services
3) Signage
4) And possibly web-hosting

Insurance would always be my priority, but the traffic from these services along with aggressive advertising I strongly believe that I could generate traffic.

So any weblinks or personal advice would be greatly appreciated.

Have a Great Day!