Independent Agency-second Office

[kdong]

Hi

first i would like to say thanks to the forum for all the helpful info.

second, i just wonder if anyone in here have any experience to open the second location? I have 1 agency and i can say it is good (averagely 30 new customers per month and mostly from referral). I am about to open the second location but don't know how to run the second office. The first office was doing good because I was there and really work my ass up to get new clients at the beginning and now after 7 years they know my name out there so they can refer. However, I am not there on the second location and plan to hire 1 person first to run the office but i Don't know how to get her working or get clients for that second location. Any help will be very appreciated.

Thanks
Kevin

 

[Insurance-Guy]

I can tell you this for sure you can't be in both places at once. So make sure you have a excellent staff. But in general it will be twice the headache!

 

[xrac]

I can tell you this for sure you can't be in both places at once. So make sure you have a excellent staff. But in general it will be twice the headache!

I think it will be more than twice the headache.

 

[kdong]

hehe i do know that already. that is why i tried to see if anyone with experience can share some tips here.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
and i do know that excellent staff is hard to hire and especially at the beginning because of no clients there yet.

 

[Sales71]

Try to copy what you did for the first location to get it off the ground..you might have to go out and talk to people in the area to let them know you are the local insurance broker!

 

[djs]

What is the value (to you) of the second office, compared to say, just hiring a producer in the area with a small rent-a-desk setup?

Can your current office deal with the extra support? Its much easier to keep as much as you can in one place. It definitely makes staffing much more efficient.

Is there something compelling to make you want to open a second office? I actually support the idea, but its a lot of work and it never seems to go as well as the first. Its hard to replicate the initial success.

Dan

 

[TRSecurity]

I have experience opening satellite offices for my agency, none of which are driving distance from each other. I am in the process of doing so now.

We have done it in several different ways:

First off, the one tactic that failed was where I tried to be in two places at once as previously mentioned.

The success has been in these three ways:

1. Bringing on a pre-existing team of independents who are already loosely working together, but had no formal structure. One of those people become the satellite owner and, using our structure and back-end support, builds the team from there. A local presence already exists for the agents, but now a unifying brand can be used to raise everyone up. The satellite owner makes overrides on agents working through that office.

2. Working with an existing agent of ours who we trust and believe can build an office. This is a single, independent agent in a location outside of our main office who already puts business through us. We provide a structure and incentive for that person to start hiring people to work in a new office. We use our back-office support to provide a reason for the local leader to hire, and for independents to want to be part of the team. Again, this person now makes overrides off of agents working through that office.

3. An existing home office agent moves to a new location and builds a team from scratch. The key is that this agent has moved to a new spot and isn't trying to be in two places at once.

Key Point: In each of these scenarios, the existing agency owner isn't the one opening the new office. The workload of running an office is put on another person. I don't see this working any other way, unless the additional offic(ies) are withing driving distance and splitting time is manageable. The hardest part of all of this is finding a competent trustworthy person to open an office for you.

Now instead of running an additional office, you'll be spending your time as a mentor to the satellite owner(s).