New Venture

[plainstrader]

I posted this in the general forum but got crickets, thought I might get some feed back here!
Myself and another indy agent in my area have spoken about opening our own P&C agency as we believe there is good opportunity to succeed with enough hard work put in. But recently I was approached by a small indy agency from another part of the state that is looking to expand into our area. This agency has great leadership and has seen strong growth over the last 8 years. This would allow us ownership in the branch location without the some of the growing pains of starting from the ground up. Anyone been through either scenario? Thoughts one way or the other? What level of ownership should we negotiate if looked to that direction?
Grateful for any thoughts or opinions!

 

[BADTROUT]

I was approached about 5 years ago with a similar proposition (only I already had an agency). At the end of the day, the question was do I want to work for me, or for someone else. Being truly Independent is a mindset. Just my opinion here, but when given the opportunity, I would always rely on YOU. Why give up any of the ownership, which is a long term loss, versus giving up the short term convenience of eliminating the growing pains you'll go through... But my suspicion is that you'll go through those growing pains anyway. Just finding a way to integrate would be hard enough.

IMO, Start YOUR agency...

 

[MyGenericName123]

would you start from scratch or go with an MGA?

an MGA would eliminate the growing pains of finding an adequate amount of carriers to sell, right?

imo make the agency yours as best you can.

 

[1manshow]

Are you and your partner able to secure carrier contracting for the same area?