Starting a Commercial Insurance Agency from Scratch Advice Needed

[alwaysbelearning1]

Starting a Florida Commercial Lines Agency? From Scratch... Wow!

Totally Agree

Totally Correct

I mostly agree, however an argument can always be made that the best time to jump in is the time that most folks are jumping out. And that could be now.

Establishing lead flow, took me about 8 years. Now I have more leads than I know what to do with. What is constantly changing is the market. And the market is friggin tight. Im heavy on PL, but I do have CL and its reallllly challenging to find proper cover for lots of clients right now. And the thing that seems obvious, but no one will tell you - is that when you hang out your new shingle the number one thing people are likely to ask you for the is the type of insurance that is hardest to find.

To try and answer your question. You've got to get enough deals closed before you can start taking in referrals. Referrals are how most agencies grow [regardless of if they will admit this or not]. Getting to that point can be done with lots of ad spend, lots of appt setting calls, SEO development, in person advertising, guerrilla marketing, Key contact cross referrals - but its a grind no matter how you slice it for the first five years. I personally did this on the internet.

I wish you the best of luck.

So the issue isn’t the leads but the actual companies suck right now…

Wouldn’t the solution be to get more appointments or to join an agency network then?

 

[NY independent]

A) No carriers are appointing right now.
B) Aggregators have the same problem with markets....moratoriums and super hard markets affect them too.

 

[alwaysbelearning1]

A) No carriers are appointing right now.
B) Aggregators have the same problem with markets....moratoriums and super hard markets affect them too.

This is so weird.. I thought this was a lucrative business to start. I’m shocked to be honest.

When you say super hard markets you mean the prices are just not competitive??

This business seems to entirely be based on timing. If the markets are good then I assume we’ll be having a different conversation.

 

[marindependent]

Think of it as being a hot dog salesmen with no meat and no buns...but you do have two day old stale sauerkraut in a paper wrapper that costs three times as much as the hot dog with the sauerkraut used ot. Also you are low on mustard and have not seen ketchup in weeks. Does the client want or need sauerkraut in an old wrapper? No.

When we say super hard market we mean often there is no suitable solution and if there is one, it can take dozens perhaps even 20 submissions to find out. And when the client finally sees the price, they likely cant afford it.

 

[Allen Trent]

Chances to start a scratch agency are between slim and none.. None of the good or great carriers will appoint you without a track record or success & competence in commercial markets. Likely best joining an existing large commercial agency with lots of carriers & infrastructure