Starting My Own Insurance Agency!

[BrooklynIA]

Starting My Own Insurance Agency! Need Information!

Hey Guys! I am new to the forum so bare with me! Now i wanted to help my brother start up a new insurance agency in Brooklyn, NY. I had a few questions to what we should do and how we should do it.

My brother doesn't have any experience selling any insurance or anything at all, the only thing he has is that he is a licensed broker.

My suggestion to him was that we should hire someone with experience (How much should we pay him weekly?) and help that person guide us on starting the business and basically including that person in our team as a partner. We do not have any financial problems so this wouldn't be a problem for us to hire someone right from the start.

What i wanted to know was if this was a smart thing to do? Like if we do this is there any basic knowledge i should know beforehand i hire someone? like what type of software we need to be able to sell insurance? Also how do i get to sell specific insurance agencies policies to customers? I know some agencies (i.e Allstate) wont allow you to sell unless you only sell their insurance.

If you guys suggest he rather work for someone for a few months and learn the ins and out we could go with that as well but ultimately we wish to have our own business.

I will definitely look around on the forum for other peoples opinions and suggestions on different matters so any information here would really help us!

P.S i have a degree in accounting and finance so i can handle his financial works. If that helps

 

[insurance1822]

My advice is one of you go work for an agency for a period of time. Otherwise I think the lack of experience will be most likely insurmountable.

 

[BrooklynIA]

My advice is one of you go work for an agency for a period of time. Otherwise I think the lack of experience will be most likely insurmountable.

Hmm i had a feeling that was the best way to go about it. I just didn't want to waste any time and get straight into it that's why i was suggesting to hire someone with experience to help us guide us the whole way. Would you recommend working at a franchise agency or anywhere is fine as long as he gets experience?

 

[ModernInsurance]

Work for someone else and make the mistakes on their dime, instead of yours

 

[BrooklynIA]

Work for someone else and make the mistakes on their dime, instead of yours

haha! i actually love the way you said that! its a smart business move because i wont take in any loss!

 

[nyc2phi]

I'm usually not negative on here but Brooklyn NY might be the worst place in the country to sell property and casualty insurance. GEICO literally writes almost everyone's auto insurance, honesty in Brooklyn is a foreign language when it comes to insurance, commercial risks are mostly placed through brokerage because direct carriers don't like the BK or NYC area in general. Cancellations and poor loss ratios in that area are enough to make any agent mad in a short amount of time..

Not sure if I'm clear on this subject or not so let me know..

 

[shawnmwalker]

NY is a tough place to do this.

 

[BrooklynIA]

I'm usually not negative on here but Brooklyn NY might be the worst place in the country to sell property and casualty insurance. GEICO literally writes almost everyone's auto insurance, honesty in Brooklyn is a foreign language when it comes to insurance, commercial risks are mostly placed through brokerage because direct carriers don't like the BK or NYC area in general. Cancellations and poor loss ratios in that area are enough to make any agent mad in a short amount of time..

Not sure if I'm clear on this subject or not so let me know..

hmm thats so weird though. Like i know competition is high but i didn't know it was this bad. Especially since i have talked to a lot of agents and brokers and they have all told me if you know what your doing you can make a lot of money. Even the classes my brother went to to fill the time requirement by the state, the teacher their herself said you can make a ton of money with selling insurance. Thats why i am a bit confused by what you said honestly.

 

[Usfootman]

Re: Starting My Own Insurance Agency! Need Information!

Hi! I am new to insurance business like you guys. never been even close to it. and im from Brooklyn too. Just passed my P&C Broker exam.
Are you guys applied for license already? What should we apply for: an individual license or open a company and get corporate one?
And, if you can tell me, how much is an E&O insurance for new brooklyn broker?
If you go to work for someone, like people here suggest, do you really need one?

 

[thomasm]

Ever tried knocking doors in Brooklyn?

I'd imagine it would be tough. But you guys are pretty tough! You could handle it!

I've done it in Utah fairly consistently.

7-10 P&C leads a day. But Utah's different than Brooklyn.

One way to really break into this business...first learn how to generate leads... either by canvassing or telemarketing

Get someone to hire you as an independent contractor. Ask for an hourly rate plus bonus per lead that ramps up after 2 leads per hour and above.

If you can produce consistent leads, you'll have no problem finding someone to hire you!

Then work out a deal with an agency to teach you the biz and help you secure decent contracts. Just make sure you have a good lawyer that knows the industry, look over the contract, before you sign anything.

You can bootstrap your way to an agency pretty quickly that way.