Thinking About Starting an Indy from Home, Need Advice Please.

[lifelearner]

Hello all,

(this is going to be a long post, so I thank you in advance for reading, lol)

This is my very first post to any kind of furom. :S I have been combing this forum for the past month and I love it. There is so much information and everyone seems so helpful. I wish I knew about this forum when I started in insurance, I might have gone a different direction...

I have found some answers that help me with my questions, but nothing yet that actually helps me entirely.

Ok, here is my situation. I have been working in insurance for eight years now. My mother is a captive agent and my sister and I have been running the office for her. The majority of my experience is in P&C on the personal side(auto and home), but I have some experience with commercial auto and personal life.

My life is recently about to change, because I am getting married in two weeks and I am going back to school to finish my degree.

If I stay working with my mom, I would have to work set hours, be tied to the office desk, and be limited to the amount of money I can make.

So I am trying to consider my options. I can go to school part time either in the mornings or evenings, that wouldn't be a problem, and work during the other hours I have. So I would plan to put in a good 8 hours every day. My future wife is Brazilian and I would prefer working remotely so we can go back and forth to brazil to visit her family and I can continue to work. I think this would be possible because of all the new technology out there now a days.

I am trying to figure which type of insurance would be best to sell in this situation. With my mom keeping her agency, I know that I can get a lot of people that she can't sell because of her being captive, which will mostly be alot of personal auto and home, because that's what my mom's office is strong in. But from my experience, personal auto comes with alot of customer service with people coming into the office. So I was thinking about specializing in commercial auto, because mostly they just contact you for simple transactions and they mostly prefer to work by phone, email, and fax, which would work out perfect for me. My only concerns about that is that I'm not as well versed in commercial as I am in personal and I would be missing out on the good leads from my moms office.

I was also thinking about trying to focus on life or health, because of the higher upfront commisions. But I hardly know anything about those products and I would need to educate myself.

I will be starting on limited funds, so that's why I am considering selling life or health first, in order to make the cash.

My first goal in this would be to make the same amount of money per month that I am making with my mom, which is 4k. And then ofcourse make more and build up my renewals. Do you guys think it is possible??

So I guess my questions are...

1. What is the best way to run an Indy from home?
2. And which product should I focus on selling that wouldn't require face to face customer service.
3. And is it possible to meet my financial goal? and how long would it take to get there?
4. Should I try to get appointed directly, work with a company like smartchoice, or start under another indy and negotiate commission cuts? (I will be coming in with experience, but no book of insurance.)

Oh and by the way. I am not shy, so I wouldn't have a problem with going door to door or cold calling.

Thank you guys so much in advance and I apoligize for the long post. :S

Any advice would be appreciated and I can't wait to learn as much as I can from you guys.

David

 

[djs]

Re: Thinking About Starting an Indy from Home, Need Advice Please

Let me start out by saying anything you want to do in life is possible. Don't ever let someone tell you otherwise. Problem is, that wanting to do it has to be followed by a LOT of action, commitment and dedication.

Reading through your post, I would worry about you succeeding. Is it possible to do P&C from home? Difficult, few succeed, but yes. Is it possible to walk out the door on one job and start making $4K a month? Nope. That isn't realistic. You'll be a business owner and will have expenses to pay. While you MIGHT get close to $4K a month gross income within the first 6 months, you'll have expenses to subtract out of that.

I'm sure you have already sold your family and friends, so that avenue is not as available to you as it is to some others. You'll have to start out marketing. Referrals from mom will help, but even with the referral, you'll have to sell them.

Working remotely is very possible. Many agents do that everyday. In fact, if you do commercial, that is the ONLY way to work, you have to be in the field at least 3 days a week.

Selling P&C from Brazil is virtually impossible. You will have no way to inspect risks that you are insuring. Technically, it is possible, but the reality is it is very difficult. Doing service work from Brazil is no problem at all, if you are disciplined enough to do it.

Now, my big question is, if you want to change jobs because of going to school, how do you go to school and travel to Brazil?

A lot of people underestimate the discipline it takes to work for yourself. You hear about the freedoms you have (i.e., your comment about sitting at a desk), but not told that working for yourself requires you still sit at a desk for the same 8 hours, if not 10. You pay the bills whether income comes in or not. You have to spend marketing money, even when you don't have the money to do it, or you won't ever have any money.

You can do it, but it will take more commitment than I read in your post. It sounds like you are looking for an easy way out, this won't be it. Insurance is a good opportunity, but its more work than most realize.

Dan

 

[lifelearner]

Re: Thinking About Starting an Indy from Home, Need Advice Please

Dan,

Thank you so much for your response, it was very insightful.

To answer some of your questions, we only plan to go to brazil during christmas vacation each year and staying for a month or two each time we go. This will be during my vacation time in school. Plus I plan to take some online courses, which are offered in my university.

So the majority of the year I would be in my city.

This is very true about all the expenses that come with being a business owner and that is one other issue I am struggling with, because ofcourse it is easier to get your check and go home. :S and not have all the worries that comes with owning your own business.

I also have another option that I am considering. There is an opportunity to continue working with my mom, but soley focusing on the commercial side and do it remotely from my home office. This would be a good option, because she would continue to pay me salary (which will be less because I won't be doing all the other stuff I did in the office, like customer service for the existing book), plus bonuses on what I sell. My income wouldn't be so much affected with this option and I will continue to help my mom with her business. The only thing that is making me consider going the other route would be the renewals that I could build up on my own...

Thank you again for your comment and any further advice would be greatly appreciated.

David

 

[Chevarian113]

Re: Thinking About Starting an Indy from Home, Need Advice Please

David,

I am in a very similar position as you, working for a captive agent, and trying to figure out how I can get going on my own, independently, with little start up cost. I have very little input for you at this point, but wanted to bring up one option for you to consider...

Virtual offices. They are everywhere. They can make you seem like a well structured office, provides a secretary, and access to a conference room for those who want to meet in a business setting. Seriously, look into it. I've heard of telephone set ups only, like a company called Grasshopper, but I've also seen the physical locations that give the appearance of a structured office. P&C will be tough out of the house for some clients, so if you fake it til you make it, you'll get a few accounts that you would lose being home-based. Look into it man. Best of luck in your search!

 

[BTFuzz]

Re: Thinking About Starting an Indy from Home, Need Advice Please

David,

I am in a very similar position as you, working for a captive agent, and trying to figure out how I can get going on my own, independently, with little start up cost. I have very little input for you at this point, but wanted to bring up one option for you to consider...

Virtual offices. They are everywhere. They can make you seem like a well structured office, provides a secretary, and access to a conference room for those who want to meet in a business setting. Seriously, look into it. I've heard of telephone set ups only, like a company called Grasshopper, but I've also seen the physical locations that give the appearance of a structured office. P&C will be tough out of the house for some clients, so if you fake it til you make it, you'll get a few accounts that you would lose being home-based. Look into it man. Best of luck in your search!

Outsource to Freelancers, IT Companies, Programmers, Web Designers from India, Russia, USA, and more is a good place for virtual assistance

 

[Frank Stastny]

Re: Thinking About Starting an Indy from Home, Need Advice Please

You may want to consider working with your mother instead of for her.

Her focus is P&C, why not make yours L&H. I'm sure she has a substantial client base. I'm also sure she has a good rapport with her clients and as her employee you probably do also.

Those people may need life insurance. There are probably many who are either on Medicare or approaching Medicare age. Many of those may also need LTCi.

Med Supps generate great commissions, there is virtually no service work and they can be sold over the phone. Med Supp clients are also a great group to target for FE.

I specialize in Med Supps and FE, in fact that is all I do now. If you would like to give me a call I will be glad to discuss it with you.

 

[pbbaseball]

Re: Thinking About Starting an Indy from Home, Need Advice Please

I would start off selling final expense, and then carry the other products so you can write what your mom can't. High up front commissions, little to no service work. Several companies you can do over the phone. For me, just seems like a much easier way to make money quickly when getting started, and then you can transition to the other products more heavily as your agency grows.

 

[lifelearner]

Re: Thinking About Starting an Indy from Home, Need Advice Please

BTFuzz.

Thanks for the website link, it is great!! It will really come in handy when I´m ready to hire some help!!

David
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Jason,

thanks for the info. It is good to fake it till you make it!! haha. I will look into those virtual offices you are talking about.

Good luck to you and I hope you can get your own thing going soon.

david
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You may want to consider working with your mother instead of for her.

Her focus is P&C, why not make yours L&H. I'm sure she has a substantial client base. I'm also sure she has a good rapport with her clients and as her employee you probably do also.

Those people may need life insurance. There are probably many who are either on Medicare or approaching Medicare age. Many of those may also need LTCi.

Med Supps generate great commissions, there is virtually no service work and they can be sold over the phone. Med Supp clients are also a great group to target for FE.

I specialize in Med Supps and FE, in fact that is all I do now. If you would like to give me a call I will be glad to discuss it with you.

Frank,

Thank you for the info

I was wondering if you could answer this question... My mom is captive with Allstate and I´m not sure if they offer FE or Med Supps. Would it be a conflict of interest with Allstate if I was to get appointed with other companies that offer these products and then try to sell them to my mother´s clients? I´m sure my mom wouldn´t mind if I did this, but I wouldn´t want her to get into trouble with her company.

Thanks in advance for the info.

David

 

[Frank Stastny]

Re: Thinking About Starting an Indy from Home, Need Advice Please

Frank,

Thank you for the info

I was wondering if you could answer this question... My mom is captive with Allstate and I´m not sure if they offer FE or Med Supps. Would it be a conflict of interest with Allstate if I was to get appointed with other companies that offer these products and then try to sell them to my mother´s clients? I´m sure my mom wouldn´t mind if I did this, but I wouldn´t want her to get into trouble with her company.

Thanks in advance for the info.

David

I have never sold for Allstate but I seem to remember a few years ago someone telling me that Allstate changed their policy and were permitting agents to sell additional insurance products.

You would definitely want to talk to Allstate about this. It is too important to ask that question on the forum and assume you are getting accurate information.

 

[Chevarian113]

Re: Thinking About Starting an Indy from Home, Need Advice Please

Thanks David!

I am a contracted staff person for State Farm. Our contracts do not allow for conflict of interest, but a contracted agent can lease his office space to whoever he wants... If they are anything like us, your mom could lease a cubicle, or whatever to you, and you can do your own thing.

I believe Allstate has it set up that Agents can subcontract with companies and offer their products, but only if ineligible through the main company, or its subsidiaries. I may be very wrong about this, but I recall something similar to this.