It has been great reading through threads on the forum.
A quick background on myself. My family owns and operates an independent agency in the St. Louis area. I was licensed when I was 19 years old and made my first attempt at a career in the industry. It was met with several obstacles that led me to leaving the agency after a couple years. I had no clear vision of my future, which is pretty common for 19 year olds. I was going to college, mowing lawns, and working at the agency at the time. I graduated college and also grew the mowing business into a landscape maintenance business to just shy of $1 million a year in sales. I thoroughly enjoyed the hustle of that business and seeing what I built, but the future was looking extremely uncertain with recent changes to the labor visa programs. I sold that business back in Spring. I say all this to try to add validity to my knowledge of what it takes to focus and hustle in a business. I know there aren't short cuts and I also know the hours that it takes to build something meaningful, which is why I am writing this at 3 am.
I want to build another business with secure recurring revenue, which is something my previous business delivered, but the ability to execute without a secure labor force crushed that. With 10 years in the landscape industry, I built several great relationships with vendors, customers, subcontractors, etc... that I feel like I could tap into to build a great commercial book of business. I feel like I bring a fairly unique value to contractors having lived in that space for 10 years, and again also have great relationships with several. I have already asked several if I could quote their insurance when I get licensed and most of them I have received positive feedback from.
One of my biggest hurdles I see at this point is training. One of the failures I see in my first attempt in the industry was a complete lack of training. My father is a great guy that has been writing personal lines primarily for decades. He knows the industry inside and out, but experience doesn't always equate to being a great teacher.
Could anyone provide some resources for learning that would help for a agent in the commercial lines world? Specifically in the contracting world, as this will be my primary focus for the foreseeable future. If anyone has any general advice to add, I would love to hear it!
Thanks!
A quick background on myself. My family owns and operates an independent agency in the St. Louis area. I was licensed when I was 19 years old and made my first attempt at a career in the industry. It was met with several obstacles that led me to leaving the agency after a couple years. I had no clear vision of my future, which is pretty common for 19 year olds. I was going to college, mowing lawns, and working at the agency at the time. I graduated college and also grew the mowing business into a landscape maintenance business to just shy of $1 million a year in sales. I thoroughly enjoyed the hustle of that business and seeing what I built, but the future was looking extremely uncertain with recent changes to the labor visa programs. I sold that business back in Spring. I say all this to try to add validity to my knowledge of what it takes to focus and hustle in a business. I know there aren't short cuts and I also know the hours that it takes to build something meaningful, which is why I am writing this at 3 am.
I want to build another business with secure recurring revenue, which is something my previous business delivered, but the ability to execute without a secure labor force crushed that. With 10 years in the landscape industry, I built several great relationships with vendors, customers, subcontractors, etc... that I feel like I could tap into to build a great commercial book of business. I feel like I bring a fairly unique value to contractors having lived in that space for 10 years, and again also have great relationships with several. I have already asked several if I could quote their insurance when I get licensed and most of them I have received positive feedback from.
One of my biggest hurdles I see at this point is training. One of the failures I see in my first attempt in the industry was a complete lack of training. My father is a great guy that has been writing personal lines primarily for decades. He knows the industry inside and out, but experience doesn't always equate to being a great teacher.
Could anyone provide some resources for learning that would help for a agent in the commercial lines world? Specifically in the contracting world, as this will be my primary focus for the foreseeable future. If anyone has any general advice to add, I would love to hear it!
Thanks!
