Business

Fourth quarter is an excellent time to start planning your long-term and short-term goals for your agency. Perhaps your agency is positioned to experience exponential growth in the next 12 months. Or, maybe you’re hoping to retire soon and need a plan for selling your agency. Whatever your goal is, your State Director is here to help you.

There are several common misconceptions about millennials within the insurance industry. But independent agents can’t afford to write off millennial consumers. Millennial consumers will be the most influential market segment for the next few decades, so it’s critical that independent agents understand what millennial insurance consumers want in insurance.

There are nearly 30 million small businesses in America. Owners of these small businesses make potentially tough decisions about workers compensation coverage that can impact their employees and bottom line alike. These five strategies can help small business owners properly evaluate their workspace risks and better manage insurance costs.

Business owners large and small understand that controlling expenses is an important part of their success, and insurance premiums are part of that equation. Since workers’ compensation is a “must-have” for most employers (meaning, it’s required by law), what steps can be taken to control these insurance costs?

Here are five action steps you can take to make the most of your investment in the Smart Choice® network.

The insurance industry is rapidly changing. It’s often said that we’ll see more change in the insurance industry in the next five years than we saw in the last 25. In order for independent agents to grow their agencies and remain competitive, things can no longer be business as usual. As we kick off 2019, here are four questions every independent agent should ask themselves.

Many independent insurance agents, both new to the industry and established agents, at some point find themselves asking the question: “Should I join an aggregator or agency network?” Here's your answer.

Why should I join an agency network and what are the benefits? Most people would provide the answer of: “access to markets and carriers!” Although that probably is the biggest reason, the truth is that agency networks offer so much more than that.

While I could list dozens of reasons and benefits for agencies to be part of a network, it might be more advantageous to think about all the reasons agents traditionally cite for not joining a network.

I recently rolled out the 2019 theme for my territory: Failure is a choice. My management team and I identified our top goals for next year and made a plan for keeping them our number-one work priorities. By doing so, we’re making the choice to work actively toward our goals rather than take a passive, come-what-may attitude.

Life insurance is important…we all know that. Life insurance rates have gone down significantly over the past 10 years as people live longer…many of us know that. Now life insurance is easier to transact… I know some of us might even challenge that one.

Many people don't set goals to achieve their dreams because they see them as futile or unattainable — machinations so far outside the realm of their day-to-day normal that they can't actually see their dreams as ever becoming a reality. But the ultimate gratification of achieving our goals and dreams, especially when it is such a tedious process for us, is one of the most wonderful gifts we can give to ourselves.