After years of working for other agencies, Becky Cates founded Cates Insurance Agency, LLC, in 2021. Before doing so, she had to overcome the fear of not having a reliable paycheck – an uncertainty that stops many agents from pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams. Fortunately, Becky had the courage to make the leap – and in just one year, she’s already earning more than she expected, thanks to the support of an agent-friendly network that pays a fair commission split and gives her the support she needs to reach the next level.
The Road to Business Ownership
Becky started her insurance career in 1997, right after she graduated high school. “My parents’ insurance agent asked me to come work for him,” she remembers. Even though she didn’t know anything about insurance at the time, she accepted the position.
Becky stayed with the same agency until 2005, when she joined a different agency to run a satellite office. She stayed at that agency until 2021 – and might have stayed even longer if the agency had not been acquired by a large corporation.
Becky didn’t agree with the way the new corporate owner ran the business. “They did not want to have walk-in customers in the office,” she says, explaining that she lives in a small town where people stop by the office regularly. Even worse, the new owner didn’t want Becky to service her customers after the sale. Instead of building and cultivating relationships, she was asked to focus strictly on sales.
It clearly wasn’t a good fit, so Becky handed in her resignation and embarked on the next chapter in her career: starting her own insurance agency.
Building a Safety Net
Becky was excited to start her own agency and had been working in insurance long enough to feel confident she could pull it off. She was determined to move forward and take the leap.
While it was a bold move for her, she took one important step to help manage the risks – she partnered with an agency network called Smart Choice, after receiving a recommendation from a friend in the industry.
“When I submitted a request on the Smart Choice website, the local Territory Manager, Elizabeth Wallace, called me back the very same day,” Becky recalls, adding that things moved forward quickly after that. “Once I talked to her, she sent me paperwork to review, and everything she had told me on that phone call was exactly what was in that contract. And I just kind of felt like this was the right place for me.
And once I made the decision, I talked to the other local TM, Christy Stevenson and she was super nice and helped guide us where to go and which carriers to start with and she told us, we’re going to build from there. Christy talked to me about my background and what I had been doing before and we just kind of took it from there.”
Having Smart Choice in her corner made the move to owning her own agency much less risky. By gaining access to markets, agency best practices, marketing and sales tools and one-on-one coaching, she was no longer “going it alone.”
Reaping the Rewards
After getting started, Becky was relieved to find that Smart Choice is just as agent friendly and reliable as her initial contact conveyed. “Everything that they told me was going to happen has happened,” she says.
She especially likes the pay structure. Once her sales reached a certain amount, she kept 100% of her earned commissions. “I actually capped as an agent last September,” she says, referring to the network’s in-force commission split “cap.” This meant all earned commissions after that were hers for the remainder of the year. The network has also helped her secure a direct contract with a major commercial lines carrier, even though the network doesn’t make any money through this arrangement, as they provide agents with a non-exclusive contract. A nonexclusive contract means agents who are partnered with Smart Choice are still free to obtain appointments outside the program without sharing any commission split.
“I know that they’re not in it just to make money,” Becky says. “They truly want to help me build my agency and help me become a better agent.”
“They truly want to help me build my agency and help me become a better agent.”
Providing Customers the Service They Deserve
One of the primary reasons Becky left her previous agency was for the freedom to serve her customers the way she deemed fit. As the owner of her agency, she now has the freedom she needs – and she’s also able to bring her customers even more insurance choices, thanks to the extensive carrier access she enjoys with Smart Choice.
Smart Choice also gives her the opportunity to gain direct access with some carriers, making the process of quoting and binding business even more efficient.
“In the past, after sending information, I would have to wait for a sales agent to call me back to finalize the quote,” she explains. “Now, I have direct access through the quoting system. I can go in and make my own policy changes.” This saves Becky a significant amount of time and headache.
The Sky’s the Limit
Becky signed her contract with Smart Choice in July 2021 and started selling policies in August. “I have already built over a $1 million local business,” she says. “I feel pretty proud of that.”
She’s confident she made the right decision when she left the old agency to start her own. She’s also confident she made the right decision when she partnered with Smart Choice. “Smart Choice has been great to me,” she says. “I mean, it’s a no-brainer. Anyone who is thinking about Smart Choice should go for it – it’s so simple and so easy,” she adds.
Do you want a fair commission split and an agent-friendly contract? Become a Smart Choice agency partner.