By no means are these 10 items the end all be all for starting an independent insurance agency, however, they are a great start.  Remember that you are going to be working very hard to build your base.  I have started two agencies from scratch and consider this to be integral and vital to success.  This is not the final draft as I am looking for feedback from others on what they are doing and seeing  1.  Accountant I hate Money.  I like to spend it but I hate to manage it.  It is my weakness.  Right off the bat, if you dont have an accountant handling your bank accounts, payroll, taxes, federal filings, commission runs, balancing quickbooks etc.  Hire one.  Take all the money out of the equation.  When you get your commissions statement from the home office, it should be reviewed and handed off to an accountant to process your payroll (corporation), draws (llc) or just income (sole prop).  I recommend you get a corporation going if you have not already.  Again, the accountant will tell you the same. So what does our accountant do?  She does everything.  I hand off the commission statement, she breaks down agent 1, and agent 2 into separate spreadsheets.  She then prepares commissions for producers and myself.  The commissions are direct deposit to the producers and their own commission excel spreadsheet is produced.  I dont handle any of it. From there she balances the company check book, and reconciles the accounts in Quickbooks through a remote session.  She provides quarterly tax information for payments and processes W2 and I9 information.  She pulls money out to pay these entities and mails me checks to sign and send in. Overkill?  Maybe but the cost for her to do this monthly and my taxes annually vs what I would spend in time to do it is critical to growing.  It is a must.  Thats why it is the first thing on the list.You cannot be a good salesman and an accountant at the same time and expect to be over $500k in premium. Robyn Lira is my accountant.  You can use her.  She and I created this system to support AAI agents.  Email her, she will do either all ofwhat I have her do or portions.   qtrans80@hotmail.com 2.  Staff If you think you can grow to over $1 mill in premium and do it yourself, revise your goals to not go over 500k.  The service work and time needed to continue to quote, sell and service requires more then one person. I have had employees in the past.  That is a great solution, however, they dont necessarily help you grow with a fixed income.  Consider hiring producers instead of employees.  Pay commissions for production and also pay a salary for hours worked. Producer 1 for example might work 25 hours a week for the agency answering calls and quoting/issuing policies for the agency.  The other 25 hours a week (yes thats 50 hours!) is spent marketing their own agency and producing policies for commissions. 70 / 30 splits work.  At $250k in premium then move it to 80/20 at 500k 90/10.  Yes that is a lot to give away but they are still helping you grow your agency and support existing customers.  It works because both you and the producer help grow. We do a 50/50 spit on commercial for new and renewal.  It allows the producer to get paid on commercial but less because I do most of the work. So who processes all the commissions and pays accurately?  Refer back to #1, the accountant.  Seemless and accurate as long as you enter the policy into Hawksoft and set up agent 2 as the producer. 3. Systems You must have a system that works in the office.  New business, retention, claim procedure, call log, production tracking, password lists.  You name it, if you can put a spreadsheet together, then it should be shared with everyone. Use Google Drive, or any shared system that allows the agency to update information real time.  I have asked Tony for some time at the July meeting to get an internet connection to show you how this is set up.  If you dont know what or how to use Google Drive, learn it! Call log-Share the call log in Drive.  Everyone is color codedProduction- Keep track of pure new business and premiums Password list-Update the passwords on this system so everyone can see or you can see remotely Retention List- Email out thank you emails to clients for renewals.Get the information from Hawksoft and merge into Drive.Foghorn report for clients that are lapsing or canceling.  Again Color coordinate If your an agency of 1, start the system of recording your information in Google Drive.  If you have one staff or more, get them on board with how to use it.  Eliminate taking notes on paper, use the computer.  Larry Caywood has started using this and might have some input. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FOLLOWING? NEW BUSINESS QUOTING AND FOLLOW UPCLAIMS FOLLOW UPRETENTION PHONE CALLS FOR LAPSING CLIENTS RETENTION EMAILS THANKING CLIENTS FOR RENEWALS.ANSWERING THE PHONEOPENING MAILSORTING FILES, LABELING ETC This may all seem trivial but each task should be assigned to someone to handle.  If it is just you, then you do it all!  But in time, someone else needs to help you with these things.  I like to do Level1 employee through Level 3.  Level 3 is basically what you know as the agency owner.  In my office everyone is level 2 or higher.  Critical to growth in the 2mill premium agency and higher Are you using service centers?  Progressive, Travelers, Safeco all have and we pay for service centers.  If you dont have their email address for changes/cancels or their phone number to call in changes or refer a client to do so, then I recommend learning them.  As a sole agent and now producers or staff, consider the service center staff.Warm transfer clients over to the 800 numbers.  Your phone probably does three way calling I imagine.  Tell the client that you dont answer billing questions, that the billing specialist will do it and transfer them.  We aren't a captive agent, we are insurance advisors not billing specialists! And claims, dont even go there unless it is to ask the client if they need help with proceedures. 4.  Limit Carriers If you are selling or even know how to log into every carrier we have, you will not grow.  Why?  You cannot spread wide and expect to go tall.  Limit carriers.  We use Travelers, Safeco, Progressive, Hartford primarily.  It represents nearly 80% of our premium.  The other 20% is with the other carriers.  These are strong companies.Your agency is more profitable if you are strong in a smaller number of carriers.  You can manage and service easier.  They bonus, they have service centers.  They will help you if you are in a bind.  They trust us as a company.  You trust them most of the time!  If you ever want to sell your book, others will pay more for a consolidated profitable book.  A lot more. Turn away clients that don't fit with these carriers.  Unless you feel you can move them in the short term. NO MONOLINE ACCOUNTS OUTSIDE OF THESE CARRIERS ABOVE IN MY OPINION!THEY WILL LEAVE YOU ANYWAYS. 5.  Marketing Interesting fact.  Did you know that most agencies turn their book of business completely in 7-8 years?  I believe that is shortening.Meaning, you will lose every one of your clients at some point over the next 8 years.  So, we always have to be looking for new business. Marketing will be covered in other sessions but from an office procedure standpoint, there are things you can do internally with staff and yourself as the agent to get business.  When a client calls/emails, review with them what they have now in coverages and policies.  Every time.  Ask them to quote more accounts.  Every Time.I always say, "if you know of anyone that needs any help with insurance, send them my way". Blog-if you are not blogging on our website or if you don't know how, learn!  It drives traffic.  Ask Chris Fernandez. There is more to this and if you would like to come by the office, Chris and I can tell you more of what we do but for time, we have to stick to proceedures 6.  Sound Mix of bus As part of your goals, you should be thinking about a mix of business.Do you want to just sell auto and home?  No.  Our agency is about 75% personal lines and 25% commercial.  Our goal is to make this 50/50.You may not sell commercial.  That is fine.  Break down your mix of business into auto, home, umbrella, collector car, etc.  or just auto,home, other.  Know where you are at.  Write it down at the end of the year when the marketing rep give you the year end report.  All of them can tell you how many homes, to autos etc you have.  Write it down. Try and limit monoline accounts in your mix of business.  Try and shoot for over 80% of your book having more then one policy.  Or consider not placing monoline if you cant achieve this.  It is a must in my opinion to grow, retain and be profitable 7.  EFT A client can pay in two ways at our office.  EFT monthly or annually.That is it.  No cash.  No money orders.  No quarterly or monthly via check.  EFT or auto pay monthly out of bank account or credit card (remember they expire) is the only option.  If they dont want to do it that way, call Geico.  You will grow faster and retain more with this philosophy.  I had an account that was $4k in premium that the client wanted to pay quarterly.  I told him no.  He told me his accounting office would pay the checks.  I told him that it would be fine but if it lapsed, they would have to go EFT.  So in some cases, it makes sense as there is a good chance if the client has an accountant paying bills, they will get paid.  So, in most cases there is no option. 8.  Delegation This is the hardest part of being an agency owner.  Letting go.  If you are an agent of one, you delegate your time mostly.  If you have producers or staff, you delegate your time and their time to task with one goal in mind.  Growth, retention and profitability.  I delegate my accounting to the accountant.  Saves me at least 10 hours a week.  I delegate new business quotes to staff, saves me more time.  Delegate away as many tasks as possible.  But make sure you delegate yourself to what you do best.  For me that is selling. 9.  Answer phone Plain and simple.  If you dont, someone else will. Clients used to call and leave a voicemail and you could get back to them in a day.  Not any more.  Technology changed that.  Its right now! 10. Have fun Insurance in a nut shell sucks.  It is selling a commitment that quite frankly may not be there if an insurance company wants to deny it.Insurance companies change things all the time in their favor.  We have a bad wrap as being sleazy insurance agents right?  So with all this negative image stuff, why are we in it?  Are you having fun?Chances are if you are growing and under $1mill in premium,  you are not exactly having fun working all day in this industry that people generally don't like to deal with.  So,  the solution?  Have fun.Create games in the office.  Create time doing what you love to do.Get to the office early.  Leave early.  Wear shorts if you want.  Set aside funds to go to the movies or lunch at odd times during the day.Call it an office meeting.  Laugh.  Talk to your customers and make them laugh.  Try not to take this profession to seriously or it will come off in your sales.  People will do business with you for what you know and how you present it initially.  So if you come off as being or having fun, it will show and chances are they will lighten up and have fun with it also. Simple philosophy.  Work Hard, Play Hard. Rick Cline Agency303-932-1700