I have captive agents ask me all the time:
What are your tips for independent insurance agents?
How do you start your own independent insurance agency?
Wondering if they should start their own agency from scratch just like me, Luis, and hundreds of other guys and gals out there.
So I’m gonna give you an honest answer here.
As well as my #1 advice for new insurance agents..
If you think the independent approach to selling insurance really is for you…
Then YES — you should definitely start one.
However…
There’s one GIANT mistake a lot of agents make.
And it has to do with the reasons why they think they’ll be successful running their own agency.
See, most captive agents wanna go independent because they’re a great “closer”.
They think they’ll be able to start things up, sell loads of policies, and life will be great.
Right?
WRONG.
And trust me, I say that from experience.
Here are tips for independent insurance agents out there
One, it’s important to understand that…
When you build your own independent insurance agency, you’re also starting your own business.
And while sure, sales are ultimately king when it comes to running a business…
There are a million other factors you gotta get right.
Otherwise, like the majority of businesses started in America…
You’ll be headed for broke inside 3 years.
So if you’re thinking of going independent…
To start your own independent insurance agency from scratch…
I have no doubts whatsoever that you can absolutely crush it.
But to be able to do that…
Two, You GOTTA have a plan in place.
And you gotta be prepared to run things like a business.
Because inside of an entire business…
Selling insurance is only one tiny piece of the puzzle.
Consider this:
What’s your marketing strategy?
What’s gonna be your marketing budget?
What are your 1 year, 3 year, 5 year revenue goals?
Where is new revenue gonna come from?
How many employees will you hire?
How are you gonna train them?
…and honestly, the list goes on.
That’s all just one tiny glimpse of the things you gotta juggle when it comes to running any business.
And to start your own independent insurance agency is no exception.
And this is exactly why so many agents spend years struggling when they first go independent.
I got no doubt they’re awesome at closin’ deals…
But once they discover that’s only one little piece of the puzzle…
They’re left wondering what the hell they got themselves into.
It happens over and over again.
And it happened to me too.
(Side note: this is part of the reason I started Fully Covered — to help people AVOID all my mistakes.)
So my advice for new insurance agents, and to any of the agents out there considering to start your own independent insurance agency…
Third, have the bulk of this stuff figured out BEFORE you go all-in.
Yes, there’s a lot you can learn on the fly.
But there’s a lot more that you SHOULDN’T learn on the fly.
You can go on Google and search up some basic business plans.
I bet you’d be surprised at the amount of work that goes into creating one.
Because it’s not what we think about when we dream of what it’d be like to go independent.
But the thing is, get your business plan and all the basics sorted out now…
And it’s the most guaranteed way I know of to succeed in the long run.
Advice for New Insurance Agents
The other day I asked some fellow agents what were their biggest struggles when they were new and starting their agency.
And how they overcame those struggles.
And I got this one reply that sums up perfectly where I think alotta newer agents are going wrong…
7 years is a long time, ain’t it?
I don’t wanna sound too harsh…
But there’s a LOT of people out there…
Where if you told them it’d take 7 YEARS to get where they wanna be?
They probably wouldn’t even bother getting started.
And this happens far outside the insurance business too.
Entrepreneurs quit their businesses.
College kids change their major.
Authors bail on the book they’re writing.
Again, it happens everywhere.
But, I can’t help but ask…
Would you trade 7 years for the end results this agency owner was able to create for himself?
An agency with loads of clients…
6 employees…
And 15 referrals a DAY?
Doesn’t sound too bad, eh?
Now, the good news is that it doesn’t need to take 7 years.
(That’s why I created Fully Covered…)
But in any case…
Here’s my advice for new insurance agents out there, along with my tips for independent insurance agents I already mentioned:
STOP trying to rush it.
Trying to force things along to get results next week…
Just ain’t a strategy that’s gonna work in the long run.
Building a successful business takes time.
And when you’re hell-bent on making things happen FAST?
You get tunnel vision.
And you start missing other opportunities…
That would actually HELP you scale your agency.
But on the other hand, when you’re not in a hurry…
When you’re not trying to force things along…
You’d be amazed how much things actually come to YOU.
It’s hard to explain…
But alotta the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet operate this way.
They kinda just expect things are gonna work out.
And they’re not caught up in making things happen themselves.
And this is a lesson I’ve learned myself too…
Money doesn’t follow people who’s entire lives revolve around it.
It follows people who are comfortable with it.
So if you feel like you’re in a rush with your agency…
Or you feel like you gotta scale to 100k insurance premiums a month mark by TOMORROW…
Take a second to step back.
‘Cause this ain’t a race.
It’s building a business that’s gonna serve you for the rest of your life.
Nato owns Guajardo Insurance Agency. He learned the lessons he needed to learn so that his agency avoided the traditional ups and downs of lead flow and sales. He created Fully Covered to do just that. A methodology and system that provides predictable and automated online leads to insurance agents that have a passion for helping people.
Today, Nato runs his business together with his wife, Angelica, without the stress of finding the next client or worrying about if there is enough money in the bank. Plus, he gets to protect clients with our Agency and protect his peers through education and systems that took years to figure out on his own.
