Posted On: October 17, 2007, 1:42 pm CDT

Posted By: Henry

I am an independent insurance broker that have not and will never be with Brooke. And Brooke doesn't seem to be a good decision to me in the first place. First of all, if you look around the most successful insurance agencies are independent and I mean independent. They are not part of any cluster, franchise group, not even captive. If you want to succeed in this business have to realize it won't happen overnight, and will require a lot of commitment.
Being committed to pursue education (insurance designations, CPCU, AAI, CIC, etc) plus acquiring managerial skills (seminars in Marketing, HR, etc.) will certainly bring success to your agency. The access to prefer market that Brooke promises to franchisees is something many brokers can obtain with committment to education and improve the other skills.
Secondly, the money invested/debt acquired in Brooke is a lot larger than the money needed if you start alone. We started our agency with $15,000 plus another $10,000 borrowed a few years ago (of course more is needed now). We have struggled but now are in better shape with almost $500k in revenues, growing and no debt other than small expenditures in the co. credit card paid in full every month. Of course requires good money management.
To me getting into Brooke sounds more like someone who wants to run the business from home without much sacrifice. Running an insurance agency is NOT like running a Starbucks shop.
I hope more people realize abouth the risks associated with this Brooke company.