Minding Your Business

Financial Management 101

Typically, financial management is learned on the job rather than through formal training. Agency owners frequently start off as producers, so selling is their strength, not dealing with credits and debits. It is not unusual for some business owners to …

Disaster Planning for Agencies: Minding Your Business

Northern California and specifically Sonoma and Napa Counties have experienced the worst wildfires in the history of California. Most of these fires began around Oct. 8, 2017, during night with extremely high winds, that knocked power lines out in hills …

Minding Your Business: Preparing for the Loss of a Producer

Recently, a client of ours had two producers leave to start their own agency. The impact on the agency was significant. These two producers generated about half the agency commissions. The owner was scrambling to adjust to the change. Producers …

When Selling Your Agency Does NOT Make Sense

The process of selling a business involves an amalgamation of financial, personal and external factors. Sellers should work with their advisors to create a wish list of what they want. It is equally important to create a list of what …

How to Create & Reward Exceptional Agency Leaders

It’s always difficult to admit not being good at something — especially when you are the agency owner and leader of an insurance agency. But knowing a person’s weaknesses is extremely important. Leaders who understand their own weaknesses can find …

10 Ways to Be a Competitive Buyer in a Seller’s Market

Many agency owners would like to acquire another firm that is compatible with theirs. Agency owners today want to be buyers of agencies with books that might be a great fit with the same type of business the agency already …

Gifting Agency Stock & Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts

Paul Simon wrote that there are “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” For business owners, there are a few less options, however, there are many more permutations of those options. For family businesses, the key is to understand everyone’s needs …

Agency Performance Enhancement with the Power of Habit

Imagine the effect on owners, managers, producers and staff if they knew how to improve anything they did by having a good understanding of how specifically the brain enforces great new habits. Managers can assist employees in learning from each …

How to Attract and Retain Great Employees

Today, successful high-performing businesses are developing creative programs to guide employees to focus on improving business performance and rewarding them for their contributions. The long-term winners will be companies that provide a flexible and challenging work environment, along with employee …

8 Industry Trends to Exploit for 2016

It is time to put on the thinking cap and roll up the sleeves to determine what needs to be done to put the firm in a great position for growth and profit in 2016. Those that like to be …

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