You should probably keep your income figures to yourself and your employer. I'm not equipped to be a career/life coach, but if you're happy with where you're working, happy with whom you're working, paying your bills, feeling secure in your position, learning the fundamentals of the job and see a fu...

You're not giving enough info for a career evaluation check point. Are these 350 policies personal lines renters policies with average premium of $207.50? Are they small BOP policies with average premium of $714.97 in annual premium? Do you specialize in mid sized commercial with average premiums of...

It's really hard for me to not give a snarky response to your question, but based on the content of your prior question postings, in my opinion, you're not even close to having the knowledge and skills to start a scratch retail insurance agency. The selling of insurance today, whether personal lines...

I will definitely be consulting with a lawyer soon. Thank you for the replies. It also states I may not solicit clients of agency B. This is the area where I am most concerned. The relationships are between me and the clients. I don't see how the agency could restrict my interaction or solicitation...

This is one of those moments in time where an attorney will prove to be a real asset. Take your employment/contractor paperwork in and pay the few hundred dollars to get a firm legal opinion about what you can and cannot do within the state law. As stated above, in California, non competes are tough...

Most likely the agency isn't hiring or grooming you to just service accounts. They probably see you in a production role as that's where the revenue comes from to keep the lights on and the people paid. If sales is where you're headed, I would say get interested in the Commercial side of things, as ...

Gabriel, welcome to the business, and I truly hope that you make at least one dollar for each of your million ideas to market your services. My suggestion is to get your business practices in place and begin the business building process long before you start seeing yourself in a wood paneled office...

lonestar wrote:d's, you may be right. Maybe we should all sell our agencies now, and look for another job.

I'm not ready to pack it in today, tomorrow, next year or in 2017, but keep checking back in 2018 and beyond and I'll let you know.

To Lonestar: With acknowledged appreciation for your insight and experience in the biz, I will ask the primary question that I think is vital to the survival to individual independent agencies...just where and how will you get your prospects in the very near future? Without a pipeline of prospects t...

I remain convinced that the longevity of a storefront, main street, primarily P&C Personal Lines Agency with the kindly, friendly, knowledgeable agency principal and a small number of 'helpers' (usually a spouse or offspring) is going the way of the old travel agency business model...in other wo...

I can't stress enough that if you're on track to purchase or start an agency in the current Allstate environment that before you sign and finalize ANYTHING, that you check out allblueblog.com and napaausa.org and ask any and all questions regarding the relationship between Allstate and it's agency f...

I'm not able to figure out if you're working for Nationwide or some other entity that markets for Nationwide, but nonetheless, your question about your future w/Nationwide should probably directed in a gentle way to your immediate boss about where you might be within the organization in 3 or 5 or 7 ...

D's, we all know too well how competitive it is, even as an IA. Can you imagine trying to start up a brand new agency today, as a newby captive Farmers, Allstate or State Farm agent? I cannot imagine what goes through the mind of a new recruit, freshly launched from the training center of any of th...

In the personal lines arena, it's now a zero sum game. Everyone is chasing the same number of potential prospects and the only way to get attention is to scream price, otherwise why look at switching. The industry itself has homogenized its product offerings and although subtle differences manifest ...

I am sorry folks but as P&C Agent myself I will disagree with most of the prior posts on this thread. I like to treat clients just as I would like to be treated so if I wasn't an insurance agent and owned a business, and an insurance agent called me asking to bid on my insurance, I would probab...