Just opened my own insurance agency in Chicago.?
Question:
What else can I do?
Answer:
I've been in the insurance business for over 29 years now. Good luck to you. It's not easy.
If you're sitting around waiting for the phones to ring quit now. The best thing you can do is put in some "sweat equity". Get on the phone and call, call, call. Telemarketing has a bad reputation now but it works better then anything else. Don't be afraid to put in some long hours.
Go to your local library and pull up a copy of the commercial record and find out who's moved into your area and call them.
Finally, get a copy of the book "Power Position Your Agency" by Troy Korsgaden. It's well worth reading
You should start a website. Advertise on other websites, too. Ask local radio stations if you can advertise or whatever, that might cost money.
I live in Chicago suburbs, auto insurance is good, but if it's not a franchise and its your own company you better be offering insurance at very low rate with monthy contracts, and your target market should be very low level income drivers. This way you make money from all of the people who get their license suspended then have to get proof of insurance before they get their license back, so they buy the one month, then let it expire and keep driving. So your risk is low because it only lasts a month and gererally you will have higher profit margins because you rarly have claims. You might also consider term life insurance for the same target market, low rate insurance for poorer 25 year old, chances of death is low so you collect the premiums and generally don't have to pay out.
With out a big name it will be hard to get middle and high end income level customers because they want a big name company that can easily handel their claim, the low income people only want insurance for the proof to keep their license.
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