Starting an Insurance Agency | 10 Things You SHOULD Know - YouTube

what's going on guys my name is nick sakha and  in this video i'm going to talk to you about  

10 things that you should know before starting  your own insurance agency a little bit about  

myself i started my insurance journey about five  years ago in november 2016 where i started from  

scratch my own captive insurance agency happened  to be in allstate insurance and through the years  

been able to scale that to two offices to about  a five million dollar book of business and we are  

just getting started i have goals of getting to  about 12 million to 15 million onward and forward  

until we reach anywhere from 25 to 30 million this  all started from a seven year career from banking  

where i was sick and tired of corporate america  and i quit cold turkey just to adventure into  

entrepreneurship and what i would tell you guys is  that the insurance industry is has changed my life  

i don't know if too many other opportunities where  you can grow your net worth into a million dollars  

within five years like i have and you know this  has been through hardcore dedication this has been  

through a lot of uh you know early mornings late  nights that whole thing we all heard of that but  

seriously there were a lot of grit and a lot of  hustle we've been able to uh grow this bad boy  

and like i said we're just getting started i hope  that i can add value to you guys and that you can  

get a little bit more clarity in your insurance  agency journey and so if you get some value  

out of this video do me a favor smash the like  button it's going to help me grow this channel  

subscribe for all videos where i talk all things  entrepreneurship self-development and insurance  

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social media platforms as well without further ado  let's get into it first thing that you should know  

about this industry is that most agents fail most  people that start their insurance business fail i  

have this group photo of all of the insurance  agents that started their journey alongside me  

there's probably a room full of almost 30 people  training to open up their insurance agency  

i can tell you that about 80 percent of them  are either not with you know my company anymore  

and or some of them failed or some of them just  quit a variety of different things but most  

people will fail in this business and i don't say  that to just be you know to be negative it's just  

honestly just acknowledging the truth that most  people don't and i think the reason is that most  

people don't treat it like a business they come  in here they were an employee for several years  

and and they come in to and they come in expecting  to just manage this thing to manage an insurance  

agency into it being fruitful and it to it being  successful and it just doesn't work out that way  

you have to treat it like a business i'm talking  early mornings late nights be ha be and have  

grit you know uh be relentless in making sure that  this thing is successful you might have to be your  

number one salesperson in the beginning until you  can scale it but you have to once you start seeing  

money coming in you have to reinvest those profits  you have to hire on a team you have to specialize  

between a service and a sales department you have  to bring in good quality talent and you have to  

you know buy internet leads you have to send out  mailers like you will have to make the investment  

into your business and a lot of times when i see  people fail is because they prematurely start  

investing in you know just buying a nice car  buying stupid things that have nothing to do with  

the growth of their business and so you know the  first thing you should know is that most people  

fail hopefully that's not you hopefully you're  coming in knowing that you're going gonna dominate  

that you have that that fire that you're just  not gonna quit you're gonna do whatever it takes  

to be successful at this and so uh with the rest  of the things the rest of the tips that i'm gonna  

give you guys today hopefully you'll uh be able to  take that and guarantee that you're not a part of  

that ninety percent that's not going to be here  two years later so that's the first thing you  

should know let's get into the second thing the  second thing you should know are the startup costs  

now if you're a captive agent the startup costs  for like a state farm or a farmers or an all-state  

can be anywhere from 50 to 100 grand in some cases  even more i do think it's going to depend from  

state to state if you are starting a brokerage  or going independent it's pretty similar anywhere  

from 50 to 100 capital requirements every company  every brokerage is a little bit different as well  

but if you have to give a ballpark figure to it  as anywhere from 50 to 100 000 five years ago  

when i started by the grace of god it was only  25 000 i used this joke that i was like you know  

indiana jones when that rock was going down and  i got in at 25 000 and then boom he grabs his hat  

i got lucky but the capital requirement  now is actually a hundred thousand  

um but it is completely worth it if you put  in the work this industry will pay off so  

that's what you can expect for as far as the  the capital requirement if you are buying a book  

of business it's a little bit different you can  essentially just buy someone's book of business  

and that's your entry into the into the business  but you're also going to need some capital  

uh some operating costs to be able to grow  that existing book of business that you're  

buying so you're gonna have to have a lot of  cash on hand to be able to prepare for that  

but that's the second thing you can expect the  third thing you can expect is getting licensed in  

my situation i had to get property and casualty my  property and casualty licenses as well as my life  

and health licenses before my company ever let me  start my training and also in that agreement was  

that i had to get my series 6 and 63 within two  years otherwise i could lose my insurance agency  

another thing that you want to look at is your  business licenses as well and you know there  

might be county licenses as well with getting your  business license and so on and so forth but the  

biggest thing you should know is that everything  is state specific so you will want to ask you know  

your recruiter or whoever's on boarding you or  whoever's helping you what that looks like another  

thing that i did was i did start my agencies  off as an s corporation for the tax benefits  

um consult with a cpa or or a tax professional  to help you figure out what's best for you um but  

that's the third thing you can expect the fourth  thing that you should know about starting your own  

insurance agency is that and this one's completely  my opinion is that location doesn't matter i would  

not get so caught up in having this slam dunk you  know office location that's in a busy shopping  

center that has a huge anchor like a walmart or  a target that's irrelevant uh this business is a  

lot of outbound going out and get it type of type  of industry right like you have to go out and get  

the business make outbound calls build a solid you  know a ton of relationships and referral partners  

and location you know the the lighter you can keep  your office expense uh the better so don't go out  

looking for the slam dunk location it's really not  going to make a difference i have a slam dunk deal  

on both of my office locations where for both of  them in las vegas nevada where i'm not in the hood  

i pay less than uh what is it now about about 2600  for both office locations i know several agency  

owners that have locations that cost anywhere  from one location that cost anywhere from 2500  

to 3500 a month in my opinion that's not worth  it save your money use more of it to reinvest in  

other things that's going to generate  business versus your office location  

the fifth thing that you can expect um  and a lot of questions that people have is  

how much can i expect to make and so i'm here to  tell you you're not gonna like this answer but  

you will make enough and what i mean  by that is what you're gonna make is  

gonna be irrelevant and the reason why  is because you are a business owner now  

and all the profits that you make count on and  just be in the mindset that i'm gonna reinvest  

everything over the next five years don't worry  about will i make six figures my first year or one  

mix i better make 150 000 others i'm not going to  do it if you have that mindset you're not you know  

you're not going to succeed at this long term and  so you know how much you're going to make is going  

to largely depend on how much you reinvest over  the long haul and so uh get out of that mindset  

you know how much am i going to make that doesn't  matter get used to reinvesting all your profits  

and eventually of course you're going to make a  phenomenal an outstanding income this business  

will take you there but get in the  mindset that i'm gonna reinvest everything  

the sixth thing that you should know  is that your success is going to depend  

on you okay not your field sales leader not your  employees not the person that got you involved  

not the buddy that told you he was making a  grip of money and that you could do it too  

it's gonna depend on you and so the expectations  that you create for yourself and for your team  

and for those around you are going to determine  whether or not you're here a few years from now  

or not you know whether you're going to be a part  of that 90 statistic or the 10 statistics of those  

that are winning at a high level and so you know  it all comes down to you and your i would also  

tell you that your office culture is everything  the people that you bring in the people that  

people that you bring in will either add to your  office culture or or subtract from your office  

culture so you're gonna have to make a lot of  mistakes and that's okay but you know given the  

mindset that you know you're you may or may not  have this expectation that you're going to have  

all the support in the world and it's going to be  the easiest thing in the world and it's not you're  

going to have to get resourceful you're gonna  have to become a problem solver and it's gonna  

largely depend on you at the end of the day and  so get ready to take ownership because it's gonna  

you're gonna win or lose and it's all gonna be  your fault the seventh thing that you should know  

as a brand new insurance agency owner is that  and this is just my opinion here that social  

media is mandatory in today's day and age when  i first started you know when i was in training  

to open up my insurance agency one of my number  one strategies was i'm gonna use social media  

to become successful at this business and i did  and i remember a lot of people it wasn't a lot  

of people's uh game plans or you know marketing  plans to to use social media as a tool but me just  

being a millennial guy i just knew that that's  how that's what my strategy was going to be  

and i know that this industry is full of a  bunch of dinosaurs a lot of older you know  

agents that aren't in touch with the marketing of  today's world and so i'm here to tell you that get  

used to social media you better build a personal  brand you better post good funny entertaining uh  

educational content that's going to get people  to think about you in the topic of insurance i  

dropped another video on how to market in today's  day and age and so i'll go ahead and link it up  

as one of the cards and so get used to social  media you better build a brand you better build  

a culture that is going to really get people to  think about you in the topic of insurance and the  

only way to do that is to put yourself out there  on social media the a thing that you should know  

is that you are going to have to and i'm talking  about investing again and reinvesting you're  

going to have to invest in events in trainings and  and and processes and things to make your agency  

better you're going to have to get used to swiping  your credit card i remember when i first started  

and every time i wanted to invest in a new in an  event and bringing my staff with me or you know or  

a coaching platform or a training platform i was  always reluctant but i'm here to tell you that  

you will see an roi if you make the investment  you will see an roi make it a point to go to  

events make it a point to bring your staff with  you invest in processes listen to podcasts there's  

so many videos on youtube i got some buddies  you know the insurance dudes is a good podcast  

there are resources available to you and you're  going to have to create systems and processes  

for you and your team but most importantly get  around winners get around the people that are  

performing at a high level add value to them get  cool with them right they're all over social media  

heck you can message me if you want to right  get around winners invest in mentorship if you  

can if there's somebody there's an agent in your  market that is a top performer and he's willing  

to help you get around those people because  that's going to largely determine your success  

the last thing you want to do is hang around with  all the negative agents the ones that are always  

complaining the ones that are that are just  ah you know just they just they've got this  

crap mindset if i'm being honest and you don't  want to associate with those people you want to  

get around winners because the conversations are a  lot different the ninth thing you should know are  

the risks involved with starting your own business  now i obviously am still here i didn't fail  

i did get to witness you know a handful of  people that i trained with that didn't make it  

and i believe that the risks are you know there's  going to be a little bit of financial risk  

i don't know how much you're going to invest and  then not you know maybe adapt or not be able to  

deliver on your investment but you know you got  to know the risks involved and you know and i  

don't think you can i think if you're buying  into a book of business i don't think you can  

fail so dramatically that you lose your entire  investment um of course it's just case by case  

so i think the risks are a little bit different  for everyone i would ultimately tell you that as  

you know you would have to really suck like bad  to lose your in your entire investment and to be  

just in this really big hole after starting your  insurance agency so the risks are case by case  

you know if you want to mitigate those risks as  much as possible find an agency in town that's  

local to you and that they're winning and go and  work for them for a little bit almost like an  

internship and go and find out all their systems  and processes and expectations that they have  

for their team and mimic that right just mimic  whatever they're doing that's working for them  

and then you know maybe a year two years three  years later then start your own insurance agency  

and that might actually work out for you even  better so as far as risks are concerned uh it's  

case by case but hopefully that gives  you a better idea of the risks involved  

all right guys you have made it this far if you  have do me a favor smash that like button if  

you haven't already yet i'd really appreciate it  because it's going to help me grow this channel  

um all right the 10th thing that you should know  as becoming a brand new insurance agency owner  

is that this is a get rich slow business now  let me elaborate okay i told you guys that  

in the last five years when i started you  know i'm almost at year five and my net worth  

has finally surpassed over a million which i'm  like oh that's freaking cool right but i'm just  

getting started like this isn't the final stop  like i got so much more to go and if i'm being  

honest with you this took a lot of reinvesting  i have invested a lot into making this happen  

right i'm still investing this youtube channel  is an investment this is a get rich slow business  

and you know some of the agents that i know that  are just dominating and crushing they have 15 25  

35 million dollar books of businesses they've been  at this guys for a long time 20 years right 15  

to 30 years right and so don't come in here with  this get rich quick mindset because it's not going  

to work this isn't the industry and i don't think  any industry is get rich quick if i'm being honest  

it's going to take a lot of effort a lot of work  blood sweat and tears the whole nine focus on your  

business and how you can get a little bit better  each and every day and i promise you you will be  

highly successful in this industry  and there's a lot of money to be made  

and so hopefully you got some value out of this  video send me a message comment if you have any  

other questions if you want me to touch on any  other videos check out all my other videos i've  

dropped a ton of insurance and entrepreneurship  related videos and i hope you get value out of  

them but do me a favor smash that like button  comment if you haven't yet subscribe if you  

haven't yet and i really appreciate you  guys for watching until next time peace

you