Page 200 - The UnCaptive Agent

EARLY DAYS OPERATIONS: CHASE THE VISION, NOT THE MONEY 173

If your number is lower than the benchmark-
ing averages, you should consider reducing
staffing (or at least not adding people) until
you are close to the average.

3. Average Compensation per Person: Is calcu-
lated by taking the total of all salaries, com-
missions, and bonuses, and divide that by total
FTE. If you have a significant difference from
benchmarking studies, you should investigate
why.
4. Spread: Is the difference between Average
Revenue and Average Compensation per per-
son. This is a measure of gross profitability and
is highly important to monitor.

Tipping Points

I’d like to share with you three areas that I consider
to be tipping points in the growth of your agency. A
tipping point is a place where things get easier and they
accelerate or where you need to decide. The first tipping
point is service. As you begin your agency you may be
the producer, the service person, and every other role in
the agency. That’s typical. The first employee you will
to need to hire is a service center, and then ultimately
a CSR. I’m constantly asked, “When do I hire a client
service representative?” My recommendation is that
when you cross the $50,000 mark in terms of commis-
sions produced that you should begin to look for that
person, and that you should plan to have that person
hired, trained, and functioning no later than when you
cross the $80,000 commission mark. If you’re tracking
your results daily, weekly, and monthly as I recommend,