Page 86 - The UnCaptive Agent

PREREQUISITES FOR SUCCESS 59

fail to make some principal payments, they will convert
the line of credit to a term loan with fixed payments.

What Will You Call It?

One other prerequisite—and this one can be fun—is
deciding what you call your business. What will its name
be? Will you name it after yourself as in the “John Doe
Insurance Agency?” Will you name it, at least in part,
based on the products that you sell? Will you name it
based on your location, as in “The Elm Street Agency”
or the “Anywhere, USA, Agency?” Will you give it a
clever, high-tech-sounding name?
If you read about branding, or talk to a branding
expert, they will tell you that the name a business has
is very important. The name communicates to the mar-
ketplace what the business does and something about
its personality. So, the name is important. While this
isn’t a book on branding, I recommend that you give
the name of your agency some serious consideration.
Let me give you some suggestions for what not to
do. For one thing, don’t name your business based on
geography. I’ve made this mistake twice in my career
and lived to regret it both times. My original retail
agency, Oklahoma Business Insurors Agency, limited
us in two ways. The first was that it was clear we sold
business insurance. Later, when we decided to also sell
personal lines, we had to create another name for that
part of our business operation because no one knew that
we sold personal insurance. The second limitation that
we put on ourselves was using the state in which we
operated. We did give ourselves more market territory
than just our hometown, but we made it difficult to
sell insurance outside of Oklahoma. So, learn from my
mistakes, and don’t do that! The second time I named