Page 93 - The UnCaptive Agent

66 THE UNCAPTIVE AGENT

of the content of these plans that you’re going to create
will be derived from all of the thinking work that you
have already done.

Making Plans

You are going to need to write a business plan, a client
retention plan, a sales plan, a marketing plan, and a pro
forma financial plan (which is derived from your busi-
ness planning and a part of your business plan though
I am going to treat it as a separate subject). Although
this may seem like a lot of plans, I think you’ll find that,
in practice, the thinking work you have done up until
now will make this simple and straightforward.
Here is a word of caution: if you decide to skip any
of these steps, you will pay for it. In my experience—
and our company has helped over two hundred fifty
entrepreneurs start insurance agencies—the number
one cause of failure of insurance agency founders is
their failure to plan. When you don’t take the time to
think through what you need to do, and you operate
your business out of your hip pocket mentally, as well
as financially, you’re taking a very great risk. You can
go a long way towards guaranteeing yourself success
as an insurance agency founder and owner with a lit-
tle bit of planning formalized as brief, succinct, but
written plans.
You will find it difficult, if not impossible, to get
insurance carriers to give you a contract to sell their
products without a written business plan. Of course,
without contracts you can’t be in business. So, whether
you write the plans to make sure you succeed, or you
only do it to make sure you have something to sell,
we’ll discuss here what you need to include in those
plans.