All things being the same.

We went and visited a retail insurance agency today. The person we met there, the vice president of a large agency, was really kind. She took the time to tell us all about their agency in their operations. She was even kind enough to tell us who inside the organization would be useful to us. Who would read receptive to our product offerings. And she even mentioned some people outside of her organization that she thought would be a good fit for us.

But one thing she said, left me struggling.

She said that "Suzy X. may have all of the markets that she needs."

The problem I have with this statement is a fundamental problem I see in the insurance business. It seems that everyone does things essentially the same way. The only thing that differentiate one managing general agent from another is: 1. Do they have a market that will take the risk? And 2. Are they as good as the next one. Susie X. may have a market for everything, but is each market really the same?

You see, insurance brokerage firms are all essentially the same. They call it a people business because that's the only differentiation in one competent broker to another. Nobody does anything special. In fact there are so many twists and turns in the regulation and in the fundamental structure of the distribution systems, that is unbelievably difficult to be different.

What we're trying to do here at Lime Tree Underwriters is to do something essentially different. We want to focus on becoming the fastest, easiest, brain-dead simple way to get business on the books. We will use our narrow box underwriting approach and our extremely automated five minutes to bind platform to stand out. That's our value proposition to the agent. If you do business with us it will be easier than any other place.

My sales team is now armed with the message: "Yes, we know you already have markets, but can they do this?"

Shaking things up is an awful lot of fun.

Things are starting to go very well. We are putting lots of business on the books. Inbound phone calls tell us that our marketing campaign is working right. Our attention to a value proposition and brand image seem to be paying off. Heck, we had a competitor call us downright angry. We've had a phone call from a another 50-year-old competitor basically asking for us to throw him a lifeline. And we are brand-new.

But under it all, and most importantly, we're having a heck of a lot of fun!

We are in insurance. It's probably one of the most unchanged, old-school, old boy businesses on the planet. In a business where "that's the way we've always done it" is the opening prayer for a day's business, it's amazing how people are responding to the way we are doing things. And it feels good.

So, our challenge is to stick to our plan, and grow like crazy, and be sure that every day is as much fun as the last few.

Clean Sheets.

We moved to new offices today. Out with the old and in with the new.

Despite the fact that a lot of stuff is "Somewhere in that box over there". We get the chance to start over and not live with the little things we did not like about the old place. We got to throw out a lot of junk that was just taking up space. (And St Francis school got some AV equipment we no longer needed.. that our junk is highly valued in education, is something for another post)

Its good to apply that, not only, to the new office, but to every facet of the business. In order to make sure the paperless initiate works, we are not bringing in file cabinet. Instead we have spiffy new scanners and hard drives (Backup up to a computer someplace in the desert outside Las Vegas).

Now if we can just get the phones working properly....

We've got a website...

When I talk to other managing general agents, often, the subject of our website comes up. It's a funny thing, their comment is always the same.

"Oh, we have a website too."

So I usually drill into the question.

Does your website let your agents quote risks? " Yes"

Does it let them pay for and buying coverage? "Well, no."

Does it send them a copy of the proposal they have done online automatically? "No"

Does it notify you when a new agent rates their first quote? "No"

Does it tell you when an agent quote something of significant premium? "No"

Does it resend the quote out 72 hours before the renewal date? "No"

Does it automatically pull the Google maps and Google Street view photo of the property? "No"

Does it keep track of your various carriers underwriting response times? "No"

Does it allow your retail agents to have it your program linked in their website? "No"

Not to beat a dead horse. But many years ago I was an exchange student to Ghana West Africa. And I recall one and gentlemen saying to me: "America's not so strong, we have an air force too!"

We are looking for a CSR.

It would seem to me that there is a vast untapped workforce in America.

There are literally thousands of moms who have stepped out of careers in order to have children. Most of the moms are brain dead numb from talking about nothing but playgroups and preschool teachers. I can't tell you the number of times I talked to mothers when my children were young who are looking for nothing more than adult conversation on a daily basis.

The dilemma of these people have is that there are a number of transition years, from first grade to say sixth or seventh grade. where the kids don't need the kind of attention they did when they were tiny. But mom still wants to be home when the kids get there.

So, what if you structured a job, where you could meet both of these needs for your employee. Give a mom, or a stay-at-home dad, the ability to work in an adult environment but still be home with the kids.

I would be willing to bet that we can attract some really great talent, at a price we simply can't afford, by offering these people something no one else does.

In the 1960s the people that worked at NASA were the very best. For every one position that was filled, there were at least two dozen of the very best, literally "rocket scientists" lined up and begging for the job. Now I'm not suggesting that what we do is anything as grandiose as putting man on the moon. But I would be willing to bet that the salaries of the people at NASA were typical government grade pay scales. Those people were there because they were being fulfilled by something other than money. I think we can tap into that fulfillment.

So here's the ad we posted on craigslist:

We are an MGA. We are looking for a fun person to work with. No grumps. No crybabies. No wallflowers. No 'fraidy cats.

We are looking for someone who has some experience working as either an underwriter, CSR or producer in the property and casualty business. Don't misunderstand, just because we're a fun place to work doesn't mean we are not serious about what we do. If you are the kind of person who can come to work in flip-flops and still outperform Joe Corporation in his thousand dollar suit, then you will be at home with us.

We are looking for:

Experienced insurance industry people only.
Knowledge of E&S insurance is a plus.
A P&C or CSR licence is required.
A college education is a darn good thing.

What we have to offer.

Working school hours only (9 AM to 3 PM)
Your children's school holidays off.
The company of fun adults, who will not talk about Barney, Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob... ever.