If you’re starting your own business and you’re about to enter the market, start taking notes on what obstacles you can expect in your financing department, and the best ways to tackle them before they wreak havoc on your business.

The international insurance market offers a variety of benefits to independent agents and brokers. It provides a perfect tool for solidifying your Commercial Lines accounts and insulating them from inroads being made by alphabet house brokers. International insurance operations also offer an entree to new product lines and markets that will expand your facilities abroad. For example, U.S. agents can introduce their expertise in such lines as Auto, Medical, Surety, and Workers' Compensation to third-world countries that are privatizing these coverages. Canadian brokers can expand their expertise in out-of-country private Medical insurance and, potentially, Workers' Compensation.

It used to be the $1 million ceiling. That was the level of revenue at which an individual performing agent with a few helpers had to become a business with different people handling different clients and responsibilities. Everyone still worked for the agent, but the agent no longer made every decision.

However, running an agency as a business doesn't automatically result in growth and a high quality of professional service. By the time the agency reaches $2 million, it runs into another "invisible ceiling."

How do you become an insurance agent? How do you get clients? Do you need to be educated in order to sell insurance? Do you need to know about Instagram Ads? These are all questions that many potential insurance agents have, but they shouldn’t stop them from getting into the industry. With the right attitude and some helpful advice, you can succeed as an insurance agent regardless of your experience or lack thereof. Here are six tips that will get you started on the path toward success as an insurance agent.

When you come right down to it, failure is a word we use to describe anything short of absolute success. Like perfection, success is unforgiving, when measured systemically. You either succeed or you don’t. For many people, there is nothing between success and failure. It’s an either/or, all-or-nothing outcome. Get an interesting and inspiring perspective on the concept of failure in this document by Mitch Axelrod.

AGREEMENT made this ____ day of __________, 19__, by and among PURCHASER INSURANCE AGENCY, INC., a Massachusetts corporation having a principal place of business in Boston, Massachusetts, hereinafter referred to as the "Buyer," ROGER A. ABLE of Lexington, Massachusetts, hereinafter referred to individually as "Able," and JOHN B. BAKER of Newton, Massachusetts, hereinafter referred to individually as "Baker"; both Able and Baker being referred to hereinafter jointly as the "Sellers."

When someone is reluctant to give you referrals, it's likely that they're concerned about their friends' or colleagues' reactions to their names coming up in conversation and to your calling them. They could be afraid that their friends or colleagues wouldn't appreciate having a salesperson unleashed on them.

The old marketplace selection process is futile. There simply aren’t enough carriers to go around, it’s not in the client’s best interests, and it doesn’t allow a firm to differentiate itself. To make matters worse, the average hit ratio is a whopping 15%! Rob Ekern recommends (and explains) the Brokerage Selection Process for developing and retaining revenue.

To grow your referral business, follow these 10 steps by Bill Cates.

Roughly defined, disintermediation means removal of the middle man. Do a linear projection based on historical forces and you'll conclude that the disintermediation of the agent from the Personal lines process is inevitable. After all, when Warren Buffet, Conning & Company, banks, large insurance companies, and others agree on something, they must be correct, right?