MOONLIGHT man (are you a broker MOON? I mean, do you really suit up and fight it out on the street and sell stuff? Or are you tucked away neatly in a dimly lit cube somewhere stapling forms together?)
Eighteen years of industry experience as an agent, manager, wholesaler and sales executive encompassing personal lines life/health, property/casualty and securities.
Over the last five years, I have built my own health insurance book of roughly 550 clients from scratch.
So to answer your question, yeah, I suit up and fight it out on the street and sell stuff.
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[COLOR=blue]Don't steal - the government hates competition.[/COLOR]
I feel like today I made great progress in terms of making contacts in the area that I am interested in. I owe alot of my due diligence and understand of the pro's and con's to this thread. I know when I do the career understanding there will be alot of hype what I could possibly make. I consider myself to be a go getter and a winner A type personality so I know it will hype me up but i'll have this thread in the back of my head to keep my head grounded.
Legion,Caliban and a couple of other guys if any of you are interested in giving my autobiography a quick one over send me a PM and I'll copy-n-paste it, see if it has all the right kool-aide.
Thanks to all of you for the informative & sometimes satirical post regarding State Farm. I finished the recruiting process & just became an "Approved Candidate" last week. I've learned a lot from the forum & I wish I had found it before the interview process as I have many new questions that I would have liked to asked the powers that be.
Now that I'm able to view the opportunities that are open, what does an "Additional Intern" mean? Does taking an AI position lock you into that market or is it temporary? If an agent that is leaving the business & his B.O.B. is so large they have to split it, would that involve an AI? Thanks in advance & good luck to you all.
Hey Caliban nice tip, my autobiogrophy is working out its way to be that way. I googled professional autobiographies and how to make them and they all universally agree that it should be written in the third person. I'm not sure if I should do it this way or not. I'm rather inclining myself to NOT doing it this way because it almost seems that this professional autobiography might be for someone that is a book writer or a doctor and not a first step process for someone looking to open up an SF business.
Dazed and confucious as for Additional Intern, my understanding is that you go through the process just like everyone else but instead of posting for an assignment of choice you begin immediately the intern process at an agent's office in the market that you will be in and the first posting to open up whether it be scratch or whether it be a short notice retiring agent that is where you go. I think legion describes it rather accurately in a few posts above and all my knowledge of the additional intern position that I'm posting right now is based off what I inferred from his post of the AI.
I'm trying to stay away from that if possible as I'd rather not go the scratch way.
This might be the new pitch of the company for new recruits. Dazed is this what they want you to do? is the Additional Intern position a posting that you apply for just like another posting?
The AI opportunity or obtaining an existing agency is the way that I am leaning. I have only had the password to log on to the "opportunities page" for 8 days now. I'm trying to be patient just to see if there are any openings closer to my home town. My background is in the residential construction & development business & I don't mind busting my ass for a living, but I want to make some money. The past 2 years have been horrible in the housing market & I am land rich & I don't owe the bank any money, although I have yet to see a grocery store take dirt or rocks as payment. I've been living off of my savings for a while now & had hoped that the State Farm gig would help me get back into the saddle again. I LIVE & LIKE TO WORK!!!!! I do it for the $$$$$$..... I hope the TICA contract gets an overhaul before I make a decision, because I'm going to have a hard time putting 110% into it while in the back of my mind I know I'm getting screwed. Thanks again for the response & good luck in your venture to Texas.
......I finished the recruiting process & just became an "Approved Candidate" last week.......
Congratulations! It speaks well of you that you completed the process and are a desirable candidate for SF. I wish you well and hope you wind up somewhere that you will enjoy and be very successful.
Can anyone chime in on their opinion of writing the autobiography In third person? Anyone think its a bit overboard or does it truly seem more professional?
WOW, after reading this thread (which has taken some time to get through), working at Walmart would be a smarter move than to work for SF. Why would anyone go into thousands of dollars of debt to build a business that they don’t own? Seems like you work your butt off for years and end up with… nadda. I was thinking about getting into the insurance business and so far I've talked to Farmers, Aflac, Mutual of Omaha and SF. At first I ran from Aflac, now it seems they would be a better pick than SF… then again maybe Walmart would be better. WOW, and I say WOW again, here I had this naïve though of helping people at the same time building a business that I can be proud of. Tomorrow I’m putting in for Walmart…. Hey, maybe Aflac! Quack quack
WOW, after reading this thread (which has taken some time to get through), working at Walmart would be a smarter move than to work for SF. Why would anyone go into thousands of dollars of debt to build a business that they don’t own? Seems like you work your butt off for years and end up with… nadda. I was thinking about getting into the insurance business and so far I've talked to Farmers, Aflac, Mutual of Omaha and SF. At first I ran from Aflac, now it seems they would be a better pick than SF… then again maybe Walmart would be better. WOW, and I say WOW again, here I had this naïve though of helping people at the same time building a business that I can be proud of. Tomorrow I’m putting in for Walmart…. Hey, maybe Aflac! Quack quack
Great! This is exactly what we want. There are already too many of us spreading the wealth to thin.
Can anyone chime in on their opinion of writing the autobiography In third person? Anyone think its a bit overboard or does it truly seem more professional?
I can't give any reference to the State Farm aspect, simply because I haven't done it. I'm assuming this is not a book length autobiography, but more of an introduction length (several paragraphs).
My recommendation is to write it thinking that someone is standing at the podium and is using it to introduce you before you come out and speak to the crowd.
To this end, it needs to tell a little bit about who you are, to give some perspective to the crowd. It needs to tell a little bit about what you are, giving your credentials to the crowd to make you the authority, and it needs to give them an attachment to you, or why they should continue to listen.
The third person perspective doesn't seem so over the top when you think about it as an introduction by someone else.
Whether you go with State Farm or anywhere, it's a good thing to have.
Thanks to all of you for the informative & sometimes satirical post regarding State Farm. I finished the recruiting process & just became an "Approved Candidate" last week. I've learned a lot from the forum & I wish I had found it before the interview process as I have many new questions that I would have liked to asked the powers that be.
Now that I'm able to view the opportunities that are open, what does an "Additional Intern" mean? Does taking an AI position lock you into that market or is it temporary? If an agent that is leaving the business & his B.O.B. is so large they have to split it, would that involve an AI? Thanks in advance & good luck to you all.
OK this is a red flag. You are this far through the process and nobody has explained what an additional intern is?
You have to be more flexible as an AI. You choose a defined market area, and wait. The first opening that comes up is yours. Its meant to fill unexpected openings. Great for the company. Crap shoot for you.
I can't give any reference to the State Farm aspect, simply because I haven't done it. I'm assuming this is not a book length autobiography, but more of an introduction length (several paragraphs).
My recommendation is to write it thinking that someone is standing at the podium and is using it to introduce you before you come out and speak to the crowd.
To this end, it needs to tell a little bit about who you are, to give some perspective to the crowd. It needs to tell a little bit about what you are, giving your credentials to the crowd to make you the authority, and it needs to give them an attachment to you, or why they should continue to listen.
The third person perspective doesn't seem so over the top when you think about it as an introduction by someone else.
Whether you go with State Farm or anywhere, it's a good thing to have.
Dan
As everyone knows I also have no experience with SF but have done a considerable amount of technical writing. The majority of bio pieces that are written and released to the public are written in third person including news releases, marketing pieces, and web site bios. Because the SF bio is more personal and needs to show one's versatility, creativity, guts, and determination in specific instances writing totally in third person might be uncomfortable at certain points. If that is the case one can adopt third person but tell some personal experiences by quoting oneself.
The style that will appeal the most is going to depend upon the person doing the reading and whether they are analyticals, expressives, etc.
Can anyone chime in on their opinion of writing the autobiography In third person? Anyone think its a bit overboard or does it truly seem more professional?
I did my auto-bio in 1st person. I looked at it as me, writing about me.
Damoose: Sounds like you’re not much of an entrepreneur. Therefore, you probably SHOULD put on a blue vest so you can tell me where the motor oil is when I come into Walmart. (If that doesn’t work out, my city always needs those guys twirling signs on busy streets for pizza shops and sandwich shops.)
One thing needs to be made perfectly clear to anyone considering launching an entrepreneurial endeavor: it will be a great opportunity to make money, and it will be a great opportunity to go bust. Generally, the greater the chance to make money, the greater the chance to wreck yourself. If you don’t realize this is the risk, do not even consider doing something entrepreneurial.
Start a restaurant. Go out on your own and launch a law firm. Open a hair salon. You name it—people succeed and go bust in these things everyday. If you think you can simply stick your toe in the pool of opportunity to try it out, don’t even bother getting your toe wet in the first place—you will certainly fail.
I am being quite sincere. If the chance of you busting out is more than you can risk (i.e., you are the main breadwinner, you have a big mortgage, or perhaps you have worked hard to build a nestegg of some kind) then you should NOT do anything that puts that at risk—no matter how tempting it sounds. You SHOULD use your talents as an employee somewhere and get a W-2 statement and health benefits and a 3% raise each year. There is no shame in that.
True: a scratch opportunity with State Farm has some long odds with it—don’t bet more than you can afford to lose. And certainly the earlier contract(s) for TICAs must have been dreadful. This site seems to have made that very clear. A traditional opportunity with an assignment of households therefore seems to be an easy choice. However, even if you get an assignment of 2,000 cars, if you are not wired to be a business owner, you will fail.
Several people on this site have made very valid points about the specific failings of the scratch opportunity, and early TICA contracts. I applaud those who are still fighting the good fight to make it—I could not have endured their tribulations. If this shakes any of YOUR convictions about running your own business, then certainly you need to keep walking by this, and probably any other opportunity with risk.
I am glad that I am a stage in my life where I can take this risk head on, I'm also glad that I am who I am and I know i was born a winner. I succeed where others fail and usually am at the front of any pack. I can't wait to get started.
OK this is a red flag. You are this far through the process and nobody has explained what an additional intern is?
You have to be more flexible as an AI. You choose a defined market area, and wait. The first opening that comes up is yours. Its meant to fill unexpected openings. Great for the company. Crap shoot for you.
Yes, it was explained by management, I just wanted the laymans version & thanks for the input. I'd rather have the red flag than the meatball flag anyday. I love a crapshoot....Come on easy 8
I am new to this website so I apologize if this comment has already been addressed, but hasn’t it been proven within the State Farm community that the most successful agents started out with a scratch agency??
Taking over a 2.5 or 3.0 million dollar book is not running a business and it certainly has nothing to do with being an entrepreneur. Scratch agents built this company; everyone else is simply standing on their shoulders. If the policy was on the screen the first day you fired up your office computer, that's not you, it's someone else's hard work or company benevolence. There's nothing wrong with being given polices, but we need to call it what it is - a gift, not a "business opportunity". And I'm not doubting the business acumen of the people who are gifted books - it's just that anything they do after the gift is predicated on the gift itself Being a steward of an existing book is an important function for employee-agents as they serve as a placeholder of sorts for the company (not LOSING business is a pretty low bar, wouldn't you say?). It's just doesn't fit any definition I'm aware of of "starting and running a business".
Let me get this straight. If I come into my town and BUY, NOT START, a multimillion dollar company, I'm not running a business? I'm not an entrepreneur? I'm not putting it all on the line? Sure, scratch agents are great and I applaud their efforts in every sense of the word, but you are giving yourself to much credit (assuming of course you are a scratch agent).
The only valid point you made is that you are not "starting a business". True, since the business already existed, but you are certainly "starting your own business" once you make that purchase or assume that book and it is now yours and it's success will depend upon you and not whatever happened prior.
I have a new question.....I met an older SF agent the other day, I know his daughter but never put it together that He was her father. Anyway, she told me he'd been a SF agent for 46 years & that He owned his own book of business. Have any of you heard of an older agent owning his own book? I wonder what happens to the book when he dies?
Re: Becoming a State Farm Agent
Seems like you work your butt off for years and end up with… nadda. I was thinking about getting into the insurance business and so far I've talked to Farmers, Aflac, Mutual of Omaha and SF. At first I ran from Aflac, now it seems they would be a better pick than SF… then again maybe Walmart would be better. WOW, and I say WOW again, here I had this naïve though of helping people at the same time building a business that I can be proud of. Tomorrow I’m putting in for Walmart…. Hey, maybe Aflac! Quack quack
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