There seems to be an insatiable frenzy of agency acquisitions for many years now, with private equity firms and publicly traded brokers taking the lion’s share. These well-funded buyers are paying a premium well over what a local peer independent …
Insurance agencies across the country hire some or all producers as independent contractors instead of as employees. The mixed use of employees and independent contractors in insurance is common in other industries as well. The ramification of this hiring decision …
Is personal lines costing the agency money? How profitable is that new program business? What would happen to the bottom line if employee benefits sales increased by 25 percent? When is it time to hire a new employee for commercial …
Sam Walton built the world’s largest retail store in the world: Walmart. In his autobiography, Sam Walton: Made in America, he detailed some of the keys that helped him build Walmart into an enduring company that has held the number …
With the passing of the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), there is quite a lot of talk about how it will impact businesses, what businesses are doing with any additional monies, as well as what happens to …
As competition intensifies, agency owners have found it increasingly difficult to grow their business. Profit margins have shrunk, leaving many to turn to acquisition to sustain a high level of growth. This is known as a red ocean trap, where …
To prepare for the future, business owners need to observe what trends are occurring and then evaluate how those trends could impact their business. It is a guessing game, but an educated guess is usually proven to be better than …
Northern California and specifically Sonoma and Napa Counties have experienced the worst wildfires in the history of California. Most of these fires began around Oct. 8, 2017, during night with extremely high winds, that knocked power lines out in hills …
Family businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy. They generate more than 50 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 70 percent of job creation. However, only about one-third survive into the second generation, and 12 …
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” This opening line in Charles Dickens novel “A Tale of Two Cities” summarizes the contradictions and …
