Articles by Bill Schoeffler and Catherine Oak

Oak is the founder of the consulting firm, Oak & Associates, based in Northern California and Central Oregon. Oak & Associates. Phone: 707-935-6565. Email: catoak@gmail.com.

How to Perpetuate the Family Agency

In the past year, we have completed or are still in the middle of at least six business valuation and perpetuation cases involving family members or key employees (one party as buyer and one as seller). These cases and the …

Is Taking a Vacation a Good Way to Increase Agency Value?

Summer is over and the kids are back in school. Many of us spent a week or two away from our business. It is not easy for business owners to walk away from running their business for any length of …

Dressing Up for the Wedding: Book of Business, Part 2

You can’t take it with you. Every business owner will eventually “sell” his or her business. It can either be on terms the owner defines, or it can be based on whatever happens at the end. So, if an owner …

Dressing Up for the Wedding: Agency Operations, Part 1

Business owners have a lot to consider when running a successful business. Unfortunately, many do not consider an exit strategy, especially in the early years of the business. Agency owners without an exit strategy will sometimes make decisions based on …

Stop Selling Like It’s 1985

There is a video on YouTube by Jim Muehlhausen of CEO Focus called “Stop Selling Like It is 1985.” It has some great points about the changes that have occurred in the sales process due to the Internet. The example …

Offering Value Added Services

Insurance producers sell roughly the same product as their competitor. The competitive edge often touted by producers is that their firm “has the best service” or “this policy has broader coverage” or some other generalization. Price is handled by adjusting …

Creating Performance-Based Compensation

For many businesses and employees, the standard business model is for the employer to pay the employee a fixed salary based on a basic understanding that the employee will perform certain tasks. Compensation might be altered based on some variables …

How to Attain What Agencies Want in 6 Easy Steps

There’s a very simple formula for getting whatever you want for your agency. This is so simple it seems trivial and few people follow it. But if these steps are followed, agency owners can create anything they want in the …

Do You Need an Agency Manager?

Congratulations! You are an excellent salesperson and your business is growing. You first hired a customer service representative (CSR) to support you as you added new business. You might have brought on a part-time bookkeeper. Sales continued to grow. Next, …

Finding and Selling to Ideal Clients

When an agency is started, most new owners will be happy to sell their products or services to anyone that is willing to buy. After all, one needs to have paying clients to stay in business! However, this approach is …