Every insurance agency has a story. A few of them might be slightly embellished for effect, but every agency owner can point to one moment that created the business. It may have been a local crisis, a chance meeting over a drink or a lost job; your agency started somewhere. We always find these stories compelling, each one is unique and each tells us a lot about the owner’s business goals.
There are a number of rules in storytelling. Stories need character, conflict and drama; they need these factors to keep a reader entertained. Your agency’s story probably has a few of these factors, but we’re most interested in the rules that govern endings. In storytelling, endings have to tie up the story and they have to be happy.
Those same rules apply to final chapter in your agency’s story. When you perpetuate your business, internally or externally, it should achieve your business goals and make you happy. If your perpetuation event doesn’t do either, it will be because you failed to execute an effective plan.
The Story So Far
When you plan for your agency’s future, you will find yourself going over the story again. You will assess the business’ history from start to finish. That will remind you of how you formed your business goals. These goals are vitally important in creating a perpetuation plan that will have a happy ending.
When you understand your business goals, you can identify how you want to perpetuate your business. Whether your goals are focused on the value of the agency, your legacy or the agency’s place in the community, your agency’s story will remind you of what’s most important. It will also help to spot the things that aren’t important.
Writing the Final Chapter
You won’t be able to write the final chapter of your insurance agency’s story alone. You will need a successor to help you reach a conclusion. A financial advisor can act as a ghostwriter for that final chapter. Helping you to pull together the agency’s history and plan the big finale.
In the end it will come back to those business goals. They’re the best guide you can have in finding your story’s happy ending. The first step is to look at the story so far.
Each and every perpetuation event is unique, however there are three categories events can fit into; The good, the challenged and the ugly. Read our free case study looking at these situations here.
