Winging it!

Sunday, January 31, 2016 1 month down, 11 to go. Time to review how I've done with my business goals after 1 month. So far I have been able to review my progress weekly, although not always on Monday morning. When you're in a business like mine, things come at you without warning. Clients call, email. Referrals come in. Business contacts call and want to meet. Unexpected meetings arise. And of course, there are things like blizzards that change everything! I'm realizing that it's less important to me to pick specific dates/times for tasks and more important that I make sure I get it done weekly. Being an insurance agent is a balancing act. There are current clients, new clients, networking, co-workers, and possible clients. On a weekly basis, I am making sure that I spend the right amount of time on each of these to get things done.  Calendar system. This is still not working for me. I haven't had the extra time to figure out how to make this work so I'v...

Sunday, January 24th, 2016 What do all those numbers and letters on my car insurance policy mean? bi/pd 50/100/50? The first number is the maximum amount the insurance company will pay out for bodily injury, per person, per accident. This is when an accident is your fault, and the person(s) you hit has bodily injury. The middle number is the maximum the insurance company will pay out for any one incident. The last number is the maximum the insurance company will pay for property damage (caused by you.) Many people are driving with their state's minimum limits. What you don't know is that these limits were set when cars cost under $5,000. Some states still carry $5,000 as their state minimum for property damage. In Virginia, our state minimum limits are 25/50/20. I had a client who was in an accident on I-95 awhile back. There wasn't much traffic on the road at the time, he was merging right because his exit was coming up. He looked, but didn't see a car beside h...

Thursday, January 21st, 2016 Car insurance. If you have a car, you have car insurance. But, how many of us really know what our car insurance covers? I remember buying my first car, calling up the insurance company and saying I need full coverage and the cheapest price. Of course, I now have a car payment and an insurance payment, so I want the lowest price, right? How little I knew about what I was actually buying.  Now that I'm in the insurance industry I've seen first hand how having the right coverage is a blessing and having the wrong coverage is a nightmare. My job as an insurance adviser is to make sure my clients fall into the first category above. I talk to my clients and get to know their needs. I explain coverage options to them. I won't sell them cheap coverage that doesn't actually cover their needs.  Here is one quick example of meeting a clients needs. I had a potential client call me to get a lower premium. She was a single mom with 3...

Friday, January 15th, 2016 I believe that gratitude is an important part of life. Do you take time to think about what you're grateful for? Do you have a gratitude journal? Does it help you feel more grateful? I feel grateful most of the time, but have not started a gratitude journal as of yet. It's on my list to do this year and hopefully I'll get it started this month. However, I woke up this morning feeling filled with gratitude for everything in my life and felt the need to share. I am thankful for my health, my husband's health, our families health, our friend's health. I am thankful for the close relationship that my husband and I share. The friendship, the love, the commitment we have to each other, the life we have together. I am thankful for the close relationships I have with my kids. I share a bond with them that grows stronger every year. We've survived a lot together, and ended up on top. I am thankful for my family. My parents, my sibli...

A friend of mine asked me to read her nephews essay that he wrote for one of his scholarship applications. It is a very good essay and clearly explains what many people don't understand about why we all need car insurance. Please take the time to read and if you have any questions about your own insurance, don't hesitate to contact me directly. MW Reasons for Car Insurance Any person can venture on an insurance company website to find the list of ten or fifteen different reasons to get insurance ranging from “It is the law,” to “Peace of Mind.” However, personally, I believe we need to look at the family to realize that not having insurance can have a devastating impact on the financial and personal well-being of all individuals.  Dealing with medical cost and property damage to one’s own vehicle or that of others can be overwhelming.  If one does not have insurance, the majority, if not all of his/her assets can be relinquished or lost due to the extensive costs....

Sunday, January 10, 2016. I just sat down and re-read my business plan. I think I'll print it out and put it in my spiral to keep with me, as it's hard to remember all of them off the top of my head. So far I'm doing pretty good. I've kept my spiral with me for notes, I tracked my outfits on my calendar. I haven't started reading a goal related book, because I'm in the middle of a 5 book novel series. I also haven't scanned any business cards in the past week. I will have to figure out how to get that done. Possibly by breaking it up; setting a smaller goal to scan 10 or 25 per day. I'm about 50/50 on the breaks, unless you count running to the scanner as a break. I'm trying and that's what matters. I feel more organized already and I'm sure I'll be adding new things to my plan as the year progresses. I think what I need the most work on is time blocking. I have great intentions, however I get caught up in doing too many things at o...

Here it is the first Monday of 2016. This morning at my networking group, we discussed what is your greatest need this year: Help me, Help you! We weren't talking about referrals or new clients - because the bottom line is that's something we all need. However, the overall consensus was that just about everyone wanted to get more organized and wanted advice on how to do that. Of course, this brought me back to my business plans for 2016. Time Block scheduling. I've tried unsuccessfully to set my calendar this way. I'll pick dates that I'm going to do a certain task and somehow they don't get done at that time. They'll usually get done that day - but the time varies based on what's going on in my day. I'm not quite sure how people stick to the time they say they're going to do something. If I walk into my office and have clients needing me, they're going to come before anything else. However, in thinking about this. I do like the idea of givi...