Our Partnership Offer to YOU!
By Jeff Friedlander
 I have a special affinity for contractors. The first reason is that I am completely “unhandy”. So you have a talent for something which just mystifies me – you literally create something from nothing. Clearly, I wasn’t born with this same gift.
Second, you all work hard – damn hard. Early mornings and late nights; smoldering hot summer days and butt freezing cold are nothing new to you. You walk the walk.
I think that insurance agents and insurance companies truly haven’t gotten it when it comes to contractors. Most insurance agents focus only on selling you insurance. Other than that, your contracting business is pretty much a non-issue. If your business goes up, down or sideways the insurance guy still gets paid.
My overall goals and partnership offer to you is simple and straight forward. I pledge: 1) To reduce your insurance premiums wherever possible 2) To bulletproof your business from costly Workers Compensation claims and errors 3) To focus on the thing which matter most to you – growing your business and providing for your family 4) To increase your cash flow 5) To insure your business not only survives but prospers!
This is just how it is. No wonder every contractor I have ever spoken to thinks insurance sucks. Actually, I had to clean it up just to get it to that. But thinking about it logically – it does: 1) If nothing bad happens – you have a bunch of papers and cancelled checks 2) If something bad does happen, you’ll get back to even, but you are not supposed to profit from the actual policy – it’s actually written into the contract – you get back to even, less your deductibles (plus you’re probably going to have a nasty surcharge). In other words, if you have a great year and have no claims your Return On Investment (ROI) will be zero. While it is true you are paying for the protection or the “promise to pay” you and the insurance company don’t want you to have any claims.
I’ve stopped thinking like an insurance guy and started thinking like a business man. Instead of trying to sell you more insurance, I’ve realized that I sell more insurance when I focus on your business, when I focus on your bottom line. I took the contractor’s business model and shook it like a hyperactive 6 year old would shake a snow globe and looked at it from many different directions. This change of perspective was truly eye opening. The realization that the reason you get up early and work late is not so I can sell you more insurance but instead to create a livelihood; to protect your family’s well-being, to control your own destiny.
The insurance industry as a whole has it wrong. They are trying to sell you crap you don’t much care about. No wonder all anybody ever wanted was the cheapest price – you were paying for something you didn’t want to use. So, the natural and smart move was to actually get off my high horse and listen to what you wanted. Not what I thought you wanted, but what you actually wanted!!
I started out less than 10 years ago in my own agency with no money and just shear will to succeed. I managed to create a very nice living for myself and my family by out-marketing my competition and beating them to the punch. For a long time that defined “winning” – more business, more clients, more revenue. But that is not good enough – not nearly good enough. You can find a barrel full of wealthy insurance agents in NJ. Here’s the part you’ll be interested in…
Why not develop insurance that you care about? Why not care about your business the same way I do my own? Why not roll up my sleeves and tell you what marketing tricks worked for me? Why not actively work to ensure that your business grows? To ensure your family is provided for. Why not take the old tired formula of buyer and seller and kick it in the ass and move to a partner scenario? Sounds like together we achieve more than by working as totally separate entities. It also seems to me that by actively helping you achieve the things that matter most to you – I win also. No other agency in the state has anything like our contractors’ program. I’ve been actively looking and can’t find an agency anywhere that does anything close. In a very real sense, it is taking the sucking feeling out of insurance.
The awesome thing here is that it is not some marginal pass through savings for you. Yes, we should be able to save you money on your contractor’s insurance. But that savings in the grand scheme of your business is marginal; by changing all the rules you win and achieve exponential rewards.
We also move from a “cost of doing business” to a revenue source. Not only is our relationship on a different level – I can’t be easily replaced or replaced at all. You might want to make sure I eat my vegetables and keep getting some exercise. In a very real way, I become your testing guinea pig – but on my nickel. I ‘m always researching marketing programs – the ones that work for the agency we re-engineer and give to you for your contracting business.
Just as I believe there is a certain honor to how hard you work and the skills you bring to your trades – I also believe there is the same honor and integrity in leaving nothing in the bag. I have done that here – I have taken an archaic business model and changed it; and have taken years of my life and thousands of dollars to create a program where you not only win, but win so big that you can’t believe that nobody has thought of it sooner.
Please review the sections of our web site and call or email any questions you may have. My overall goals are simple and straight forward: 1) To reduce your insurance premiums wherever possible 2) To bulletproof your business from costly Workers Compensation claims and errors 3) To focus on the thing which matter most to you – growing your business and providing for your family 4) To increase your cash flow 5) To insure your business not only survives but prospers!
Thank you so very much!
Jeff Friedlander, CIC, CLTC, CCPS, CWCA, CWCP
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