Have you ever heard of a “Business Bullseye” or “Culture Index”?
Teresa Kitchens
Chairperson, CoVerica Agency Alliance COE
The Business Bullseye is a way for you to self-examine your agency in an effort to grow and develop in correlation of the lifestyle that you want. Before we get into the details, let’s take a step back.
How did you envision the running of your agency when you got started, and has that vision been compromised? Maybe you started as a captive, or were part of another network. You got out of there and realized—there’s a lot more to running an agency then you originally thought.
ONE THING’S FOR SURE ABOUT INSURANCE AGENTS, WE’RE FIRST AND FOREMOST, SALESPEOPLE.
We believe we can do it better on our own, and the truth is, in many cases we can’t. We’re awesome, but all the miscellaneous details of running an agency can get the best of anyone.
You start feeling trapped; you suddenly realize you didn’t go Independent to build a business you hate. You thought you were embarking on a career choice that would provide freedom, but the next thing you know you’re skipping vacations, there’s no quality time for the family, and you’re often working to the point of exhaustion.
You might be asking yourself, how can a Business Bullseye get me out of this rut?
It starts with aiming for a specific goal, the bullseye. Assuming you have a broader team that supports you, the team needs to have a vision that establishes clarity of where the agency is headed. This helps create a culture in your agency that fosters creative thinking and new ideas offered up by team members. It also helps the team determine what tools, systems, and best practices are needed to achieve the vision.
The four dimensions of an agency business bullseye
By segmenting out core agency functions, you see the agency from a fully operational 360-degree view that provides insights to the needs of the agency in order to perform optimally.
Marketing: Promotion and presence of your agency.
Administration: The structure, systems and technology of your agency.
Production: Sales and revenue growth of the agency.
Service: Policy and customer processing of business, policy changes, and documents. Delighting clients.
ME: Business owner…not the person that necessarily needs to be in the middle of day-to-day operations.
Lets’ start with the center of the bullseye…ME!
My agency was, and is, a family business. My name is on the checks and even on the debit card! Even though I was miserable, I couldn’t walk away. I needed direction and despite my pride, I reluctantly asked CoVerica for help. They responded by suggesting I start with taking the “Culture Index Survey”, a personality assessment tool they utilize.
The Survey took about 10 minutes to complete and it provided me with insights into why I was good at some things, and bad at others. I had a revelation that the areas I was bad at were functions of the agency that I probably should have delegated to another team member. Performing many of these tasks drained me emotionally, and I was not even performing them at a satisfactory level. It was at this point I concluded that it was time to get control and organize the agency in any way that suits ME! I was on to something that felt empowering. I was energized to examine the totality of my agency using the Bullseye methodology, and start thinking about how to reorganize my operations in 4 key areas.
After defining details of the 4 dimensions of my agency, I asked myself honestly:
- What are my business goals?
- How and where is my time spent?
- Do I like what I am doing?
- What do I do well?
- What am I poor at?
- What are my personal goals?
Maybe you want that amazing house, a trip overseas, or maybe it’s the idea and satisfaction of serving clients, building a great team, etc. I concluded that I love the idea that I’m helping customers, employees, and the economy as a whole. I have a woman who works for me who’s a single mom of a four-year-old boy and I’m proud to be considered part of their extended family. When I overheard her talking to her mother, and she mentioned how much she loves her job, it just gave me goosebumps.
CoVerica Agency Alliance can step you through the business bullseye process
1. Contact your ADFS to let them know you’re interested in pursuing the Business Bullseye & Culture Index process.
2. CoVerica will send you an email link to the Culture Index survey. It only takes a few minutes to complete.
3. Chris Sterlacci, CoVerica Agency Alliance’s COO will facilitate the survey results. Keep in mind, it’s a survey not a test. There’s no such thing as a bad or perfect result. It’s simply an indicator of what makes you who you are.
4. CoVerica will ask you to define all key activities underneath the 4 dimensions of the Bullseye chart.
5. At this point you will have the option of either meeting with Chris independently, or with a team of your personal selection to share your observations, goals, and next steps.
6. CoVerica will also point you in the direction of resources that can help you mastermind your road map to personal and business success!
7. Your ADFS will meet with you to tune your game plan and help keep you on track.
Your roadmap will include:
✓ Casting the vision for your team
✓ Creating the culture of your agency
✓ Decision making for which systems and activities help your agency grow
✓ Key to making a well-rounded agency
✓ Personal relationship development (home/family/other interests)
✓ Team development
✓ Time management
✓ Setting your agency up for loans/lines of credit to grow
✓ Setting yourself up for acquisitions or perpetuation
✓ Giving yourself time off and achieving the lifestyle that being a business owner allows
Take-aways:
My take-aways from the Culture Index survey, combined with the Business Bullseye, is that it helped me figure out how to spend my time and my resources in a more rewarding and effective manner. It has helped me focus on the things that I love, and the “spitfire of my soul”. When I get up and walk out of the door every day, I’m doing what makes me happy.
CoVerica is here to help you have your own revelation, because everyone throughout their career needs to take a step back and think about the big picture of their personal and professional journey.
You only live once, why not be happy and prosper!