How $500 Became a 50-Employee Insurance Empire

That's awesome.

And then you, you got into the, the old- Yeah.

So that was, so that was...

I, uh, you know, I started with Farmers.

They had a, a unique program at the time.

I don't know if they still have it, but it was, it was a great way for someone with nothing to get started.

So the way that they structured it, you know, I only had $500, like I said.

Well, I had less than that 'cause I had spent most of it.

But I, I had my emergency check and they, uh, you know, basically gave you, like, a 90-day, you know, can you cut it or not? So, you know, being from Michigan, um, I had no warm market 'cause I was from Michigan.

I had no target market 'cause I was 23 and their target market was, like, you know, 35, two home... or a home, two cars, et cetera.

Uh, I had no experience and I had no money.

So, you know, I had everything working against me.

But they had this 90-day window, like, give you access to the systems, phone, you know, some basic training, and can you cut it or not? Thir- 30 home and auto across all three life policies.

And so I, uh, you know, worked day in, day out, uh, for, for those 90 days.

Was actually able to, to hit the numbers and go to the next, like, six-month time period.

So in the next six-month time period, they gave me effectively a loan of $1,500 a month over s- over, uh, six months, and they gave me benchmarks to hit, and if I hit the top numbers in six months, then they gave me a, um, a loan over the next two years of about 60, $70,000 to, uh, to, to launch the business.

And so- That's cool ... um, I worked, uh, two jobs, seven days a week from 8:00 AM to midnight for about 11 months until I could support myself just selling insurance.

And then I, I hit tho- you know, I hit those, the, the six-month numbers.

Then, then once, once you hit those and you go on the two-year program, they've got numbers to meet over four years.

So they give you a loan over two.

If you can hit the, the, the top line numbers over four years, then they waive the whole loan.

Oh.

[laughs] So I was able to...

Yeah, I was able to hit my four-year numbers in two years and then waive the whole loan.

And so I basically was able to start with $500, you know, build the initial Farmers agency, um, over, you know, get it launched.