By Paul J. Di Stefano, CPA, CPCU, and G. Edward Kalbaugh F irst National Bank of America purchased the agency around the corner for 3.5 times revenue. Very likely the bank didn't know your agency was for sale. Perhaps that's because you're not prepared for potential opportunities such as the fictitious one in our example.
Few agencies are.
In today's fast-paced, highly competitive environment, agency principals spend much of their time working in the agency. Most don't put enough effort into working on the agency. There is too much focus on efficiently doing the wrong things. Larger issues of the marketplace go unnoticed. In the 1950s and 1960s, for example, independent agencies flourished as the dominant distribution system for insurance companies.