LG Insurance: Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
What do you think of when you first meet Aaron Levine, owner of LG Insurance? Impressive.
Aaron started LG Insurance in 2009 as a scratch agency; in fact this was his first full-time insurance position. In 2007, Aaron focused on commercial real estate and obtained his commercial real estate license. Understanding that you could increase your earning potential, he also obtained his insurance licenses and partnered with a local agency. It was a great match to be working on commercial real estate development and having insurance as some extra income.
Now if you do some math and think back to 2008, a major event happened that pushed Aaron into the insurance realm full-time. The housing and real estate market crashed. Aaron contemplated jumping full-time into insurance or going into the next best recession proof industry, owning a liquor store. Insurance won and he was off to the races. As a scratch agency located in Long Branch, NJ, he quickly realized he had the ability to generate opportunities but finding markets was harder. In November of 2009 he joined NJAN.
From there Aaron started selling anything and everything he could. After two years in business he hired his first support person, and now six years later he has a team of four. He attributes his success to networking. Aaron frankly admits You arent making money if you are in the office. Agents need to be out and about attending networking events, meeting centers of influence and seeing their clients. You arent going to win getting bogged down in paperwork.
It was not very long after Aaron got started that two major hurricanes impacted the coastline of New Jersey. Hurricane Irene hit in 2011 and then Hurricane Sandy hit the following year. As an agency owner in a coastal town, Aaron comments, Hurricane Irene helped us understand how weak we really were on things like disaster plans and flood insurance. It opened my eyes big time and I invested in making sure our agency was tight and right on processes, compliance and planning. Aaron also comments, In some ways those two storms helped me out tremendously. When people dont understand the value of insurance because times are quiet, its harder to sell the products we know people need but they arent always convinced they should have. Currently in coastal New Jersey, we dont even ask about flood insurance. We quote it and people realize they need it.
During the two major storms Aaron found a way to capitalize by being nimble. He was able to provide personalized customer service and reach out to all of his commercial and personal lines clients. During this time the larger agencies he found were not equipped to return calls, process claims and be there in spirit for their clients. This was a time that really fueled LG Insurance to springboard to the next level of growth.
When you ask Aaron what the biggest challenge is that is facing the independent agents today, he is quick to respond Consolidation. The big agencies are eating up the little agencies and its happening in the aggregator and carrier worlds as well. The challenge independent agents need to face and strategize against is how can we be different. If everyone can get the same markets through aggregators, how can a smaller agency stick out? Being a very sharp entrepreneur, Aaron has focused on bringing in good and talented people and reinvesting over and over again in his agency. If you are building a business you better be willing to invest. It cant be about a pay check. That will come; it has to be about constant reinvestment to fuel your success.
One of the frustrations Aaron is passionate about solving is the challenge of technology inside an agency. As a younger agency owner, Aaron believes in technology but often struggles with the carriers, management system and marketing softwares lack of integration. Technology is meant to help streamline us but we too often have to focus on thinking ‘Did that work right?’ Technology partners have to work together to make things work in synergy with each other. It will help save us all time, effort and energy so we can focus on sales which will drive the growth of our technology partners as well.
After a real estate crash, two major hurricanes and starting a successful agency you would think Aaron would be exhausted. Nope, he is refueled by the newest addition in his life, his five-month-old baby girl, Elle. Aaron commented Elle may be the richest person in our household! We are working hard to put money into her college savings account before anything else. But in all reality having a baby reinvigorated me to grow the business. I want to be able to go to every dance class because the agency is thriving with the right people and processes. Ill never not network but if we can get a few people like me out there, I can rest easy knowing Elle will be able to go to Yale three times over!
When not running his agency or spending time with his family, Aaron also serves on the New Jersey Young Insurance Professionals as Vice President, is a Committee Member of PIA NJ Government Affairs
and is Vice President of the Greater Long Branch Chamber of Commerce.