John O’Brien (pictured), director and founder of Kobe Insurance, says running a developing brokerage during an economically disastrous pandemic is a tough gig – especially when insurers don’t provide as much support as they do for large corporations.
“A big challenge is obviously the fact that when it’s just yourself in a small brokerage going from working in a large corporation, it’s tough getting the insurers to treat you with the same level of respect,” O’Brien said.
“From going from a large corporate and having that security behind you, insurers tend to give you a lot more support, but then when you’re an authorised representative and on your own, you’ve got to do a lot more things for yourself,” he continued. “You’ve really got to build those relationships and try to rely on those to get deals done.”
Among the perils of running your own business is the many different roles and responsibilities you have to take on yourself.
“You are one person that’s got to do the claims, got to do the accounting, got to do the processing and the whole shooting match,” he explained. “Whereas, when you are working for larger brokers you’ve got whole teams around you to help you with those sorts of services.”
This year, Kobe Insurance marks its third in operation. With over 20-years’ worth of national and international experience in the insurance industry himself, O’Brien felt emboldened to start his own brokerage to create a distinct service for his clients.
But he says the coronavirus has made it difficult for him, especially seeing his clients suffering - some “catastrophically” - while others have had to completely reinvent their businesses to survive.
“Another hard element of it is the smaller businesses not being able to pay their premiums and continue to trade. That’s been quite difficult indeed,” O’Brien continued.
“The other part is it’s very hard to develop a relationship with a new client via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. You can’t go and see people and build relationships and have those discussions face to face, which is the traditional way of obtaining clients. Definitely, from a new business point of view, it’s been quite challenging.”
However, he fronts these challenges facing his own brokerage, as well as his many clients, by having a plan and “sticking to it.”
“Get some trusted advisors to assist you to qualify some of the things you’re going to enter into,” he said.“The main one, in particular, is surrounding marketing initiatives. I’ve certainly learnt that I’ve spent a considerable amount of money on different styles of marketing campaigns that didn’t go anywhere.”
O’Brien’s success, despite the pandemic, is thanks to his proud sense of service founded on providing the “best tailored advice” to clients. He says he puts in the time trying to understand his clients’ businesses, understand what their needs are and what the client is seeking from their insurance programme.
“A lot of people just sell on price, I don’t think that that’s necessarily the way forward,” he said.“I think you’ve got to understand what the client wants – do they want to make sure that they’re adequately protected in the event of a loss? That’s the main role of a broker.”
