Ann Mullen
President at Mullen Insurance Agency, Inc. - Garland, Texas
The Importance of An Insurance Check-Up
If you are like me and so many owners of small to medium sized businesses, you suffer from ‘time-shortage’. There are not enough hours in the day and too many of the ones we have are spent dealing with whatever today’s crises are.
Indeed, oftentimes even when I make a real effort to stay in the ‘now’, I find I am addressing a challenge I should have recognized and solved much earlier. It was a ‘now’ situation a month ago; it is an ‘urgent’ situation today.
Over my thirty-plus years of working with Texas Independent Auto Dealers, Mullen’s job as a ‘Garage Agent’ has been both enviable and rewarding. Our Texas Used Car Dealer customers are a pleasure to work with because they are typically:
- Creative
- Optimistic
- Intelligent
- Excellent Judges of character
- Open to New Ideas and possibilities
- Family and Community Oriented
- Curious
- Well-Educated in their industry
- Hard-working
- Focused
- Business Owners with Character and Courage
And those are just a few of the reasons the Texas Independent Auto Dealers industry is Mullen Agency’s insurance niche and focus.
Procrastination Is The Enemy Of Success
Although each of those characteristics are positive, some still open the door for procrastination; at least, that’s how it works for me and many others. While I admire and strive to exhibit positive traits, I also discover to my chagrin I will allow my personal responsibilities, whether they be financial, health, whatever to fall by the wayside. After all, I have a good attorney, excellent banking advisor, a great doctor and I am a good judge of character. Why should I be worrying about details? No symptoms, no problems.
Then one day, I pop into Walgreens to pick up my latest prescription and the pharmacist says, “Sorry. No refills without doctor’s request. Didn’t you see the notice on the last bottle?”
Of course, I did, but I had thirty days to get it done. The task went on the back burner instead of the ‘now’ section. That lapse in judgment meant my attention was moved to urgent. Some of you may have experienced a similar situation:
Call the doctor. Get an appointment. See if a video check-in will work. After all, I’m feeling okay, and I don’t have a list of questions or concerns. I want my pills and I readily promise a ninety-day supply will allow me time to make a ‘real’ appointment.
That works fine most of the time, but not every time. There is a reason that routine appointments are required to continue medication for chronic conditions. To not heed the reasoning is to put my health in jeopardy.
The same scenario can be applied to your insurance protection. The handling of one policy at a time, often the day of or the day before expiration, becomes routine. In the time crunch created, both your agent and you are more likely to neglect to either ask a pertinent question or explain a change in operations and/or need for protection.
Your focus is to get the policy renewed as quickly as possible and you may be depending on your agent to provide information and consultation that cannot be provided without a complete examination.
So, how do you protect yourself and your business?
- Know your agent. Does your agent specialize in providing insurance to members of your industry?
- Make an appointment. In today’s world, appointments do not have to be in person, but they do need to be scheduled, whether by zoom, text, phone, email, whatever your choice may be.
- Provide your agent with a copy of every insurance contract you have. Oftentimes, by reviewing a complete insurance portfolio, duplicate coverages are discovered, or ways of consolidating contracts can be explored to reduce over-all costs without impacting protection or any one or more of a myriad of improvement opportunities uncovered.
- Request from your agent a written coverage outline of all policies.
- Review the outline provided and ask for explanations of all recommendations and/or suggestions.
AND MOST IMPORTANT: Complete this exercise during a ‘dry’ period, i.e. – no insurance renewing within the next thirty to sixty days. The time lapse avoids any rushed decisions and allows time for both you and your agent to ask questions, to run reports, etc. to get a complete picture of your operation and its unique insurance needs.
The time spent will provide peace of mind and could save both time and dollars spent on your insurance budget while maintaining and/or improving your level of protection.
…Live in the NOW, not the URGENT…
Mullen Insurance Agency Is Ready To Help
We’d love the opportunity to complete an annual insurance checkup for your business. Let’s talk about what your needs, your exposures and your insurance philosophy are.
Our clients can rest assured, knowing our priority is providing a quality product with a competitive premium as we have done for the last thirty-three years. That goal remains and the chosen replacement products meet our standards and our clients’ needs.
Do not hesitate to contact me. I’m eager to receive your feedback, questions and comments. If you have specific subjects or insurance concerns you would like to discuss, please let me know. amullen@mulleninsurance.com or www.mulleninsurance.com.
If you’d like additional information on insurance for your business or you’d like to request a quote, please visit https://mulleinsurance.com/#Insurance-quote or give us a call at 972-681-6297.
Ann Mullen-Martin
President
MULLEN INSURANCE AGENCY, INC
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