What do you think of when you hear the term "All In"? I think of a poker player who is so confident in his ability to win a hand that he is willing to put all of his chips on the line. I also think of an entrepreneur who is so confident in his ability to make his business work that he is willing to put all of his resources and the livelihood of his family on the line to make it happen. There are many people in our business community who have committed everything to building a successful business. This is what it takes. You have to be "all in". There are many factors we can control when it comes to building a successful business such as hard work, providing good service, fulfilling a need, developing good products, and hiring quality people. Essentially, we are able to choose the hand we are dealt. That is what makes our country great. Every single person has this opportunity to bring something innovative and new to the table and build a successful enterprise. However, there are a lot of people who are not willing to put it all on the line.
There are certain risks that we have no control over which scare people away from seizing the opportunity to go "all in". We sometimes get caught up in thinking: What happens if I go all in then my building burns down? What if I hire the wrong person who steals money out of my company and sabotages the organization? What if someone sues me because I did something wrong or didn't perform my work perfectly? What if my products are no good and cause damage to someone of something? What if an earthquake or other natural disaster puts me out of business?
Fortunately, there are insurance answers for these questions. This is why we buy insurance. Sometimes after several years of running a successful business and never having to deal with something going wrong, we start to think that we are somewhat invincible and that all those things we worried about when we started the business are no longer a threat to us. So we start to cut back on our insurance spending, commit to larger deductibles that we may or may not be able to meet, and shop our policies so competitively that we take the value of a quality agent out of the picture because we no longer need someone looking out for us. All of a sudden, we just want the lowest premiums attached to somewhat decent service so we can get our insurance certificates to the people that request them. When was the last time you sat down with your insurance agent and discussed every business exposure you could think of and looked at insurance options before deciding to retain those risks or transfer them to an insurer? When you let a new agent work on your insurance, are you looking for a lower price on the same product or are you looking for what they can bring to the table as far as advice, knowledge, and superior service?
If you are "all in" with your business as many people are these days, let's get back to the basics. Let's make sure you are properly insured. Let's make sure you know what your exposures are and what options you have. Let's make sure you know what risks you can and can't afford to retain. Let's make sure you are getting the knowledge and advice you deserve from your insurance agent. Please give me a call if you feel like it would be valuable to you to have an in-depth discussion on protecting your business assets and liabilities. If you are a client of mine, let’s spend a little extra time this next year discussing your options as we always do but taking some time to brainstorm and think about the things we might have missed or haven’t discussed before. I would encourage everyone to go “all in” because that is where success is found; but don’t do it without knowing what your uncontrollable risks are and creating a plan to protect yourself.
