March 13, 2006
by Dylan Skriloff
The Rockland Business Association's Small Business Council is "a good place to talk," says RBA Vice President of Development Roger Scheiber.
The council started meeting last year as a place for small business owners to meet and discuss strategies for improving their companies and overcoming potential
obstacles to success.
"There was an expressed need or concern for owners of smaller businesses to have a common place to meet about their issues. If you have a small business who do you talk to? Who do you display potential weaknesses to?" Scheiber asked.
The council is that place and Peter Wade of Ad Pro Services wants to help take it to the next level. He recently joined Brian Walsh of Padgett Business Systems as co-chair of the council.
"My goal is to make the council as responsive and efficient as possible. If there are any particularly pertinent issues, offer your ideas," Wade said.
At the monthly gathering on February 23 about a dozen RBA members showed up to hear successful insurance business owner Brian Cameron. Ellen Bernstein of Accent on Promotions, Joe Fimmano of MFM Financial Services LLC, John O' Sullivan of Aberfoyle Associates LLC, Bob Salmon of H & S Sales and Peter DeLisser of Responsible Communications were among those on hand.
Cameron spoke for about 45 minutes, followed by a 15 minute discussion. Cameron who has been in the insurance business for 27 years, said his goal was to go over things attendees had never heard before.
He said the first thing he realized when he started in the insurance business was that in order to be successful he had to specialize in something. Currently Cameron is focusing on selling workers compensation insurance and in the mid-90's he focused on financial planning for seniors. He chose seniors because they had more disposable income and needed to roll it over, so the IRS did not take 80%.
Now he focuses on workers compensation because a lot of companies avoid it.
Cameron said he has always made meeting with clients his top priority. Instead of pushing products on them, he treated them as a doctor would a patient; learning about their situation before offering specific solutions.
Cameron is also a proponent of sensible time management. He asked the attendees to mark down what they did every half hour that day and see what they could change to get more done. "You will probably find you are doing a lot of thing you don't want to be doing," he said. Hiring a worker to do paperwork for $10 an hour will help free up time for you to meet more clients and get more business, he said.
Cameron's talk sparked a lively discussion on various issues. Bernstein disagreed with Cameron's advice that you should have a minimum dollar level on your clientele. She noted that one of her largest contracts came through a referral from one of her smallest.
In Cameron's business, however, he has the opportunity to pass off smaller contracts to less experienced agents that work in his own company. Craig Liss of PayServe said, "In my business we are going to cater to you. You never know when a one person payroll will turn into a 400 man payroll."
"If you take care of somebody, you don't know what it's going to turn into," said Bob Salmon, during a discussion about doing favors for clients.
Wade led a brief discussion of future issues to be covered at the council. Among possible topics are the basics of networking, the basics of health insurance law and how to collect from a client who has not paid what they owe.
Meetings are the last Thursday of the month at the Iona College campus at Blue Hill Plaza in Pearl River, just a floor below the RBA offices. If you believe you have something to offer the group as a featured presenter, please contact Roger Scheiber at (845)735-2100.
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