The Bull Stops Here Blog

If it does, you need a new agent!

You wouldn’t believe how many times clients and prospects have told me their brick building wouldn’t burn down. Really?

Thanks to Scott Simmonds for his blog where I found this.

Watch how a normally honest, hard-working person can sink to stealing $18,000 from her employer.  Is someone like this working in your office now?  Understand two things…

1 - Desperate times can lead to desperate measures for even the most trusted employee

2 - Of course you didn’rt think they could steal - if you did they wouldn’t be working for you, right?  You never know…be vigilant in your controls.

I’m proud and happy to announce that I’ve just been added as a member of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Speakers Bureau.  If you are in the construction industry and need a speaker for your business, group, or association, I’d love to talk to you. 

You can read what areas and topics I cover on the speakers bureau web site by clicking here.

Check out this video showing window washers on a high rise building.  I believe this is the Columbia Tower in downtown Seattle.  What do you think saved these workers?

If you are familiar with Fall Protection guidelines, you know that for high-rise type jobs, you need to harness yourself to the BUILDING.  Had they just hooked on the the platform, they would have been toast!  A great reminder of the importance of safety standards, especially in hazardous-type jobs.

I just ran across this blog post from my friend Scott Simmonds.  Scott is an insurance consultant in Maine who has been a mentor to me in my practice.  Good advice on what to do when you have a claim…

Click here to read the article.

I just came back from my weekend reunion with a dozen high school buddies. This is the 13th year we have played 5 rounds of golf in just 2 and a half days. It’s always a blast, but as we get older it becomes more physically challenging.

This year we convened in Boise, ID where it was a “chilly” 95 degrees in the afternoon rounds. After our second round of the second day, I was physically beat up. The sun, the fatigue, and the golf course had me walking around like a zombie. All I knew I was I needed to go to the bathroom…bad!

As I was walking to wash my hands I noticed the absence of urinals. Then to my horror, I saw the remains of a wrapper for a personal female product. I was in the Women’s bathroom. I had missed the sign because I was so sun-whipped and tired. I hurriedly got out of there and didn’t tell my friends. I knew I would hear about my faux pax the rest of the weekend. My golf game was terrible and I didn’t need to add insult to injury. Fortunately, all the women golfers wee sitting inside their air-conditioned home on a brutally hot afternoon. As my wife told me later, “You could have gone to jail!”

What signs do you miss when dealing with an insurance agent? How about some of these…

• Your agent doesn’t return calls in a timely manner (let’s define timely as 24 hours).
• Your agent doesn’t offer you any risk management advice or services.
• You see your agent only once a year when they deliver a new policy at a higher price.
• You call to ask about your account and nobody at the agency has a clue who you are.

Here’s the bottom line…if you don’t learn how to read signs from your agent, you may end up like I did in the wrong bathroom. Well, in your case maybe higher premiums, poor service, and uncovered claims.  Learn to read signs and you will become better at managing your insurance and saving time, money and frustration.

Proud to be an American AND a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Enjoy this video rendition of the reading of the Declaration of Independence…