We recently connected with Jason Edwards and have shared our conversation below.

Jason, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?

I was a young corporal in the US Army just after my combat tour in Desert Storm, we were training at Fort Irwin and I was in charge of setting up a forward air refueling point. This was a way to configure refueling operations for helicopters in a combat situation from a couple of fuel trucks and hoses extending out from those trucks to points that were far enough from each other so that the helicopters could fly in, land, refuel and fly out without hitting each other and making the process quick to get them back to the fight.

The standard for setting this up was 45 minutes start to finish, and in all the practice runs I could not get the system set up and ready to fuel in less than an hour. No matter how many soldiers I had working on the layout they kept coming up short. So, during this important training exercise I looked at the soldiers with the worst attitudes and slowest activity and relieved them from this duty. I parred the team down to just about 5 super motivated, quick soldiers with a can do attitude. This was barely enough people to get it set up let alone doing it within the allotted time.

However, after just a few minutes it was obvious that this team was in sync and they finished the task well under 45 minutes and gave me enough time extra to inspect the line and still report completed to the commander within that 45 minutes.

This lessen stayed with me through the years and has helped me succeed in several businesses. You are better off with a small team that has a good attitude than a huge team with a few naysayers telling everyone what is impossible. Attitude is everything and you need to choose people that align with you in knowing what is possible and not those that can’t see the vision.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was first licensed as an insurance agent back in 2008 and I loved being a full service agent that helped with home, auto, life, and commercial insurance. Through the years I have seen some pretty wild things as an agent and later an agency owner. The fastest claim on a homeowner’s policy, was 5 hours after we wrote it,

But, I have been in commerce as a wholesaler and a retailer too, so I understand the issues and fears that business owners have from the unique perspective of an owner. Risk management is a personal decision and everyone has a different risk tolerance and a different idea of what is most important? I try to help people uncover where they have the greatest exposure and fill that gap with a policy tailored to meet their needs, budget and risk tolerance.

My wife and I own a gift and gourmet food store and this process is no different with that business. Talking to customers and finding out what is important to them and what they want to get out of the transaction is an old school concept in today’s one size fits all world. Online insurance companies will give you a blind quote to show the lowest premium and the ability to never speak with any live person. So how do you know if that coverage fits your needs? Amazon lets you buy a gift and send it to someone without consulting a live person about what might fit the receiver. How personal can such a standardized purchase be for someone you care about?

In all my businesses I look for the people that are wanting to connect with us and get our opinion, make use of our industry knowledge, education and experience to get the right product at the right time, for the right price. It means taking time to figure out what you need, what you want and what it is worth. It is a thoughtful and mindful way to approach your purchasing. In the insurance business this is so important and most carriers are trying to abandon this approach so they can sell more policies without investing the time to find out what would make the client feel secure and helping them understand the coverages and limitations of their policies.

When I sit down with a new client and explain what the different homeowner’s coverages are and what the limitations are, I generally get an “I did not know that!” or a “no one ever explained that.” They may not remember all the details but knowing that the agent is looking at those things and understands what they need will make the policy more valuable because it provides a sense of confidence and peace.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Before the pandemic my wife and I ran a wholesale business that catered to natural doctors like chiropractors, naturopaths and the like with a premium brand of herbal supplements. When the shut down happened, these natural doctors were deemed nonessential so we ended up shutting down the operation, (which had more than 10 employees) and trying to figured out how to pivot.

We ended up going direct to consumer online with our herbal products and that’s when we opened our retail store, and I moved back in to the insurance industry. We did this in part to insulate us from loss if one industry or revenue stream was compromised in the future (like if all you clients and your products are deemed nonessential during a worldwide pandemic).

We didn’t want to change literally everything about our business but we recognized that future proofing our income and building sellable assets was the most important lesson we learned from the pandemic.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

The herbal business we started with was winding down and we were focused on retail and insurance so we put that up for sale. The final purchase price was not as much as we had originally wanted but we accepted the offer to simplify our lives and allow us to focus on our new ventures.

I believe that most people who are looking for a business to buy are looking for systems that will allow them to short cut the learning curve and allow them to capitalize on the established clientele. So you need to develop and document all the company systems as though some with zero knowledge about the business is reading the SOP (standard operating procedure) manual. That manual will be key to creating value.

Also, keep the business as a separate entity, we ran several businesses under the same entity and that kept us from selling the business as a complete package. We sold the assets and helped the company reconnect all the social media and digital assets to their new company which was much more hands on than the other way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://persimmontreehealthfoods.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/jasonedwardsinsurance
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jason.Edwards.Insurance
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JasonEdwardsinsurance
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ddRQwbScfsxRPjFzTLAeY
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