The Insurance Agent Who Grew Like You

If you're trying to find insurance, consider a company that, though national now, started out as a strong regional player in Southern California.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [March 18, 2005]

Dana Coates knows that ISPs have trouble finding insurance. "By the time they get to us, they've had a bad experience with insurance people," he says. "They've talked to two or three reps who put them through many hoops and then tell them, 'sorry, we've learned that nobody wants to insure your business.' They're worried about getting the runaround again."

Coates is a principal and co-owner of United Agencies. The company is a group of insurance brokers based in Southern California who joined together in 1962. On its website, the company describes itself as "a cooperative group of independent brokers who pool their resources to provide their clients with the latest products and services in the marketplace."

The advantage, it says, is that, "each broker is able to maintain close, personal relationships with their clients so they can best understand and respond to their client's unique needs."

Coates works with small technology businesses through his websites ISPInsurance.com, epli.com, tsbic.com, and WiSP Insurance, focusing on ISPs, software companies, and related industries.

We contacted him about ISPInsurance. He says he's been writing insurance for ISPs since 1996.

"We're one of a handful of insurance operations that has an understanding of the ISP and WISP industry. We do not insure the large ones. We insure the hundreds of small ISPs and WISPs."

And there are plenty of small ISPs and WISPs. Coates guesses that there are 150 new WISPs each week, with the caveat that nobody can know how many there are.

A sense of community
He knows who's building these new businesses. "What's happening across America is that entrepreneurs are recognizing that rural communities need high speed access to the internet, and they need it to be focused on regional needs."

People with this sort of sense of community and can-do attitude are often not young. "Many of these entrepreneurs are people who have been in a profession for 20 or 30 years and want to have control of their life and do something for their community. Many have always been an employee and are now faced with things they've never had to think about." (See, for example, last week's story about the ISP EasyStreet.)

If you think this describes you, Coates has an article for you on one of his websites: Small Business Insurance: Forming A Solid Business Insurance Foundation—The Four Corners of Small Business Insurance for Technology and Hi Tech Companies.

"I'm not good at the written word, but I hope that the concepts I cover will broaden readers' thinking," he says.

The idea is that your insurance broker should be an agent and counselor like your lawyer and CPA (see Be Accountable, Part 1 and Part 2 for more about working with your accountant).

The value of service
Coates is not providing the lowest price; he's providing the best business relationship, which is exactly the sort of deal that other local businesses, including ISPs and webhosts, offer customers.

He complains about buyers who are interested only in price, just as ISPs have complained for years about the same thing on our ISP-Lists.

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