Welcome to the Scaling Success Stories series!
If you’re new to this series, I ask online entrepreneurs questions regarding growing and scaling their business.
This is the series description:
You can get your fill of online business tips by reading the other interviews on the Scaling Success Stories page.
Interview with Sa El from Simply Insurance
It was my pleasure interviewing Sa El from Simply Insurance, a popular life and health insurance agency that focuses on educating the average person about insurance and to make their insurance buying process simple. Since 2017, Simply Insurance has quoted over 22,000 families and assisted them with finding insurance products for almost any life event.
Check out what Sa, a former insurance salesman, had to say to my questions about offering his services online and growing his business!
1. Why did you start an online business and how does your passion still drive your business’ growth today?
I started an online business because I noticed that more of my customers wanted to shop online and didn’t really want to deal with insurance agents as much; they wanted an e-app process.
My passion drives my business growth today because I think every family needs life insurance and they all deserve an easy buying process.
I wake up daily with a goal to educate my readers more and offer the best insurance products around.
2. At what point did you realize that your business was “taking off” and that you could really make money from it?
I realized it toward the second half of the first year in business, my site was already generating revenue and I had little traffic and no one knew much about me or my business.
I was excited, I actually still have some of my first commission checks hanging on the wall in my office as you can see below.
Once I started getting checks, it started becoming real to me.
3. At what point did you realize you were living the life you wanted to?
When I realized I didn’t have to be at the beck and call of a customer on a daily basis. I had been working an average of 16 hours per day to make insurance sales and manage my book of business.
I also find myself forgetting that I don’t actually need to be in the office working, my body has been working for soo many hours for the last 10 years that I feel awkward not working.
I now get to spend more time with my husband and I can get 8 hours of sleep now.
Getting 8 hours of sleep is amazing and I now understand why babies sleep so much.
4. One of the biggest fears of outsourcing is trusting the people you hire to run your business the way you would. How did you overcome this and where did you find the right freelancers and employees to help you grow your business?
I have only reached out to freelancers for things like logos and haven’t done any other type of hiring.
Honestly, the things you mentioned above are what’s stopping me, I still write all of my own content because I don’t think others can write about insurance the way that I write.
I also find it hard to believe that I can find someone who will cover even small tasks like scheduling social media posts correctly.
Then the worst thing is thinking about giving people access to my site; I think that is the worst one for me that I am still working on.
Editor’s note: Trust is one of what I call the top 5 fears of outsourcing and it prevents many entrepreneurs from outsourcing at all. Taking one step at a time to overcome this can greatly improve what tasks you can outsource to focus on the bigger picture items. Sa also has a partner in the business, so he’s not alone.
5. A common myth is that as you grow and scale your business, you have to sell your soul to make money, especially when you venture into paid advertising. How do you debunk this myth in your business?
Paid advertising in my business isn’t something to consider when you first start because you are going up against companies spending over 500k per month in ad spend.
To top it off, insurance has some of the most expensive costs per click Out there.
You don’t actually have to go into the PPC (pay per click) side of the business to scale it, you can grow it organically if you put the time into your business and gather the correct systems.
You don’t need to sell your soul because there are plenty of people willing to work with you on growing your business.
You just have to put the ego aside and ask for help.
6. Why do you think most people fail to grow their businesses and what advice would you offer them to keep pushing, despite all the setbacks?
Most people fail to grow their business because they give up too soon.
The bloggers that I know all stuck with it, they didn’t give up after month 6 with $0 revenue and they didn’t give up after month 18 with $0 revenue.
They kept at it and now are enjoying a life they never thought could happen.
My advice is to not give up and don’t quit; just keep pushing because you will eventually learn the right process for your business and how to make money from it.
Another thing is people tend to have too many things going on at one time… I say focus on one thing, get that going and then go to the next project.
Editor’s note: Kara Fidd and McKinzie Bean also mention that success doesn’t happen overnight and that you have to continually push despite not seeing any results.
7. How important has niching down been (no matter how hard it hurts) to your business’ growth and profitability?
Niching down is very important; however, I didn’t niche all the way down. My site sells insurance and we have over 10 products.
If I was to niche down even further, I would need 10 separate websites and it isn’t necessary for me.
Staying focused on the insurance space is what has helped me grow my business.
It also helps because when insurance companies can see that I have already built my site around similar products, they are willing to come on board as a partner.
Depending on the scale you want your business to be, I would niche down to the lowest level first and then grow out each section one phase at a time.
It would be much easier than doing 10 different products at a time as I did but you will be limiting your avenue of income when going that route.
Life Insurance & Homeowners Insurance are both products I offer, but they both generate different incomes and if I held off on adding homeowners my current income would be lower.
8. What do you attribute your success to and how do you explain it? Do you think the same strategies will help you reach your next monetization goals? Why or why not?
I attribute my success to my work ethic. I wasn’t the best sales person, but I was the hardest worker, and my ability to work for long hours with an extreme focus is something most people won’t do.
I think my work ethic can help me reach my next monetization goals 100% because nothing beats hard work.
Especially in the business of SEO and content marketing…
After you create the content is when the hard part starts.
You have to do tons of outreach, link building and sharing of content as well as putting yourself out there for things like podcasts and constantly keeping your content relevant and you always have to be ready for a Google update.
Hard work can beat out almost anything.
9. To scale, you really need to have a systemized business. What steps have you taken to build those systems and how do you optimize them?
My entire site was built on the idea of automation and fast approval processes.
I have a system that allows my customers to get the education they need and purchase a product without speaking to me or any agent.
Once they get covered, the insurance company takes over because they are their customer now.
I also have my tracking automated for sales and my income is sent automatically every month via direct deposit.
All of these aspects are important to make a seamless experience for my customers and me as the business owner.
I am currently working on 2 final steps as I grow and that is a chatbot and an answering service.
Those are taking the longest because I want to make sure I am able to answer as many questions as possible so that it can be in automation mode as well.
10. If you could speak face-to-face with yourself when you first started your business, what pearls of wisdom would you impart?
I would tell myself to get ready to lose a ton of money, be ready to put in a ton of hours, but instead of paying for your own leads, you should start a blog and start generating your own leads and when the technology becomes available, switch over to a 100% online process.
I would also tell myself to build as many backlinks as possible.
I think those two things would be all that I needed to say to myself.
About Sa El
Sa El is the Co-Founder of Simply Insurance. He is a licensed life and health insurance agent with over 11 years of experience in the industry. He is an entrepreneur, insurance educator, and field underwriter.
Conclusion
Thanks for participating in my series, Sa!
As you can tell, it’s NOT EASY growing and scaling an online business, but there are some things you can do to aid you in the process.
Inspired by Sa?
Now, it’s your turn!
I assembled the Scaling Blueprint to show you how to…
- Outsource Effectively
- Systemize Your Business
- Shatter Your Revenue Goals
After working with six-figure and seven-figure clients, I know the difference between how they function.
Let me help you start scaling successfully.
Cheers to future success!
