Consistently put money away. A small amount of money on a monthly basis makes a huge difference in the long run.
Tim grew up in Westlake Village, CA and attended Westlake High School. He earned a baseball scholarship to Long Beach State University where he played in the College World Series. He used his time wisely and graduated from CSU Long Beach with a degree in Marketing. Following college, he returned to Thousand Oaks, CA and began his insurance and financial services agency. Tim has been recognized as one of the top agents within Farmers® Insurance Group.
Where did the idea for Falsken & Associates Insurance Agency come from?
The idea for Falsken & Associates began early on in my childhood. I’ve grown up in an insurance family my entire life and my dad is still a State Farm agent today. As I grew older I took the skills and expertise from watching him grow a book of business and applied them to my own ventures.
What does your typical day look like?
A typical day for me starts with heading to the office, responding to emails and following up with my clients. I often have to go out into the field and meet with business owners, so meetings and appointments are a large part of my weekly routine. I then finish with my kids’ baseball practices where I am coach.
How do you bring ideas to life?
It usually begins with a conversation. If a client presents me with a problem that needs addressing, I analyze and then discuss the various financial solutions that we can take.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
Right now… technology in sports. The nice thing about our current technological advances is that they take the games that we have played as children and make them much safer than they used to be.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Organization and reliability are key. I often have appointments and scheduled calls to follow up on, so my organizational skills have to always be on point. I also work in a relationship building business and that means I have to be dependable and always there for my clients when they need me.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
I had one summer job when I was playing baseball in college where I would sweep the entire storage facility each day. I quickly learned the importance of a getting a college degree.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
I really don’t think I would change my approach. Building a book of business is tough, but I learned a lot through constant failure and remaining persistent. I think if I could go back though, I would spend a little more time on commercial insurance in the early stages of my career.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Consistently put money away. A small amount of money on a monthly basis makes a huge difference in the long run.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
We have made a huge shift towards commercial insurance services by taking one appointment at a time and building trust with our clients. Every business is different, so we assess each client individually and determine which areas they need help in. We really have become a multi-purpose insurance agency through this approach.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
We invested in a startup company that ended up failing early on. We were prepared to lose the money we invested, so it luckily didn’t financially devastate us, but it was still a hard lesson to learn. I approached that loss the same way I did with a lot of my other failures. You assess what happened, determine why it happened, and then get back to the drawing board with what you have learned and try again.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I often drive to meet with clients, so it would be nice if there was software that integrated with my GPS and found all of the available parking spots within the area.
Tell us something about you that very few people know?
I was blessed enough to play in the college World Series when I attended CSU Long Beach. The memories I made with my teammates and coaches will always be something I cherish.
What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?
We primarily work out of our agency CMS. This allows us to see who is working with each client and efficiently track progress towards finding the right financial solutions for our clients. It is also a life saver for organizing appointments and setting reminders. I think our ability to store and interpret past data has enabled us to make more informed decisions year after year.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. It’s a book written about the men and women who came out of the Great Depression and World War II and set the foundation for modern America. It’s a great book to examine our history and give respect to those heroes that gave life and limb for our freedoms.
What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?
Obviously my parents, but my college coach made a huge impact on my life. He taught us how to deal with adversity and provided us with the skills to build mental toughness. I constantly rely on these skills as a Farmers agent and they have helped me tremendously in business and in life.
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Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.