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You're not giving us enough information. What kind of business are thinking about? That will make a great difference in where you locate.
If you are in a business in which you go to your clients, such as construction, mason, home office computer repair, etc. it may not make much difference as you will be doing the driving and your choices are limited only by how much gasoline you want to buy for yourself.
If you expect the customers to go to you and you plan on a fixed place of business, then you want to be near the largest population center and within the best proximity to major roads. If that is the case, I would suggest Mansfield. Vernon would be another possibility as that would give you clients from the Manchester, East Hartford areas.
I'm starting a property/ casualty insurance agency, down to Ellington, Tolland, and Mansfield as office locations. Vernon was my first choice, although there seems to be many abandoned businesses, makes me leery. The county is beautiful, although residencies are spread out, appears to be a wonderful place to live, but can a small business thrive?. I do not know much about Mansfield except UCONN, is there a central business district? Tolland appears to have a district near RTE 84 and is centrally located in the county. Ellington has office space on RTE. 83, very nice busy road. Love the country charm, Tolland county looks like my town 20 yrs ago.
Honestly if you are starting a P&C agency I really don't think it matters where you start the business. Whats your target market? That could make a difference. Are you planning to move to the area? If yes, I would focus a search on a house where you can have an office and live and work at the same place to save expenses. As you grow you can then look for office space somewhere. Just make sure you know what the towns rules are for operating a business out of the home.
Agreed- for what you want to do working from home may be best for the time being. As for whether you could make a go of it, do a lot of research to determine just how saturated the market is with agents.
Much will also depend on what lines you carry and if you are planning on doing residential, commercial or both. The money obviously is in commercial accounts.
The business/commercial areas of Mansfield/ Storrs lie along the CT RT 6 and RT 195 corridors and also the RT 32 corridor running south through Willimantic/ Windham. Take a few drives through the area and see what is there.
Since you're also going to be required to take continuing education classes every two years to maintain your license, you might also like to check out those places which give those classes. You don't want to live so far out in the boonies that getting to them is a hassle.
Just to support working from home-- I run a small corporate technical training business from a desk in my living room. My employees are virtual, my address is my home address and it's close to my kitchen. Working at home has not capped my income or my ability to have Fortune 50 clients. I will be sad when my business grows to the point where I can't operate off of my Ikea desk and my Macbook Pro!
Just to support working from home-- I run a small corporate technical training business from a desk in my living room. My employees are virtual, my address is my home address and it's close to my kitchen. Working at home has not capped my income or my ability to have Fortune 50 clients. I will be sad when my business grows to the point where I can't operate off of my Ikea desk and my Macbook Pro!
I had an interview for a job very similar to this, back in Feb. It was a training consultant for Wolters Kluwer. I was told that I would have to give online web trainings from home, regarding some new software they were selling (ProDocument fx or something). The job, however, required travel up to 75% of the time, coast to coast, which turned me off bigtime. I passed the first interview and they wanted to give me a second interview, but again, 75% travel was a major turnoff lol, especially considering how the base salary was about 30% less than what I make now.
I had an interview for a job very similar to this, back in Feb. It was a training consultant for Wolters Kluwer. I was told that I would have to give online web trainings from home, regarding some new software they were selling (ProDocument fx or something). The job, however, required travel up to 75% of the time, coast to coast, which turned me off bigtime. I passed the first interview and they wanted to give me a second interview, but again, 75% travel was a major turnoff lol.
Actually, let me clarify... I own the training firm. I don't do online training... I don't believe it's effective for complex training material. I do training for programmers, web developers and software developers on the programming languages themselves. While I manage the company from home, I teach about 65% of the classes myself. This involves massive travel. All of my posts today have been aboard a flight from Boston to San Francisco for a class...
However the company is manged from a $68 Ikea desk in my living room. The Macbook Pro cost quite a bit more
Actually, let me clarify... I own the training firm. I don't do online training... I don't believe it's effective for complex training material. I do training for programmers, web developers and software developers on the programming languages themselves. While I manage the company from home, I teach about 65% of the classes myself. This involves massive travel. All of my posts today have been aboard a flight from Boston to San Francisco for a class...
However the company is manged from a $68 Ikea desk in my living room. The Macbook Pro cost quite a bit more
Wow, sounds very involved lol. Do you have to do any technical/instructional writing?
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New business
