TITLE:
Operational Plan Small Business Owners Use to Sustain Business
AUTHORS:
Lyndabelle Virgil Jakes, Scott Burrus
KEYWORDS:
Business Success, Business Sustainability, Insurance Brokerage Organization, Porter’s Five Forces, Life Insurance Broker, Small Business
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.10 No.5,
September
19,
2022
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this multiple case
study was to identify and explore the strategies that life insurance brokerage
owners use to sustain business operations beyond 5 years. Porter’s 5 forces
model was served as the conceptual framework for exploring this subject matter.
Owners of 3 separate small life insurance brokerage firms in Texas, who
sustained their businesses beyond 5 years, participated in semistructured
interviews. A secondary source of data was relevant to company documents.
Methodological triangulation and member checking assured the reliability and
validity of the interpretations. Through thematic analysis and supporting
software, 5 themes emerged: exceptional customer
service, relationship-building, efficient promotional strategies, regular
training of salespersons, and hiring the right employees. Findings in this
study supported the efforts of small business owners to improve strategies to
sustain business operations beyond 5 years.