| Author |
Message |
Dan Stelly
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2000 - 10:31 pm: | |
Get out of it if you have children @ home,enjoy them, save your HOME, FAMILY. Enjoy your life, of course, you are young and it appears to be the chance of your life and may vary well be,I wish you all the best, many of us are thinking of you and have seen it all... Dan |
cfdeaton
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2000 - 8:01 pm: | |
I know that this sounds a little like sarcasm, but I if you have a lap top and a gps system there is money to be made delivering pizza.
Also, now is the time to be making trips to the office supply store, getting a vehicle tuned, working out, boning up on computer skills, going to training classes, I have three scheduled for March, sending out resumes anything that will cut down on wasted time while on storm and in a money making situation. |
Karen Murphy
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2000 - 11:10 am: | |
The key, in reality, is try to make your money last through the lean times, like the contractors have to do in the north during winter time; this is a "seasonal" trade. try Manpower and temp services. look in local papers for small jobs; if you have a pickup, you can haul or deliver all kinds of things, including rv's for local dealers. do estimating for local roofers, contractors, masons.
waiter or waitress, or whatever it takes to pay the bills. |
doc's tomcat
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2000 - 1:19 am: | |
woeisme- you're not alone. every cat adjuster knows, and can sympathize with, your situation right now. messrs flint and pierce gave you some good advice on how to handle it in ways that tie in to the insurance business. what i've got to add may be useless to you but, because it's unusual, thought i'd let you know how i fill in some blank time to just give you ideas in creativity.
as my home is in the south, in a rural forested area, one thing i frequently do between storms is to play paul bunyan- cut & haul logs. doing that on a small scale doesn't require a lot of the big logging equipment and overhead. i try to find tracts of timber that are too small to attract a large logging contractor. then i either buy the timber and cut/haul/sell it for myself, or cut/haul/sell it for the landowner, and get paid a price per ton. the market fluctuates a good bit (it's down right now) but it's usually pretty fair during the winter, which is my slow time for claims. only the big operators get wealthy doing it but a small operator, if he works both hard and smart, can make enough so that it's worthwhile. it's generally something that you can drop on short notice if you get called to a storm. and, as crazy as it sounds, it's kind of a refreshing change-of-pace from claims.
the other thing i do is fool around with horses. depending on your situation and the availability of pasture in your area, you might make a little money on a horse operation but it'll likely take two or three years before you show a profit. on the plus side, the irs will usually let you write off losses on a horse farm for seven years (as opposed to the usual 3 or 5) before they really start questioning it. most breeders try to have their foal crop come in asap after the first of the year- which dovetails nicely with what i consider the slow times for claims. other than during breeding season and foaling season, broodmares on pasture don't really require an awful lot of time, but someone does need to check them each and every day, and handle any problems that might come up. that means you gotta have somebody dependable to check on them when you're off storming. |
David Pierce
| | Posted on Monday, February 21, 2000 - 11:03 pm: | |
To Woeisme
I have been in your position and know the choices to be made are tough. Just an ideal you might try between storms, I am doing contracting work. Hire you a good person you can trust to run things while you are gone. Try these places for work, they pay good, Housing Authoritys- they have tons of money to spend in your community remodeling low income homes. Community Action Programs, Adult Protective Services. They are all listed. |
woeisme
| | Posted on Monday, February 21, 2000 - 5:17 pm: | |
Jim, I really appreciate those words of encouragement! Your knowledge & wisdom are an asset to us all. |
Jim Flynt
| | Posted on Monday, February 21, 2000 - 4:24 pm: | |
Woeisme, may I suggest the following ideas:
(1) Send out more resumes. There is an excellent list of vendors posted here on the CADO site as well as with Chuck Deaton's Cat 101 & Cat 102 (which you can obtain by emailing him at Cfdeaton@concentric.net with a request for him to send you a copy. It is EXCELLENT as well).
Also send your resume both by US Mail and email, and if possible without incurring too much expense, follow up with a phone call to the vendors you send them to, to acknowledge their receipt and also to see if there is anything else which they need or require prior to hiring you for assignments.
(2) Locate and attend the closest local claims association meeting to your home. This is an excellent place to make contacts and perhaps find local work assignments. Even if you don't find work now, it paves the road for opportunities later.
(3) Visit the Claims Page website (http://www.claimspage.com) and search for opportunities there. They have a list of most of the insurance carriers in the US and many will allow you to send a resume to them with online resume application forms. Just reviewing all of the resources they have available may trigger other ideas for you. Plus they post some employment opportunities as well if you go deep enough into the site. BTW, this is a site where I could spend hours learning new things and so can you.
(4) Visit one of the insurance overload service web sites to see if there are any temporary work assignments near you for carriers or independents. An excellent such website is located at http://www.insuranceoverload.com
(5) Perhaps check with your local Lowe's, HomeDepot, or other construction materials suppliers and see if they have any part time positions available.
(6) Down the road, consider such sources of income as perhaps buying and renovating residential properties where you can make money by buying cheap, renovating, and then either renting or "flipping" for a profit. It is fun, rewarding, and keeps you current in construction techniques and pricing.
(7) Take more classes. You will make more contacts within this industry, and perhaps by obtaining the AIC or other designations having the ability to work worker's comp and casualty claims in the future, either for a local carrier or independent office or on a branch assist for a vendor.
(8) Consider taking classes to obtain your real estate appraisers designation and then doing appraisals when things are slow with catastrophe adjusting. Check with local real estate appraiser companies to see if you perhaps already have the background and education to work with them as a trainee.
(9) Consider getting a real estate license within your state to sell real estate when things are slow. That is a business which is also tailor made for those who are independent and need to leave on a moment's notice for a storm assignment. But, it is commission only generally.
You might also inquire of real estate property management firms for part time or temporary job opportunities.
10) In the end, you just cannot make enough contacts in this industry, and no matter how long you have been doing this or how much experience you have, you can never have enough friends and contacts for times like these.
These are just a few ideas, and by no means is it exhaustive. I am sure there are many others with more worthwhile ideas and we invite them to post here as well.
Just remember this, there are many adjusters out here right now going through what you are going through, so don't lose faith. There are over 10,000 storms each year in this country alone, so sooner or later, most good adjusters will be called out.
Lastly, remember our Creator does not always give us what we may want, but he always gives us what we need. Your needs WILL be met. Just Keep The FAITH!
Good Luck and let me know if I can assist further. |
THE PHANTOM
| | Posted on Monday, February 21, 2000 - 3:34 pm: | |
WOEISME, I UNDERSTAND TOO WELL THE SPARE TIME BETWEEN STORMS. THE PROBLEM IS, ANYTHING YOU DO IN BETWEEN IS LIMITED. IF YOU GET A CALL TONIGHT, YOU MAY WELL HAVE TO BE ON THE ROAD IN A COUPLE OF HOURS. IF YOU CANNOT, SOMEONE ELSE WILL LIKELY BE CALLED IN YOUR PLACE.
THIS HAMBURGER FLIPPING I DO IS PROBABLY VERY MUCH IMAGINARY. I HAVE A LOT OF YEARS IN THE CATASTROPHE BUSINESS AND I FOUND EARLY ON THAT ONE HAS TO DEVOTE 100% OF MY EFFORTS TO CATASTROPHE WORK TO ARRIVE AT THE SUCCESS YOU ARE HOPING AND LOOKING FOR.
BURGERS BURNING----GOTTA GO! |
Woeisme
| | Posted on Monday, February 21, 2000 - 2:53 pm: | |
I am still relatively new at cat adjusting (1.5 yrs experience with a major independent vendor)and would greatly appreciate any advice from the more experienced adjusters. For the past year and a half, I have gone to several storms and made a decent income, however, it seems the time between storms keeps increasing, and, in turn, my bank account is getting dangerously low. I have put in resumes (I also have 12+ yrs history in construction, computer-estimating capabilities, etc) to other cat companies and local companies wanting to work local claims, but haven't gotten any opportunities. I realize work is slow right now and many good adjusters are in the same position as I am. My wife and I (she goes on the road with me) just bought a new house when I finished up with Irene in November and while I occasionally work odd construction jobs, the income won't supplement us enough to make it much longer. I would love to work adjusting claims. I am in good standing with my cat adjusting company. Could anyone who has been in this situation before give me some possible ideas to create a sufficient supplemental income or give me some pointers at what companies are looking for in adjusters to handle local claims? Also, I don't know of too many jobs that would take me on temporarily only to abandon them at the next storm. My wife & I love storm-chasing and think we make a pretty good, efficient team -- however, it looks like if a storm doesn't send us out soon we may not have a chance to keep proving ourselves. |
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