To err is human, but botching your insurance agency start-up can be a personal, professional and financial disaster. When starting a new business, success is never guaranteed and many start-ups fail. So, how does a savvy independent agent avoid disaster?

Before I answer that question, I must emphasize that I'm assuming that the start-up agency has established access to insurance companies to write premium–without that, nothing else really matters.

Now the answer: Learn from the mistakes of others. Here, the five common mistakes many agency start-ups make.

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