Over the last 35 years, Paul Quinn has worked in almost every aspect of insurance.
He’s worked for several insurance carriers and one large insurance agency. He has been responsible for managing underwriting, marketing and sales functions at various corporate levels.
For Quinn, the next logical step was to start his own insurance business – so he decided to do just that. And on April 1, Paul Quinn Insurance Agency, LLC opened its doors in Fayetteville.
“I think a lot of people have a misconception about insurance,” Quinn said. “People think it can be dull or boring, but in the 35 years I’ve been doing it, I’m learning something new every day.”
Quinn is unlike many people in insurance in that he knew he wanted to go into the business while he was studying at Duquesne University. During his junior and senior year, Quinn worked part-time for Travelers Insurance as a part of its college co-op program.
Following graduation, he got a job at Chubb Insurance Group, a nationally recognized insurance carrier and has worked in the insurance field ever since.
“I’ve been to probably 1,000 independent agents’ offices in the Northeast over the last 20 years,” he said. “I think I have a good idea of what is needed to effectively run a successful insurance agency.”
Quinn knew that when he opened his own office, he wanted it to be located in the Fayetteville-Manlius area where he has lived for 22 years. He settled on a space on Highbridge Street in Fayetteville, across from Pizza Hut, and decided he wanted to offer something different from what other insurance agents are offering on this side of Syracuse.
“Farmers Insurance is a nationally-recognized company that started their expansion about three years ago to the east coast,” Quinn said. “They just came into Upstate New York this year, and I’m the only appointment so far on the east side of town.”
He said he toyed with the idea of becoming an independent agent and selling insurance from a variety of carriers, but ultimately decided to go with Farmers Insurance because of its name recognition, quality products and agency technical support.
“With Farmers Insurance, I have the opportunity to represent a company that isn’t on every street corner,” Quinn said. “I find being a part of something new very exciting, and because of the fact that they’re new to upstate New York, feel I have something special representing them.”
One of Quinn’s main goals is to change the way people think about insurance. He said his plan is for him or one of his licensed staff to meet every single customer face-to-face sometime during the first year that they become a customer. His goal is to establish a business as the kind of place where people are encouraged to drop by just to say hello.
“A lot of times, when people think about insurance, they’ll say, ‘Ugh, I don’t want to deal with this today,’” Quinn said. “We want to be that agency where they feel comfortable calling us. Or if they’re driving by and see the sign, they feel like they can stop over and say hi. It sounds so cliché and basic, but there are a lot of business that just don’t project that image.”
As of now, Paul Quinn Insurance Agency offers a variety of insurance products, from “personal lines” insurance, like: home, auto, rental, boat and more, to “commercial lines,” such as: workers compensation, auto, business owner policy and more. The company also can provide life, accident and health insurance as well.
“I’ll talk to everyone from a 19-year-old who still lives at home and whose parents want him to get his own auto insurance, to a commercial client who owns his own company with all the exposures that go with it,” he said. “This business is always changing, and that can be challenging because you always have to learn and stay ahead of the curve, but it’s also one of my favorite parts about this business.”
Paul Quinn Insurance Agency is located at 117 Highbridge Street, Suite U-2A in Fayetteville and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, visit farmersagent.com/pquinn or call 637-7707.
