Your opinion on this type of business..

[uaguilar]

My mother owns a business that at first started off as a travel agency back in 1996.. then back in 1994.. when having auto insurance in CA was the law.. she decided to get into insurance in 2000.. her shop was a 1 person shop.. had been for many years.. until she got pregnant in 2003.. and i had to come in. Before.. travel was her primary source of income.. but due to the internet.. and now lately gas prices.. travel has gone down significantly. Now insurance sales and income accounts for nearly 90 percent of her income. But now she also wants to add a tax service in our office.. she did it last year.. and we had mild success with it.. and that's only because a small amount of our resources was dedicated to it.

I'm not sure about other states or other ethnicities - but this "business model" (for lack of a better way of describing it) is common. Be the one stop shop for everything.

Insurance itself can allow you to be a very diversified.. you can either offer many lines of business to your clients... or only focus on one line and dedicate all your efforts and resources to it..

The advice i need is this.. should i stop the struggle.. the constant battle with my mother? I really feel that cutting travel (which is DYING and i dare say DEAD) is generating **** for income. And now she wants to add taxes.. this will stretch resources and "talent" (employees) even thinner.. at least for 3 months.. granted.. money does come in. i feel that there isn't enough resources lent to the insurance part to say that we tried everything we could.

This is my first post.. and i ahve been looking for a forum like this. I battle with my mom every day on what we should do.. i'm 26.. and my level off control in the decision making is limited to only insurance.. but not the business as a whole.

Thanks

[Fergal]

Hi uaguilar, welcome to Business Advice Forum.

Your Mother has done really well to set up the business, diversify when the market required it and to keep the business alive for so many years. I've no doubt that she has been through tough times along the way and that she is now very proud and delighted to have you involved.

When you talk about a "tax service", what type of service are you referring to exactly? Would you provide a tax advisory service?

Have you considered preparing a business plan for planning the future of the business? You might find the links below of some benefit if preparing a business plan;

http://www.businessadviceforum.com/s...=business+plan
http://www.businessadviceforum.com/s...=business+plan
http://www.businessadviceforum.com/s...=business+plan