Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • September 25, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 9 FOCUS PDS has been meeting the needs of the construction industry since 1965. Our dedicated team of design and construction professionals welcomes the challenge of serving its past and future customers on their most demanding projects. Munson's Factory Shoppe | Bolton, CT PDS completed exterior renovations to this Munson's Factory Shoppe for a new professional exterior appearance. This work included selective demolition, canopy façade, PVC trim covered columns, wood framing and roofing, bead board, water proof parapet, recessed tile for a new sign, LED lighting and two new cricket dormers with shingles. Project Size: 2,500 SF 107 Old Windsor Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002 (860) 242-8586 | Fax (860) 242-8587 www.pdsec.com DESIGN BUILDERS • GENERAL CONTRACTORS • CONSTRUCTION MANAGERS SPOTLIGHT ON: Retail PDS ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION, INC. THINK • PLAN • BUILD new and small business, and making the business registration process easier for startups. Q. In your testimony, you said social media sites like Thumbstock.com helped grow and establish your business. How? A. I've found that in the sharing and gig economy there are numerous tools that make the marketing and selling of prod- ucts and services easier. It seems to me that we have perhaps the most freedom and least barriers to entry to start and grow a business in history. Anyone with an idea and a phone or computer can buy a domain name, build a website, create content on social media, launch a product and advertise to specific segments on multiple internet channels. One marketplace I've had tremendous success on is Thumbtack.com. This site gives customers personalized quotes on projects and services they are looking for — plumbers, website designers, photog- raphers, and more — from local profes- sionals. As a pro on this site, I can view the specifics of a job and then quote the ones I'm interested in. I was getting requests from local customers the day I signed up. Thumbtack clients were 80 percent of my business in the first year, and I've been hired over 200 times just on this one site in the last few years. Q. You currently operate out of a co-work- ing space in Hartford. Why? We've tried to keep overhead low and avoid debt since we started SnapSeat, and a co-working office space is a great solu- tion for a small business or new venture. We can maintain an office in Hartford at a fraction of the cost of needing to rent space, sign a lease, have insurance on that space, pay utilities, etc. For us, being in Hartford means being in Connecticut's Capital City, which we feel is important for how clients view our business, both locally and in New York City and Boston, and both building SEO of our website and relationships with local businesses. Now in its first full calendar year of op- eration, ACCEL Compliance has approxi- mately 20 clients, spanning from Mas- sachusetts to Florida to Illinois, according to Welsh and Griffin, who expect to be in the black on their investment this year. ACCEL doesn't disclose its revenue. Recently, the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) decided to back ACCEL with an $80,000 grant and a $100,000 loan to help them drive more customers to their compliance business. DECD Commis- sioner Catherine Smith said ACCEL "has shown much promise and is working to be a vital player in the insur- ance industry going forward." The company plans to use the money to beef up its marketing and add at least two employees to its compliance business over the next eight months, doubling its full-time staff. "We really want to be a bigger player," Griffin said. There seems to be plenty of opportunity to do it. According to Welsh, there's an estimated 38,000 independent agen- cies in the U.S. "There's a huge market out there, and compliance is not the focus — it's selling insurance and risk management," he said. "[Compliance] is kind of white noise they'd rather not deal with." License headaches Licenses are important in the insurance industry, as they authorize an employee or company to sell insurance in a particular state. If a company sells insurance in all 50 states, an agent could have as many as 50 licenses, often with different renewal timelines and requirements. Multiply that by a workforce of several dozen agents, and it can be a big headache for an insur- ance agency, many of which still handle compliance in-house, Griffin said. Agencies must keep track of license statuses to ensure they don't lapse, since regulatory violations can be costly, depend- ing on the state. Violations can also tarnish a company's reputa- tion, perhaps even leading to carriers to stop doing busi- ness with them. "When you start losing markets, it's like not hav- ing goods on the shelf," Griffin said. Just over the Massachusetts border in Agawam, Insurance Center of New England/Special Risks LTD has been using ACCEL's software for the past five months. Denise Remillard, vice president of operations, said the company switched from a previous software provider because it wanted a system that provided more proactive warning about upcom- ing obligations. She said Welsh and Griffin's legal background was also a plus. In addition to the company's own licenses, there are approximately 10 sales people who need licensing across the country. "We keep track of our agency licenses as well as the producer licenses," Remillard said. "If they are on the road and they go into a business, they need to be licensed." Remillard has been using various kinds of compliance software for a decade or more, but she recalls having to do it in a handwritten ledger. "It was not good," she said. "It's hard to keep track of and do other tasks." "We had a good concept, kind of like a painting, but we didn't know how to paint it." Chuck Welsh , co-founder, ACCEL Law Group Mike Griffin and Chuck Welsh show off their West Hartford office, 433 South Main St. GET CONNECTED BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS START THEIR DAY ACTIVELY READING THE CT MORNING BLEND BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS EVERY DAY 3,500 ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE TO FIND OUT MORE CALL JAIME RUDY, SALES DIRECTOR, AT 860-236-9998 X 124 OR JRUDY@HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM HARTFORD BUSINESS.COM BUSINESS HARTFORD BUSINESS HARTFORD BUSINESS HARTFORD BUSINESS.COM HARTFORD BUSINESS.COM HARTFORD BUSINESS.COM HARTFORD BUSINESS.COM TODAY AWARDS & EVENTS GREEN GUIDE HARTFORD BUSINESS.COM MORNING BLEND HEALTH CARE WEEKLY IN PRINT. ONLINE. IN PERSON

• Cover