This is Part 2 of our Backbone interview with Joe of Guardian Insurance Solutions in Hilliard, Ohio — the money behind the first two years, and where his first clients actually came from.
The first 24 months: the money
Honisto: What did the first 24 months actually look like financially?
Joe: First 24 months, we probably only did maybe around 50,000 to 80,000 of revenue. I still had to work another job — I was not doing this full-time. You had to grind a lot. I didn’t purchase leads. I did everything natural — through networking events, coffees, dinners, beers, whatever. Whatever gets me talking to people is what I do.
Honisto: What did it cost to open the doors? Like a real number, not a brochure number.
Joe: Once you factor in some rent and tech fees — thankfully, the insurance world is pretty low on expenditures, especially overhead, it’s not that bad. To get up and running, it’s very easy to plan for anywhere between a grand and $1,500 a month that you’re going to be on the hook for.
Honisto: How long until commissions replace what you actually put in?
Joe: It took me about two and a half years before I could go all in and jump in with both feet. Even then, if I had a bigger life to manage at that time, it could have taken me longer. Because I had managed low expenses in my life the best I could, it was easier and quicker for me to jump in.
First clients and what the work looks like
Honisto: Where did your first 50 clients come from? Not the lead-gen pitch — where did they actually come from?
Joe: My contacts in my phone. That’s it. I literally hit them up: this is what I’m doing.
Honisto: Personal lines or commercial first, and would you do that order again?
Joe: Personal lines first. Commercial was definitely a different game — different coverages to learn about. I would for sure tell them to do that approach first: get used to the space, talking with people. A lot of the personal lines leads can also transfer into commercial leads as you’re talking with business owners that still need personal insurance.
Honisto: Once you were rolling, what did a normal Tuesday actually look like? How much was selling versus servicing versus paperwork?
Joe: Thankfully, there’s not a lot of paperwork in this industry — a lot of it’s cloud-based, tech-based, so rarely ever paperwork. For me, early on it was slow, so it was more like 75% focused on the sales process to generate activity, with 25% on the backend — of those that transferred in, you’re talking quote time and selling the policies. The first few years was just acquisition, positioning into opportunity. Then as things clicked in, it just started. 2019 is when we started; now into 2026, there’s a lot of service work. We’ve done very good and built this agency pretty nice. We’re on kind of a 50/50 now, but I get to breathe. So my Tuesdays, I still get to leave at like 2:00 and go enjoy my kids, my wife, and my home. I even get to do interviews like this.
Honisto: What’s the part of the day-to-day that nobody warned you about?
Joe: Probably the management, from an operational standpoint. Between bills, overhead, and if you eventually hire agents, you’re talking training and compliance. There’s just a lot of hats. A few things I could’ve never banked on coming into this were the underwriting changes that come about in this industry — tracking those down, making sure you don’t sell a policy that was done incorrectly or lacking coverage. That’s probably some of the bigger ones I had no clue about coming into the industry: a lot of the backend work.
About the business: Guardian Insurance Solutions is an independent insurance agency in Hilliard, Ohio, serving personal and commercial clients across the Columbus area. Reach them at guardianinsuranceohio.com, 4694 Cemetery Rd #406, Hilliard, OH 43026, or 614-451-7100.
Related: Part 1 · Part 3 · Part 4 · Part 5 · Part 6 · Backbone Spotlight · The Backbone Series
More real stories, no sales pitch
Backbone is honest interviews with people who built it from scratch — what it actually took, in their own words.