Polson Insurance agent has fun with his local agency

Walking into a little white building with “Harmsen” on the front, posters of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin are immediately noticed.

A wood burner gives off a slight ambient glow off to the side, and the stacks of papers show that Rolf Harmsen is a busy man with reminders to enjoy life.

“My view is, business should be fun,” Harmsen shared.

Enjoying his business, located at 105 3rd Street East in Polson, he said he doesn’t plan on retiring for at least another decade.

Hair collected into a ponytail, the 63-year-old said that he is always available for his clients.

“I know I’m the only businessman that has an office like this,” he said, referring to the posters hanging high up on the walls.

Harmsen added, “clients don’t care, as long as I’m providing them a good service, answering the phone and saving them money.”

Purchasing an All State franchise in 2001, he built a list of clients, only having to start over from scratch in 2008 when he was told to perform in a way that would cost people trusting him with money and insurance policies more money.

Taking what he described as a $50,000 “beatdown,” Harmsen said that he wasn’t going to change the way he does business because “it is immoral and takes the fun out of the work” for him.

“I bought that business because I wanted to treat people how I want to be treated,” Harmsen said.

Now, he has between 500 and 600 clients, and although he is serving his clientele solo, he mentioned he’ll hire someone in the future as his practice grows by about 15 percent annually.

For now, he enjoys working directly with his clients.

The first few years after the separation from All State, Harmsen said “a lot” of his clients were loyal to him.

He also is diligent with phone calls, reaching out to people on a regular basis to see if he can offer them policies best suited for their needs.

Being an independent insurance agent means he obtained a business plan he always wanted.

“I’ve got choices,” he explained. “If we’ve got you with a company and they give you a dramatic rate increase… I’m going to place you with another company,” which is ethically sound.

Remembering the time when he had lost everything he worked for, Harmsen said that he works with his clients on paying their policies, even when cash is tight.

“We’re in a human being business. When I rebuilt my business, I was broke,” he recalled.“I didn’t like that feeling and I’m not going to let my clients feel that way.”

Taking time out of his day of paperwork and correspondence, Harmsen said if a client needs to talk about their day, he will let the work pile so that the client can vent.

Including his loyal clients from as far back as 2001, Harmsen’s clientele reaches as far as Helena.

A lot of Harmsen’s policyholders include auto, home and commercial business policies, with some life insurance.

He acknowledged that he is not one to force people into insurance policies, but rather presents the information and leaves the decision up to each person.

“I have business conversations with clients, not sales conversations,” Harmsen said, adding that people have needs while he has the product, and the end goal is to try to make sure they can work together.

“Bottom line, we know this is a serious business. Policies get put on the books. Policies are maintained,” but that doesn’t mean that agents can’t have fun or be fun.

“Why can’t we have fun when we’re working?”