Business focus
To get her insurance business up and running, Rhea Kraus began by working from her Rathdrum home, where her daily visitors would mostly consist of a few clients and her family.
Since branching out on her own eight years ago, however, Kraus’ business has picked up a bit, with more than 30,000 people passing by every day, according to some estimates.
While most of those passers-by are not clients of Kraus’ Health Net Insurance company, the exposure from her new 1,500-square-foot office in the commercial strip abutting Highway 41 sure hasn’t hurt in spreading the word about her business. With Rathdrum Family Counseling as her next-door tenant, Kraus and one other employee opened for business in November.
“I branched off on my own in the summer of 2000 and my main staples are individual health insurance, group insurance and Medicare supplement Part D,” she said, after taking a break to make lunch for the construction crew: her husband, Jerry, and son, Tyler, who built the office building and were putting the finishing touches on an expansion for Health Net Insurance. “I haven’t looked back since,” she said.
For Kraus, who’s lived in Rathdrum for 15 years, starting an insurance company from scratch was a scary, yet second-nature, venture. After working for a Coeur d’Alene agency for several years, she knew the small town north of the prairie, which she had fallen in love with years ago, would be the best place to set up shop.
“The small-town ambience is what we came here for, and just wanting a better life – a better quality of life,” she said. “It’s great out here. I just couldn’t see going somewhere else.”
A representative of Blue Cross Blue Shield and licensed member of the National Association of Health Underwriters, Kraus had help getting her business ball rolling from her wide-ranging background in coverage plans, as well as from a cache of clients, some of whom were word-of-mouth referrals while others were long-time friends. As for the new accommodations, Kraus jokingly said that she was able to save money by living under the same roof as the contractor who built the office on land the couple owns.
Gwen Renninger, one of those early clients, had tired of her previous carrier’s lack of options and reluctance to inform her of the regular rate changes. Thankfully, Renninger said, relief came in the form of a longtime friendship.
“I’ve known Rhea for a lot of years,” Renninger said. “My rates would go up every year, and she was actually giving me information that I should have gotten from my insurance agent.”
Since switching to individual and group plans provided by Kraus, Renninger has referred friends to Health Net Insurance because of Kraus’s individual approach to each person who walks through her door.
With her specialty in the area of health plans, Kraus said her job is rewarding, although it can be complicated because there are “a lot of choices out there.”
“I take the time to sit and explore everything in detail, show them the different products and what they are purchasing,” she said, adding that she tries to avoid any coverage complications or possible policy changes by contacting her clients before each rate increase. Kraus said her favorite part of being an insurance agent, which can also be the most difficult, is “knowing that I have a family planned and it’s affordable. And that they feel good about what they purchased and are more educated when they walk through the door.”
Kraus plans on keeping the community informed of other changes as well, by donating the electronic, side-scrolling sign out front so that groups can display upcoming local events and announcements. Health Net Insurance will also host a grand opening once the weather warms up.