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The Carroll Companies
Michael P. Carroll
By
C.J. Perry |
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Based
out of Northwest Ohio, Michael’s insurance business
stretches across the country, with licenses in 17
states and satellite offices in Philadelphia and Phoenix.
Michael and his brothers started their own lawn services.
Michael found his business to be very lucrative and
by age 15 was making $7,000 a summer.
Clichés like “bundle of energy”
get thrown around all the time to describe people.
But using that term to describe Carroll Companies
president Michael Carroll would not be a stretch at
all. He possesses a booming voice that matches his
towering 6’6” frame.
Based out of Northwest Ohio, Michael’s insurance
business stretches across the country, with licenses
in 17 states and satellite offices in Philadelphia
and Phoenix. “As much as I love going to those
places,” he said, “I adore Toledo, Ohio.
Great place for a family, great business community.”
Michael grew up in a close-knit family in the south
end of Toledo. His earliest entrepreneurial experiences
came courtesy of his father, John, a stockbroker.
They were as much to give Michael and his brothers
some real life experience as they were to save his
mother’s sanity.
“At 12, 13 years old, we were all 200 pounds,
and my father said, ‘I’ve got to get you
clowns out of the house—you’re driving
your mother insane.’” Fronted by their
father, Michael and his brothers started their own
lawn services. Michael found his business to be very
lucrative and by age 15 was making $7,000 a summer.
He could not resist the call, however, of working
at the Lucas County Recreation Center on the Toledo
Mud Hens ground crew. “When I was 16, I had
to go work at the Lucas County Rec Center where I’d
work for the next six years with the Mud Hens, making
$3.35 an hour. Tremendously fun job.”
After graduating from St. John’s High School,
Michael played basketball at a junior college in Nebraska.
After transferring to two different schools and realizing
that basketball would not be his ticket out, he ended
up at Bowling Green State University and finished
his degree.
After graduating college, Michael had ideas of going
into business with his father and learning the world
of stocks and bonds. His father, however, wanted him
to gain other experiences in the business world before
he made any final decisions.
“As soon as I graduated, I said ‘Pop,
I want to be like you and work for you,’”
Michael said, “and he said, ‘What you’re
going to do is go and get sales experience in another
industry, and if you can make it, I’d love to
have you come work with me.’”
Michael credits his father for much of his success.
Michael and his parents are still close today, and
his father works in the building that Michael built
for his businesses. “I cannot say enough good
about my parents,” he said. “I was taught
that you had to work for everything and nothing’s
given to you. Today, I realize he’s the wisest
guy I’ve ever known.”
That friendly shove by his father sent Michael into
the insurance industry, where he broke in with Allstate
selling property and casualty insurance. By his third
year with the company, Michael was one of the top
80 producers in the country out of 16,000 nationally.
After three years with Allstate, Michael left to open
an independent agency, realizing that he could focus
more on business clients, which is the area he wanted
to go into, and make more of a profit while doing
it. Going independent was not without its pitfalls,
though. Having to pay all of his own overhead and
expenses took its toll. “At age 26, I made over
$100,000 with Allstate. That first year after leaving
them, I ended up clearing around $20,000.”
By the second year, however, things turned around.
“I was back making six figures, and the rest
is history. It was the best move I ever made. It opened
up a lot of markets.”
As an independent agent, Michael focused his business
on a niche area: restaurants. He found new ways to
reach prospective clients and serve current ones as
well. Michael credits High Impact Marketing, pioneered
by Michael Jans, with being able to reach so many
people and utilize new technologies to do it. Using
methods such as a broadcast fax, he was able to reach
100 clients quickly. “Twelve of them responded
to this broadcast fax, and I wrote seven of them.”
From that method, he realized that if 100 worked,
then a 1,000 would be better. Michael also joined
the Northwest Ohio Restaurant Association, at first
purely to make money, but realizing there were other
benefits as well. “They’re very giving
people,” he said. “And on top of that,
they’re really a fun class of people.”
Working with restaurant owners has also increased
the amount of personal policies his company writes.
By getting his foot in the door, he insures the restaurant
owners, their key employees, and friends that those
in the business recommend. “Restaurant owners
tend to run with a successful crowd. We’ve established
these centers of influence and off we go.”
Michael is also a firm believer in using the Internet
to reach clients. “The Internet has become a
very viable way of doing business if you want to do
it on a national-type basis. What I would suggest
is get with a web designer. Search engine optimization
is the key. If you have the right message and the
right marketing, you get traffic driven to your site.”
All of this has led Michael and his company beyond
Northwest Ohio, even if he himself will always be
based here. “We have a national presence. I’d
be willing to bet that no other independent insurance
agency in the country writes more restaurants than
I do.”
CARROLL COMPANIES
Michael Carroll
2211 River Road
Maumee, Ohio 43537
Phone: 419-897-0101
Website: www.carroll-cos.com
Email: michael@carroll-cos.com
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 Toledo
Business Review highlights the best
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