Tips for Choosing a Real Estate Agent - Independent Versus the Broker Franchise

The general rule is that it's the agent, not the office that's most important. Go with the best agent you can find, independent or franchise. However, if you don't know any agents and can't get a recommendation, the national franchises usually maintain at least minimal quality con­trol, have procedures that protect both them and you, and usually have heavy errors-and-omission insurance in case one of their agents makes a bad mistake.

Today it's very hard for an independent office to survive. National franchises such as Coldwell Banker, Century 21, R/EMax and others offer heavy advertising, name-brand recognition, and legal support and associated services to agents. They often overwhelm small independent offices with their competition.

As a result, most agents today in most areas belong to a franchise of one sort or another. My own experience has been that only those independents that are either extremely strong, with excellent agents, or very weak, with poor agents, have not been gobbled up by one or the other of the franchises. That usually means that if you're dealing with an independent, you've probably got the best, or the worst, of the field.

It's important to understand, however, that although you may go with a national name in real estate, in most states you're still dealing with a local office. For example, a broker friend of mine had successfully operated an independent office near Los Angeles for over 20 years. He had seven agents working full-time for him, every one a winner.

However, he decided that he could make more money with less effort by associating with a national franchise. So one day, he simply converted. His office now bears both the national name and his own name. It's a fran­chise, he's still the broker in charge and the agents are the same. He operates under the umbrella of the national firm, which provides the support noted above, but you still deal with him or one of his associated agents. In a sense, you're getting the best of both worlds.

Except... the national franchise has strict rules regard­ing the amount of commission charged, how deals are handled, where escrows are placed, and so forth. My friend no longer has the flexibility he once had to tailor-make a deal to suit his clients and customers. Today, he follows the rules. This sometimes benefits those clients and customers, and other times it causes them grief and produces a poorer result.

Gary writes for My Hawaii Real Estate where you can find Oahu homes for sale in the all the major islands. Review real estate on Oahu along with our MLS search for Honolulu real estate listings.

How to Start an Independent Insurance Brokerage Agency

Establishing an insurance agency business requires the same talents and dedications that any other business requires. Proper planning, persistence, and consistence are the essential elements for success in any venture. There are certain important factors that distinguish the insurance brokerage business from other business ventures.

Proper Licensing: To become an insurance broker you need to be licensed for the lines of business you intend to sell/ broker. For example, brokering life, health, property or casualty, or a combination of those requires state licensing. Check with the department of insurance of the state where you reside for the proper licensing/ bonding requirements. If you plan to be brokering insurance to clients in different states you need to obtain a license from those states as well.

If you intend to run the business as an incorporated business (very much recommended), you need to obtain the proper article of incorporation, and then apply for an insurance producer license for your new business entity. In the state of Illinois you can incorporate yourself online, and it can be done on expedited basis (overnight).

Now, after you, the individual producer, and your business entity are properly licensed with the state(s), you will need to find a location. You can start by looking around to share space with other professionals, such as accountants, real estate agents, travel agents, or lawyers. Sharing an office is good in the beginning because it saves you rent expense and because it exposes you to the traffic that you need. If your budget allows you to rent a separate space, choosing a busy mall is the best idea, especially if you will be focusing on auto insurance and business insurance. Heavy traffic is free advertisement.

At this point you will be able to sell insurance. The issue is what insurance to sell, which can be confusing. Many agents find it hard to focus on more than 1 or 2 lines of insurance. Selling life insurance requires great deal of salesmanship, however the commission is the greatest. Selling health insurance still requires salesmanship, average demand, the commission is good and so is the renewal. Business insurance is easier to sell (most businesses must have insurance), the commission is good, but it requires experienced customer services. Selling auto/ home insurance is perhaps the easiest, the commission is the not as great, and it requires extensive customer services.

Selling insurance as an independent broker can be done through different ways: First you might seek appointment directly with insurance companies. It is very easy to get appointment for the life and health insurance lines, but when it comes to auto and commercial insurance, appointment with insurers get little more difficult. Most property and casualty insurers require experience, and Errors and Omission coverage for your agency. Errors and omission (E&O) for life and health agents is easy and inexpensive to obtain, but when it comes to errors and omission for property and casualty agents things become harder. Experience, education, and character are very important when obtaining errors and omission coverage, which is certainly much more expensive than E&O coverage for life and health brokers.

Most companies, especially the reputable ones, will stay away from agents without experience. That is why you should target less known regional or local companies for appointment. Also, you can approach a local broker who will accept to place your business under their contract and share with you the commission (you get the experience and the access to the insurance carriers.) Many larger brokers and MGAs (Managing General Agents) are willing to do that.

Marketing your agency is the most critical task. There are lots of great agents and agencies in the market place, therefore there has to be something different about you and your agency for people to become your customers. Why do people need to come to you and become your customers? The answer to that should be the backbone of your marketing campaign.

You can design very complicated and expensive marketing campaign, but always keep in mind that advertising an auto insurance agency is not the same as advertising a life insurance agency. Selecting the target market is very important because it will determine the which product to sell (ie standard vs non standard auto), and it will determine the marketing campaign (newspapers ads, direct mailing, TV commercials, internet, etc.)

Regardless of the size of your agency, your staff will make you or break you! Proper recruiting, training and incentive oriented compensation are the keys to the success of your business. Your employees are your connection with the customers.

Capital Requirements: A starting agency needs between $15,000 to 50,000 for initial setup, and marketing startup. This includes computers, printers, fax, scanners, signs, files, advertising materials, office furniture, licensing, and minor remodeling.

The following are some sources that can help you getting started:

Find the requirement to get your insurance license (individual and business entity):

Check your state's Department of Insurance

In Illinois: insurance.illinois.gov/producer/producer_information.asp

Find how to incorporate yourself online:

To do it yourself, check your state website. You also can have a bookkeeper or a lawyer (for a fee) do that for you.

In Illinois: You can incorporate yourself online at http://www.ilsos.gov/corparticles/

Find how to get your FEIN online:

Check the IRS website at https://sa2.www4.irs.gov/modiein/individual/index.jsp

Some online brokers that give you access to preferred markets:

Insurance Noodle (insurancenoodle.com) and Agent Secure (agentsecure.com) are two national agencies that will allow you to get access to preferred markets.

Providers of Errors and Omission Coverage:

US E & O Brokers- (useo.com)

Get lists of companies to deal with/ software to manage your agency and MGAs to place business with:

Check the website of the Ultimate Insurance Links (the best) at ultimateinsurancelinks.com/

Finally "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. " Thomas Jefferson

Ed Sneineh: Founder of Insurance Navy, an independent insurance broker chain in Chicago. Insurance Navy is licensed in Illinois and Indiana as an Independent Insurance Broker.

Independent Life Insurance Brokers Wage War on Life & Health Insurance Providers Reign

For well over a century life and health insurance providers held golden handcuffs on their agents and brokers. Independent life insurance brokers became fighting mad at these insurance providers trapping them inside giant Jell-O molds. This provided independent brokers little flexibility in prospecting, selling skills, choice of clients, and pressed inside a tight income range.

FINALLY, independent life insurance brokers are electing to challenge the insurance companies, seeking independence, and running their personal sales like their own business instead of like a textbook copy of what the company wants. A talented insurance agent quickly learns that the insurance provider needs them, and must offer more to hang on to the producer. An observant health or life insurance broker has over 600 independent insurance company choices to work out a winning combination with.

Sure insurance companies have cast heavy thunderstorm hurdles for the agents to overcome. A very high percentage of agent manpower gets lost along the way. However, each year, a larger group of agents is seeing the rainbow that lies ahead if they manage their own future. These are the independents, heroes to other agents that have not yet mastered the selling skills, or self-determination to join them. Here is some factual data on how the selling field has changed.

ANNUITIES

If you read insurance publications subsidized by major insurance company ads, you would think this is an easy money field. Obtaining the realms of information you need to learn, plus constantly changing sales regulations, disclosures, and mandated features you quickly become a walking encyclopedia. For two reasons insurance companies dominate. First, they write OVER 60% of the premiums themselves (internally), as appointed agents and independent brokers bring in the remainder. A newer agent convinces his client to put his $4,000 in savings into an annuity. The agent is compensated at 5%, $200 for the annuity sale. Instead, had this broker written a $50.00 monthly life insurance policy the provider would have paid out about $400.00.

Before a policy is written, a broker is going to write coverage that is profitable to himself and the the company. Listening to the training of life and health insurance providers, can cost a producer half their income.

The major shift in power from company appointed agents to independent life insurance brokers starting in the year 2000. The individual life market share revealed the following distribution percentages. 48% by Career Company appointed agents. Likewise, independent life insurance agents wrote 48%. The remaining small balance was picked up others, mainly stockbrokers.

Insurance Companies attempted driving most agents out of the business, especially the independent ones who commanded higher commissions. The home office wanted to receive 100% of the profits. With internet ads, phone telemarketing, direct mail bypassing agents, emails, and television ads, they thought they could prevail. After millions and millions of dollars spent on trying to sell insurance without using large numbers of agents, the whip came down. The got back lashed with a severe beating reminder that read, "insurance is a product, filling emotion needs that needs to be sold by human people." A robot, cut out the middleman approach was a burning backfire.

INSURANCE COMPANY REALIZATION - ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

Health and life insurance company providers learned the hard way that business could be obtained by used television, internet, and direct mail advertising to attempt to get consumers to buy from them. Sure they saved a little on commissions, but their high overhead was bombarded by less healthy applicants, poorer claims communication, and less loyal clients. Career agents are enraged when they see their company want to sell insurance without their services. Life insurance broker agents are not in-housed, so they are paid higher commissions to sell the same coverage.

The word became clearer. Cater heavier to independent agents or lose market share. Since 2007 the big shift drifted in. Not only were there sideline marketing efforts not creating new marketing trends, but career insurance companies saw less sales from their own agents. Life insurance sales by captive, exclusive, and multi-line agents combined dropped from 48% in 1999 to 35%. Greatly gaining were the higher skilled and higher paid independent agents, now writing near 58%. Stockbrokers and banks maintain an 8% share, further eroding career agent sales.

Without the direct sales efforts of insurance selling agents, look at this fact. Home offices write less than 30% of life, health, retirement, group, and medical policies. This is why a two step ladder emerged. First the captive career life insurance providers started offering similar products to outside independent brokers at higher commissions. This was quickly trumped by independent insurance companies specializing in smaller product niches. Why not pay everyone the same? Let the career agency start training them, and then take over and show the producer how to really sell and at respectable income levels?

TONS OF INSURANCE BUYERS

If life and health insurance companies could exchange the word "greed" for "need" they would be in a better position. It is a well known fact that 2/3 of Americans do not carry enough life insurance. However most companies twist their agents' necks to focus on the wealthy. Liberty National, a company, you might not know of, is worthy of recognition. Of well over 600 life and health insurance companies, they have written by a wide margin, the largest client base of whole life insurance policyholders.

The top eight term policy writers are NOT known big life insurers Nor do they constantly bombard television commercials with a term life insurance quote opportunity. They know that excessive insurance television advertising to get a quote, or trying to bypass their own agents is unethical. One super-large insurer that got caught trying to entice customers with the lowest rates and enabling phone purchases is in a financial mess. This well-known company is costing the American government and taxpayers, billions of dollars in bailout provisions.

ANALYZE

Most states have around 300 active annuity, health, and life insurers. Here's a few thoughts to toss around. Are you satisfied with your currently earnings? Do agents with the major branded companies really sell more insurance? Could you survive a career switch? Does a term insurance sale provide you with 50%, 70%, or 90+% commissions? How long do you want to wait before becoming a career professional. Could you run a business, yours, or is the guidance you are receiving far too valuable?

It is what your insurance provider can do for you? What you can do for your insurance company? Alternatively, it should be what you can do for yourself and your clients.

Well published author, Don Yerke likes to concentrate on what you don't know or what no one else dares to print. Tell it like it is.

Watch for his new paperback book debuting on Amazon early this summer. It is loaded with great insurance marketing and recruiting information.

Come and get your FREE "Think and Grow Rich" Ebook by Napoleon Hill instantly. The website address is [http://www.agentsinsurancemarketing.com]

National Life Brokerage Marketing Review - NAILBA Independent Brokerage Agencies a Smash Hit

There are numerous national life brokerage marketing agency firms. Yet there are few like NAILBA, The National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies, getting a review declaring them a smash hit. Find out what makes this linked collection of agencies such a unique brokerage organization.

Hearing National Life Brokerage Organization, makes you wonder if they are a two person shop, one individual giant private firm, a company marketing firm, or a group of independent life brokerage agencies. In my review of NAILBA, I can easy see it is the later. Although there are some similar brokerage groups, NAILBA has certainly taken a unique approach to recruiting and the services provided brokers. Thereby it has raised itself to maximum capabilities. The non-profit Organization wins, and the life independent wholesale agencies, the brokers, and the insurance companies all profit.

It pointed out to me three main things. The power of unification, the strength of diversity, and the fulfilled demand for personalized individual broker service. In 26 years of working with all types and variances of life, annuity, and health insurance marketing organization have I rarely seen all three key features merge seamlessly together. Even more amazing was the concept of keeping all the brokerage agencies independent. When I learned that this consisted of more than 350 member brokerage general agencies in the United States and Canada, I was even more impressed.

Searching further, I discovered how much the leadership had invested to make this mutually profitable. Most BGA's, Brokerage General Agencies, that I know very well or review, start with zero training assistance. As a member, three total tool kits are wisely made available as resource guides. In detail, they provide Brokerage Agencies to work more efficiently with their insurance providers. In addition, a resource guide is devoted to marketing their independent brokerage operation. Moreover, backbone is strengthened by illustrating how to increase the operational efficiencies of the participating members.

Product diversification is a key item to survival through an economic downturn. Fortunately, NAILBA and its members had the insight to not put all their eggs into a speculative basket, only to find their work cracked apart. With a base of around 100,000 independent brokers in the United States and Canada, I was not surprised to see that around a billion dollars of first year life insurance premiums are collected annually.

Since I am not aware of the breakdown, I can still give an awareness of the impact on insurance brokers. Although not all their insurance brokers write for them exclusively, as they are also independent, the figures I derived at were significant. If 70% of their producers were active, and writing in the United States that would total 70,000 producers. Reviewing my records, it indicates currently 490,000 brokers in the U.S. exist from the total base of 1,500,000 licensed agents.

This means one out of every 7 semi-independent agents or independent brokers are connected with marketing insurance through one of their life brokerage general agencies in the United States. It is difficult to get much stronger than this association of Brokerage General Agents. Collectively they are more powerful than many life insurance companies are. They have paved the way from a hazardous financial trail to a rewarding occupation for many agents to take. Thanks to NAILBA and others like them, agents today have an easier route to becoming independent.

Well published author, Don Yerke likes to concentrate on what you don't know or what no one else dares to print. Tell it like it is.

Watch for his new paperback book debuting on Amazon this summer. It is loaded with great insurance marketing, brokerage, sales, and recruiting information.

Come and get your FREE "Think and Grow Rich" Ebook by Napoleon Hill instantly.

The website address is [http://www.agentsinsurancemarketing.com]

Who's Who - Company Insurance Brokerage & Independent Insurance Brokerage Listings

Agents can choose to place business with either a company insurance brokerage office or an independent insurance brokerage firm. Here are insurance brokerage listings for many of the various tiles used within the business. Find out the difference among insurance brokerage titles, and how to distinguish who's who.

Health and life agents can earn over 90 insurance designations. Fortunately, the numbers of titles for firms obtaining brokerage business are fewer.A listing is provided of many different title names used, and any actual differences that separate one's firm title from another. The potential producers that might write insurance cases for you should also know these differences.

Before this, it is critical because of some many misconceptions to define the terms broker and brokerage as they refer to life and health insurance. You would be surprised at how few of the general public understands what your firm title or function means. Likewise, hundreds of thousands of agents do not understand these terms. The mix up occurs primary with stock brokers and stock brokerage firms. That is what the majority of the public thinks of when hearing these terms.

Insurance brokerage firms of all different titles, obtain a written annuity, life, or health insurance case from a broker. All their producers should be called brokers and their cases called brokerage business. When an agent writes a case outside their primary career company, they are called a broker and their business is brokerage. There are many agents that are "agent brokers". They have a primary insurance company as an agent and submit business to a brokerage firm as a broker. There are also independent life and health insurance agents that should rightfully be called independent brokers, with the before mentioned group better referred to as semi-independent agents.

Writing brokerage business is a true form of independence of the agent's part. Rarely will this occur to any extent until the agent has surpassed a full three years of insurance dependence on career orientated companies. The three main reasons an agent writes insurance brokerage are independence, client needs, and higher commissions.

COMPANY INSURANCE BROKERAGE

What truly baffles insurance agents is the fact that some of the insurance companies training new insurance career agents often operate and highly promote through large advertisements their brokerage operations. They preach to the agents that they should only do business with the career company you are licensed with. Moreover, agents are firmly reminded they have all the products they need, and the company is supporting them 100%. Meanwhile the company insurance brokerage operation is trying to pilfer away as much business as possible from the career agents of fellow insurance companies. Less confusing of course, are the expanding number of insurance companies that only accept brokerage business and have no agency force of their own.

Starting with one insurance company brokerage operations, you have many different variations and titles among the people that distribute the products. A main difference would be those that are directly employed by the insurance company as a salaried or salaried plus bonus individual. Others have an independent contractor style contract, with fringe benefits like health insurance missing. They are paid through a combination of commissions and overrides along with possible production bonuses.

Director of marketing, national director of recruiting, director of product development and sales, Northwest marketing director, divisional director of disability sales, are just a taste of titles usually reserved for higher up home office employees. Many of these have never sold or brokered an insurance policy! Among them are fortune telling number crunchers with little reality of what it takes to be a successful brokerage manager. In turn, rarely do they do the actual recruiting of agents. The sad part is that they frequently set the company recruiting, marketing, and budgeting policies that others must follow.

The common one company insurance brokerage devoted titles include General Agent, Brokerage General Agent, Regional General Agent, State Manager, Managing General Agent, District Manager, Director of Brokerage, Wholesaler, and Regional Manager. If an insurance company is brokering three main products, they for example, may be LTC Brokerage Manager, Annuity Brokerage Manager, and Advanced Life Brokerage Manager. The inter combinations of titles are virtually countless. A high percentage of these one insurance company brokerage operations maintain the name of the company in their firm name.

Here is one conflict of interest. As some insurance companies want to sell as many insurance brokerage cases, as possible they often contract with independent marketing organizations and national brokerage firms. There is frequently true competition among them, going after agents and brokers to acquire insurance brokerage. It should be mentioned what the danger factor is. When you rely on just one insurance company what happens when your prime product is suddenly dropped, your territory is cut, your position is eliminated, or when another insurer buys out the company?

INDEPENDENT INSURANCE BROKERAGE LISTINGS

Non-existent just 25 years ago, independent insurance brokerage firms have erupted on the market scene. Here are some reasons why. First brokers like to find a company that can give them the best product for their client, or the highest commission when they make a sale. With some independent insurance marketing firms representing over 50 companies, they can sometimes do both. Some national firms are so powerful that they can dictate that an insurance policy develop a product only they can distribute. Insurance companies know that they can keep adding new policy features or constantly introduce a rehashed, but now called new policy. Insurance marketers love promoting a familiar product that has new features, a new name, or new commission structure. As insurance marketers like to make money, unfairly some of those where the highest override exists, are the products most heavily promoted . A 35% override sure beats 20% on a similar product in the mind of numerous marketers.

Titles that independent insurance brokerage marketers have on their contract include product distributor, national wholesaler, and exclusive product marketer, along with all independent contractor titles mentioned under one-company marketers. They often distinguish themselves by keeping their personal name out of the firm's official name. Others insert the word independent or national to separate them. Usually they promote a variety of company insignia trademarks or names in their advertising materials.

It is essential to describe briefly independent insurance marketing organizations. Over 250 independent insurance brokerage firms are associated with to at least one of the top 20 independent insurance marketing organizations. While 250 out of 15,000 to 20,000 separate brokerage titled operations does not seem significant, it really is. The smaller firms combine contracting and some advertising to form the larger independent insurance brokerage marketing organization. The organization thereby is able to obtain a higher compensation level contract with more insurance brokerage companies. Although sometimes members only operate in one state, others cross-territories, even on a national basis. The longevity of profitability for these firms is amazing, especially when compared with brokerage firms overall. The dues and advertising cost sharing is well offset by the extra training tips, bonding, shared marketing tricks, and higher overrides they could receive on their own.

Who's Who in major league, big-time insurance brokerage is constantly changing. Some are 3-generation family owned firms, and others mightily spring up and disappear just about as quickly. One of the key factors never mentioned above is of great magnitude. That factor is service. What can you do to make sure your broker stays your broker? Regardless of what title you or your firm has, all is irrelevant if the broker writes one case and moves on elsewhere.

Well published author, Don Yerke likes to concentrate on what you don't know or what no one else dares to print. Tell it like it is.

Watch for his new paperback book debuting on Amazon early this summer. It is loaded with great insurance marketing and recruiting information.

Come and get your FREE "Think and Grow Rich" Ebook by Napoleon Hill instantly. The website address is [http://www.agentsinsurancemarketing.com]

5 Tips for Independent Film Producers: How to Survive the Turbulent Years Ahead

The Falling Value of Film Entertainment

Forty years ago, people who wanted to see a movie on a Friday night had just a few options. They could watch what was on TV, they could go to the local drive-in, or they could go to the local movie theater. The advent of video stores that sold hundreds or thousands of movies on video tape/DVD gave people new alternatives. They could watch this week's new movie at the movie theater, or take in last winter's box office smash in their own home. The technology required to burn tapes and DVDs subsequently turned every home in to a lending library for film and video. The rise of two-hundred-channel cable companies gave us two-hundred channels with something on. Now the best selling studio and independent films are available for download from from sites like video.google.com, http://www.movielink.com, http://www.unbox.com and http://www.itunes.com.

As the rise in movie viewing options has increased, the average box office value of new films has fallen. That's hard to believe isn't it.

Block busters like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter mask the truth that more movies are being made by more people than ever before and yet the estimated revenue for each film is actually falling. Tens of thousands of feature films and documentaries are now available for sale through a variety of venues. A growing number of producers are making their movies available for free online in the hopes that they will develop a following that will result in "sell-able films" later on.

The falling value of the average movie has dramatic implications on the lives of people who make movies for a living.

Five Survival Strategies

Consider selling your products directly to viewers without going through standard distribution channels. A producer investing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on film for distribution on DVD should set aside a quarter or more of that budget for a media campaign that targets the market for the film. If they spend that budget wisely, customers will be looking for the film. Producers who find a solid, reliable international storefront for their films keep the percentage usually allocated to a traditional film distributor. For example, if you post your film on http://www.CustomFlix.com, your customers will be able to buy your DVD through Amazon (and soon download it through http://www.UnBox.com). You receive 60%-70% of product sales every month and retain complete control over your content, rather than waiting months or years for distributors to send checks.

Be very careful when choosing more traditional film distributors. Many distributors will evaporate in the months and years to come due to competition from turn-key distribution solutions offered by large, well funded competitors. You do not want distributors to have control over your content when they go under. Work with distributors who deliver cost-effective, fast-launch, flexible multi-national multimedia distribution and marketing solutions for their customers. Make sure there's an escape clause if they go into bankruptcy or fail to provide timely payments or accounting.

Work directly with community theaters, activist groups and social networks to have your films shown. "Four-walling" which used to be considered an amateur filmmaker's trick was demonstrated to be a sound business strategy by Mel Gibson's block buster The Passion of the Christ. That movie was premiered to Christian communities across the United States and their word of mouth drove it to be one of the most successful independent films ever made.

Work with your screenwriters to focus on less expensive, more character-driven films that target under-served market segments. There are tens of thousands of writers trying to write a great tent-pole film. The competition is fierce, the number of producers/studios who can fund that film is small. There's are far fewer writers/producers focusing on writing Christian science fiction or Christian mysteries although the Left Behind books and the DiVinci code indicate those markets exist and spend money.

Find funding through angel investors rather than through more traditional lending and investment mechanisms. Movies are a risky business, and they are growing more risky all the time. Fortunately the cost of making them is also falling fast. Angel investors will often pay to have a movie made as part of an artistic statement or act of community involvement while other investors will be driven more directly for a desire for profit. Producers will assemble groups of angel investors who fund projects, and those investors may elect to make their money available as grants rather than as loans or stock ownership. "Rich Patrons" may well be on their way back and they are certainly worth cultivating.

Evolve to Survive

Some trends are irreversible. Horses gave way to cars. Silent movies gave way to talking pictures. The movie industry is changing radically.

Those who want to make and sell movies for a living must revise their methods accordingly. They must make more films for less money, and the films they make must be better targeted so they are more cost-effective to sell. The good news is, great scripts, exceptional acting talent, strong technical skills and good business sense will be enough to give many producers the great careers they deserve and many viewers will end up with "new classics" to watch.

Nancy Fulton is a working screenwriter [http://www.scriptcorp.com] and independent film producer [http://www.backfromiraqmovie.com].