Mid-Columbia Insurance Planning
April 6th, 2007
When Gary Paulson and Clifford Morgan left their jobs at an established insurance company in 1995 to open Mid Columbia Insurance, their new business venture was without a single client.
Today, partners Paulson and Morgan estimate they have 4,000 to 5,000 active customers.
Mid-Columbia Insurance offers auto and homeowners insurance to people with good driving records-as well as those without a clean driving record, Paulson said.
“‘The company’s geared for it. Sometimes people whom if their driving record is bad enough or if they’ve had a DUI, the state requires special filings so we have the company to deal with that,” he said.
In Kennewick, Paulson and Morgan have four employees. The Mid-Columbia Insurance office in Yakima has three employees. Mid-Columbia Insurance represents 12 different companies such as Sentry Insurance and Safeco.
“We actually shop for the best rates among the companies and it with one company’s rates go up we can always move [our clients] to another company,” Paulson said.
Mid-Columbia Insurance rents the space on Morain Street where it is currently located, but the company is in the process of putting together a new building that wi II house their offices as well as offer additional space to rent, Paulson said.
“We’re building a 4,000-sq. foot building. We will occupy over a third of it and we’ll rent out the other two offices,” he said.
Paulson and Morgan first came up with their own design for the building but it didn’t turn out quite the way they were hoping.
“We looked at the design and we said, ‘This looks ugly,’ so we went and hired [Shamrock Construction],” Morgan said.
The new structure is a single story metal butler building with stucco exterior and metal stud and sheetrock interior, Morgan said.
Outside of the building there will be a 10-foot by 30-foot stop sign logo.
Of the 4,000-sq. foot building, Mid Columbia Insurance will occupy 1,700 sq. feet and 2,300 sq. feet will be available for rent. By Bethany Joy Riddle, Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business
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