Famously said, those who fail to plan, plan to fail, and this could not be more apt than for the title insurance industry, which is prone to predictable and consistent fluctuations.

A title company without a scalability plan is going to find itself in hot water whether the market is growing or receding, and in both cases it can be costly.

Here are a few things to consider as you incorporate scalability into your plan.

Incorporate Where the Market Is Heading

Be realistic. While you don’t want to be a Debbie Downer about what is happening in the marketplace, face the future with eyes wide open so that while you are identifying opportunities for growth, you have an eye on where things are headed.

Here is where staffing plans are critical. Part of your business plan should include identification of your most critically important employees so that in a downturn you know the core people/positions that must be retained to manage your business.

On the flip side, every manager should be encouraged to be prepared to hire quickly. This means:

• Identifying pressure points ahead of time where hires will be needed
• Having full job descriptions ready to roll out for new positions
• Networking to establish relationships for recruitment opportunities
• Creating a pipeline with local educational programs for future trainees

Incorporate Your Dream Growth Plan

On the upside, your scalability plan should be tied to your growth plan.

This could mean ensuring your production team is ramping up commensurately with plans to increase your sales team or opportunities to partner with out-of-state agencies that will funnel additional work your way.

If you have ambitions to expand your agency, building in scalability also means communicating anticipated additional requirements for any third-party providers who are an integral part of your production work.

Incorporate Outside Resources

Most importantly, know where to go when you are bursting at the seams.

When a title agency gets busy, sometimes there are immediate ways to reduce the workload by hiring out, subcontracting or offloading specific tasks that give you just the breathing room you need. But these relationships need to be carefully researched ahead of time so you can set up the pipeline quickly when needed.

Building scalability into your business is a lot like creating a disaster recovery plan. To meet unusual circumstances in an effective way, you have to be able to hit the ground running and that requires careful planning far in advance.

Closing Suite can help you move beyond volume bottlenecks and staffing fluctuations with powerful ideas and tools that work most effectively in the title insurance industry. Call us today to learn more about our solutions.