When Katie Small became pregnant, she decided her days as an investment banker were numbered. "I was working 12-hour days and it wouldn't have been fair for a child." She quit her job selling shares for ABN Amro. When "a friend of a friend" asked her to invest in his new business, she jumped at the chance. It was to prove a smart move.
Michael Ward was setting up a speciality insurance brokerage for high-net-worth individuals and needed a partner. Small stumped up £70,000 for a 50% stake in the new firm, MWA Brokers. "I agreed to be a silent partner and let him run the business." Ward, an experienced insurance broker, had a big contact book and brought clients with him. His ace card was approval from the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA). This allowed him to market insurance products tailored for young footballers such as cover on high-performance sports cars. MWA soon began picking up lots of business from footballers.
Small was content to take a back seat as the business grew, especially as she had moved to New York with her investment banker husband. However, in 2007 she moved back to Britain and "started working full time to try and grow the firm". Realising the potential size of the client base, she couldn't remain a silent partner for long. "We disagreed over strategy. I thought we were drifting along and acting more like a generic insurer." Small wanted the firm to concentrate on its high-net-worth clients and tailor more services to suit it. By the end of 2009, with annual sales at £5m, Small bought out her partner. By now she had "lots of ideas of how I could improve the business".
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She renamed the firm Mercury West Associates and went after more of the lucrative footballer market by working with Hiscox, a large, specialist insurer, to create more dedicated products "focused more on high-worth assets, such as jewellery and collectibles".
Small also began to develop additional concierge services that were related to her policies. If a client had just insured their house against theft, she could also arrange to have a security firm assess the property. "Our clients need a different level of service than they would find with a general insurer. Each client is assigned an account manager who they can ring anytime of day or night. They're not put through to a call centre." The firm now offers personal insurance to more than 1,100 professional footballers. Yet they only make up around a quarter of its client base. "I don't really like the phrase, but a lot of our clients are first-generation rich who work a lot. Their workloads are all the more reason why they need a bespoke insurance service."
Last year sales hit £6.2m and this year are on target to reach £8.5m. Small's success has not gone unnoticed. In December Mercury West Associates was acquired by larger insurance group RK Harrison for "several million". Small, who will be staying on with the firm, maintains that selling it will enable her to offer more to her clients. "Many of our clients have businesses. Until now we have only focused on personal insurance, but now we will be able to offer commercial insurance too."
