Celebrating 10 Years

After 10 years as the owner of an independent adjusting firm, Russ Malkoske still can’t believe just how successful QA Adjusting Company has been. It has far exceeded his wildest visions.

“I didn’t think that I would be this successful,” he says. “I really thought 10 years ago I would have a small company that I could continue to work on either a full-or part-time basis and do that for a number of years.” But that has not been the case for Malkoske and QA Adjusting Company.

“I’m delighted to have set up a company 10 years ago that has made it this long and is still very successful and growing,” he says. “I love the opportunity to work with young team; I’m by far the old guy here.”

There are lots of opportunities and challenges for the company to assess. And while a shrinking client base — partly due to mergers on the insurance side — can be a challenge, it’s about continuing to look for new opportunities as a means to staying relevant. There are opportunities that present themselves every day, whether the staff go look for them or the opportunities come to the company. “It’s seeing if you can marry the services you can provide with those opportunities,” Malkoske says, adding the company tries to find a niche area where it can offer a particular service for a particular client. But the challenges for a small firm are no different than those of a large firm. “We’re a very small market in Manitoba, so I am fortunate in that I compete in a very qualified environment,” he says. “My competitors are good so it makes us good, so what you end up doing then is trying to find an area where you can offer something that another — a larger competitor in particular — can’t. And to be frank, that’s flexibility: I can adapt to anything overnight.”

Helping new adjusters

QA Adjusting has fluctuated in size over the years. While Malkoske, like all business owners, is having difficulty attracting experienced adjusters, he says he has been very successful in bringing on two staff members who have worked their way up to full-time adjusting. Both Cory Malkoske and Adrienne Salem (nee Tucker) started their career at QA Adjusting in a support position. Through training and completion of Insurance Institute of Canada courses, they are now licensed adjusters at QA Adjusting.

Cory began working with the company shortly after the business was opened as a means to help his father set up the computer systems and web site. At the end of the summer, when he was scheduled to return to university, he decided to pursue a career in insurance. He continued his studies, but added Insurance Institute courses to his workload as well. After graduation, he came to work at QA Adjusting full time.

Salem came to QA Adjusting with a number of degrees under her belt, but had had difficulty finding a career that peaked her interest. After working in a support role and learning about the industry, she signed up for courses and is now a full-time adjuster with strong liability interests.

QA Adjusting might soon have a fourth adjuster at the firm. Malkoske is currently showing another potential recruit the ropes. At present, the potential adjuster works in the field of aviation, but concerned for his future, he is observing the ins and outs of a career in adjusting. “He is very interested in the business,” Malkoske says. “But it is a big change and insurance isn’t as sexy as aviation.”

The insurance industry in reality is a very interesting business to work in, but people never ask about it. “My Dad was an insurance broker so I grew up with it. Having my son working here, yes we talk insurance. But I like to tell people if there’s a fire on your street you walk down and look at it; I walk down and look at it and get paid to be there!” he says.

Staff, which also includes Malkoske’s wife who takes care of the books and a full-and part-time support staff, are very close knit. They are able to help each other out as required. “We are supportive, not competitive,” Malkoske says. “I’m sort of like the captain of the ship here, but the crew does most of the work.”

And despite being such a small group, everybody attends formal staff meetings to go over the agenda and determine who is responsible for what and where things are progressive. It forces everyone to take accountability for their actions and allows actions to progress and the company to move forward.

Knowing when to grow

Previously QA Adjusting had a branch office in Brandon and a service office in Dauphin, but things didn’t work at that time and everybody parted ways amicably. Malkoske points out, however, that since the company is computer-based it would be easy to have other adjusters working out of their homes with ease. “We are always looking for opportunities and exploring the chance to expand our operation,” he says.

For a small firm in Manitoba, it can be tough to access national markets. While Malkoske notes that the company gets a lot of support from national insurance companies, it is tough to stay in front of them. It is not just the challenge of things on a national level, he says, but a reflection of how the personal contact is gone. In the past, travel to Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton was a frequent occurrence as a means to keep in touch with clients and friends. Now communication is through email and while the people are still good people, he doesn’t know them personally and they don’t know him. “That is a challenge,” Malkoske says.

As a small business owner, Malkoske says that sometimes a move to change is made which doesn’t work out. The risks can be significant with respect to capital for small firm. “Because I am an independent business person, I am always looking for opportunities, but I do not always make the best business choices,” he says. “Sometimes the opportunities aren’t there, but I am willing to invest the resources to try and find them. So the challenge and struggle would be, as a result of that, I jump in and commit [quickly]. We’re not overly large and we’ve done that; jumped in and committed and then found out because we are small, we can’t provide the level of service that we might need. Or, I can’t find the people to join me to take on that extra challenge. So I have to be cautious about growth, yet it’s not my nature.”

Making friends

QA Adjusting Company does have a strong working relationship with brokers — in part likely because Malkoske’s father was a broker — something which is a bit unusual for a small independent office. Further to that, the company truly emphasizes its Manitoba-based connection. “We are the local guys,” he says. “Not to say that my competitors aren’t, but they have commitments and interests that go further afield than mine do. I like Winnipeg and I like Manitoba, and I’m really interested in everything else, but it doesn’t matter much to the day-to-day operations of my business.”

What is essential to Malkoske’s business is being a member of the Canadian Independent Adjusters’ Association (CIAA). “We are not only members, we’re participating in committees and regional activities, so it gets your name known,” he says. Being a member of the CIAA allows the opportunity to be in touch with competitors, not only locally, but on a national basis and meet to discuss challenges affecting all independent adjusters. Together, the adjusters look for solutions to these common issues. “There are people that I have met through CIAA that if I have a challenge that I am not quite sure what the answer is to, or I simply need a sounding board for the position I am going to take, these are the people I can, and do, chat to.”