Cris Corey Agency - State Farm Insurance Receives Small Business Award

We are honored to present the July Small Business Award to Cris Corey Agency - State Farm Insurance.

Cris moved back to Hutchinson in 2005 from Kansas City, with his wife, Laura.  The company that Cris had been working for unexpectedly pulled out of the KC market and left him with a choice to make - potentially move to the East coast and apply for the same position he had (which wasn’t available) or look elsewhere. At the time, his father, John, a State Farm Agent, had two of his employees leaving and starting their own agencies. John encouraged Cris to come back to Hutch and come to work for him and just see if it would be a good fit.  Cris is the first to admit, he never thought he would enjoy the insurance business, but he was pleasantly surprised. He does enjoy working with people and loves to help others and through State Farm he could do just that.

After 4 years of working alongside his father, another local agent announced his retirement, so Cris applied to run his own agency and was selected. Cris opened his agency on January 1, 2010 in the new commercial park, The North Pointe Center at 30^th & Lorraine. A year later, his father announced his retirement and Cris purchased John’s building and moved his agency to where it is today at 920 N. Main Street. Cris says the building has been a State Farm agency since the 60’s and has housed 5 agents, 5 secretaries, one manager, and about 10 ash trays at one time. Over the past 13 years, Cris’s agency has had significant growth, he attributes that to having a great team and culture in place. He will only hire people who truly care and if you take good care of people (customers and staff), they will take good care of you.

Finding and keeping great staff can be a challenge and it takes a lot of time, effort, and money to get a team member licensed, trained and ready to help take care of their customers. Cris believes in paying good people good money and providing a fun and enjoyable work environment. He wants his staff to enjoy coming into the office as much as he does and he appreciates how they all root for each other and the agency.

When asked what one characteristic of his small business makes it deserving of the Small Business Award, Cris said “Being Involved.” We are involved and invested deeply in this community and its prosperity. We volunteer for and support numerous organizations in our town in a multitude of ways. That’s another thing that separates us from the 1-800/online insurance companies is that we invest in and our involved in your community, our community.  My kids play on your kids’ baseball, basketball, and soccer teams.  We support your schools and organizations right here, on the local level, in Hutchinson.

Cris currently serves as Board President of Rise Up Reno, Board Chair of Boys & Girls Club of Reno County, and a board member of Salthawk Community Support. He has previously served on the board, volunteered, and/or sponsored the following organizations: TECH, YP of Reno County, Fox Theatre, Reno County Historical Society, Hospice of Reno County, Reno County Cancer Council, Hutchinson High School Athletics, Hutch Chamber, and the American Red Cross.