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Sarah Jewell
Managing Director, ALC Health
Sarah Jewell is the Managing Director of ALC Health – a long-established health insurance provider, specializing in international private medical insurance.
Prior to founding ALC Health, Sarah initially worked for an insurer, and then qualified as an IFA working for a broker. Sarah then went on to create her own brokerage, SJA International Ltd, specializing in medical and sports insurance.
As a former expatriate in Hong Kong, Sarah understands the challenges expatriates face when living and working in a foreign country, as does her team – many of whom have been expatriates themselves. It was these experiences which helped shape ALC Health as a company that offers tailor-made, high quality personal service to clients around the world.
Sarah Jewell is also a founding member of AIMIP (the Association of International Medical Insurance Providers), formed in 2007.
Sarah lives in Sussex close to her company's office in Steyning, West Sussex. As Sarah's business continues to flourish in the growing expat market, Sarah continues to regularly travel around the world meeting clients, business partners and expatriates. |
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Expat Women's Interview with Sarah |
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Expat Women: Sarah, what motivated you to set up ALC Health? |
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Sarah: The role I held at my previous company involved assisting with the management, designing the policies and writing the Policy Wordings. When new owners took over the company, the ethos changed, staff were relocated and the time felt right to move on... having always thought one could 'do it better'!
Another person in the company joined me (although subsequently I bought her shares) and within a matter of weeks, we: set up the company; designed the products; found an underwriter (with whom we had previously worked) to underwrite our plans; secured offices; printed the literature; and set up a website!
We started trading on 1 May 2001 with absolutely nothing, except of course our industry knowledge and our commitment to make ALC Health succeed |
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Expat Women: Did your company have a unique selling point when you started? |
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Sarah: Absolutely. Since our inception, our concept was a modular approach in that you only selected the benefits you needed, so, for example, single men did not have to have pregnancy cover. Whilst this is more standard practice now, it was actually innovative at the time. |
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Expat Women: Sarah, what have been some of your business's largest or most unexpected challenges and how have you overcome them? |
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Sarah: The three biggest challenges I have faced would be: |
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Dealing with a High Court injunction from our previous employers who tried to put us out of business simply because they considered us a threat. We engaged with them and they subsequently dropped the action, thankfully; |
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The fallout of the tragic events of 9/11, which affected the Lloyd's market. We had to change underwriters – quickly, which was a stressful experience; and
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Falling out with my business partner. This is never an easy process to live or work through, whilst still remaining committed to your team and your clients. |
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Expat Women: How large is your team and what advice can you offer to entrepreneurs who need to manage a growing team? |
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Sarah: Our team in the UK is growing all the time and many of us previously worked together at the same international insurer. We also have staff working from our office in Spain.
I think it is important to ensure that you develop a team spirit where everyone feels valued and their ideas and contributions matter. Inherently in our industry, well arguably in any industry, your team is your most important asset and your team needs to be nurtured. We often have team-building events, the latest being a version of Hell's Kitchen – which was great fun.
Your team spend a great deal of their time at work, so create a good environment for them, be totally professional and yet at the same time, have fun! |
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Expat Women: Sarah, what are your top five tips for women entrepreneurs who are trying to grow their businesses beyond the 'small business' stage? |
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Sarah:
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You have to be passionate about what you do and believe in what you do... if you are not, then no one else will be either; |
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Work hard... the harder you work, the 'luckier' you become; |
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Stay focused on your core business; |
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Make sure you have a vision of what you want to do going forward... focus on the future, not on the past; and |
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Always try to see things from your client's perspective and constantly think how you can improve your proposition to your clients and make a difference! |
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Expat Women: Which successful business women inspire you the most and why? |
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Sarah: I am inspired by any successful person who thinks of an idea that is innovative or sees a gap in the market and starts from nothing. |
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Expat Women: Sarah, thank you very much for sharing your experiences with us and our sincere congratulations to you for the success of ALC Health.
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