Julie Guevarra

FCPA, FCMA, CAIB

 

Julie is a Chartered Professional Accountant, over the past 30 years she has worked with multi-national accounting firms and national, and regional companies across Canada.

Julie is the Chief Financial Officer and owner with her husband Emerito Guevarra of JEM Insurance; an independently owned and operated company with 4 offices in Manitoba and licensed across Western Canada.

Julie continues to volunteer with many organizations, focusing on the local community. She is on the board of the Insurance Brokers Association of Manitoba and the Kidney Foundation of Manitoba. She is active with the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, and the West End Biz Improvement Zone, and supports local arts groups and charities for the betterment of Manitobans.

Julie, with over 17 years at Jem Insurance as co-owner and CFO, how would you describe your workplace culture, and was it top of mind when you and your husband first built the business?  

Our Business started with one policy out of our home in 2006. My husband was in the business and chose to leave a large brokerage and start on his own, selling Home, Business, and Life Insurance. I am an Accountant and continued to work while he built JEM Insurance.

In 2012 we purchased a brokerage and started in the retail arm selling Autopac together with Home, Business, Travel, and Life insurance. We had one employee other than ourselves in 2012.

I left my Accounting position permanently in 2018 to become CFO of JEM Insurance. We now have 25+ employees and 3 retail locations in Winnipeg and an office in Ste Rose du Lac Manitoba. We are set to break $15 million in P&C premiums this year with over 10,000 customers.

Our business has always been relationship-built. We meet people and then they become customers and many times our customers become our friends. The culture at JEM Insurance is also relationship-built. We care about the needs of our staff and are sincerely concerned about their work-life balance and their families. During the pandemic and continuing, our staff are always involved in strategic decisions, scheduling, and hiring. We want to work with like-minded individuals to everyone’s mutual benefit.

Emerito {my husband} is a Philippine immigrant, and I am from an entrepreneurial family. We both grew up in Transcona with humble roots and Winnipeg is our home. The Name JEM comes from our 2 names, J for Julie and EM for Emerito. We continue to work in the business and many times we are at the front counter greeting customers at our new office on Portage Avenue.

Webster Dictionary’s word of the year for 2023 was ‘Authentic’, how does this word influence you as a leader, and influence your team at Jem Insurance?

With JEM, what you see is what you get. We don’t report to any large equity company, we can make decisions quickly, and we can pivot when we need to. This agility was a positive during the pandemic, being able to meet all the needs of our staff in the rapidly changing environment.

JEM Insurance is a very flat organization. There is a limited hierarchy. We are open and honest with our team and they too know they can come to us with issues, personal and professional. Given our industry we need to ensure proper licensing and procedures are followed. Openness, honesty, and teamwork support our staff in learning and providing the best insurance coverage we can to our customers.

The insurance industry is saturated, with companies locally and nationally, how does Jem stand out from the crowd?

At JEM we answer the phone. That seems like something small, but when you need advice or you have water pouring into your ceiling you want to talk to someone right away. We have knowledgeable staff answering the phones; and on the weekends and after hours, those calls go to Emerito, and he answers them. We value our customers and genuinely care about helping them. We are not a 1-800 #.

You have offices all over Winnipeg, in Manitoba, and in neighbouring provinces, how do you navigate management and cohesive work culture across all locations?

We are licensed to sell insurance in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Our processing is all done in Manitoba and we have introduced a new software in April 2023 with more robust workflows and procedures to ensure every transaction is handled in the same manner. We have introduced a new robotic analysis product that will streamline the insurance renewal process and allow our staff to spend more time with the customer.

Our senior staff from all offices have bi-monthly team meetings to share ideas, discuss concerns, and meet up to remind them they are part of the team. We visit each office to do face-to-face a few times a month. We get together socially as well a few times a year to celebrate all our successes.

What strategies did you implement during the pandemic to ensure the working environment for your team remained positive? 

The pandemic opened me to the vastness of the mental health challenges that many face. The old-school handling of time-off requests and work hours was turned on its head. Positively, it provided a new way to look at business and opened up conversations to come up with mutually beneficial ways. Communication is key.

Having a sense of community is important for everyone, why was it important for you to join a community like Knew House? 

I have been asking myself what it is that I want from Knew House, and it is the friendships, the non-judgment zone, the sense of confidence it brings to discuss ideas with other women, and the encouragement they give. To know that you are not going through some of the struggles alone and that others are facing the same challenges is very supportive.