Kim McDonald enjoys helping people through her State Farm business | News

DuBOIS — Kim McDonald, owner of the State Farm Insurance office in DuBois and a Reynoldsville resident her entire life, said her career helps her fulfill her passion for helping people.

She grew up in the Paradise area outside of Reynoldsville, moved to the Beechwoods area for about six years, before moving back to her family’s farm and building her home there. McDonald graduated from DuBois Business College before going to work as an insurance agent locally.

She has been a local insurance agent since 1993 after starting as an independent agent. After 13 years, she went to work for the local State Farm agency, and worked her way up to being the team leader. She opened her own State Farm office in January 2018.

“In the back of my mind, for many years I wanted to do it on my own, but my children were in school. It was a big step for me to go out on my own and do that with the kids in school,” said McDonald.

But ultimately, McDonald made the decision and now enjoys taking care of people and being there for them when they suffer a loss.

“They have somebody that can help them through,” said McDonald. “I can help them through the claim, and when they’re having issues, getting their car fixed. And that’s the thing, I pride myself in being local. I’ve lived here all my life. With the capabilities that I have now with being with State Farm, if somebody has a house, I have the capability, and I’ve done this to go to their home sometimes while the fire’s still going on and give them money to go and buy the things that they have lost. Go to the store and buy their essentials like a toothbrush and just little things like that. And just being able to do that means a lot. But I’ve lived here my whole life and I’m never going to leave. And this community has been very important to me. But going out on my own, I waited until my son was almost through high school.”

Over the years, McDonald has faced various challenges owning her own business.

“The economy has been huge because it affects all aspects, like our parts to repair and replace vehicles and labor costs have gone up. And our local repair garages have a huge struggle with finding qualified employees,” said McDonald. “There have been a lot of small businesses that were small repair garages go out of business in our area. So that’s a struggle.”

“It’s a struggle hiring people who want to work and make it a career because it’s important to me that my team members are my family and I treat them like family and I want them here for the long term,” said McDonald. “I don’t want to be just an office that somebody’s there for a couple months or whatever and they go. Now I don’t begrudge anybody that betters themself and I support them, but my team all works together and that’s how we’re able to help people.”

McDonald said she prides herself on having a local office because if a customer has a problem, they can can call her on the phone.

“I am not an 800 number,” she said. “You can call an 800 number and you do not know who you are going to talk to. You can come in and sit with us and we can work through it. We have that capability and a lot of these 800 numbers do not have that. I love taking care of my customers.”

McDonald’s State Farm office has grown to more than five full-time employees since she first opened, and she emphasized the importance of treating her team like family and the benefits of delegating tasks to ensure quality service for her customers.

“I don’t expect others to do something I wouldn’t do,” she said. “Being willing to delegate and trust your employees and team members to take care of things is very important, too. You might have to oversee it a little bit, but trust them to do it and step back and not micromanage.”

McDonald said she has had huge support from her parents, as well as her husband and children.

McDonald said the biggest challenge of owning her own business is that she sometimes struggles with balancing work with her personal life.

“Work-life balance is very hard for me because there’s always things a customer needs and I always want to stay on top of it,” she said. “My biggest advice to other women who own a small business is to go into it with the mindset of a work balance use. I’m trying now to utilize a certain amount of time during the day to focus on my business and my plans and my team and my customers, and utilize that time and give myself a little bit of a break. You need to work smarter.”

McDonald said she has read several books to help her establish that work-life balance and focus on the important things.

“Don’t dwell on the non-important things. And something that I did this year was when there’s something negative, I only allow myself less than a minute to think about that negative. And if I want to say something about it, I say it, whether it’s to myself or somebody else, and then I let it go because otherwise that just dwells in your mind and is not productive,” she said.

In her free time, McDonald said she enjoys spending time with her family. She and her husband enjoy taking short trips to visit places such as Lancaster or Pittsburgh.

“We find it very relaxing,” she said.