She began her career as a realtor and ran a cleaning business. She later transitioned into banking, helping clients with credit cards and managing customer accounts. After a decade in personal banking, Justa Chaz shifted into insurance, becoming an agent with Farmers. After working with Farmers for two years, she branched out on her own and founded the Justa Chaz Insurance Agency.
The tough part was the state insurance licensing exam.
“You had to take a test, which wasn’t easy because it was in English,” said Chaz, who was born in Argentina. She needed the license before opening the business. She took the state-mandated test three times, and passing it on the third attempt.
Chaz, who has been in the insurance industry for 16 years, said she wanted to start a career in insurance because she wasn’t seeing many offering this service in Spanish. Her business on Central Avenue in Northwest Albuquerque is one of two she owns in the city, and Chaz also has an agency in Los Lunas. Chaz also has a contract with the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division and offers auto emissions, state license plates, and vehicle registration, in addition to tax preparation services in Spanish.
“Clients always look for people who speak their language so they can feel more comfortable communicating,” she said, adding that many of her 12 employees are from various countries in Latin America, including Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia.
She grew her business using the methods that the industry taught her: talk to 30 people a day to tell them about your business by first going to people you know, then they will go tell others. She would also talk with anyone she saw on the street and in the mall. And all the business training she had was from banking, which hosts a lot of training.
Education is key when potential customers come to the agency, which offers classes on how insurance works and how it protects personal and commercial properties, including mobile homes. “Not many counties in Latin America require insurance,” Chaz said. “You have to really take your time to explain that insurance is a requirement and show the benefits of it.”
The idea to purchase her own building came when she had been renting three suites in a building in Northwest Albuquerque for 10 years. She decided to move when the building owner rented to a cannabis outlet. Not only was the smell unbearable, it was also a reminder of what she had been wanting to do for more than a decade. “I wasn’t paying attention to my goal, which was to own a building, something I had been wanting to do for a long time,” she said.
She found The Loan Fund through an acquaintance who now works at the agency. He had a friend who took out a loan for a restaurant.
“It’s been very easy working with The Loan Fund,” Chaz said. “They liked what we did in the community. We didn’t have any debt, and although we had to wait, we knew it was going to happen.”
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