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Some would say that the USA is past its prime and, soon China will eclipse America as an economic leader (when I was a kid it was Japan). While I have nothing against any other country, I personally believe the United States is on the verge of a renaissance and growth is about to speed up. Why? Because insurance dollars are being spent and you don’t buy insurance unless there are assets to protect (and I also read HBR.org’s blog). Americans are still hard-working, and creative risk-takers. I love the fact that our industry not only provides capital to help our country grow, we also insure the growth!

Last week I was at an association meeting where a dozen or so insurance wholesalers from across the country take a day to share ideas and discuss what is going on in the industry. Even though the ever-changing regulatory landscape makes it tougher to do business and remain competitive, most of the wholesalers represented at the event finished strong in 2013. Some participants finished with the best results they’ve ever posted. Not one person in the room felt they could point to a hardening market, or anything else that typically affects the brokerage marketplace, and say – “this is why we grew”. After a few minutes of head-scratching a respected member spoke up and said, “If we pay attention to the services and products we provide to our customers, and we continue to do it with passion and pride in our respective organizations, of course we will grow and succeed. For too long the people in our business have expected growth to come from external factors, but now we can see that growth and success are as much a result of our innovation and commitment to excellence as it will ever be.” This is exactly what I tell my people, just maybe not as often as I need to.

Small business is still the driver of our economic recovery and I believe the key to our economic future. I think you will agree that we don’t need more millionaires, we need more security for a strong middle-class – basically folks like you and I. The Tuscano Agency grew by writing owner-operator truckers, mom and pop restaurants, day care centers, beauty salons and more ‘small business’. We insure the small contractors, the guys who got laid off at the mill and didn’t give up. They started a business because they have been craftsmen all their life and now they are determined to work for themselves.

These are the people we created our Small Business Unit for. We studied some of the most successful products we write and determined that we could build a team to specialize in these products, providing you with faster turnaround time. Two core programs in SBU are childcare and BBB (beauty, barber, body) salons. I am pleased to report that we have recently expanded our territory to write both of these classes with one of our core markets.

When you think about small business, consider how the personal services industry has grown in the last few decades. Today there is a spa or salon for almost everything! In fact there is a whole industry that has grown just for skin care. Tuscano CAN do it - nails, skin, hair, body art, teeth whitening, and tanning. Since this industry is in a growth spurt you can be sure new services will be thought of and offered regularly and Tuscano will be here to help you insure them.

For day care centers, we can cover almost any type of operation, from home-based care to 24-hour-a-day franchises. One nice feature is our ability to package the policy and include additional coverage options such as professional liability, abuse and molestation coverage and hired and non-owned auto. Depending on the state, we may have access to admitted or non-admitted markets. What a great way to care for future generations!

Go Team USA!