When Bruce Brownyard’s father started his insurance agency in 1950, it was a struggle. As a new business in a field loaded with large, medium and small size companies, he faced stiff competition. While his uphill battle to gain market share had some success over the first few years, major success didn’t happen until he searched for and found a unique niche. In Brownyard’s case, it was  insurance for the private security industry.  Brownyard Sr. now joined by son Bruce, discovered a need to provide specialized insurance for private security guards, investigative company employees alarm companies and armored car companies.  By creating his own knowledge base about the operations of these companies, including the special risks faced and not faced, Bruce was able to negotiate with insurance companies to create and modify insurance products to meet industry needs. As Bruce says now, his “strength came from thoroughly researching and learning every aspect of the operations of these types of companies so that he could then create and negotiate products to suit the specific needs on affordable terms.”  Bruce Brownyard is now known as an expert  in security agency insurance and Brownyard programs Ltd., the company he built with his father, is a specialist in insuring security agencies throughout the United States.

Recently, Brownyard’s phenomenal success has caused them to  more than quadruple their office space and they moved to a new building in East Islip which will allow them to continue growing. Following his tradition of “non traditional companies”, Bruce Brownyard sought non traditional financing from an SBA 504 loan through Long Island Development Corporation. By doing so, he was able to finance 90% of the project cost including soft costs and make the project more affordable with the below prime fixed rate long term 504 loan. Says Carmine Fabio, Sr VP of LIDC who handled the loan, “This is a business which has found a unique niche and made sure it stays on the cutting edge of the industry, its clients needs and technology. Even when it came to financing his new building, Bruce made sure he found unique financing which enabled him to preserve his cash for working capital needs and continue to grow his company.”

So, for all of you entrepreneurs out there struggling with stale business ideas or trying to decide what business to start… think creatively. Stick with what you know but look for the gaps and needs and create unique products or services to fill those gaps and needs. And you too can create success in a unique business niche.