All types of businesses are concentrating like never before on their outgoings. Whatever the politicians would have you believe, we are not out of the woods yet on the recession. Many parts of the world are now “technically” out of recession, here in the UK we are still mired in negativity.

The next set of quarterly figures in January 2010, for the period Oct-Dec 2009, are expected to show a positive for the first time in over 18 months. We are currently in the longest technical recession since the second world war. Businesses will not forget, but it is worth pointing out, that it took us a while to go from are we or aren’t we in recession. So, not only have we been in recession for 18 months, the figures were gradually dipping from nice positives to negative for nearly a year. This means that even if the politicians manage to conjure up some positive data, it is still a long, long haul out of recession.

So, how can business insurance be used to an advantage in a recession. Quite simply, in exactly the same way as every other service or product provider, insurers are hurting as well through the reduced spend.

Although there are less businesses in operation, there are still the same number of insurers. They are fighting to insure, or receive premiums, from a decreasing pool which is not likely to increase until the end of 2010, early 2011.

So, if your a business who has been trading for a while and used the same insurer, year after year, now is the time to look elsewhere for a new business insurance quote. This will cause two things to happen. Firstly, you will get a measure of what sort of premium you should be paying. Secondly, it will make your existing broker realise that may be they have been a bit complacent over the years and now is the time to give you a better deal.

Don’t go with the status quo, look for a better alternative.

One of the biggest causes of large claims for providers of restaurant insurance are fires caused by frying ranges or frying equipment.

The very nature of what you are doing, heating cooking oil up to very high temperatures, is fraught with danger.

Any restaurant owner will be well aware of the dangers to their staff of trying to put out fires involving hot fat or oil. They will advise their staff that in the event of a fire there are only two things they should do, get themselves and customers out of the premises and then phone the fire brigade.

Even when the fire brigade turn up, they will not enter the building unless there are lives at risk. This usually results in a seriously damaged building along with contents that are either destroyed or unlikely to be used again.

For this reason, insurers do not like these risks. Their opinion is the same for takeaway insurance and there is a selected market for a broker to go to when getting a quote.

What this means is that, if you have a restaurant, takeaway or any establishment serving food (ie a pub with bar snacks) you must declare if you have either a frying range or any type of equipment that heats oil or fat automatically. Even if it is a table top fryer that costs £50 at Argos, you need to declare this. The reason being that if you have deep fat frying equipment, and you have a fire, then a claim may be turned down if you have not declared this to your insurers.

Everyone in business knows the importance of having the support of a good quality commercial combined insurance policy. These policies cover all types of risk and you can pick and choose the cover you need. For example, if you don’t move stock around in your own car or van, then you don’t need goods in transit insurance.

Within a combined policy, you will also have a section of cover for business liability insurance, but what, in summary does this mean?

A basic dictionary definition of liability is “the state of being liable”. If I throw a brick through your car window, apart from being offensive, dangerous and stupid, I am also liable for the damage caused. Proof is of course another thing.

Businesses can be liable, usually at common law, for many many things. Injuring employees, damaging third party property, causing illness to third parties and contractual liability are just a few examples.

To protect themselves, businesses can pay someone else to deal with any claims that are made against them where they are liable and to pay any compensation due. The payment is the insurance premium and the “someone else” is an insurance company.

The best way to find out what your liabilities are likely to be and whether you can buy cover against them is to speak to an insurance broker. They will listen to your requirements and, based on your demands and needs, provide you with a quotation (a written offer) for you to place these liabilities to a third party through the purchase of an insurance policy.

Many years ago, probably pre the 1980’s, if you were to start a business one of the things you were most unlikely to produce was a formal business plan.

Most people in business nowadays are acutely aware of the need to plan, plan and then re-plan before taking the plunge into starting your own business.

A few clicks on the Internet and you will have yourself a nice business plan template which you can fill in.

One of the areas, that is not that exciting to be fair, that must be considered is your business insurance costs.

You have your business idea, you have the premises lined up, you know what the rent, rates and utility costs are likely to be, now you need to find out a) whether you can get insurance and b) will it make a massive or minor dent in your business costs.

The beauty of the Internet nowadays is that you can find yourself a good, quality business insurance broker who will be able to give you an indication of the premium you will pay. Quotes are usually only valid for 30 days, so you have to be aware that the indication may go up by the time you start the business properly.

But you do need to have that idea of how much per month you could be forking out for insurance cover, which you will need. If you are receiving bank funding, they may insist on you having a wide ranging package of covers to protect the money or overdraft facilities they are giving you.

Over the past 20 years, outsourcing has increased in nearly every business. Activities that were once undertaken by full time employees are now outsourced to either individuals or small businesses.

A lot of companies have made people redundant and then outsourced the business actions to them. This has resulted in an increase in the number of people running their own business, usually from their home address.

Where this happens, the business will own assets and have particular liabilities that will not be covered under a home insurance policy.

To arrange for cover, the business will need to arrange a separate home office insurance policy. These policies are very similar to small business insurance packages, but will have additional covers, such as professional indemnity.

Office and computer equipment. Whilst prices have dropped in recent years, the combined cost of the physical machines and the software they contain means that even three or four electronic machines, including a computer, can cost over £5,000 to replace. Portable office equipment cover is also required if you take a laptop out of the home address on a regular basis.

Public liability. Not a legal requirement, but if you visit third party premises you will need this in case you cause any physical injury or damage any third parties property.

Employers’ liability is a legal requirement if you employee anyone.

Professional indemnity. If you are providing a service or advice for a fee (whether a separate fee or not) then you could have a claim against you for professional negligence, this is where PI insurance is required.

Everyone knows, that any product or service can, if you spend enough time looking, be bought cheaper. We also know that the adage that you get what you pay for is true.

This certainly applies to business insurance. The two greatest selling points for commercial insurance policies are the quality of the product and how much the product costs. It is far too easy to concentrate on arranging the cheapest business insurance. At face value, it may appear that all business, hotel, shop and pub insurance policies are the same. This is not true. Every policy will have slightly different warranties, excesses, terms and conditions. Certainly there are similarities between policies, but only in the event of a claim do you realise that the £50 you shaved off your premium means you are not covered for something at £500.

One of the areas where companies may go to try and save money is to a website that promotes it’s ability to compare business insurance quotes. These are similar to the home and motor websites where you fill in a load of boxes, press a button and choose the cheapest.

There are two fact that must be remembered when looking at these sites. Firstly, at no point in the process do you have an interaction with a human being whose job is to advise you on the suitability of a product for your business. Secondly, in the vast majority of cases if you went to an independent business insurance broker they could beat all of the prices, for similar cover, on these websites.

We are not trying to pretend that business, commercial and combined liability insurance is rocket science. But, you really do need to have a conversation, over the phone or face to face, with someone to receive professional advice. The good thing is that you are not paying a premium for this advice as a broker can get you the same sorts of price. The great thing is that the broker does the running around for you, so you don’t have to spend much of your valuable time looking for a cheaper quote.

Commercial insurance companies in the UK are not the greatest friends of the licensed trade industry. What we mean is that they are not keen to provide pub insurance quotes and cover, because there is an increased likelihood of a claim, compared to say, shop insurance.

That is not to say that an insurer can underwrite pubs, wine bars and even nightclubs without making money. The key is to be selective in the types of business you insure.

Pub and bar insurance do tend to have higher public liability claims. This is partly due to the “ambulance chaser” solicitors that give a member of the public an option to sue a pub if they injured themselves on the premises. Unfortunately, even if the customer is 100% at fault, this does not prevent claims being made.

As pubs do tend to deal in cash they are more susceptible to hold ups and break ins, but this only tends to be in the inner city areas.

So, an insurer can make money from licensed trade insurance if they are sensible with their prices and selective with the risks they take.

Essentially, insurers do want these types of risks but only certain insurers. We hear from many pubs who have been insured for years and years with XYZ insurance company as their broker does not have any alternative insurers. Then they come to us and we have saved some pubs over 30% from their annual premium. It is simply a case of speaking to a business insurance broker that has more than one insurer in their panel.

The internet is a wonderful tool for finding useful business information. I am confident that if the internet had been as accessible, quick and wide-ranging as it is now starting this business would have been much easier.

What I mean is that information on so many business topics is so readily available that it can save you time and money.

I came across the following article “enterprising voices” from the British Library. Now, I would never have thought that the British Library would have any involvement in producing this sort of document, but it is useful. This is what I mean about the internet, trying to trade your way out of this recession is not easy but the more help and advice you can get the better. I do have slight problems with bodies that do not live in the cut and thrust of the business world giving advice, but that is another story.

Point 4 mentions an often forgotten aspect of commercial liability insurance, cover for intellectual property. In reality, the UK wide scheme is not going happen, but small businesses can get an intellectual property insurance quote within a day or so, the only problem is that the minimum premiums tend to start at £2/£3,000 per annum. Rather than have a UK wide scheme, the government could help an insurer to provide a low cost product around the £500 mark, this may get a bit more traction in the business world.

I am one of those people who believes that any “free” offer is not free and any offer that “guarantees” to beat the price you are paying for a product or service is either not right or will not last.

Business insurance is one of those areas where you do see an awful lot of offers with the words free or guarantee.

We do offer free commercial insurance advice on our website. Genuinely the advice is free, anyone can call and ask for advice, they don’t have to get a business insurance quote or take out a policy. But, the pedants view is that although we have a local rate number, the inbound customer does pay for the call, so in it’s strictest sense your advice may cost a few pence.

One thing we do not do is guarantee to beat your existing insurance premium. This simply cannot be done because unless you offer the same product fro the same insurer (at a cheaper price) then the cover will be different. So although a business insurance broker may technically be correct (ie the premium is lower) what is the point if you have less cover.

The analogy is, if you lease a top of the range Ford Mondeo for £x per month and I offer you a basic Ford Ka for the same price less a few percent, who is getting the best deal? Not you.

So, when you are looking for your commercial insurance quote please don’t be tempted by the free and guaranteed offers, you may end up losing in the long run.

The Halifax produce and annual report looking at the number of empty homes in England, the aptly named Empty Homes survey.

This have just been produced with the 2008 figures and shows the number of long term empty, unoccupied, private or residential homes (those that have been vacant for more than six months) exceeded 300,000 in 2008. This is the first time in five years that the figure has exceeded 300k. The last time the figures were this high was in April 2003 when the figures hit 208,000.

There are varying reasons for this increase that have been given, it is mainly due to deprived areas having less people living in the properties.

A percentage can be blamed fair and square at the doors of the recession and the total collapse in the residential, and commercial, housing market. More and more people are leaving their existing properties to move to a new one, whilst they wait fro the old one to be sold.

Whilst this will not be a significant proportion of the figures, it is an increasing trend. One thing these empty property owners need to think seriously about is whether they have adequate cover. For properties that are empty for more than 30 days, you would normally need to have in force a suitable unoccupied property insurance policy. Insurers do not like empty properties and if you are looking for an unoccupied building insurance quote, you will soon find that many of those that do insure them, charge the earth.

Certain insurers do have bespoke products and through a business insurance broker, you should get access to the more competitive companies that are out there.